Tender Mercies by Kitty Thomas

 

I read Tender Mercies in one sitting. It pulled me in and there was no way I could put it down until I'd reached the end.

What do I say first? I should probably warn that there is a great deal of non-consensual activity. It can be argued that Grace consented to giving up her rights, that she chose to put herself into the situation. And that piece of information does make things more palatable. But still, there is a great deal of activity that I don't believe anyone would ever willingly consent to.

But the titillating bits aren't the non-consent stuff. Or, not entirely, anyway. But that's about all I can say about that without giving spoilers.

Here's the blurb:

"Grace. That word that finally meant something again. Mercy. Favor. Good will."

Fed up with play kink, Grace Warner moves to an island that embraces erotic slavery to be with a man she met online. Within hours of her arrival, everything is ripped from her, and she quickly learns play is preferable to the realities of actual enslavement.

Asher Collins has spent the past year mourning and blaming himself for the death of his slave, Darcy. When Grace catches his eye at a showing, obviously abused, he becomes obsessed with buying her and finding a way to atone for his own past sins.

BDSM elements:

• Bondage and Discipline: 3 of 3
• Dominance and Submission: 3 of 3
• Sadism and Masochism: 3 of 3 
• Extra Point: Yes

As for the writing elements: the plot is a good one, and beautifully crafted to give us situations that make us think about the ramifications of slavery without a safeword - the good (i.e. exciting) parts and the bad parts. The pacing was beautiful, prose and dialogue were fine, and character development was superb.

• Book Rating: Tender Mercies: 10 of 10
• BDSM Intensity Level: 10 of 10
• Heat Level: 5 of 5

Tender Mercies isn't for everyone. If you are sensitive to non-con BDSM and rape in a fictional setting then you probably want to pass on this one. However, Kitty Thomas writes non-consensual situations that make you think, really think, like nobody else. So if you can deal with it as part of the larger picture, then the story is a good one.

Chronicles of Surrender series by Roxy Harte

 

I read the first three books in this series years ago. And I loved them. So when the new ones came out, my intention was to read the first three books again, before reading the next two. However, trying to fit time to read five books in... I just kept putting it off, until I finally realized it wasn't going to happen. So I spent an hour skimming through the first three books, slowing down for the really good parts -- the peppers, the kitty cage, the final scene before... well, that would be a spoiler.

There is no way to review the books without giving spoilers. The characters change and grow so much during the series that they are barely the same people they were at the start. That's a good thing, though. In real life our experiences change us. It's supposed to work that way.

If you, like me, read the first three long ago then I highly recommend you buy the next two books in the series.

If you've never read any of the books, then... wow. This is a great series. At first it's about kink, and power exchange. Then it's about some of the different, well, flavors, of that kink. Different Doms do things different ways. And sometimes a Dom has to alter things to make sure a submissive's specific needs are being met. As feelings start to enter the equation, things change. So many different kinks are explored, the mental parts just as much as the physical parts. It ends up being about how to make a relationship work, how to do the kink and have a somewhat normal life, too. It's 24/7, and certainly in the ball park of TPE, but the day to day stuff is not so over the top that it could never actually work that way.

Some of the books in the series get a 10 of 10 from me, others get an 8 of 10. The series as a whole gets a 10 of 10.

BDSM elements:

• Bondage and Discipline: 3 of 3
• Dominance and Submission: 3 of 3
• Sadism and Masochism: 3 of 3
• Extra Point: Yes

Simply saying that the sum adds up to a 10 of 10 for the intensity doesn't really say enough about the ways the BDSM is handled in this series. Some of the aspects are handled very creatively, some are cut and dried, some are gentle and tender, some are incredibly harsh, and some are tender and harsh at the same time.

As for the writing elements:

• The plots in most of the books are exceptionally well done. There were a few things that made me stretch a bit for the believability factor, but the series as a whole is good enough to forgive those parts.
• Pacing is fine.
• Prose and dialogue are nicely woven together.
• Character development has depth and interest for not just the main characters but a few of the secondary characters as well.

The Chronicles of Surrender books are romance books at heart, though a few of the books head off into the spy and intrigue stuff and that takes precedence over the romance here and there. I didn't feel the BDSM was over the top, though some people may be uncomfortable with a few of the scenes. I think we are supposed to be uncomfortable with a few of them, and I also think the author does a good job of explaining why the intensity, and why those particular kinks, are a turn on for the characters.

