Review: love wins out in the end
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 4, 2013
Bound by Love, the 4th novella in the Touched by You series has many of the traditional elements found in this trendy BDSM light romantic genre.  We have the continued question of commitment by our heroine -wanting more from the relationship, wanting to know why our male lead doesn't love her, as she loves him, our heroines fight to remain independent-not totally dependent on our leading male, the classic misunderstanding involving the other woman, the fleeing heroine for the good of the relationship, our male lead realizing he really does love the heroine and wants that long term commitment he has been avoiding all this time. Everything you come to expect from this storyline formula, we also shared in the announced engagement of Ellis and Jazzy, and more insight into Tanner's background.The storyline presented in this installment to my dismay employed the constant use of brand name dropping  (food, wine, clothing, shoes, cars etc), endless clothing descriptions of the characters and predictable and repetitive sex scenes. I would have been extremely happy if the stories plot lines had more development and depth, more sexual tension and a few extremely HOT sex scenes that just left you feeling as sated as our couple.  I felt the product name dropping and clothing descriptions were used to emphasis the wealthy circles that Tanner and now Natalie were traveling in, and made me feel that Natalie had forgotten her humble roots. The constant use of sex did seem like the main focus of this novella, I'm sure it was meant to portray the continuing growth & depth of Tanner and Natalie's relationship, and Tanner coming to grips with his love for Natalie. For me it just took over the plot lines of the story, and became rather boring after a while. I find I enjoy books with 85% plot and 15% sex, not the other way around.I have a deep love for our H/h especially Tanner, he has never held his wealth above Natalie or anyone else, and has always given of his money freely, and generously. Tanner is a romantic at heart. I very much would have liked to have seen more of Natalie's challenges to move her fledgling company forward, but up to now there is no struggle, it's all just falling into place way too easily.I'm very happy that this is not the end of Tanner and Natalie's story as I do want to spend more time with them, and am looking forward to the next novella in the series.I was given a copy of this novella by the Author for an honest review