Silver Bound

By: Ella Drake

1 Star

Sheriff Guy Trident doesn't have much to do with off-worlders; he has his hands full keeping his own planet safe. But he'll do anything, go anywhere to save Jewel Quinn. She broke his heart years ago when she left to marry a Terraloft aristocrat. Now she's run away from her husband, only to fall into the clutches of slavers.

Posing as a wealthy playboy, Guy arrives at Zuthuru Station to learn he's too late: Jewel's memories have been erased. She's been tipped in silver, a process that leaves nothing behind except her body, sexually bound to pleasuring her master. Unwilling to give up hope, Guy buys her.

Jewel fights to reclaim herself, recalling a different connection to the handsome sheriff, remembering the frightened eyes of a young boy and the events that made her run. Together she and Guy search for her cure, plan her son's rescue from her ruthless ex, and test if they have any kind of future...before the past catches up to them.

Rightly or wrongly you set a romance in space I'm going to compare you to Han & Leia. If you tell me Firefly served as one of your inspirations, you have set the bar very high. And for about the first third of the book Drake lived up to it. Yes, there was a misstep in the second chapter where Silver Tipping was unnecessarily and unbelievably explained to the victim, Jewel. I was willing to let it slide with a snide aside to myself of "exposition much?"

In the beginning the characters were all set up well, I understood them. Understood the motives to their actions, but then it all fell apart. :(

Let me be clear I was ENJOYING Silver Bound up until about the half way point and then the only way I can describe it; the WTF'ckery took over.

Jewel's ex-husband HAD HER MIND WIPED AND TURNED INTO A SEXUAL SLAVE. He also had people killed. He killed someone himself with his bare hands. Guy knew all of this. Guy hid Jewel from the ex during the bare hand murder and later in the book he turns Jewel over to the ex because Jewel says "He (ex-husband) won't hurt me." I repeat W.T.F.?!

Basically I could've forgiven all the other little inconsistencies in character, the in your face exposition but every single time the ex-husband appeared on the scene Guy and Jewel turned into morons. Are you familiar with the scene in Scary Movie where Carmen Electra grabs the banana instead of the knife or gun?

Well that's what Guy and Jewel's behavior when dealing the ex reminded me of.

Admittedly I've come down like a ton of bricks on Silver Bound, and I'm not saying this to mitigate my opinion of it - but I did like enough of it that I will try another book from Ella Drake. When Silver Bound was good, it was great. But when it was bad - it was an unfunny, infuriating parody.