I was late to work because i couldn't stop reading the book. Now i am on to #2, hopefully i will control my reading time a little better! but if not, priorities! :) ( )

Wow, I think I read this in about 3 hours. Once I picked it up, I could not put it down. This book was really, really good. Although, if you trigger really easy, or are a Sexual Abuse survivor, this is probably not the story for you. There are parts that are non-consensual, humiliation, BDSM, and addiction. I love how this book shows that most relationships are very messy. They are usually not going to be a fairy tale, and most times they are not exactly what you want. Sometimes, what you don't want, may be exactly what you need. Both characters are fully explored and the story has all the meat to make it timeless for the ages. ( )

Wow, I think I read this in about 3 hours. Once I picked it up, I could not put it down. This book was really, really good. Although, if you trigger really easy, or are a Sexual Abuse survivor, this is probably not the story for you. There are parts that are non-consensual, humiliation, BDSM, and addiction. I love how this book shows that most relationships are very messy. They are usually not going to be a fairy tale, and most times they are not exactly what you want. Sometimes, what you don't want, may be exactly what you need. Both characters are fully explored and the story has all the meat to make it timeless for the ages. ( )

I love Annabel Joseph's dark BDSM stories and it's been a while since i read a proper BDSM book not a sugar kink one. One minute I hated W, the next I completely loved him. Dark dominant alpha's are my favorite to read about the jerkier they are the more I love them. ( )

First off, a warning; Torment Me is the first volume in a trilogy called “Rough Love,” and that title should be taken seriously. This is strong stuff, even for BDSM erotica, and while the novel is careful to never quite go there, it is borderline non-consensual and fairly violent. So, if you’re not into that, there is a good chance you might find this disturbing rather than sexy. If you are, however, this is one exciting ride, one that had me very pleasantly surprised.

The premise of Torment Me is conventional, not to say cliché – a high-class call-girl is hired by an immensely rich, immensely attractive client and swept off her feet by him; mind-blowing sex occurs and eventually both prostitute and client find out that they have feelings for each other. The prostitute here is called Chere and is the first-person narrator of the novel; the client, on the other hand, remains nameless and is simply referred to as “W.” While Annabel Joseph basically follows this time-hallowed formula, she does some interesting things within that framework that elevate her novel above genre standard fare.

This is already somewhat notable when you take a look at the table of contents, where “Session” (mostly named after various hotels) are interspersed with chapters called “In Between” – obviously, the author has given some thought to the structure of her novel, which is not necessarily something you’d expect to encounter in erotica. Second is the writing, which is far more than just serviceable – not excessively flowery but not afraid to use imagery where it is appropriate either, I’m very tempted to call Annabel Joseph’s style “smouldering.” In spite of the hardcore content of the scenes she describes, the descriptions are not really all that graphic; and rather than give readers minute physical details she focuses on the reactions and emotions of her narrator. This is not all that usual for erotic (as opposed to pornographic) novels, but Torment Me is remarkable both for the consequence with which the novel sticks to its narrative devices as well as the skill with which Annabel Joseph describes those reactions and emotions.

Torment Me is clearly fantasy and does not pretend to be anything else; the PrettyWoman billionaire-meets-call-girl scenario alone makes that clear, as does the improbably good sex and the mind-shattering orgasms. However, the novel is very realistic and spot-on in the way it describes what is going on in a submissive’s mind – the events that set off Chere’s reactions may be fantastical, but those reactions are entirely plausible and drawn with acuity and subtlety; obviously the author knows what she is writing about. The result is that the sessions between W and Chere, even as descriptions are sparse on physical detail, are very intense and extremely hot (of course, again with the proviso that you are into that kind of thing). This really is not a novel you want to read on the train, even if you’re using an e-reader and nobody can see the cover.

The general intensity of Torment Me is also present in the way it focuses almost exclusively on its two main protagonists. There are not many secondary characters in this novel, in fact it’s really just two – Henry, Chere’s agent and Simon, her boyfriend. The latter is of particularly interest because he is a drug addict and abuses her fairly regularly, just giving Annabel Joseph opportunity to compare this relationship to the one she has with W. The latter does indeed look very much like abuse at first glance, rife with physical violence and at least questionable consent as it is, and I liked how the novel does not attempt to minimise that similarity but instead turns it into a theme. And it also makes the differences very clear – in the end, W always does seek for Chere’s consent, he is careful to never go to far with her, and finally, he is capable of self-criticism and of correcting his behaviour when he realises he has been wrong – something which is beyond Chere’s boyfriend (and – slight spoiler, but not really, because what else were you expecting? – which is the reason why she finally leaves him).

The most important difference however is that by depending on her, Simon also makes Chere dependent on him, while her relationship with W actually is empowering for Chere and leads to her gaining a sense of self-worth and becoming independent. That might seem paradoxical, considering how the scenes with W consist of him regularly tieing her up and brutalising her, but this makes actually perfects sense inside of a D/s dynamic (and with the right amount of aftercare). Again, while Annabel Joseph builds on a foundation of pure fantasy, the psychology of her characters is realistic and solid. My one small niggle is with Torment Me being the first part of a trilogy – I think overall I would have preferred things to end where they do here, open-ended and without a Happy Ever After but with Chere a strong and independent woman ready to leave the constraints of her past behind and face the future on her own. But that is not even a niggle, because of course I’m dying to find out how things will continue for Chere and will definitely be reading the other two volumes of the trilogy. Torment Me is that very rare beast, an erotic novel which is not only exceedingly hot but also highly intelligent, and while it probably is not the best introduction for someone new to D/s (or generally squeamish), but for anyone turned on by “rough love” this is going to be a very enjoyable read indeed.