• Series Rating: Chronicles of Surrender: 10 of 10
• BDSM Intensity Level: 10 of 10
• Heat Level: 5 of 5 

The books in this series are:

1. Sacred Secrets
2. Sacred Revelations
3. Unholy Promises
4. Echo Of Redemption
5. Cries of Penance

It looks like there is a new book soon to be released in this series, titled Vow of Silence.  It appears this is Dr. Psycho's book, and the warnings have me more than a little bit interested.
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Toy Box: Bondage Mitts by LD Madison, Sean Michael and G.R. Richards

 
There are three stories in this Toy Box, and I've discovered a new author to keep an eye on.

Here's the blurb:

Sometimes a Dom wants more than just cuffs to keep his lover's hands occupied, and the results can be very sexy indeed! In A Tangled Web by LD Madison, Detective Greg Mallory disobeys a direct order, and Lieutenant Jake West decides to teach him a lesson he won't soon forget. But everything is not what it seems, and in the end, it might be Jake who learns a thing or two.

In This is Naughty Puppy Love by G.R. Richards. When Elio gives up teaching, his colleague Henry is heartbroken. Even more so because Elio is leaving the profession to clean houses for a living! Henry invites Elio to clean his home nonetheless, telling Elio to pay special attention to the bedroom. What does Elio find but a set of stunning leather puppy paw fist mitts? Puppy wants to play! 

Finally, Jim and Marcus from Bent are back in Hands Tied, a Hammer Story by Sean Michael. When Jim lets an former co-worker goad him into working himself into a frenzy and leaving his schedule behind, Marcus devises a way to help Jim not only focus on himself and his master, but to keep from working more than he should as well.

I wasn't terribly impressed with the first story, A Tangled Web.  I have issues with workplace romances where a boss or immediate supervisor feels they can spank someone just because they are the boss. My definition of BDSM includes the word consensual, when you get rid of that element then it becomes abuse. True, it becomes consensual in the story, but it doesn't start out that way. Also, the use of mitts isn't really important to the story, I got the feeling the mitts were added to the story later so it could be used in this anthology.

I don't believe I've ever read anything by G.R. Richards before, but This is Naughty Puppy Love certainly got my attention and I will be paying attention when I see this author's name in the future. The blurb gives the basics, but the story is very well written and does not follow the normal puppy play template. And the use of the mitts is hot.

The last story is by Sean Michael, if you've read Bent then you already know Jim and Marcus, and this story will be pretty familiar to you. It's a nice short, but nothing really new for this pair.

I have a problem rating anthologies, especially when there are good stories and not-so-good stories. I loved the second story, like the last story, and didn't care that much for the first.


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Training to Pleasure by Julian Masters

 

Training to Pleasure had the potential to be a good story. Unfortunately, Mr. Masters was sorely in need of an editor. There are way too many punctuation marks! And lots of other odd punctuation that made reading and staying with the story a challenge. Also, compound words were seperated - so anyone was any one. That may sound like nitpicking, but it happened many dozens of times, making me stop and look at it, read through it again, and then realize how it should have been written. And there were other editing snafus, where it appears he reworded part of a sentence and didn't go back and fix the other part of the sentence to fit with the reworded portion. I could continue on with my problems with the  writing, but I'll stop there and get to the story.

The story is one of a woman brand new to the ideas of BDSM who finds an experienced Master online, and then follows as they begin a relationship. It's a cyber relationship for a few months, and then they meet and it becomes a real life relationship. The first part of the book had some pretty big pacing issues, as the action was pretty slow to get started.

Some parts of the story didn't work so great for me, but others did. Or, I should say, they really did. There is a scene where he gives her a taste of something she doesn't want to experience anymore of, and then tells her that he wants her to resist him. If she manages to keep him from taking her for thirty minutes then she won't get more of the bad thing. If she can't last the entire thirty minutes then the longer she lasts, the less she will have to endure of the bad thing. That turned into a very nice scene.

I also appreciated that we are shown two strong individuals coming together in a power exchange relationship. No one is broken, no one needs to be "fixed". One has a kink to Dominate, the other has a kink to submit. That's it, nothing is broken.  The training also has some Zen type stuff, some of which was a nice touch.

