Title: Bound Author: Sasha White Publisher: Berkley Heat Genre: Erotica , Contemporary, BDSM Publication date: June 2006 ISBN: 0425212742 Pages: 272 Rating: Heat Rating: Reviewer: Katie

Small town girl Katie Long has the image of being a good girl, of forever doing the right thing and looking for true love with Mr. Nice Guy. Her job at the local casino she only works until enough money graces her bank account to hit Vancouver, her dream town to find anonymity and much-craved personal freedom. Jo Carson works as a security guard at the same casino. Until now he has admired Katie from afar, not being sure of her having the same sexual cravings than he. But then Katie seduces him on the casino security camera and demonstrates that she is more than willing to enjoy everything he dishes out.

Reading the blurb to this story I expected a more traditional BDSM romance, but it didn’t play out quite like this. Bound is an absolute fantastic book, and - at least in my experience – with a unique twist in the D/s department. There’s no talk about a master/slave relationship, extensive training and safe words. No use of a great assortment of toys, gear or devices, no joining the local sex club and collective exhibitionism. To me it was exactly this lack of conventional ingredients that made Bound so wonderfully enjoyable, because it reflected a more realistic picture on this lifestyle than many a “club hopping stories” I read before. Katie feels a dark side inside her that previous lovers couldn’t coax out and arouse, but with Jo she wants to play kinky, do dirty things and let her inner slut out. She is a formidable woman and takes what she craves without questioning society’s standards or having inner struggles for wanting to be sexually submissive and playing with her “sluttier” side.

Yet, I also would like to mention several scenes and character motivations in this book that didn’t quite agree with me.

Katie has problems with her image of being a good girl. Everybody has certain expectations of her, her mother seems to be a small child, forever in need of her assistance, not to mention the nosy old bat she has as a neighbour. She can’t do much about the anonymity issues in a small town, but Katie never puts her foot down and tells all those interfering and overprotective people to mind their own business. She expects to find all what she needs in Vancouver, but that one of her major problems is her lack of courage to immediately fight for her independence, never becomes an issue. However, I really liked her as a woman, because she’s so wonderfully human, far away from boring perfection and clichéd tradition.

Another subject I would like to bring up is the development of the relationship between Katie and Jo. This book is told in the first person from Katie’s point of view. Ever since discovering Elizabeth Peter’s Amelia Peabody series I am sucker for this writing style, so this book was a real treat for me. The down side of writing in the first person is that the other main character, in this case Jo, needs to talk a lot, especially about his feelings, to become real and tangible. Between Katie and Jo happens much, but it’s nearly exclusively sex. First they want to keep “this thing between them” purely sexual, later they start to develop deeper feelings for each other, but not nearly enough to see a credible declaration of love from Jo coming. The first week of sex between Katie and Jo is raw, and - to be honest – Jo treats Katie in a way that was on that side of “letting the inner slut out”, I wasn’t sure if I could forgive him this kind of behaviour. But later on it evolved all right, especially because Katie is characterized as a self-confident and strong woman who openly tells Jo her opinions. What really made Bound a perfect read again was the end of this love story. It’s not your over-sweet happily ever after, no dream vision of 2.5 kids playing in front of a SUV, surrounded by a white picket fence. Instead the conclusion was very satisfying in a realistic sort of way and let me yearn for a follow-up story. Katie and Jo still have a lot to talk and learn about each other and Ms. White did a fabulous job of demonstrating that, without letting the reader frustrated or dissatisfied.

Regardless of those above mentioned issues, I truly want to recommend Bound by Ms. White as it is a very entertaining, supremely sexy and erotic read, with two main characters that portray a realistic slice of life with all its ups and downs. Bravo Ms. White!

Thoughts of our visitors

Add your thoughts on this book