Seeking respite in a bathing pool near her home, Anne discovers Jeremy Bent, a rugged, beautiful shipwrecked sailor. As tempting as Jeremy is to the lonely Anne, she senses something isn't right and tries to flee, only to be captured by a band of runaway slaves – a band that Jeremy has swoorn to protect. Taken deep into the hills, Anne witnesses a hot night of ritualized, feverish sex, which eventually draws her closer to Jeremy. The next morning, Anne is promised freedom – and a golden Spanish treasure – in exchange for the gunpowder and weapons buried on her plantationn grounds.

Thus begins an intricate adventure of political intrigue, sexual manipulation, and family machinations that takes Jeremy and Anne from the dense jungle to the beach. They engage in pitched battles with the Spanish and wild sex underneath wilderness waterfalls. Carol Storm has written a rollercoaster ride of a novel.

That coaster does not always travel smoothly, however. While the descriptions of the Jamaican jungle are entrancing and lush and Jeremy and Anne are well drawn, engaging characters, the plot is jumpy and the action is not always clearly depicted. Some scenes, especially in the battle action, that should have been written in detail are skipped over with brief explanations, while others go on too long. The political maneuverings are sometimes skimpily described, leaving the reader to fill in the gaps. The BDSM label may also be somewhat misleading to a reader looking for a book featuring erotic bondage or D/s relationships. There is only one scene that features a mild bit of bondage, which is more titillation than true bondage. Anne and Jeremy are both strong people, but the small bits of power exchange they engage in are quite vanilla.

This is Storm's first novel, and it's a wonderful effort showing a great deal of potential. I'd definitely be interested in seeing what comes next.

Overall rating:
Sensuality rating: Explicit

Reviewer: Jamie MacPherson
March 28, 2004