Customer Reviews

Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down: Three Tales of Erotic Romance: Captivated by You / Promise Me Forever / Hunter's Right

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Reading Jaid Black's novella, Hunter's Right, was a real treat. In fact, it is the only good novella in the Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down anthology. I am a big Black fan since I read The Possession and I admit that am partial to her work, but her scrumptious tale stands out among the three stories in this book. Ronda Tipton is a Corporal of the US Army. The chopper she is in crashes, leaving her as the only survivor in the collision. Alone in the middle of the Arctic Circle, she discovers a secret civilization of Vikings. The men in this alternate place sell women in auction blocks, branding them properties of the men who buy them. Ronda could not go back to normal civilization. And she may not want to after she meets Nikolas Ericsson. Sherrilyn Kenyon's Captivated by You is the second part of a series. I thought the story of a female undercover agent and her feelings for her fellow partner wasn't all that hot. I did not like Melanie George's Promise Me Forever at all. I thought the heroine was quite pathetic and too much of a conformist.

As said earlier, and as another reviewer pointed out, Jaid Black's novella is the only saving grace in this anthology. The others have little or no heat. I think Pocket Books has exaggerated the whole erotica concept of this book. The stories were not that erotic. Even Jaid Black's novella read like a toned down The Empress' New Clothes (her hot Ellora's Cave novel). All in all, if you are in the bargain for some steamy romantica, check out the Ellora's Cave anthologies. I'd suggest you skip this one unless you're a big fan of one or all of the authors here.

"Captivated" By You: Sherrilyn Kenyon-- focuses on 2 agents from a secret government agency, Bureau of American Defense (BAD), who have long been attracted to each other, but never acted on their feelings. Our heroine, Rhea Stevenson is assigned as a dominatrix to capture a terrorist, but first needs practice to perfect her technique. Fellow agent "Ace" Krux volunteers to be her training slave, and their attraction takes over from there.

I thought this story was the best in this series. It had a lot of humor, some exciting action sequences, and steamy romance. The characters were pretty well developed, and the story probably would've been better in novel form, but was just too rushed in short form.

Both the other stories in the book were a big disappointment. Promise Me Forever: Melanie George was about as exciting as a trip through the car wash. It was about a ex-pro football player who returns home to a small town after an injury ends his career. He tries to reignite the flame with his high school sweetheart, who is engaged to another man... No big surprises here.

Hunter's Right: Jaid Black-- also really disappointed me. Ronda Tipton is a US Army Corporal who, after a helicopter crash in the Arctic, stumbles on an underground civilization of Vikings. There's a marriage auction... and a revolt... a little too far fetched for me to become involved with the story.

If you're looking for something along these lines, but a little more intriguing, try BOUND AND DETERMINED by Shelley Bradley, THE POSSESSION by Jaid Black or her "Best of" anthology.

Or at least it doesn't compare at all to what I've previously read. The first two stories are like any Harlequin short story. The handcuffs added a touch of humor to the stories and the abduction, if it can be called that, was pretty mild mannered.

The biggest disappointment was the Jaid Black story. The first few chapters were good, the plot, the leading lady, but after the Hunter claimed his "rights" to marry, it turned into a disaster. The dialogue was crude and uninspired. It felt like being catapulted into a bad parody of an x-rated movie. Before trying to sell this anthology as Erotica, the publishers should have researched the subject by reading an Emma Holly book, or a Black Lace novel.

The title is very attention grabbing. And Sherrilyn Kenyon is a "must buy" for me, and will always remain so. While I usually stear clear of anthologies, with Kenyon's name on the book, I couldn't resist.

Romantica, no. Fluff, yes.

The problem most readers will always find within an anthology is the shockingly short stories that they include. The reason for this is one, they need to give each author a far amount of pages, and two generally anthologies are a way to introduce new talent by drawing the reader in with a well-known author. This anthology though features three well-known and popular authors within the romance genre. Why is this a problem? The answer is simple we the reader are used to their full-length efforts so we feel cheated by the fact that each story is less than 100 pages.

All three stories are good although Melanie George's effort was my least favorite by far. I felt that the ending was too rushed and that this story would have been much better if given a long page count. There was simply to much crammed into too few pages. Otherwise all three stories offered yummy alpha male hero's, fun story lines, and of course great chemistry between the hero and heroine.

