Unbound Book Review

An all-new novel from the author of After Hours.
She set out to find herself, and discovered the darker side of desire.
Merry’s lost a lot recently - first her mother, then close to a hundred pounds. Feeling adrift, she strikes out in search of perspective. A three-week hike through the Scottish Highlands was supposed to challenge her new body and refocus her priorities, but when disaster strikes, she’s forced to seek refuge in the remote home of a brooding, handsome stranger…
Rob exiled himself to the Highlands years ago, desperate to escape his own self-destruction. Haunted by regrets, he avoids human contact at all costs…but when Merry turns up injured, he can’t very well run her off. And as he nurses her back to health, Rob can’t resist his guest’s sweet demeanor—or her flirtatious advances. The igniting passion between them rouses a secret appetite Rob has long struggled to keep hidden. But Merry craves nothing more than to help Rob surrender to his desires, and the journey draws the lovers into an entirely different kind of wilderness.

Another spicy spicy read, because sometimes that’s just what we’re in the mood for! Unbound follows Merry (yes that’s really her name) as she treks across Scotland in hopes of finding herself. However, fate leads her astray. She ends up having to spend some time with the hot hermit from the middle of nowhere. All is not what it seems as his sexual fantasies are bizarre to say the least. She needs to make the call whether she wants to get involved. I have so many thoughts, and this was the first book I actually felt the need to take notes on my Kindle for.

Characters in Unbound

I don’t think anyone reads a spicy romance and expects A* literature. Plus deep meaningful characters, there may be exceptions to the rule but this wasn’t it. We shall start with Merry, my biggest pet peeve was that she had so many great moments. Where I thought she was going to do or be something amazing and then she lets me down. The biggest one was the fact that her personality centred around her losing a lot of weight, which while brilliant, there was literally NOTHING else going on in her life. She was so repetitive. At some moments she was so SO confident and the next she was so insecure. It was confusing and whiplash inducing.

The hero, Rob, has exiled himself in hopes of recovering from his life in the city, who fantasises about being tied up and humiliated. His story was hard to follow with a lot of trauma being brushed over. It became an issue when nothing is explained and then used as a plot point. I didn’t feel the chemistry between the two main characters. It felt as though the foundation of their relationship was built on lies and deception.

The Bad Bits in Unbound

I wouldn’t necessarily say there were inherently bad things about Unbound but I do think it falls into some of the pitfalls of smutty romance. Now usually I can overlook the majority of these but there were some in this story that were so glaringly obvious that it impacted my enjoyment of the book. The biggest one being how unrealistic the story was, the fact that they learnt nothing about each other before diving into a sexual relationship.

Plus the conversations around being fat and losing weight weren’t healthy. Every time I thought we were making good movement forward she would make a flippant comment which would then put it back. I would have loved for there to have been a little less focus on weight and the issues around that. There were some moments that made me physically uncomfortable. This book would have been so much better without those discussions.

The Good Bits

I really enjoyed the setting of this book, the beauty of the Scottish Highlands really complimented the type of relationship and the characters in this book. The spicy scenes in this book were en pointe. I loved watching them trying to hash out how it would all work in the long run and I actually thought their arguments and tension was particularly realistic. This was definitely a book that kept me on my toes and I appreciated the story for what it was.

Next move

This may not have been my favourite smutty romance, but I would definitely recommend it to anyone who was looking for a more kinky read. There is a great story as well as some spicy sex scenes and the ending feels well wrapped up. I’m definitely looking forward to reading more smut and really finding my niche within the genre!

Have you read any good smutty fiction? Anything you would recommend? I would love to hear about it!