Silver Bound

Silver Bound #1

by Ella Drake

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 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.

70,000 words

Genres: Romance, Science Fiction, Science Fiction Romance, Futuristic, Paranormal, Erotica, Audiobook

199 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

As a child Ella read books under the covers with a flashlight. There she found a special love of elves, dragons, and knights. Now that she's found her own knight in shining armor and happily ever after, she loves to write tales of fantasy, hot enough to scorch the sheets. No flashlight needed.

Reviews

[Ronda Tutt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating! Love knows no boundaries!

In this Sci-fi story

“You’re being silver-tipped. Your memories will be wiped. Your body will be repaired of any impurities and implanted with a programming to tie you to your master. The nanobots are applied to your erogenous zones and will foster your enjoyment and compliance. You will have no thoughts or needs other than your master. When he wants your services, he’ll wear a bracelet to control you, but not to worry, you’ll want to do his every bidding.”

"When he’s not in want of your services, the bracelet will rest in a home called a Broker. The Broker is the only thing that’ll prevent you from feeling every one of your master’s sexual urges. If your master removes his bracelet without inserting it in the Broker, you will die. You will pine away for your master.”

From the concept above, I was captured immediately into the story as Jewel tries to escape with her 4 year old child from her mobster of a husband. After being captured by her husband, he has her silver-tipped so he can have full control over her. However, when Jewel’s father realizes his daughter doesn’t make it to his place as planned he goes for help and that help just happens to be a man by the name of Guy, sheriff of the land , a man Jewel should of married in the first place.

Guy intercedes the process of the silver-tipped claiming and pays double the amount to buy Jewel and as he has always wished, his dreams come true for he has to claim her sexually to activate the silver-tipped slavery. Just minutes after Guy has claimed Jewel, the man who he out bid comes barging in the clinic in an outrage, the man who just happens to be Jewel’s husband.

The escaped journey begins and the fight increases as Jewel’s husband tries to get her back. The sexual tension and erotic scene between Jewel and the sexy and honorable man Guy is HOT. The love connection between the two was awesome and my hatred toward Jewel’s husband grew as I found myself rooting her on. The story was a very enjoyable read with a great Happy Ever After.

[Jayo Leavesby · Rating 2 out of 5]

A few interesting ideas, but i was not fond of her use of figurative language. It seemed a bit jumbled at best and sometimes completely opposite from what the rest of the context indicated was happening. Lots of flip-flopping from the characters and forced tension. But still, a few interesting ideas.

[Cascata Nerina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Silver Bound by Ella Drake has been sitting in my “To Be Read” (TBR) pile since I first started reading (and then doing) Six Sentence Sunday. A while ago she had a give it away free day, and I managed to snatch it up, but then it sat there in my TBR pile again.

Part of it was my own misperceptions. Based on the cover and the blurb ...

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.

(Blurb via Carina Press)


… the book is obviously a Science Fiction Romance, probably with a good dose of erotica thrown in. For some reason I assumed it was completely a western, probably modern and thus not really up my alley and consequently under the category “I’ll get to it when I get to it.

Shouldn’t have done that.

It was really good.

The main plot was a little predictable, mostly because it was a romance story with a few elements of suspense thrown it. She did manage to twist me around a couple of times, but where she did the best with the plots was with her minor characters where she could play around more. I won’t give it away, but I will say to pay attention to them, they get up to some pretty interesting things.

The setting was something you rarely see in Sci-Fi Romance: a well done frontier society complete with farmers and ranchers all the way up to the space faring elite. Often in Sci-Fi in general people forget that even if they have auto-chefs and food/clothes/miscellaneous materializers, the material to be materialized has to come from somewhere. She actually wove both sides of the coin, not just the glitzy glamorous space faring side in, but the down to earth (or at least ground) people who keep the fancy society running. Wonderful.

Lastly her characters. The most well developed of Drake’s characters was Guy Trident, the hero. Normally in a romance it’s the heroine, but because of the heroine’s circumstances (having had her memory and personality wiped) you don’t get to see her all that much throughout the novel. So Guy steps up and takes center stage. &nbspThe juxtaposition was well done, as were the glimpses we got of Jewel fighting to find herself again.

It was a great story, full of fluff, but with a well built world (especially for anything falling into “Romance”) and I can’t wait for more from this author. Plus, I feel I can totally recommend it to anyone who reads romances.


If You Like X try Y:

Marilyn Campbell’s Innerworld Quartet is another Sci-Fi (heavy on the Science Fantasy) Romance series from much earlier in the genre. They may be a little harder to find, but if you can manage to pick one up (I’m still looking for the fourth) try it.


