Amelia Bishop

Bound was written for the Goodreads M/M Romance Group’s 2014 Love’s Landscapes Event. It’s the story of Adrian and Nathan and their growing relationship. It’s told in third person through the eyes of both Adrian and Nathan.

Adrian has been injured in a motorcycle accident and has lost the use of his legs. He's become bitter, angry and depressed. He pities himself, believing he’ll never find another boyfriend and will only end up having pity sex periodically for the rest of his life. Over a year has passed and he’s lost his friends and pushes people away. He’s been going to physical therapy and after a while meets Nathan, a physical therapist.

Nathan is a nice, cheerful, persistent guy. He’s attracted to Adrian right off the bat, but Adrian thinks Nathan is making fun of him, so he pushes Nathan away. But Nathan is patient until he eventually is able to get a date with Adrian under the guise of a ‘therapy session.’ Because of Adrian’s insecurity and anger, Nathan has to contend with a lot, but he keeps urging Adrian to push himself to go out, do more and learn more. There’s a lot of contention in their relationship.

One evening by accident, Adrian finds out that Nathan is into BDSM like Adrian used to be before his accident. Now Adrian has a chance to gain something back from his former life. In this story the BDSM is light so I think many people who don’t like BDSM, might actually be able to read this. I think those who are looking for harder core BDSM will be disappointed.

The author did a great job with the progression of Adrian’s and Nathan’s relationship. There were no magic fixes, either mentally, emotionally or physically. It all took a lot of hard work. The plot would jump through time. It would focus on an event then jump a few weeks or months into the future at various times throughout the story. I would get into the story, but the jumping in time would pull me out. I think this was the main problem I had with the story. Other than that I liked that this wasn’t instant love and it was a relationship that took it’s time to grow, just like real life.

Despite starting on a very sad note, this is a happy story. Bound is not so much about BDSM, but about overcoming obstacles and finding your happily ever after. I give this story 4.5 stars and raise it to 5 Stars.
… (mehr)