Reluctant Cuckold

Dave Martens, our main character, seems to have it made. He’s 34, is known as Mr. Hedge Fund Guy, makes a very good living, and has been married for the past year and a half to the beautiful, sexy Ashley whom he adores; they live in a luxury apartment in Manhattan. But his ego takes a big hit when he find out that his beloved Ashley had sex with one of her coworkers in the bathroom at a company party while he, her husband, was in the next room and even knocked on the door. Soon everyone knows about it and is laughing behind his back. Unfortunately for him, this discovery is only the first in a series of events that will batter his ego and suck him into a vortex of ever deepening humiliation. The story is told by Dave himself about his own personal experiences. It is vivid and extremely realistic, a novel about a man who finds himself turning into a cuckold against his will. The plot is elaborately designed and developed with much attention to detail. The characters and situations are believable. The reader encounters this world from inside Dave’s mind. We feel his shock, his pain, his intense arousal, his jealousy, his love for Ashley, his fear of losing her, his humiliation. David McManus is a very talented writer. The story is powerful, by far the best piece of cuckold erotica that I have ever encountered.

David McManus quickly became my favorite author of erotica when I first read Reluctant Cuckold. When I finished that book I immediately read his other book Cuck Storm Horizon a great sequel. I first read Reluctant Cuckold a month or so ago. I recently read it again. McManus is a gifted story teller and that, in my opinion, is what separates him from many other writers of this genre. The story is about two sexual submissives that end up married to each other. The wife comes under the influence of her best girl friend, who has a dominate personality, and she exerts her influence over her married friend. The dominate friend eventually persuades the wife to be unfaithful to her husband. The author hints this may not be her first adulteress encounter but offers no details. The adulteress encounter occurs at a party with coworkers. The male participant brags about his conquest and it soon becomes a rumor that spreads rapidly throughout the company. The author begins the story with the wife telling the husband about the rumor, but implies it isn’t true. The husband appears to accept his wife’s version but his doubts escalate and he eventually confirms the story is true and confronts his wife. She admits to her adultery but offers no details or explanations for her actions. And her husband strangely enough doesn't request any either. It is at that point the story takes form. The husband becomes deeply conflicted. His wife’s adultery terrifies him but it also excites and arouses him. He discovers he is incapable of confronting her, for fear she will leave him, and this fear paralyzes him. He becomes unable to have normal sex with her. He becomes fixated on the erotic aspects of her extra marital encounters. The mental images of her having sex with another man becomes more stimulating to him than having real sex with his wife. He discovers he is too embarrassed to seek professional help to deal with his mounting insecurities and inexplicably turns to the internet for help. He decides to seek the advice of others who have experienced something similar. These encounters, with faceless strangers, eventually connect him with a man that seems to understand his predicament better than anyone else. This stranger exhibits the empathy and understanding he is desperately seeking. He provides his faceless internet buddy with intimate details, including pictures, of his wife and himself. The internet stranger indicates he has helped others fix similar problems and restore their marriages. He indicates these restored marriages end up even stronger than they were originally. This is exactly what the husband is seeking and agrees to meet with the stranger and eventually introduces his wife to the stranger who the author identifies as a guy named Mike. Mike proves not to be the empathetic friend the husband believes him to be. He is in fact a dominate sexual predator the husband has stupidly invited into their lives and his wife’s bedroom. The husband stubbornly refuses to acknowledge he has become his wife’s cuckold even after Mike has taken over his bedroom. The author presents an emotional glimpse into the cuckold lifestyle and what fuels this sexual fetish as well as how destructive it can become when both parties are not voluntarily into it.

