Readers' Comments
Owned and Owner
As She's Told
BeeHonest
Fetlife.com
Right up there with Carrie's Story & Story of O... I've read at least 50 bdsm books in the past couple years, and Anneke Jacob's As She's Told is not your typical cheeseball faux-bdsm stroke book. This book is the REAL DEAL.
This book is about the relationship between Anders and Maia, two people in the Toronto bdsm scene. Anders wants total control, to own his woman completely, human chattel...Maia desperately wants to be owned and controlled and told what to do. Neither one wants games, they want total permanent power exchange, with no room for choices or the word "no." The pair find a perfect match in one another, and so begins a fascinating and incredibly erotic love story. Ms. Jacob skilfully leads Anders & Maia (and the reader) along a continuum from the heady beginnings of new love, to the deepening of the relationship, with all the risk and new explorations, to...well...the complete and utter submission of Maia as Anders' slave.
But what makes this better than 98% of the Master/slave bdsm erotica out there, is that Maia and Anders truly share a love relationship...she never wavers in her desperate desire to please him, she revels in the (sometimes cringeworthy) things he does to her, and for his part, he never compromises her well-being or safety, in fact, the care he takes of her while more or less breaking her down into an animal is absolutely breathtaking (and totally sexy. I am absolutely in love with Anders! Femsubs, prepare to lose your heart to him if you read this book!!)
Aside from the great story, the great characters, the ridiculously hot sex, the insidiously evil-sexy punishments Anders comes up with, the fascinating development of what becomes quite a hard-core M/s relationship...aside from ALL THAT, this book is also exquisitely written. This is not like those other books that sound like they were written by someone with a third grade education or some perv sitting in a prison somewhere. Ms. Jacob obviously knows her way around the art of writing, so there's no distraction of bad writing and awful punctuation to draw you away from the story as it unfolds.
I just can't recommend this highly enough. If you want true, enthralling, realistic, and envelope-pushing bdsm erotica that is written exceedingly well, get this book. It deserves a place among the great hallmarks of the genre...the Story of O... Carrie's Story and Safe Word...if you loved those, this one is even better!!
Annabel Joseph, Author of 'Comfort Object'
Amazon.com
I just finished the book last night and loved it.
First, thank you Anneke Jacob for writing this! I haven’t read many BDSM novels, but this is probably the best. I found myself comparing it to Story of O and Carrie’s Story / Safe Word (and I appreciated the couple of references you made to those books)...
I enjoyed the writing style, the story and dialogue flowed well, I liked the characters, and the plot had enough suspense to keep me guessing what would happen next. And, oh yeah, did I mention that the sex scenes were HOT!...
I also wanted to comment on the quality of the paperback book. I’m kind of a book snob when it comes to print quality, font type, etc. This book is first class!!!
peskygirl
Fetlife.com
Thanks for a wonderful and inspiring book.
It is already three months ago that I read your novel within two days. I was really as if on drugs. Whilst I cannot believe, that anyone in the world would really (want to) live like Maia, I enjoyed the immense brainteasing the whole story gives me. The whole characters are so well formed into real persons in your Toronto environment, that I literally paint Toronto before my eyes. And I haven't been there (yet).....
And I could really envision the locksmith, with two kids and a vanilla marriage......same here, left with my dreams.....
A big thanks from the country south of Denmark.
Andreas, Germany
Goodreads.com
I just wanted to write and tell you I just finished As She's Told and absolutely loved it - thank you for writing something so wonderful. I expected the arousal, I didn't expect the insight that brought tears to my eyes more than once. It was beautiful and unflinching and absolutely rang my bell. Now I'm off to start Owned and Owner.
Elizabeth
Fetlife.com
I have to add another recommendation for Anneke Jacob's As She's Told. I'm in the middle of it now. It's such a powerful and thought provoking book. Not what I might suggest for the beginner though. She also has a futuristic BDSM book about TPE that's phenomenal.
Fallon Blake, author of 'This Side of Heaven'
Fetlife.com
Most of the time, when you read any given piece of erotica, it tends to focus on the sex. Which is not a problem, because that's why we read erotica. But the human emotions are either not believable, or not there, or very much secondary. Here...these people are real. I think one thing that makes them real, and makes their feelings real, is the sense of the passage of time. Because there are two focal characters, and we spend out time in the book basically with them, we experience their lives in something close to real time. And because time passes in the book, these people have an experience that's real and that matters to them, and therefore to us.
There's another element besides time that most erotica, and especially most D/S erotica lacks, and that's transformation. Mostly the characters whip, or are whipped, or they fuck, or are fucked, and when they're done everything resets to zero. It's like most TV shows. At the end of the episode, nothing really has changed, unless they've killed a character off. And that's not really a change, because next week there's going to be a new character. But at the end of this book, there's a sense of these people, Maia especially, having been through a LOT. And she can't just take a shower, get dressed, and head back out into the "real" world. Because she has been deeply and profoundly changed by her experience. And that's where I think you're really daring and provocative. Not because Anders and Maia did certain things, but because there were consequences for what they did, and afterwards there was really no going back. For Maia there's everything before Anders, and then there's everything after.
