04

Regular Chintz readers will know that, every now and then, Michael and I review books in tandem. Make Me Yours Evermore, the latest book in Cari Silverwood’s Pierced Hearts series, was one we always planned on tackling together but as our schedules have been a little out of sync recently, we’ve had to do our write-ups separately. If you recall, I was a big fan of this one (although I did want to invest in some brain bleach by the close) but I wasn’t sure what Michael would be thinking by the end of it, given that he had a hard time with Klaus in Bind and Keep MeI mean, let’s be honest, Chris really does make the former seem like a candidate for humanitarian of the year …

*Please note that the below review does contain spoilers pertaining to books one and two in the Pierced Hearts series. You can find our previous reviews for Take Me, Break Me and Bind and Keep Me here and here.

 

MICHAEL’S TAKE

Make Me Yours EvermoreTitle: Make Me Yours Evermore
Author: Cari Silverwood
Publisher: Cari Silverwood
ISBN: 9781311900234

Okay, in Take Me, Break Me, we meet Jodie and Klaus when she comes up with a money-making scheme: Have Klaus hold her captive for a month, film the whole thing, and release it to fame and fortune. In the end, things go a bit awry but they achieve a kind of working balance in their relationship.

Skip ahead a year and we get to Bind and Keep Me. When Jodie attends a wild party and dies, Klaus kills the man responsible. Only Jodie isn’t dead. And rather than either hope the police don’t figure out what happened or even try to explain what happened, Klaus comes up with a unique solution: kidnap the one witness who can expose his secret. And hold her captive for the rest of their lives. Perhaps not the greatest plan ever, but it has worked so far. Mostly.

Which brings us up to Make Me Yours Evermore. One of the mostly wrinkles is that Kat has figured out something weird is going on. We actually met Kat at the end of the TMBM. As a character, she was kind of annoying. The other characters thought so too. She still doesn’t know precisely what is going on, but she is going to find out. Only Chris, Klaus’ business partner, is determined to stop her. Because it turns out that Chris has always had a secret fantasy: To kidnap someone and hold her captive for the rest of their lives. And so to help out Klaus, Chris volunteers to do that to Kat. Continue reading

22

Title: Make Me Yours Evermore
Author: Cari Silverwood
Publisher: Cari Silverwood
ISBN: 9781311900234

At one point, Chris, a character in Make Me Yours Evermore, mentions brain bleach. By the end of the book, I was surreptitiously checking supermarket shelves for a bottle of the stuff.

Redemption? Remorse? Morality?

Phtt.

Love?

Wash your mouth out.

This book is about lust, desire, control and corruption. But, above all else, it’s about power. Held absolutely and resolutely over another human being. Consensual? No. But compelling and intoxicating, nonetheless.

Brain Bleach

I can’t recall a single time I’ve ‘enjoyed’ (not to be confused with ‘been impressed by’) a book featuring a core protagonist I was unable to like, empathise with, or warm to. But in this particular case, I did. Continue reading

16

John Hughes - Desolate deserted dwelling

Image: John Hughes (via Wikimedia Commons)

Oh, dear. Things have been a little silent behind the curtains, haven’t they? Reason? Well, I’m currently gearing up to move countries (somewhat unexpectedly) and at the moment my time is devoted to entertaining shipping companies, conveyancing, and having a heart attack at the cost of moving a small Scottish Terrier from one side of the globe to the other (11387 miles, to be exact).

There’s been some interesting stuff floating about on the interweb this past week, though. This post over on Lina Sacher’s blog, in part prompted by some virtual discussions I’ve had with the lovely Cari Silverwood about male and female interpretations of darker erotica, and then the below parody of Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines, put together by three trainee lawyers for Auckland University’s annual law review. I’m not sure how I feel about it, to be honest. I love the sarcasm but does it skate too far over the line into misandry and therefore lose its impact? Your thoughts? Continue reading

02

Bind and Keep Me - Cari SilverwoodTitle: Bind and Keep Me (Pierced Hearts, Book 2)
Author: Cari Silverwood
Publisher: Cari Silverwood (29 August 2013)
ISBN: 9781301773190
Reviewer(s): Michael & Jane

Two words: still recovering. Bind and Keep Me is non-con BDSM erotica at its absolute best. If you like your tales dark, you’re not going to want to miss this one.

*You can click on any of the stick figure drawings below to make them bigger. Which many of you will likely need to do if your eyesight is as bad as mine and you can’t read the writing!

 

JANE’S TAKE

This book should come with a health warning:

Caution! Jaw may drop to floor and disconnect from face. The author assumes no responsibility for readers who spontaneously combust with arousal and/or spend days wondering whether their moral compass needs resetting as a result of reading (and enjoying) this book.

 

Jane's Jaw

Leave your sanity at the door because there is absolutely no way that Bind and Keep Me can be put into either the Safe, Sane and Consensual (SSC) or Risk Aware Consensual Kink (RACK) buckets. There is unsafe play in spades. There is insane play by the truckload. There is non-consent to the power of a hundred overlaid with the veneer of incredibly dubious consent. There is risk with a capital ‘R’. And there is kink. Oh, man is there kink. Continue reading