Here's the blurb:

Kate is hard working, successful, responsible and smart-yet something is missing from her life. The men she dates quickly bore her in and out of bed. A girlfriend loans Kate an erotic novel of dominance and submission that ignites a firestorm of longing and desire she cannot ignore. Perhaps she has been looking for the wrong type of man in all the wrong places her whole life?

Kate goes in search online, learning all she can about her need to surrender her heart and body to a truly masterful man. A chance encounter in a chat room leads to her eventually meeting James at a beautiful English country house and spending an exquisitely erotic week together that will change both their lives forever.Note: This story was previously released in 2003 under author name Sir Julian. It has been revised and extensively expanded.

Training to Pleasure was a nice story of a couple's journey towards a Master/submissive relationship. There is a little bit of well done puppy play, and a nice description of a colonic (kind of one step beyond an enema) that is also well described. Impact play is not a huge part of the training, but that's okay because the things done in place of impact play are quite creative and (other than a few instances) fairly well described. 

The poor grammar and lack of editing was a real problem for me, though.

BDSM elements:

• Bondage and Discipline: Yes, but nothing too extreme. 2 of 3.
• Dominance and Submission: Yes. 3 of 3.
• Sadism and Masochism: Yes. 2 of 3
• Extra Point: Yes.

As for the writing elements, the plot was the story of how the relationship progressed during their cyber chats, their first date, and then a week in a rented country home in the middle of nowhere. There were no outside influences, which was fine for this story. Pacing had some issues, there was the aforementioned slow start, but there were also too many info dumps and over-describing of mundane things that were not a big part of the story (another place a good editor could have come in handy). Prose had serious issues, dialogue flowed in most places but had issues here and there. Character development was fine.

• Book Rating:Training to Pleasure: 6 of 10
• BDSM Intensity Level: 8 of 10
• Heat Level: 5 of 5

  
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Summer School: A Ponygirl Novel by Jurgen von Stuka

 

Summer School is a non-consensual tale of girls being forced into pony play. Actually, the term "pony play" isn't quite right here, because this is quite serious, with no playing around. The girls are eventually made into something as close to ponies as a human body can be taken. (Probably a lot farther than you're thinking.) There are also human cows and human piggies, once you get into the story.

Some non-BDSM parts of the story bothered me:

• The author tried to show that this could be an economic venture, and tried to explain how the "missing" girls could be explained. I agree you could possibly explain some missing girls in this manner, but once there are dozens of girls who go away to school and then never go home again... for families with fifteen thousand dollars to blow on summer camp, they are going to be able to hire private detectives and lawyers, too.
• The description of some of the gadgets was too much for me. A description of a complicated mouth gag took pages and pages to describe the gag and then to show how it was installed. Some of the gadgets were well thought out and ingenious, but there were times that the story stopped too long for the descriptions.
• The author lost track of the kind of bondage her victims were in a few times. Someone in a full hood that blocked sound was able to hear her tormentor speak, but then a few paragraphs later could not hear other sounds that would have been louder than a voice.

 Here's the blurb:

Desperately wanting to get away from home for the summer, Dori Hammond, talks her father into sending her to a summer riding school. However, she quickly learns that this is not a traditional riding school, and its unusual training methods are cause for alarm. However, having signed the required contract, she and the other students are obliged to submit to a rigorous training regimen. Unbeknownst to them, they’ll be methodically transformed into human ponies. Headmistress Wright and Headmaster Boswick employ mechanical horses, strict restraint, suspensions, impalement, and the resources of the farm's deepest cellars. Their female students quickly learn what a horse's life is really like and that misconduct will lead to severe punishment. Riding, as the girls discover, is more than taking a pony around the ring. As Head Master Boswick says, "You can't learn to ride until you've been ridden."

Though the girls may resist the humiliating treatment, they often experience an overwhelming sexual satisfaction in the pleasure and pain they are forced to suffer.

Not all the students are at the school voluntarily. Many are spoiled and unruly young women sent there by their wealthy parents. One unlucky German girl, Lucy, is kidnapped on an overnight train and sent to the school, the abduction arranged for by her Dutch boyfriend.

Dori and her fellow students are subjected to discipline and training from both the male and female staff. For those who resist, there is the dairy barn where the girls are turned into human cows. And for those incorrigible young females who fail in equine training and in the dairy barn, there is the lowly squalor of the Hog Farm, where they are good for nothing but sexual sport. For Dori and the others, it becomes clear long before the end of the story that their lives will be transformed forever, in ways they never imagined.

