Bound for the Forest by Kay Berrisford

Title: Bound For the Forest

Author: Kay Berrisford

Genre: Historical (1817), Fantasy/Paranormal, BDSM

Length: Novel (218 pgs.)

Publisher: Loose Id (13th September 2011)

Heat Level: Explicit

Heart Rating:  ♥♥♥♥4Hearts

Reviewer:  Pixie

Blurb: England, 1817. Ex-soldier Melmoth Brien returns to his ancestral home in the ancient Greenwood, intending to retrieve his family’s valuables and get the hell out of there. When he’s beaten to it by Scarlet, a young woodsman turned thief, Brien overpowers him and ties him up, demanding he help get the family fortune back by leading him deep into the forest. The flash of sexual fire between them is undeniable, but a force more powerful than rivalry or lust is ratcheting up the tension.

Brien’s family are Protectors of the Greenwood, a responsibility he has discarded like every other in his life. To Scarlet, whose very life-force is bound to the Greenwood, this makes Brien a traitor. He would use anything, even his body, to drive him away. After all, a traitor may stir the fouler Spirits, who will demand blood. And Scarlet knows he is marked for sacrifice…

Lured ever deeper into a realm of ritualized sex and magic, bondage and blood, the fighting gives way to rampant lovemaking, but Scarlet needs more than just sex to survive. Can Brien admit his identity as a Protector and bind his underling forever, or will the Greenwood Spirits enslave them both?

Publisher’s Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: BDSM theme and elements, dubious consent, ritualistic sexual practices, ritualistic impalement, sex in partly shifted tree form, violence, and voyeurism.

Review: Melmoth Brien wants just one thing and that’s his family’s hidden treasures so he can pay his debts off before he is dragged to the debtor’s prison.  His plans go awry though when he comes across a young woodsman about to set fire to his old family home. Scarlet has to drive out the intruders before they damage the forest but he never expected Melmoth to appear and ruin his plans.  Now he needs to get rid of Melmoth as he is a faederswica (a traitor) before the bad spirits take over.

This has some fantastic world building and really draws you in to their world.   The characters are well written and interesting and the basis for the Greenwood Lore and its protectors is a good concept. Melmoth is a strong hardy man who has a wanderer’s heart.   He can’t settle anywhere and I think the explanation for this was good.   Scarlet is a strong but submissive man, he will stand up for what he believes in and won’t take any crap from Melmoth.   He also knows that even though he longs for Melmoth, Melmoth will leave and Scarlet has to stay. The conflict between them is good, they don’t have it easy and they both try to fight the attraction and that attraction is scorching.

The sex is hot between the MCs and you can see how their feelings change throughout the book.   There is a slight BDSM theme and the scenes are light BDSM which is worked in quite well.   There are also some scenes that are slightly disturbing that include Scarlet with the Green Man and then the Wild Things.

So I recommend this if you like fantasy/paranormal, light BDSM, hot sex, a sexy lithe man and a hunky ex-captain.