Review: Deep Penetration by Kaitlyn O'Connor

Deep Penetration (Alien Breeders, #2) by Kaitlyn O’Connor

Publisher: New Concepts Publishing
Genre: Futuristic Romance

Heat Rating: 4

Blurb

There’d been a time when her people had looked upon theirs as gods and they’d expected nothing less than complete adoration and subservience. What began as a determination to bend her to their will, however, became a desperation to protect the woman who’d enthralled them from the consequences of her refusal to behave in a manner acceptable as a slave of the Anunnaki.

The will to survive, Emerald discovered, wasn’t enough in itself to help her comply with the Anunnaki’s expectations of a slave/breeder, but she discovered they had methods of training that could buckle the strongest will and teach submission. In learning to submit to her new masters, though, Tariq and Koryn discovered that Emerald had taught them that it was a double edged sword that could enslave them just as completely.



Desmond’s Review

Any science fiction story has to create a believable premise to keep the reader engaged. Kaitlyn O’Connor has woven a masterful story with contemporary metaphors in Deep Penetration. Her heroine, Emerald wakes with little memory and meets the two protagonists: Tariq and Koryn. Immediately, she is taken and the men initiate training to make her sexually submissive, as are the women from Anunnaki, their world. In Ms. O’Connor’s story, the Anunnaki planted earth’s humans as a genetic control for their Anunnaki population. Therefore, Emerald is being conditioned to become a breeder to help restore the genetic balance on Anunnaki.

This intricate story is lush with symbolism, characters and, as I said previously, metaphors for our contemporary world. Not only does Ms. O’Connor tell a great story, she populates it with philosophy, a strong character arc (all three main characters), psychology and more. As we read, we see Toriq, from the military, his friend Koryn, from the sciences, as so well-rounded, they seem real. They fight and make up, feel threatened by the other, lean on each other and change, from hardened men to supportive husbands. The three aforementioned characters carry the story from beginning to end and do so masterfully. There are other characters, Anunnaki, androids and human, but non are fleshed out as well as these three.

I don’t want to give away the pertinent aspects of Ms. O’Connor’s sex scenes, but they are, at times, disturbing, as well as erotic. Some were difficult for me to read, but justified within the story. Emerald’s subjugation is a metaphor for the way women are treated in many contemporary countries and, also in abusive relationships (not necessarily the physical, but definitely the emotional).

I have a science fiction book collection and have read this genre for decades. Rarely does and author write such sexually explicit scenes in this genre, but this story couldn’t have been written without it. The methods used in Emerald’s conditioning affect all three characters, not just her and it changes these people for the better. Ms. O’Connor uses the characters dialog to discuss philosophical differences, using Toriq and Koryn to deliver the message. It’s not in-your-face, but delivered as real dialog between two intelligent people.
There are elements of the Stockholm Syndrome as well as Lysistrata and the themes play with each other, like jazz artists, weaving the story of three people, which is really the universal in the particular.

Desmond’s quote: “This is a must read, highly recommended book, but some parts may be difficult to digest. Hang in there, though, it’s well worth the ride. Kaitlyn O’Connor’s Deep Penetration is not only a keeper, it’s an important book and her themes are even more so. There are many women, in our contemporary world, subjugated, as Emerald was in the main part of the story, who should be as free as Emerald became at the end.”

5 Tea Cups!