This novella starts after a robbery. Asia is tied up in her shop, waiting on someone to come in to free her. It's a great set-up for drama and romance. Asia is a very dramatic character, vacillating between emotions and decisions from one minute to the next.

In the first third of the novel, short sentences and overuse of sentence fragments make the writing choppy. A little of that is good for effect, but too much interrupts the flow. Once Ms. Bella gets going, she hits her stride and eases into a more natural writing style. The erotic scenes are plentiful, and the scenes between are filled with them getting to know one another and interactions with other secondary characters.

A lot of time is spent explaining her resistance to the idea of a relationship, which slows the action a bit. Even when Marcus's kiss is blowing her mind, she's still thinking of the ex. Poor Marcus. The plot would be stronger if we knew what Marcus did to make Asia think he was a womanizing jerk. When Asia becomes jealous, it was clear the woman throwing herself at Marcus was doing so despite his lack of interest. I didn't understand the transference issue or Asia's reaction. Then she works that out and her fear jumps to the issue of the robbery from the beginning of the story. Except to set up a light bondage scene, I'm not sure why that happened.

Bound and Determined was a cute, if predictable, story with a drama queen heroine and a patient hero.

Overall rating:
Sensuality rating: Explicit

Reviewer: Clare
June 17, 2010