Review: Bound for keeps
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 21, 2013
Three ex-military men get close in this adult novel.Fifth in the 'Men of Honor' series, BOUND FOR KEEPS brings young Shane stumbling through snow to a lit cabin in upstate NY just before Christmas. Reed and Keith are used to having the place mistaken for an inn. They treat Shane for hypothermia, which, this being a gay novel, involves them both stripping off and lying beside him in the bed. They are partners who have been together for years. Reed is a doctor and they take good care of the younger man. As soon as Shane is able to walk he tries to sneak away because he has no wish to draw trouble to the two men's door. But he's unable to get far and ends up with pneumonia.Shane watches the rough and tumble relationship between the two older men, but when he admits to being gay they don't pressure him into anything. He had a partner who was killed in action, and he gets flashbacks and PTSD. Shane is not admitting that he used to be in the CIA. Keith, an ex-Marine, is helicoptered out and rescues a kidnapped woman and child from a jungle compound, and Reed goes after gun-runners. Gradually the three men trust one another and a physical relationship develops. But the motto of 'safe, sane and consensual' isn't enough when Guthrie, Shane's former CIA boss, tracks him down to the cabin....SE Jakes has written an intensely physical romance which contains enough plot and character building to keep even non-gay people like me reading. I would have liked to see a female for more than a few paragraphs, but maybe that's not what the target market would prefer. A well-crafted book with strong language, BOUND TO YOU could appeal to women who like reading about hot alpha males and can cope with the fact that these particular males prefer men to women.