Also the Tales of the Shareem by Allyson James have a well built setting with a little more science in their Sci-Fi than fantasy. They also have a little more erotica to them.

I’m always looking for SF-R suggestions whether they lean towards science fantasy, science speculation, mystery, or erotica. Although SF-R crossed with horror just sounds wrong to me.

So if you have any suggestions I’d love to hear them.

Check out the original post on my blog.

[Lexie · Rating 3 out of 5]

In some ways this was a hard review to write. I love Drake's writing--The Forbidden Chamber is one of my favorite novellas and when I saw the cover (and initial synopsis) for this I was like 'Now please thank you'. And in a lot of ways I enjoyed this book and enjoyed the characters and world. But then there's this one looming problem that initially made me want to hurl a stone at the screen.

I'm talking about Jewel being turned into a sex slave. By her husband no less. He's an a-hole jerk and Jewel wanted away from him, with their son, before he could do something even worse. Unfortunately he caught up to her and decided to teach her a lesson. You see once you're silver-tipped you only think of one thing--making your master happy. Whatever he wants, whenever he wants it, however he wants it you are biologically engineered to make it happen or be put in the most intense kind of pain you can imagine. Worse, if another man so much as grazes you--extreme pain.

So let's look at this here: her husband gets her silver-tipped, fully intending to be the master who imprints on her, as a horrific revenge (since she won't remember how frightened and terrified she was of him, she'll slavishly adore him) and probably a lot worse. The man is as vindictive as they come.

Guy unfortunately doesn't catch up to her until after the process has begun so instead he gets imprinted on her. Her father, who should be burning in hell for urging her to marry her husband in the first place, encourages Guy to imprint on her. Albeit reluctantly, but he figures its the lesser of two evils. This all happens in the first thirty-two pages.

I continued reading however because I really wanted to see how long Guy held out for. Cause on the one hand he felt god awful guilty laying a hand on Jewel while she's silver-tipped. He truly loves the woman and though he aches for her he is desperate to be a gentleman because he doesn't think its a good thing to have sex with a woman who's engineered to only want him. However since he can't keep his wayward lust-filled thoughts to himself Jewel can't help but want him, badly, and its painful for him to reject her. Doubly so because she doesn't understand, in her sex slave simplified mind, what she's done to make him so upset with her.

The man knows how to self-loathe let me tell you. I don't think I've ever read a character stuck in such a really hard predicament. No matter what way he turns he hurts her, there is no easy 'out' (at least not one he's willing to take).

As Jewel regains more and more of her memories, impressions and thoughts begin to emerge that make her more than just some simpering slave. She has an almost constant struggle within herself; her natural attitude is much more spitfire and independent, so often her mind will be like 'Don't take that crap!', but her mouth will say 'Whatever you think is best'. Its amusing as time goes on and she begins to justify her attitude shift or
watching her try to convince everyone around her that she's having true memories and not just picking things up because she thinks it will make Guy happy.

Its her struggle to re-assert herself that made the rest of the novel easier to read. And honestly, I liked Guy. Even though his chivalry was doing the opposite of what he intended, I appreciated that he respected Jewel (or who Jewel used to be and he wanted her to be again) enough to try and show her that he cared by not taking advantage of her.

So what's my final verdict? On the fence. I want to recommend this because it becomes a better book by the end of it, but the first third of the novel makes me leery of recommending it.

[April · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked this story — it was nicely done. I'm not quite sure what the genre is. Space opera? Futuristic romance? The science fiction part of it wasn't bad. It has some decent world building that includes not only different cultures but different politics. Naturally, in any erotic futuristic romance, you have to have a master-slave culture — even if it is frowned upon by the more evolved cultures — where the slave is made to satisfy all her master's sexual wants and needs, and so of course the heroine becomes a victim to that and is made into a sex slave ready to be imprinted by her master.

Fortunately for her, the hero manages to buy her out from under the bad guy.

Unfortunately for her, the process of being made into this silver tipped slave — the silver tipping process being the very thing that allows her body to be imprinted by the master, since the silver tipped areas can be touched only by the master or the slave is made hugely ill — has also completely wiped out her memories, so she doesn't remember who the hero is, though he is the love of her life, and she doesn't remember that she has a son that must be rescued.

And so the story goes — not the sort of science fiction I normally go for, but a fun read all the same. The hero being the heroine's "master" provides all the sex scene opportunities, or at the very least all the reason for sexual tension between them; and all the rest provides the conflict with all the action and danger.

