As She's Told by Anneke Jacob; Better than 50 shades. (spoilers)

[AlainaElric]

I have seen a few posts about the 50 Shades of Grey series on this site. I have seen articles outside of this site for the past few years in regards to the series, and I have read other books that I could actually get through without the outright need to shake my head and count how many things were wrong with what it portrayed.
I have decided to post a topic of a more realistic but rare relationship when it comes to the BDSM lifestyle.
Personally, I believe this is a better account of a D/s relationship, however, there is one little similarity between the two I would like to touch base on. Both seem to have the need to decrease the importance of guidelines used strongly within the community, which require one important thing that 50 Shades didn't have, but was at the very least somewhat included by As She's Told. Consent, which is a big part of any role or practice, session or scene that one would have while living in this lifestyle.
That being said, As She's Told is (in my opinion) more involved, intimate, and not as 'tame' so to speak as the 50 shades series.
The book itself involves a couple; a girl named Maia who was an introverted girl who was looking for TPE (total power exchange), and disagreed that any bottom (submissive-type) should manipulate how the relationship went. In all many go by the rule that, while in a relationship, the submissive doesn't have the power, but they do have control; any time they are in the relationship, they don't have the power, but at any time they are allowed to end the relationship and therefore have the control over the power. She never wanted to influence how she was Dominated. Her partner, her counter, Anders was a construction worker who made his own equipment, who built his own house, who worked hard for the things he gave towards his relationship (not some rich foreigner or business owner). He was looking for total control over his partner, but very few are able to handle this type of relationship because it takes an extreme amount of strength and trust.
Anders is a very thoughtful man who thinks about everything, and safety is a huge concern for him, as is consent. They slowly develop from what is known as a vanilla relationship (non-lifestyle) into the TPE relationship they both desired.
A realistic aspect of this series is that they didn't just jump into the kink, as mentioned. They started with dates, he helped her organize her school work, they then worked on attire, and got to know each other. They find common interests and ground with each other, and they don't get further involved until he finishes the house and its hardware. They do meetings to be sure that nothing needed worked on, and if she wanted to speak on something they experienced together, that was the time for her to do so. Also all money she made for their first year together, she kept in a separate account in case things didn't work out between them.
With 50 shades, I have found that he absolutely ignored when she wanted him to stop, and sought to change his behavior. The kink itself was extremely tame, and he was more of a narcissist.