In ‘Ana Adored’ two women, Ana, a teacher, and Miranda, a professional Domme at a fantasy resort called ‘The Castle’, first become rather close friends online, then take the step to meet at ‘The Castle’, and what starts out as a sort of get-to-know and holiday week without any obligations, turns into love and the beginning of a serious relationship. I am not going to give away much of the plot here, because I don’t want to spoil the fun of reading this book. It is definitely worth reading.
Right at the beginning of their time at the Castle, Miranda establishes the most important rule of them all. It is about honesty. Both women are supposed to be open and honest with each other. In different ways, both women struggle with this one rule throughout the story. Ana comes out of an abusive relationship and is actually too innocent and inexperienced to see what a ‘no lies’ rule might include. But she tries and is rather successful with following it. She shows a very believable mix of trusting Miranda, a woman she only knew online before, and then again not believing that an experienced woman like Miranda might consider her time with Ana as more than an episode. This struggle makes Ana a wonderful character, because her trust and growing love make her reliable, positive and very lovable. There have been moments while reading when I wished to be able to interfere, so that Ana would not be hurt.
Just as she can virtually read any emotion of Ana’s, Miranda recognizes these characteristics immediately. She also struggles with the ‘no lies’ rule, actually much more than Ana, but the reasons behind Miranda’s way of excluding Ana in some moments are comprehensible and adorable, and Miranda herself suffers from what she is doing, too.
Even though Ana and Miranda strive to follow a rule that is meant to make their time together pleasurable, this does not work too well for them. But they do realize that they are in love with each other and struggle to overcome their problems.
While reading the book I was not sure whether I’d take sides for Miranda or Ana. It turned out that I like both. Both of them are women of integrity. They are open towards each other most of the time and both do want to make their time wonderful for the other one. Miranda, as the experienced, dominant woman leaves the impression of being more of an adult than Ana, whereas Ana has retained a child-like way of being in some situations and that makes her attractive for Miranda and the way this is created in the story also makes Ana lovable and adorable for me.
Throughout the story it is obvious that Miranda and Ana are in love and how much they care for each other. The way Anastasia Vitsky describes their emotions is awesome, because her use of language seems so amazingly effortless and to the point. I loved following the character’s thoughts, because they were so authentic. I love to see how both of them have the urge to come closer to each other and this was written in a wonderfully convincing way. They start out cautiously, both are vulnerable and even though Miranda seems to have more issues with opening up than Ana, they are able to show each other who they really are. This has been written beautifully and due to her skill in describing these moments, Anastasia Vitsky has been able to show the untainted love between Miranda and Ana in a most touching way.
This is one more reason why I suffered with the two women; I always had a clear idea about their love but I could never be sure what would happen till the end. In addition, Miranda and Ana feel real for me. Their struggle was one that I felt could happen to anybody. Their reactions were real life like. Furthermore, nothing was given away too early, so if I wanted to know whether there was a happy ending or not, I had to read on.
Reading on is easy in this book. Even before the two women meet for the first time, the story picks up considerable pace and the dramatic moments while Ana was too close to her abusive former partner let me feel her pain and I felt just as helpless as Ana did more than once because of how this abusive part was dealt with. It is not at the center of the story but it is important and definitely impressive.
My favourite moments were those when Ana was a girl of uninhibited happiness, free from any burden, and when Miranda and Ana were open and vulnerable towards each other. Anastasia Vitsky has written these moments so beautifully that they made me laugh and cry. So, this story has not let me go until I finished reading it. Actually I am in it again, because it is too good to be put away.
So, what kind of story is ‘Ana Adored’? It develops rapidly into a story where two women are in love. I would not at all consider it a book dealing much with BDSM, as this is not at the core of the story, even though spankings are a recurring topic. This is far more a book about two lovers who have to overcome some serious obstacles to maybe get a fair chance of being together. And it is a story where two characters who don’t want to lose their newly found love, struggle, but they are sometimes acting against their own interests, somehow with their eyes open.
Awesome story, it kept me enthralled to the last page!