I would have rated this book a 4, but towards the end, when the heroine is reunited with her young son, Jared, I didn't get the sense that the kid's character was all that well developed or realistically portrayed. He seemed a little off to me for some reason and therefore ruined the ending for me somewhat. He took to the hero a little too easily, though they've just met, making it really handy for the heroine to completely cut ties with her villain of a husband. For me, it's like with movies where one of the major characters is a child; if the child doesn't ring true for me, or if the child actor doesn't pull the character off, the movie isn't nearly as good as it could have been. The kids are key in these things. Jared was pretty well done in the beginning; it's Jared in the end that bothers me.

Everything else was well done, though.

[Missy Ann · Rating 1 out of 5]

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.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a free Wednesday-in-February download from Carina Press. There were aspects I enjoyed about it very much (the idea of silver tipping and the sexual submission that came with it was intriguing) but there were a few things that I never quite connected with. The main one being that I didn't understand why all law enforcement was loathe to try to help her. Regardless of her status as a sex slave, the fact that she was kidnapped and forced into sexual servitude BY HER HUSBAND as a way of controlling her should have given her some measure of protection with the law. Instead, everyone who came across she and Guy together kept harping on how Guy wasn't allowed to own slaves. Dude. Okay. But, once again, I would think that someone who was the victim of a crime (did you hear that part about being kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery??) would have earned the right to be helped in any way possible. Even Guy's Mounty friend, who knew that what her husband had done to her, said he couldn't get involved. I really, really didn't get that.

And after that mini-rant I'm going to say that I really enjoyed this book. Like I said, the idea was intriguing. I liked that Jewel had to battle to get her memories back. I liked that Guy was willing to go to the ends of the universe if needed to help her. I just flat out like spacey sci-fi things. I just wish that her status as a silver tip hadn't reduced her to nothing more than a possession in the eyes of the law.

All in all, it was a well written story that spans planets and space stations. The sex was steamy and the ending was ultimately satisfactory.

-Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal

[Jen Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

About 50 pages into this book, I was pretty sure I didn't like it. The story centered on a woman named Jewel who was turned into a sex slave. She had been trying to escape her crime lord husband with their son, but he caught her. He had her memory erased --and had nanobots inserted into her, er, erogenous zones. Then the scientists were supposed to synch his DNA with the technology on her body to force her to respond to his urges. But Jewel's real true love, Guy, gets to her first. She's halfway through the procedure (called silvering), so he can't stop it, but he has her matched to his DNA first... because he knows he'll never abuse her. So now she's HIS sex slave until he finds a way to free her from the chains of the technology.

I'm glad I didn't give up on the book, because it did get better. My biggest complaints initially were that I couldn't make myself care about Jewel and the plot device of the silvering seemed heavy-handed. Well, as the book progressed and Jewel began to regain her personality, that helped me with my first issue. And once we got to the first real love scene, frankly nothing else mattered, because it was HOT. All the love scenes were hot. Big thumbs up there.

The setting was kind of futuristic-western... kind of reminiscent of Joss Whedon's "Firefly," but with hot sex. There was some terminology it took me a little while to completely assimilate, but it wasn't insurmountable. Overall, a short and fairly good read, though it took me a little while to make a connection. 3 1/2 stars.

[Penny Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The premise for this sci-fi/romance Silver Bound is fascinating. A woman has her mind wiped and becomes a sexual slave. The details about this process are incredibly cool and the difficulty in creating a character who has lost her identity is staggering. The heroine can't just become a mindless sex addict, or the reader won't give a crap about her. Somehow she has to retain some of her will and recognize her lost humanity. Drake does a wonderful job with this challenge, and also creates a sexy space cowboy hero, a totally absorbing and suspenseful storyline, a fabulous array of secondary characters, and delivers with the HEA. My only criticism with the story was that I was really hoping for a more blood-thirsty ending for the villain. For God's sake, he deserved a bad-ass whooping! I wanted the hero (or heroine!) to shoot 'em, stab 'em, torture 'em, fling him out of the space craft, wipe his mind (how do you like it, buddy????), etc etc etc. I know, I am shocking my own self with these violent tendencies, but seriously, getting carted off to jail was not a good enough ending for this big jerk-off. (Okay, time for some herbal tea). Otherwise, I loved this story, and am looking forward to reading more of Ella Drake's books!

Grade: A-

Penelope

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Silver Bound isn't necessarily a paranormal romance, or even paranormal anything, but it landed on my radar for its science fiction setting and storyline. I would classify this story as a space western romance, a little bit Jayne Castle-ish only hotter, and I would love to read more from this world. Rangetown and Trident Ranch would both make excellent tie-ins for continuing stories- maybe with Brice or some of the other space marshals, and maybe we could even re-visit Guy and Jewel.


