While I have not finished the book, it has been an interesting read. They mainly seem to target the business owner because she was a woman of colour and they didn't even look into the specifics of what is offered and how the all the services are legally allowed and consensual.

How often do you get to read the first hand account of how a law gets changed at the national level?
Thank you very much to Riverdale Avenue Books and NetGalley for the ARC!

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, from Riverdale Avenue Booka and #NetGalley. Thank you to the publishers, NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to preview and review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

What an incredible glimpse into an unknown world.

This memoir tells the story of Madame deSade (the pseudoname of the author) who was convicted of running a business in the sex industry in Canada in the 1990s. Riding a blurry line between legal and illegal sex acts, the trial is not so straight forward and actually leads to a more than 15 year debate which includes lawyers, experts and activists to debate Canada's prostitution laws. Being part legal-saga and part dominatrix-tell-all-memoir, this book is both interesting and informative about a small subsection of an industry thought by many to be taboo. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to read and review this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book was quite interesting. The court cases really showed that the law is very broad and there are many ways of interpretation. The chapters were written to not only provide information on the court cases but also what her business provided and did not provide.

Terri-Jean Bedford was one of Canada's most notorious citizens, but most people didn't know her by that name. She was known as Madame deSade. She was Canada's most famous leather-clad dominatrix, a well-known public figure appearing on the evening news as she took on the Canadian legal establishment to ultimately change sex worker law throughout the country. This is the story of her court battle and how she won.

This is such an interesting book. Unfortunately I feel like it will be interesting to a certain niche group of people who are open minded enough to pick it up in the first place. But the writing and the storytelling of this crucial lawsuit is mind-opening when one does pick it up.

Fascinating story by Terri-Jean Bedford of her life before and after her trial. She overcame many obstacles, and it was great to see her get justice in the end. It was interesting to see how many “angels” she had to help her along the way. Highly recommended.

This is a non-fiction account of Canadian Dominatrix Terri-Jean Bedford (Madame deSade) whose business establishment was raided in 1994 and she was convicted of running a bawdy house.

Terri-Jean's defense centred on the argument that professional Dominatrices were not sex-workers and the country's prostitution laws should not be applied in her case. The Crown prosecution argued that indecent acts were carried out in that establishment (although they could never definitely prove that sex for money took place) and therefore, her establishment should be shut down and she should be on trial!

What followed was a 16 year long saga which involved a number of high profile lawyers, activists, journalists, members of the LGBTQ+ community and experts who sought to re-define Canada's prostitution laws! They challenged the government to clearly define what constituted indecent behaviour between two consenting adults in the privacy of their own homes. Infact, how much could/should the law and government interfere in the private lives of individuals!!Their battle finally resulted in victory in the Bedford vs Canada landmark case where the Supreme Court struck down Canada's existing prostitution laws in 2010.

What was interesting:- The account of the life and business of a professional Dominatrix was really interesting!
I had previously read about Domination and 'Doms' in a couple of pop-culture books and I was curious to read about how the whole thing works in real life! This book did a great job in explaining this lifestyle to the readers!
Also, this story centres around a very important question - how can a person be labelled a 'criminal' for some very personal and consensual lifestyle choices!! How much interference is too much interference?

What I did not like:- I had a little bit of trouble with the flow of the story! I felt it kept going back and forth between legal battles, people involved and the art of Domination until some portions felt repetitive!

Overall, I am glad I read this book because it touched an interesting new topic that I hadn't much idea about! Also, I find it fascinating to read about interesting, real life legal battles!

I found this to be a super interesting look into this woman’s life. Her choosing to be a dominatrix is all good, and she became a very good one. The problems begin when her place is raided, and she and the other workers are charged with providing sex acts for money. But sex acts were not involved in what they did at her place, they were in fact something that would get a person banned. With some great supporters, Bedford was eventually able to change the landscape of how sex workers are treated. It was a long battle, but she finally set things straight. I received a review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.