And another thing. These people have friends, and acquaintances, and interests, and hobbies, and quirks. And their friends react to what's happening to them. We all have our circle of friends, and people who know us, but you mostly wouldn't ever see that in this kind of story. And the friends are real people too.
As far as I'm concerned, you've written a piece of erotic literature, and it's a classic. Whatever that means. I don't mean that it's going to be one of the boring and dreary books that English teachers make their students endure. I mean it's something than those who know about it will actually cherish and keep. I don't think there's anything else like it out there.
Erin
Being a Dane I really enjoyed your book. But I must confess that you have created a problem for me. All other books will be judged against As She Is Told, thus they will be considered inferior. I look forward to Owned and Owner, in its new edition. I can tell you that I have some friends in the bdsm community here in Denmark. They are in the process of buying also.
Grey Master
As a general rule, I read neither erotica nor romance novels of any stripe.
That said, As She's Told is literature. Pure and simple. Whether the subject matter is comfortable or to anyone's particular taste is irrelevant. It's well written.
Psychologically accurate, it is the dominant character's habit to be socially conscious while the submissive character tends more towards self-development. Obviously, Ms. Jacob has studied the general character traits well.
For once, humour abounds. This is a themed novel within the genre which refuses to take itself too seriously or forget that the reader may be doing more with a book than using a masturbatory device. The Hallowe'en scene, full of odd characters and the frivolity that occurs during such a celebration, is worth the price of the book.
It also places the main characters, Maia and Anders within a real world where no matter how careful they are to keep that from intruding upon their private predilections, slips, dangers and errors can and do occur.
Although As She's Told is not for the faint-hearted, it is, for anyone open minded enough to realize that “people are strange”, an excellent read.
Ms-AerynSunne
I loved the book sooooo much....I have to say that Maia is a lot more giving of herself than i am so it was a little hard to swallow at times but shes so frekin cute i wanted to scoop her up and hug her!....I also loved Owned and Owner so I was expecting this one to be just as great but boy did it exceed my expectations....please please say there is a 3rd book in the works cuz i would so look forward to that.
thegoodbyegirl
Fetlife.com
Very well written. I enjoyed it and all the scenes that were told in very good detail, I really enjoyed how Anders was conditioning Maia and the real love that was between Master and sub. It will be one of my books for my book club I facilitate. Thank you again for such a good book.
gypsyfla
Fetlife.com
Owned and Owner
I just had to share about my absolute favorite BDSM literature (and there's not much "literature" out there in this genre... mostly bad writing punctuated by badly-written but ultimately hot scenes... ). This fantastic story is called Owned and Owner and it's by Anneke Jacob. If you are into male top/female bottom stories, science fiction, and really REALLY good writing, get a copy of this one. You won't be sorry. I hope Anneke Jacob writes MORE... and soon!
knkywch
Collarme.com
Owned and Owner lets you leave reality behind and completely surround yourself in a fantasy-world of hot, hardcore bdsm. Who hasn’t daydreamed about being someone’s total slave, toy, or pet, and being made to bend totally to their will? About being completely controlled and “kept” for someone else’s use? No playtime scenes and pussyfooting around here. This book fulfills that fantasy in the setting of an alternate reality and doesn’t disappoint in the descriptive details! Etrin is purchased as a human “pet” by Garid and lives with him on a planet of men, distant from her own planet. For fans of objectification, you will find lots to salivate over here! I went wild for the way Garid uses her without apology. What’s even more satisfying is that no matter how “cruel” and selfish her owner is in his use of her, Etrin enjoys every moment of what she endures; in fact, she has chosen it and is thrilled with her new life. She’s getting exactly what she wants -- complete and utter surrender to the will of another. The erotic factor of this arrangement is scorching! I highly recommend this book!
Annabel Joseph, Author of 'Comfort Object'
I enjoy reading Owned and Owner, I think it's a very good combination of issues -- or themes --, as a sci-fi reader is my opinion that Anneke Jacob did a great work in imagining those societies. In a very concise and imaginative way she explain how two planets inhabited by human beings -- one with almost only male population and the other with only female population -- became so different.
The book core issue is impressive and amazing and hot and too many others adjectives, the transformation of Etrin in a kind of pet takes place in a progressive and inexorable way and the reader is witness of that girl becoming property of another person.
Altarazul, Mexico
Goodreads.com
I really liked this book. It is a science-fantasy story of a universe where men and women live on separate planets. Etrin, a young woman dreams of being completely owned by a "man". When she learns that she can choose to be sent to the planet Henth (where the men reside) and sold into slavery as an option for breaking the law, she purposely sets out to obtain this goal. To be sent to Henth, where women are enslaved and considered nothing more than rare and exotic animals. It covers many areas of BDSM - pony play, chastity belts, floggers, suspension, teasing and denial, and total power exchange, while also giving details on the emotions and feelings that happen between a slave and Master.
I found this book very easy to read and very erotic.