This was a disappointing read, given that it purports to be about creating and living an erotic dominant/submissive lifestyle. It is certainly about how Rinella does/did it, but as he points out again and again throughout the book, all relationships are different, as are the people in them. Anyone who's already started down the path to making their own D/s relationship work won't find much of use here, unless they happen to be very Rinella-like in their views and preferences. We learn an awful lot about Rinella and what he likes, and almost nothing is mentioned about the slave and how he handles being a slave, overcomes challenges, finds satisfaction in his choices, etc. Shouldn't a book called "The Compleat Slave" be about *slaves*?

As a guide for newbies to coming out into the leather scene, it's probably pretty good, but that's not what the book is supposed to be about, according to the title and jacket blurb.

There is no soul to this writing; if you're actually interested in living the slave lifestyle, you won't find much of use here. Rinella does say that to be a good slave you must be obedient and worshipful, but then gets bogged down in details of how to use personal ads and leather bars to find a partner, how to negotiate scenes, how to [satisfy], etc. All good information for some people, but not what I was expecting when I bought the book...