If you are "new" to any of these authors this is a great introductory read. If on the other hand you've read these authors don't expect to be blown away, but do expect a fun and entertaining way to spend a few hours. Final assesment...I would recommend this read but would caution readers to lower there expectations just a tad and remind them that these are SHORT stories and to keep this in mind when diving between the pages.

Official Reviewer for www.romancedesigns.com

Anthologies either tend to be really good or really bad. With authors Sherrilyn Kenyon, Melanie George and Jaid Black, I was expecting great stories and only Jaid Black delivered. If not for her story Hunter's Right, this book would have rated a quick trip to the garbage can.

The first story in the series is Sherrilyn Kenyon's Captivated by You. Secret Agents Rhea and Ace are assigned to a terrorist case whose leader prefers S&M. Rhea and Ace must learn the ins and outs (no pun intended)to successfully convince their quarry that they are legitimate S&M artists so they can gain his confidence and get the information to crack the case. The problem with this story is all the cheesy one liners and predictable interlog and jokes. It was actually rather boring.

The second story "Promise me Forever" by Melanie George was the worst of the three. I only thought the first one was boring until I read this story. If you want to be dumped by your longtime boyfriend after he becomes a famous football player only to take him back after he is down and out (and by the way dump your good as gold fiance for him) go ahead, but don't expect readers to buy it. There was no passion and no warm fuzzies with this story.

The last story by Jaid Black "Hunter's Right" was by far the best of the three stories. Ronda is a military official on a secret mission in the Artic Circle. When the helicopter she is on crashes, Ronda is the only survivor. Knowing there is a secret military headquarters nearby, Ronda goes searching for help only to stumble across a hidden underground civilization of an ancient race of Vikings. Believing the prophecy that their forefathers warned of where women would become near extinct because of genetic tampering with births, these Vikings venture above ground from time to time and steal unattached females to put on the "Bridal Auction Block". An injured Ronda stumbles onto an auction in progress and is horrified to see these women striped naked and inspected like livestock by men looking for wives. She attempts to flee, but is captured by gorgeous Nikolas Ericsson. Nikolas covets Ronda but believes she wouldn't want him, however when he sees her taken away in chains after beating [...] out of the auctioneers, he claims hunters rights to keep her safe. Nikolas is building his weapons supply and army to overthrow the current leader of the underground nation. He wants to restore more dignity to the bridal auction and make civilization better for all the citizens. When Ronda realizes she can never return to her old life, she decides to make the best of her marriage. Ronda and Nikolas end up falling in love. The sexual scenes definitely are not boring, however some people may be turned off by the crude language and descriptions both Ronda and Nikolas use. However, I think this story saved the series. I kind of wish it had been a longer more in depth story as these characters deserved development, but it was still good.

First of all, I've never been a big fan of Sherrilyn Kenyon's BAD series. I think the stories are unrealistic, the heroes are arrogant alpha males with no redeeming qualities, and the women are too fast-mouthed and sassy for my tastes. Also, I'd already read the collection Born to Be BAD and had read the short story in this collection. I wasn't impressed the first time, and I was equally underwhelmed this time.

As for the Melanie George story, it was such a snooze, I skipped to the next story after reading the first 5 pages. Boring!

Thank God for Jaid Black, who might be the only reason this collection even sold. Hunter's Right is erotic, passionate, and entertaining--almost enough to make up for the clear misses by Kenyon and George. I read another story about Black's underground Vikings in the novella collection Playing Easy to Get, so if you liked Hunter's Right, I'd suggest you check that one out. It has another equally bad BAD story by Sherrilyn Kenyon, but also includes the first story in Kresley Cole's Immortals After Dark series, which is a real treat if you like paranormal romance. I have that collection to thank for leading me to Jaid Black, and while Hunter's Right was great, it's not enough to make Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down worth purchasing. I'd buy it used or check it out from the library instead.

I like all of these authors, but this book had very little to offer in the way of erotic romance. Don't bother

I enjoyed all three of the stories in this book. I could not put the book down. Would recommend this book to anyone.

I loved this book! Talk about quick thrills! Every time I see the movie "Wedding Date" and reference is made to "Mr. Tie Me Up Tie Me Down" I think of this book! I have not been happy lately with Sherrilyn Kenyon's books, not enough sex! But this one is FABULOUS! Hot, hot sex!