When Sole Regret’s rhythm guitarist, Kellen Jamison, vowed to be faithful to his fiancée and love her forever, he meant it. He never expected to lose her to cancer so early in life. He’s certain he’ll never love again, but destiny has another plan for him.
Her heart is tied to her work…
Grammy-winning classical composer and piano virtuoso, Dawn O’Reilly, is overwhelmed with music-writing deadlines, a fickle muse, and high-expectations. She doesn’t have time to find love, but chance seeks to interfere with her carefully devised plans.
They’re bound to become entangled...
From the instant Kellen hears Dawn’s latest musical composition, his spirits rise. The stirring melody and the remarkable woman responsible for its creation are impossible to resist. His attraction is undeniable; her passion unquenchable. Kellen teaches Dawn there’s freedom in bondage, while her sensuality drives him to unleash his tightly controlled self-restraint. Will the ropes Kellen uses to secure Dawn’s body be the force that binds them together or ultimately sever all ties between them?
Olivia Cunning hit it
out of the ballpark AGAIN. TIE ME is indeed one of the greatest stories
I've read from Mrs. Cunning, and Kellen Jamison has got to be one of the
HOTTEST ROCKSTARS EVER. Like seriously. Heart of gold and everything.
Kellen is literally
riding a storm in the middle of a freaking shore in Galveston, TX when he
finally copes with the idea that he MUST let his Sara go; after 5 years of
mourning and a self imposed celibacy his remorse and heartache must come to an
end. Finding it hard even to take off his wrist cuff, (a gift from his best
friend Owen and a tribute to Sara) he decides that the ocean in front of Sara's
dream beach house was the proper place to do it. He somehow tries to fight his
demon but a wave just brings back the cuff after he threw it.
Inside the next door
house Dawn O'Reilly is struggling with a serious case of musician’s block and
even though she is a Grammy Award winning classical composer, this new piece
doesn’t want to be completed. Not until the reincarnation of Neptune knocks on
her door.
Like in the most
frightening thriller, Kellen is pulled by Dawn’s beautiful melody and since he
refuses to step foot in Sara’s house, he decides to hide from the storm and
find out who is playing such a beautiful melody.
All of what happens next is just too
hot to write about that it might melt my keyboard.
What I loved most
about this story, (besides Kellen’s hotness and his sincerity of admitting he
needs to step out of his funk though it’s really, really hard) is the
willingness of our main heroine to explore her wild and kinky side. Kellen
awakens in her that hidden need and with his proposal and careful explanation
of the Japanese art of Shibari, she finds the guts to go along with her
fantasies hoping Kellen can finally become “free through these ties”.
Believe me that does
make sense.
Although many years
ago when I first learned about Shibari (I actually knew it under the
name of Kinbaku but nowadays I know they are two similar yet very
different arts) I thought about it like just that, a weird fetish people had
about tying people to weird places and an expertise on steroids of the Boy
Scout mastership of knots. But through the beautiful writing of Mrs. Cunning, I
actually saw through the eyes of Kellen how this art is more than a great
sexual pleasure, its an escape to freedom and beauty, almost the next stage
before Nirvana.
Dawn is willing to
reach that stage and help him achieve a final liberation from Sara’s memory,
but she also knows competing with a ghost is a seriously hard goal to reach.
Hard, but not impossible, she will do anything to make Kellen finally
move on from his past and consider her part of a freeing and peaceful future.
To be able to get
into the psyche of each character puts you into perspective. Many of us have
dealt with loss in the past, whether it’s physical or emotional. I somehow
related to Kellen in that matter since I lost (though not thru death) the love
of my life. It took me 6 years and a lot of head banging and self slapping to
be able to finally get it through my thick head that the man did not love me
anymore. Everybody fights their battles with different weapons: I did it thru
school and books, Kellen learned to tie bodies.
Once again, Mrs.
Cunning delivered a (too) short (for my taste) but very effective story about a
successful yet troubled guy who knows he needs to move on, and like heaven sent
finds the missing piece of a puzzle he himself started putting together. I
loved Kellen and ached for him, but I also loved Dawn, her willingness, her
bravery, her hidden desires waiting for a fallen Neptune who knocked on her
door in the middle of an electric storm to be unleashed.
There’s a lot more I loved, but I guess
I would need to be tied (naked) to a piano to explain properly.
Excerpt taken with permission from
Tie Me (One Night with Sole Regret #5) by Olivia
Cunning
The last thing Dawn had
expected to see on the beach behind her rented vacation house was a soaking
wet, shirtless hunk. She was too surprised to feel threatened by his presence.
