I've spent the last 7 days staring at it balefully. The back cover reads interesting. But then you get to the set-up...and the end.

 

The h was kidnapped as a teen, along with her cousin. She escaped, her cousin...didn't. She sort of got over that, only to get kidnapped *again* while in college, by a couple of fellow students. So she's become agoraphobic - supposedly. Daddy Warbucks has surrounded his precious darling with ex agents and military types, under the guise of well, household employees. She lives "alone" and is clueless of this.

 

The H is one of these - her chauffeur. He finds the whole thing stupid - he wouldn't mind the elaborate security if it was a head of state, but some pampered princess? Yes, he does hold her in contempt. He's worked for her for a few months. She is attracted to him, and he's aware of it, also finds it amusing.

 

Her therapist suggests a kidnapping for hire adventure to help her with her phobia.

 

He listens in on her telling her friend about it, does research (which he apparently left lying around)

 

She meets her dad for dinner at a restaurant, which is cleared in advance of their arrival, sees pity in the H's eyes, and decides to go through with it.

 

H's brother is worthless pondscum that the H has been bailing out since they were kids. He finds the "research" and decides to fill in...or arrange a fill in - I quit at this point - because he owes some bookie a lot of money.

 

Since I read the last few chapters as well...the h apparently only found out that her staff were all security people after she more or less rescued herself, because her dad was incensed and blamed the H for everything. The H kept to his cover as hapless chauffeur the entire time he was in her presence, and didn't take the opportunity to take care of the bad guys when he had several chances. No - I didn't understand that. She was in her room, he could have taken them out one by one, and solved the whole problem. Granted, he likely wouldn't have killed his brother but still...

 

The part I didn't read - the middle - I can only guess that...the kidnapping happened, he allowed himself to be captured assuming it was just a game, slept with the h (that he considered useless and pitiable), figured out it wasn't a game, didn't do anything about it until AFTER they'd reached the Caymans and she'd been dragged off the boat (read *that* part), etc.

An enjoyable story with lots of action that moved right along. I liked the secondary romance but I never bought into the hero's profession so the plot didn't seem realistic. Thief Charles robs jewelry designer Lexy.

Fun and fast read, I thought that as a married couple hese two were pretty normal. And I loved how honest they were with each other even when it was over the wrong things.

Forbidden Fantasies (Bondage & Breakfast... 2.5 Stars

Forbidden Fantasies (Bondage & Breakfast... Originally posted at Romance Around the CornerI really like stories where the main couple has an established relationship. Most of the time we get books about couples meeting and falling in love but it’s not often that we actually get a story about what happens after the happily ever after, so when I saw that this novella was about a married couple I couldn’t wait to read it.Jessica has been happily married to Alex for over 15 years. They have two kids and their relationship is just plain great. But one day Jessica discovers an erotic romance and things change. She comes from a very conservative background so things like BDSM and fantasies are unfamiliar to her, what surprises her is that not only does she enjoy the book a lot but also starts fantasizing about doing the things she reads. As consequence their sex life improves because she feels invigorated, but she also feels guilty about it because having those fantasies, some of them involving threesomes and people watching, feel like cheating to her. So she keeps quiet, has great sex and feels guilty afterwards. Alex, on the other hand, becomes more and more aware of his wife’s estrange behavior. She’s unstoppable in bed but then withdraws, he keeps asking her what’s wrong but she doesn’t say anything, so he begins to fear that she is cheating on him. But when he finally confronts her, he realizes that this may open new possibilities for their relationship. And that’s when things get interesting.This novella basically has two parts. The first one where Jessica worries about the fantasies and Alex worries about the cheating, and the second one where she comes clean and they take it from there. I was a bit annoyed by Jessica’s insecurities and her unwillingness to trust Alex. They had been married for all those years and at that point she should have known that communication was key. Another thing that bothered me was the lack of trust, she was shy and sheltered but fifteen years is a long time to overcome that and to learn to trust your partner. However, this was pretty much the only thing that I found mildly annoying, the rest I thoroughly enjoyed.Alex was a sweetheart and his reaction to Jessica’s confession made me fall for him. Jessica was likeable, insecurities and all, and they were a nice couple with lots of chemistry. My favorite part was to have an established couple as the main characters. I wish romance had more couples like this one because it allows us to explore different types of conflicts. It is an erotic novel so there’s hot sex, nothing over the top and all very vanilla, but it fit the sweet overtones of the story. I liked the fact that the sex came later in the story which gave me time to get to know the characters first.Forbidden Fantasies is a sexy and cute novella, perfect to read in one sitting. It has a lovely romance, a few steamy sex scenes and two likeable main characters. Recommended to fans of contemporary romance, and to people who might be testing the waters of erotic romance, this was mild compared to other erotic romances so I think it’s a good place to start. I look forward to reading more by Ms. Griffin.Grade: 3.5Source: we received an e-ARC of the book through NetGalley for review purposes.