In addition to details scenes of human pony training, the inventive story includes graphic descriptions of elaborate pony costumes, unique extreme bondage and suspension, gags, cuffs, collars, chains, dildos, steel restraints, elaborate bondage devices, electrical stimulation, milking, piercing, surgical body modification and straight and lesbian sex. Strong BDSM content.

BDSM elements:

• Bondage and Discipline: Yes. Both taken to the extreme. Some of the bondage could easily be fatal if done as described with no one left to observe. This is fantasy BDSM, complete with floggers that tear bits of skin off and send it flying through the air. 3 of 3.
• Dominance and Submission: Again, taken to the extreme, and the submission is not consensual. 3 of 3
• Sadism and Masochism: There are certainly sadists who run the school. And some of the girls seem to be trained into masochism.  3 of 3.
• Extra Point: The story is based around a sadistic pony girl school, it's safe to say it gets the extra point.

Obviously, the Intensity Level is a  10 of 10, but I'm not sure what to do with the Heat Level. The first part of the book was a 5 of 5, but the latter part went over the top to the extent that it wasn't hot anymore. More scary than hot. And, with the believability and continuity issues I talked about above, that also interfered with the heat level a bit. I think giving it a 3 of 5 is about right, with the understanding that there are parts of it that do hit the 5 of 5, especially if you're into the whole pony thing.

• Book Rating: Summer School: 6 of 10
• BDSM Intensity Level: 10 of 10
• Heat Level: 3 of 5

As for the writing elements: There isn't really a plot. The book is a description of what happens to a number of people who end up at this school. One person is followed more closely than the others, and we see how far she is taken into being a pony instead of a human.  But it's the physical aspects we see, not really the psychological aspects.

Pacing has some issues. Prose and dialogue were well done. There wasn't very much character building, just descriptions of what was happening to the various characters.

As I said, prose and dialogue were well done, and the voice was easy to follow. If you enjoy pony girl activities, and if the non-consent stuff isn't a turn off for you, then you'll probably enjoy Summer School.   
 

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A Well-Trained Pup by Dominic Ridler

 

A Well Trained Pup takes us from shortly after puppy play training is started all the way to a completely trained puppy. The story is a good one, not as rough as some puppy stories, certainly rougher than others, though. Pup is trained at a nice pace, so that she's ready for the next steps as they come to her. She's trained and humiliated and thoroughly used, but no one is terribly harsh with her (with one exception). However, we see other puppies* being treated harshly when pup is at the parties, and that adds a nice flavor to her experience. It also really helps the heat level.

The language used to tell the story is simple. At times it felt like the rhythm of a preschool reader, but I think that since the "pup" is telling the story, we're getting simplified language because that is how she is thinking at the time.

As a side note, I tried to figure out why pup refers to her Master, her Trainer, as E. No name, just an initial. Other men in the story have names, why not the man she is closest to?

A Well-Trained Pup give us M/f,   M/m,   M/m/f,   F/m/m,  MMMM/f, and lots of other configurations. There are a few canings, nice use of a tawse, some hand spankings, a little bit of face slapping, puppy tail butt plugs, a cage, sleeping in baskets, and lots and lots and lots of sex.

BDSM elements:

• Bondage and Discipline: Some discipline, some bondage. 2 of 3
• Dominance and Submission: Yes, mostly in the context of puppy play, but there are also a few interactions that are more of a typical D/s type. 3 of 3
• Sadism and Masochism:It's not a huge part of the story, but it crops up a few times - primarily as we see other characters interacting with each other. 2 of 3 
• Extra Point: Yes, the puppy play is an intrinsic part of the story.

As for the writing elements, the plot is mostly just the story of a girl being trained to be a puppy - not that that's a bad thing, its a perfectly good story, but there are no other plots thrown into the mix. Prose and dialogue had some issues, but I think the author was trying to give us the simple talk of someone who is submerged in the role of a puppy. Character development was sufficient for the story, but could easily have been fleshed out a bit more.

• Book Rating: A Well-Trained Pup: 7 of 10
• BDSM Intensity: 8 of 10
• Heat Level: 5 of 5

I don't know if the author intends to keep telling the story or not. The ending was satisfying, but it was also one that would easily lend itself for another book in order to give us the story of the next chapter in pup's life, so to speak. If a sequel is written to A Well Trained Pup, or another book written in this universe, I would be interested in reading it.