Had Neptune—lord of the sea—washed up on the shore? With that hard body and
water dripping from every inch of his taut skin, the tall, muscular man sure
resembled an immortal god.
“Are you lost?” she yelled.
Really,
Dawn? The sea gifts you with this gorgeous, tail-less merman and you ask him if
he’s lost? Of course he was lost. Why else would he be standing
half-naked on the beach during a thunderstorm? She doubted he was rescuing sea
turtles.
He shook his head. “No,” he shouted up at her. “I live next door. I was just
enjoying the”—with an outstretched hand, he indicated the churning sea behind
him—“view.”
“Normally, I’d believe you, but
the view is a little violent at the
moment,” she yelled back.
Thunder crashed overhead, and
the wind blew cold rain against her. She stepped back from the railing. The
storms here didn’t mess around. Palm fronds slapped against tree trunks,
rattling like a nest of angry snakes. The surf slammed into the beach with
increasing retaliation as the storm advanced ashore.
The man cupped his hands around
his mouth and yelled, “Was that you pla—”
Lightning broke the darkness,
announcing another rumble of thunder. Dawn could see the man’s lips were still
moving, but the wind robbed her ears of his words.
“What?” she yelled.
“That melody I hear—”
She shook her head and pointed
to her ear. “I can’t hear what you’re saying!”
He scowled and glanced around
before turning and running for the wooden walkway that had been built over the
sand dunes. Soon she couldn’t see him at all and wondered if she’d imagined
him. At least he’d found the sense to get out of the rain, even if it was rude
for him to dash off without so much as a see
ya.
Dawn shrugged and went back in
the house. Perhaps that little interruption would wake up her muse. The lazy
twit wasn’t cooperating with her at all tonight, and Dawn had a deadline to
meet. She had to find the rest of this song by morning or she was in deep,
professional trouble.
She flexed her aching fingers
and had just sat down at the piano when the doorbell rang.
Had Neptune come calling?
Raised on hard rock music from the cradle, she attended her first Styx concert at age six and fell instantly in love with live music. She's been known to travel over a thousand miles just to see a favorite band in concert. As a teen, she discovered her second love, romantic fiction -- first, voraciously reading steamy romance novels and then penning her own.
Olivia's first book in her Sinner's Tour Series, Backstage
Pass, was published in 2010 by Sourcebooks. Book two in the series, Rock Hard,
was published in 2011 and the third book, Double Time just released November
2012. The last two books in the series are expected to be out in 2013. Aside
from the Sinners Tour that launched her career, Olivia has been hard at work on
a few other series and stand alones . . . of course with the music turned up.
AWARDS
RECEIVED
~ In November 2012, Double Time made the USA Today
Best-Seller List
~ Backstage Pass won the Reader's Crown in 2011 for both Best First Book and Best Long Erotic Romance
~ Backstage Pass won More than Magic in 2011 for Best Erotic Romance
~ Backstage Pass won the Reader's Crown in 2011 for both Best First Book and Best Long Erotic Romance
~ Backstage Pass won More than Magic in 2011 for Best Erotic Romance
QUICK FACTS
ON OLIVIA
~ Despite the encouragement of her English teachers to
pursue writing, she majored in biology in college.
~ Olivia earned a master's degree in Pathobiology and
Molecular Medicine. After her beloved grandfather died of a heart attack, she
aspired to find the cure for atherosclerosis, but found biomedical research
tedious and frustrating, so switched to teaching.
~Olivia loves to attend metal concerts. She regularly embarrasses her college-aged son by headbanging in public and gets accused of not "looking like" a metal head.
~Olivia finished writing her first contemporary series romance novel at age 19. It remains unpublished.
~Olivia has always had a vivid imagination. At age three, she had seven imaginary friends and still remembers the stories she made up about them. One, named Splinter, was a giant talking skunk.
~Olivia is an army brat. She has lived all over the United States and in Germany. She tends to move every three to five years. Her most recent move to Galveston, Texas will hopefully be her last.
~Olivia loves to attend metal concerts. She regularly embarrasses her college-aged son by headbanging in public and gets accused of not "looking like" a metal head.
~Olivia finished writing her first contemporary series romance novel at age 19. It remains unpublished.
~Olivia has always had a vivid imagination. At age three, she had seven imaginary friends and still remembers the stories she made up about them. One, named Splinter, was a giant talking skunk.
~Olivia is an army brat. She has lived all over the United States and in Germany. She tends to move every three to five years. Her most recent move to Galveston, Texas will hopefully be her last.
2 comments:
Thanks for the review - I have not had a chance to read this yet
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