Liquid Silver Books, $4.75, ISBN 978-1-59578-754-5
Contemporary Erotica, 2010

Fit to Be Tied starts out as a pretty cute and very hot story. It has a familiar premise: Maxwell Brody was a nerd in school, while Sadie Corbett was one of the popular girls who considered him a geek unworthy of her affections. Naturally, the adult Max is now a hunk. Sadie is still hot to trot, and now that they meet again, she’s determined to have him. Their teenage angst is soon behind them as they get along like a house on fire this time around. And that’s pretty much the story.

Max has a keen interest in insects, which gives this story an interesting spin on the usual geek-turned-hunk tale, while Sadie is a refreshing heroine in the sense that the author doesn’t make her walk on coals over her teenage antics toward Max. She also enjoys sex and isn’t afraid to explore the possibilities with a cute man – she is not some neurotic twit who has to be coaxed into having sex by a man, that’s for sure. She and Max have plenty of sexual chemistry between them. Their love scenes are hot.

However, once these two consummate their relationship, the story starts to lose its rhythm. It seems to me that Ms Willoughby doesn’t know what else to do with her characters so she decides to pad the story with silly exes, some shibari thing, and BDSM clubs. All of a sudden Max reveals himself to be some kind of BDSM guru. I know the title of this book is Fit to Be Tied so I should be expecting some bondage elements, but the story’s abrupt revelation of Max to be the new kink guru has me scratching my head.

Fit to Be Tied is a pretty enjoyable story on the whole, even if it loses steam considerably in its later parts.