* Just to be clear, when I say "pup" or "puppy" or "puppies", I'm talking about the human variety, not the true canine variety. No actual dogs are involved.


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Owned And Owner by Anneke Jacob

 

Owned And Owner is a fantasy story of total slavery, and is a journey from human mindset to animal.

It's almost a hetero version of What Worse Place Can I Beg In Your Love?, without the twist at the end. However, Owned and Owner actually goes a good bit farther with the whole Pet thing. Still, the key points are there - caged when your owner doesn't have time for you, no understanding of the language being spoken around you, used as a sexual object, never treated as a person. One of the biggest points in both books is that, because it's a different planet and different life form, the "pet" is not just treated as an animal, but is actually seen as an animal... a lesser life form.

Enough of the comparisons. It sounds wrong to say I enjoyed Owned And Owner, but I did. Sure, there were parts that didn't work for me, but not that many, actually. It wasn't as hard for me to deal with as the other book I've read by Anneke Jacob, As She's Told. The main reason for that is that Owned And Owner is pure fantasy, it takes place on another planet.

Owned And Owner is not romance. Not one single bit of romance. That's okay, not every man who buys a woman as a pet has to fall romantically in love with said woman. There is an attachment there, something you could define as love... maybe. But more like the way I love my dog, nothing like the way I love my husband. If you need romantic attachment in order for the BDSM to work for you then beware that there is none.  As the title says, it's a straight up Owned and Owner relationship.

I appreciated that we saw some of the other slaves on Henth, saw that each Owner had a completely different way they treated their slaves, completely different set of rules.

Before I get much farther, here's the blurb:

BDSM Fantasy Erotica. A story of unconditional slavery, told from inside a woman's bound and naked skin.

Far in the future exists a world of men, a planet where the only women are rare and exotic pets. These few women, convicted of crimes, have chosen their punishment: slavery on Henth. The few men who buy them know what they are getting: eager submissives, willing to accept the status of animals in order to be owned by men. Etrin is a young woman who makes this choice; Garid is the man who buys her. Their story is one of dominance and submission taken as far as the imagination can go.

Long prior to the time of the book, Henth's colonizers split along gender lines, and the women removed themselves to a separate planet. The two societies have almost lost sight and memory of each other, except for the rare occasions when a woman chooses slavery on Henth over the alternative punishment on her home planet. Driven by a deep need for submission, Etrin pushes her misbehaviour year after year, knowing that she ll eventually be sent to Henth.

When finally convicted and sentenced for her crimes, the bound Etrin is overwhelmed by her first contact with the men on the planet Henth. Soon transferred to the care of animal handlers, she is caged for transport along with the other exotic pets, and prepared for the auction that will determine her new owner. Once Garid purchases his new pet, Etrin goes through stages of acceptance and the relinquishment of self as she faces the strict demands required of her. Meanwhile, Garid, driven and possessive, establishes a sense of ownership strong enough that he is finally able to share her. Readers learn of Etrin's struggles in the form of first-person introspection, and Garid's as he talks with his friend Therin, another dominant.

This beautifully crafted novel delves deeply into the psychology and emotions associated with dominance and submission. Graphic sexual content.

The thing that sets Garid apart from the other "owners" is that he isn't happy with mere physical submission, he wants his slave's emotional and mental submission. He wants her to lose language, to just be an animal who responds to a few simple one-word commands.

The slave/pet had a choice of punishments for her crimes, she is the one who chose slavery on Henth. In fact, she kept getting in trouble until that became one of her options. When she learned of the option she became obsessed with the idea. Once she's on Henth though, there is no choice anymore, no turning back.

There are many similarities between Owned And Owner and As She's Told: pony play, around the clock 24/7 bondage, and most importantly, extreme orgasm denial while being almost constantly aroused. As I said in my review of As She's Told, my body would have found another way, so after a certain point the chastity belt thing didn't work for me. It worked a little better for me here, where there was still severe punishment for orgasms... but my brain wanted to argue with the book as I read that there were dildos in both holes as well as attention paid to breasts, but because the clitoris got no attention then an orgasm was impossible.

One sort of humorous part of the book -- Henth is a planet of men, with no women other than the few slaves sold there as pets (they use artificial wombs, not sure how it works, but supposedly it does). Anyway, homosexuality is the norm on Henth, so when the Owners have to admit to their families that they are *gasp* heterosexual, explain it's just the way they are wired, something they can't help, and there are worries about their jobs and such, it's kind of funny. 