First of all, I'll agree with the majority that David McManus can write. Saying that, this could have been a much better book if it had ever really got going. Generally, I would classify the majority of the book as 'literary foreplay'....a psychological introspect into the mind of a walking inferiority complex. I'll give the author credit in the dept. of character development, (perhaps a little too much development). The most common concern voiced among readers is the 'lack of communication' by Dave (main character) with his wife. The author intended the relationship as such to emphasize the main character's submissive personality and his perceived inferiority to his own wife. Dave is quite literally afraid of his wife, because she holds the power to destroy his life by leaving. His entire being is built around her. From the first paragraph, the author pounds out Dave's submissive role in the relationship. He cleans the house, the toilets, the dishes. He cooks the meals. His wife, contrarily, wonders in after work and a workout, eats, and leaves to drink with her promiscuous friend at the bar...the ultimate in role reversal. Predictably, the wife becomes interested in more dominant men to whom she herself can be submissive. She admits to a 'sexual liaison' at a work party only out of concern that her husband would hear from somebody else. But even when confronting his wife about 'the rumor', Dave is in the process of back peddling an apology for fear that it will start a conflict. By virtue of this, Ashley (the wife) confirms that she is free to pursue her interests. A large majority of the book is dedicated to Dave's conjured images of his wife with other men, to the point that the reader is literally starving for some sort of actual footage. Perhaps the most interesting part of the author's work is the introduction of Mike, a stranger who befriends Dave by discussing his predicament over the net on a cuckold website. Mike weaves his way into the fabric of Dave and Ashley's relationship, ultimately seducing the wife into a cuckold relationship. It's quite impressive how McManus provides this pathway of destruction, emphasizing how a seemingly innocent internet conversation ultimately leads the fly right into the spider's web. We are left with a completely defeated and demoralized main character, and that doesn't sit well with most readers. However, these are prime characteristics of a cuckold. The most erotic scenes of the book involve the two nights Mike spends at Dave's apt. with his wife. Ultimately, it leaves the reader wanting to hear more and 'see more', as this scenario plays out. But alas, McManus suspends the audience in the 'spider's web', closing the curtain when things were just starting to get good. It would have been interesting to see McManus develop his main character further into the final step of the cuckold process; complete surrender to circumstance.

The story revolves good around the content and characters rightly placed at right times. Waiting to read second part as soon as it's available on Kindle

Dave Martens has it all, the good job, nice apartment and a gorgeous wife in the name of Ashley, clever, fit, athletic and big breasted she is everyman’s dream woman. But his life is about to change forever, at a party and unbeknown to Dave she has sex in a bathroom with a co-worker encouraged and egged on by her best friend Tamara. A couple days later Ashley tells Dave there is a rumour about her having sex at the party, it soon becomes apparent that it is more than just a rumour. Dave has trouble dealing with the fact that his wife had strayed and shocked and troubled to find he is tremendously aroused every time he thinks about. He turns to the internet for answers as he struggles to comprehend Ashley’s motivations and his reaction to her infidelity. In a chat room he meets Mike, who seems to understand what he is going through and even some insight as to what Ashley may be feeling to, Dave feels Mike is firmly in his camp and is pleased to have found someone who he can share his thoughts with without judgement. Even during a weekend away with friends leads to further suspicions and imagings for the troubled Dave. Back in New York he meets up with Mike and they agree that he should meet with Ashley, that is when things turn really difficult for Dave as Mike moves in on his wife. Dave feels distraught that he allowed himself to be played by Mike and all but served his wife on a plate for the confident Mike. This is a very well written book, a real page turner, as I also have cuckold tendencies I found myself feeling the cuckold angst that Dave felt especially when his wife goes to the bedroom with Mike, relegating poor Dave to the couch. There is a huge lack of communication between Ashley and Dave which I found a little frustrating, but I guess it all added to the story. Although there is not very much actual sex in it, David McManus has created a wonderful and believable story, full of conflicting emotions and anxiety, I thoroughly recommend this book and cannot wait to read the second part.

It conveyed the emotional side of the impact of a husband discovering that his wife may have done something that he would expect no loving wife should do and then the roller coaster ride of trying to hold the relationship together while at the same time feeling the sexual effect that knowing what she had done had on him. It then conveys the battle with his thoughts of how to hold her knowing that he was powerless to do so unless.............. he accepted her behaviour. An then knowing he could not share his concerns with his family and friends he falls into a trap.

Holy crap. This is good. This is not beach reading. I don't what kind of reading this. So awful I couldn't look at it, so good I couldn't leave it alone. I had to put this down and walk away a dozen times. I don't know if this would pass the literature test but it's very well done. Think Stephen King when he's on his game. Agonising, creeping suspense, building to the conclusion you saw coming from the third chapter but you wished you were wrong. I don't know whether to recommend this or to warn you to stay away. I'll have to ponder on that.

Loved it, not overly in depth, but good read overall.