Novel: Bondage
Author: Chris Owen and Jodi Payne
Genres: BDSM, Romance
Released: 2007
Part of Book Series: Deviations #4
Summary: Noah and Tobias come back from Paris with a renewed contract and a deeper personal bond. Too bad things don’t go as smoothly at home. When they get back, they face a crisis that might just threaten their contract, and their personal intimacy. The crisis has a ripple effect, but Tobias and Noah finally learn that they can evolve with it, instead of collapsing. They experiment with scene after scene, making them longer, deeper, which allows them to explore more than they’ve ever dared. They even explore moving in together. When Noah is forced to face the danger of his job, he starts to question why he became a cop. Tobias is also questioning his job. Soon enough, their external life is changing enough that they’re forced to lean on each other to sustain them. Can they achieve a comfortable balance between their outside life, their scenes, and their love?
Post’s Author Opinion:
Note: This is a personal opinion, it does not reflect YaoiOtaku’s official position towards the novel.
Proceed with caution, spoilers ahead.
Where should I even start? Unlike the readers who loved the first three books I feel like I’m at an advantage since I didn’t, in fact, love the first three books. Still, this one has been a disappointment.
Two of the things I anticipated happened indeed, and it’s not as much as anticipation as it is cliché. This only adds to my disappointment, but I’ll leave those aside and move onto more plot relevant things.
Unlike the previous books, here I got more insight on Tobias and Phantom’s relationship. I can say I see now how it was different and how it led to all the disaster for them. It only took four books for that to be clear to the reader… Focusing on Phantom for a bit, and here comes a spoiler, I understand he needs help, very kind of Tobias to help him, even kinder of Noah to help him too, but the whole thing was way too abrupt and I didn’t feel anything the characters said they were feeling. I am usually all in for a good polyamorous relationship, but here it feels like not all parties want it; it feels like Noah and Tobias just took Phantom in because they had no choice. No. Noah had no choice, Tobias wanted to, and all of Noah’s fears about Phantom were justified. Noah was absolutely right when he said he feared that Tobias and Phantom would reconnect and the only thing staying in between them would have been himself. The only thing keeping Noah there is everyone’s stubbornness and their fear of it not working. Phantom’s attitude towards Noah and Tobias’ relationship is a bit annoying too, he acts like a spoiled kid. Actually, Phantom is spoiled and immature and yes, I know where it all comes from, but it wouldn’t hurt for him to grow tf up.
Noah was still great for most of the book and I dare say he would be a better Dom than Tobias is. He won’t be one, that’s not who Noah is, but he has potential. Then again, Noah was ruined, so anything is possible. So far I was happy about Noah’s character development (the only character development in the series), but then he was absolutely ruined; another spoiler coming: Noah loved his job, loved what he did, it was important to him, but then all of a sudden this is not what he signed up on. What? Noah quitting being a cop is the most disappointing thing in the whole series, everything about him was just squished like that. Why? I have no more words. What a shame.
My attitude towards the series so far, when I finished reading Bondage, was that I would go ahead and read the last book, fully expecting it to be bad and even more disappointing. I wanted to complete the series and move on, but plans don’t always work out as we intend them to, I already mentioned in the first review on this series that I did not finish reading the last book, but I will post another review concerning that one and why I didn’t read it. As for this one, yeah, not good.
What’s your opinion on Bondage novel? Please let us know in the comments below.
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