BDSM elements:

• Bondage and Discipline:Taken as far as it can be taken. 3 of 3
• Dominance and Submission: Probably taken farther than it should be taken, but it's fantasy and it worked for me. 3 of 3
• Sadism and Masochism: Again, taken pretty far, though with some of the more extreme stuff we're just told what happens and not given a blow by blow description. Still, it gets a 3 of 3
• Extra Point: Yes, the BDSM is an intrinsic part of the story.

As for the writing elements, the plot was obviously crafted around where the author wanted to take the fantasy, but it worked well so that's okay. The pacing had issues from about 70% of the way through all the way to the end. Prose and dialogue were good, and character development worked well within the story. It's not often I talk about world-building in a BDSM book review, but there was world-building here and it was also well done.

I'm wavering back and forth between a 9 of 10 and a 10 of 10. The pacing issues were a problem for me, as was the believability with the orgasm denial where a woman can be stimulated for hours every day and yet go more than six or eight months without being allowed a single orgasm. But more than that... Owned and Owner is really just the fantasy version of As She's Told.  But, this isn't a series, so shouldn't I rate each book separately? Both books are an exploration of the psychology behind what it takes for a person to lose their autonomy, to become an object not just physically, but mentally and emotionally as well. And they both do a very good job of exploring this issue. They are both good books, both exploring the same subject matter from a slightly different angle.

And I had more conflict in my head with some of the events of As She's Told, where there were opportunities to stop things once they got started. But with Owned and Owner, once the decision is made to be sold on Henth, there is no going back, no way to change her mind about being a slave. It was fantasy, and thus it was easier for me to enjoy some of the subjugation when framed in the "fantasy" bubble.

So, yeah, I guess it gets a 10 of 10. It is a very well written book, after all.

Book Rating: Owned and Owner: 10 of 10
Heat Level:  5 of 5
Intensity Level:  10 of 10

You should only read Owned And Owner if you enjoy serious BDSM that includes all aspects (B&D, D/s, S&M), including heavy pain and way more control over someone than most people can come up with in their wildest imagination. If it made sense to give a higher heat level and intensity level, just to get across how intense, and how hot, things get, then I would. But the math geek in me just can't give a 7 of 5 or a 12 of 10.

I enjoyed Owned and Owner. As always, your mileage may vary.
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As She's Told by Anneke Jacob

 

As She's Told is the story of how far you can take a 24/7 relationship. One where there are no negotiations, no safewords. We start out with the basic power exchange conundrum: If there are negotiations, then it's just a game. The submissive isn't really giving up true uncontested power, he or she is just negotiating to get what they want. A true power exchange would not have negotiations. Actual slaves don't get to negotiate.

In real life, most of us need to negotiate our hard limits, though the fantasy of not being able to do that is occasionally there. I realize there are some people who eventually get to the place where they give up all of their hard limits, but that generally happens as a process, and takes a dozen or more years. As She's Told takes place over a less than two year period of time, and by the end she is pretty much totally objectified. I don't think I'm giving spoilers by saying that, as the blurb pretty much says the same thing:

Take two caring, thoughtful individuals with some highly unusual sexuality, let their paths cross, and watch how far their obsession takes them. That's the essence of this story about an intense bdsm relationship: extreme, loving, creative, steeped in imagination, embedded in the real world. What emerges is a passionate, private sexual reality, in which the balance of power tips only one way.

Maia and Anders want nothing less than total power exchange, without games, negotiations or safewords. Any pretence is out of the question; for both of them the power relationship has to be as genuine as it is absolute, but Anders is more than aware of the risks to inexperienced Maia if she should be wrong about what she can handle. Early on, he steers a careful line between games and gobbling her up. His ownership is established step by step through conditioning, painful consequences, humiliation and constant bondage, and before long, Maia finds walking away has become inconceivable.

Anders keeps his slave increasingly 'like an animal on a very short tether' something to which she struggles to adjust, in a continuous state of terror and joy His love of technology takes some interesting turns, particularly around orgasm control, teasing and denial. The intensification of Maia's enslavement is balanced by the pair's affection, sense of humour and intelligent conversation, and by the real world of work and friends. Some of these friends become integrated into the meage one way and another, and help Anders create the setting in which Maia's uttermost submission can flower. Graphic BDSM content.