And let's not forget the steamy sex scenes between Guy and Jewel. I've always heard that writing a sex scene can be difficult and I've read many a book where sex is just an epic fail...not the case here! Detailed without being ridiculous, visual with frying your brain- some of these scenes were out of this world (pun intended). Guy and Jewel have genuine feelings for each other and those emotions come through in each and every scene.


Silver Bound is a fairly quick read and good for a lazy afternoon or stealing a quick moment away from all your obligations. And who knows, you might be inspired *wink*

[Cleffairy Cleffairy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review published at: Library of Lights

Date reviewed: 11th Feb 2011

Review link: http://mykindaland.com/?p=128

Looking for an amazing out of body experience kinda book? Well then, Silver Bound by Ella Drake is just the right book for you if you’re looking for extremely sexy book. I daresay that this is nothing like you’ve ever read before, and in my humble opinion, this book is sensational. The plot is original and the characters’ development are rather fast.

Silver Bound by Ella Drake is definitely something that you would want to read during those rainy Sundays. This book promises you not only romance, but also adventure. It is pretty arousing, and I can’t get enough of the book.

I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars, and I highly recommend this for those who loves a good fiction where both romance and adventure is interwoven in it. It is a tasteful sci-fi too, so if you’re a fan of fantasy genre, you can’t go wrong if you pick up this book too. Thumbs up for Silver Bound by Ella Drake.

For more information on Silver Bound by Ella Drake, you can click here.

[Netanella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Silver Bound is a hodge-podge of genres - romance, science fiction, cowboy western - that works surprisingly well. I'm reminded of Yul Brynner in Westworld, except there really weren't any androids running around amusement parks. Lots of cowboys in outer space, though!

The story is very well written, although there was probably a little too much internalizing and angsty-indecision-making on the part of Guy for me to truly appreciate his Good Guy nature. He needed to just take off his white sheriff's hat and pound the ever-loving snot out of Jewel's crime boss husband, who'd had her surgically altered into a mindless sexual slave in a process known as silver tipping. Guy rescues Jewel, but she's a mindless sex slave - and here I start thinking of that most annoying of actresses, Melanie Griffith, in her role as sex robot in Cherry 2000. Thankfully Jewel gets her brains back, and Guy finds his black hat, and I can stop thinking about Melanie.

Nicely done, and definitely recommended for something different and fun.

[Jenny Delandro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Out of duty she leaves the love of her life and marries the man her parents had arranged for her...
but he is a criminal...
The only thing of value he gives her is her son...
but things get too hot at home and she runs...

Now this is scifi and we are in space...
so we have a situation where a woman can be 'erased' and then 'silver tipped' (use your imagination) to make her a sex slave... complete with a collar that controls her...
I find this concept abhorrent...

Riding in on a 'shuttle' is the cowboy of her dreams... but of course she does not remember him.. he on the other hand has never stopped loving her...

How he rescues her and gives her the opportunity to retrieve her memories is captivating...
But what happens when her husband chases up with them... ans lets not forget her son in this...

[Cynthia Witherspoon · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I picked this book up from Carina Press, my first thought was 'Slavery? Oh, she's gonna end up falling in love with her master, and if I already know how it ends, what's the point of reading it?' But Drake surprised me.

When I read that she was a fellow Firefly enthusiast, I got excited. Then, when I started reading, I found that this story was about so much more than the classic slave/master story. Drake made me care about the characters and their emotions, which is the whole point of being a successful writer. She was able to pull me into this story and keep me there.

Overall, I loved this story. Strong characters in a vivid environment...romance...steamy scenes...what's not to love?

[Stacey Kennedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful writing paired with a unique plot...yup, I loved it!! The first half of this book was brilliant. I hung on every single word and had a hard time putting my ereader down. The middle slowed a little, but it didn't matter to me, just made the ending that much more fantastic!! Oh, and just so you all know, I am in love with Guy. I want one of him...now!!

[MissArl · Rating 5 out of 5]

When a rancher sheriff finds himself in possession of the woman who broke his heart, he does everything he can to help her. From a world reminiscent of the old west to the wealthy space barges of the elite, the two hunt for a cure to Jewel's enslavement. This is a hot read.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

The hero makes this story. Sheriff Guy has honor and stands head and shoulders above every other character in the story. I loved his "nice guy" image and love to see a straight forward man who is just a damn sexy GOOD guy.

[Anja · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this when Carina offered it free.

[Laura]

Note: Picked up as a promotional freebie from Carina Press (Feb. 2011 giveaways)

[Shana Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it.