Unbound by Lorelei James

In Unwound Ms James continues her impressive trilogy into the world of bondage with the characters and setting from her first book – Bound. 

Amery and Ronin start out this novel mid-fight and during their broken up period at the end of Broken.  We get the chance to see Ronin in his masochistic, self-injuring, fighter persona as he fights his internal demons over losing Amery. Amery, for her part, retreats back into her world of work – striving to save her business after turning away what she sees as a pity offer for work from what she just found out was Ronin’s family’s company.

Ronin shows up at her apartment after a fight, not a bar fight, he is a black belt, severely hurt. She finally takes pity on him and lets him in – and ends up taking him to the hospital.  When he is barely well enough to go home she agrees to stay with him until he is better to take care of him until he is doing well enough to be on his own.  The fire and chemistry between those two cannot be denied however and soon they are physically back together – even though Amery doesn’t trust him enough to say “I love you” or move in with him. With his ex showing up to stir up trouble and his sister trying to mend the rift she helped create between them the novel was sure to have its drama.

The thing I love most about this author so far is her descriptions of the interactions of the rope top and his bottom.  It isn’t about D/s (Dominant/submissive) or S/M (sadist/masochist) as that is not the nature of their relationship.  He is a rope top with dominant tendencies.  I wouldn’t be surprised if these two ended up in a M/s (Master/slave) relationship – and it would be interesting to see that played out since they are both possessive, strong willed characters.  The descriptions of the feel of the rope, the building of the tension when a blind fold is on and the rope is dragging against your skin, the sensuality, the connection – that is the desire that keeps me wanting more rope playtime whenever I have the chance with a partner I’m connected with.

Would I recommend this series? Most definitely! I look forward to seeing how Ms James grows as a BDSM writer.  I do hope if she continues that she will show more than the basic level connections in the BDSM community.  One disservice she gave that world though is calling a BDSM club a sex club.  There may be sex at a BDSM club – but BDSM is not about the sex.  Its about the connection.

4 stars.