I appreciate the levels of consent that Anders keeps in place, even when Maia does not want those layers in place. While I would not want this for my life, the fantasy of it is still hot, as well as interesting on an intellectual level. And I really enjoyed hearing, feeling, and exploring the psychology of what happens to Maia as she gets farther and farther away from being a human, with the basic rights and expectations that humans have.

I also appreciated the character building that shows us that this is truly Maia's choice to be an actual slave, and that if her opinion about what happens to her were to be inquired about then it would not work for her. The whole point is that she not have a say in anything. At all. We see her struggling to accept the things done to her, see some anger at some of what is done to her, see her punished when she doesn't immediately obey. It's a very believable set up.

BDSM elements:

• Bondage and Discipline: Oh, yes. A 3 of 3. Much bondage, both the leather and metal variety as well as the technology kind. (Think electric butt plug at a crowded music festival, so you can't get more than a foot and a half away from your master without being shocked. In public, where you can't react like you've just been shocked. That is technological bondage.) Maia is in constant bondage of one sort or another for at least a year and a half of the book. Even when she is at work she is in a corset type harness under her clothes, and, later, much more.
• Dominance and Submission: Yes, taken farther than most books take it - As She's Told is in the same ballpark as Carrie's Story, and Mr. Benson, and Story of O. Possibly even the Beauty series, though As She's Told is reality and Beauty was fantasy, as much of what was done in the Beauty series would kill someone. Still, it's the same basic emotional intensity.  D/s is 3 of 3
• Sadism and Masochism: Yes, also taken to the extreme. 3 of 3

As for the writing elements, the plot is an excellent plot - the story of how far you can take a 24/7 power exchange that, by design, allows for no negotiations or limits. This is a very long book, and there are some pacing issues, but not so much that I'm going to take any points off. The prose and dialogue are excellent, as is the character development.

As She's Told is one of those books that I will eventually need to read again. It's even one that I may pull out and read through parts of when my wonderful husband is out of town and I need... assistance.

There is one thing that bothered me, made the believability tough on me, and that revolves around female orgasm denial. Our Maia must have clitoral stimulation in order to orgasm, so her Master locks her clit up with no access to it in order to keep her from orgasming. Most women I know (who I talk to about these things) can orgasm in at least two of the three main ways we woman orgasm: clitoral, vaginal, anal. And I know someone who has been trained to orgasm when the side of her throat is stroked a few times and then her Master orders her to come. The body adapts, nerve endings re-route themselves. Just as your hearing gets better when you lose your sight for an extended period of time - if you shut down access to the nerves in the clitoris then the body will move those resources elsewhere. So while the orgasm denial worked for me at first, eventually it no longer worked for me because my body would have long since found another way. Especially since  by that point she wasn't being punished for orgasms, if she could have one she was welcome to it, Anders made it his responsibility to keep them at bay, not hers. (Select the spoiler text to view it.)

Even with that though, I'm not going to knock any points off. I'm going to give As She's Told a 10 of 10. Easily a 10 of 10.

Book Rating: As She's Told: 10 of 10
Heat Level: 5 of 5
BDSM Intensity Level: 10 of 10

Would you enjoy As She's Told?

• If objectification bothers you, then no. You would likely not. The objectification is extreme. And we see it from the Tops' point of view as well as Maia's point of view. It worked for me, but I realize there are some people who will have a serious problem with it.
• If not having a safeword bothers you, even if it is the submissive's choice to not have a safeword, then... maybe, maybe not. There are opportunities for safewords - nightly, then weekly, then monthly, then every six months, and eventually they are working towards yearly -- if you want out, here's your chance, if not then there is no chance until the next scheduled chance.
• If true punishments bother you, the kind that leaves marks that stay for weeks, or that involve putting the submissive in the cold basement in a small metal box for the better part of a day, then you probably wouldn't enjoy As She's Told.
• If you hated Carrie's Story and Safe Word or just couldn't deal with Story of Othen you won't enjoy As She's Told.

If, on the other hand, you enjoyed those books, enjoy the psychology behind objectification, enjoy punishments that are true punishments, and have a thing for pretty much constant bondage that there is absolutely no way to get out of, then by all means get As She's Told and devour it. It's a very well written, brain candy sort of book as well as... ummm, other kind of candy...  sort of book. Not one you want to read in public, unless you want to embarrass yourself.