Squawk Radio

Reviews are coming in for THE BAREFOOT PRINCESS (on the shelves today!), and I’ve been amazed at how many reviewers seem to be excited about the fact the heroine chains the hero in her cellar. For pete’s sake, she doesn’t do it for sex! She does it for money!

Nevertheless, every reviewer mentions bondage in a jump-up-and-down, this-is-fun sort of way, so I thought — let’s talk about our favorite bondage books!

The ones that popped to my mind were: the Dara Joy book MINE TO TAKE. Isn’t that the best cover? Nothing beats a naked guy chained to the wall, especially a gorgeous naked guy. If I recall correctly, the whole plot was predicated on her releasing him if he would have sex with her while he was chained so she could refuse to marry the bad guy. Did you follow that? At the time, it made sense to me, but my brain steams up when I think about it.

There was the Johanna Lindsey book PRISONER OF MY DESIRE. The heroine has to get pregnant and avails herself of a very angry, very handsome (of course), very tied-up man. Very provocative and great fun. She rapes him. He rapes her. A good time is had by all.

When asked, Susan Elizabeth Phillips suggested, “UNTAMED by Elizabeth Lowell. The hero put some kind of bells on the heroine — very odd and very sexy.”

Jayne Ann Krentz said, “Bondage books? Any good list of books has to start with THE SHEIK by E. M. Hull. There's no actual tying up, just domination, but we do get whips and stuff. And then there's Angela Knight's MERCENARIES (Berkley Sensation). Lots of bondage in that anthology. But probably my favorite all-time semi-bondage book is Anne McCaffrey's RING OF FEAR. Great politically incorrect sex scene and I think someone gets spanked.”

I checked in with Squawkers and asked, “What are your favorite bondage books?” And do you know what I got back???

From Geralyn Dawson: “I had bondage in my harem honeymoon scene in HER SCOUNDREL. She ties him up.”

From Teresa Medeiros: “There's a VERY sexy scene at the beginning of THIEF OF HEARTS where Lucy is tied up after being taken captive by my pirate. No actual sex or even foreplay but it's still a very hot scene. And in A WHISPER OF ROSES, she makes Morgan hold onto ribbons tied to the bedposts while she ‘ravishes’ him.” (Interesting … both books are by Teresa Medeiros.)

From Elizabeth Bevarly: “I did a scene in BRIDE OF THE BAD BOY where the hero, whom the heroine thinks is a mobster, ties her to a chair with the sash of her bathrobe and gropes her. That was fun.”

From Connie Brockway: “ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT — that steamy sexy classic where she masturbates him after she ties him up. THE BED IS UNMADE — that steamy sexy classic anthology story in ONE UPON A PILLOW where the heroine ties the hero to the bed.” (In case it’s not clear, Connie Brockway wrote both stories.)

From Lisa Kleypas: “WORTH ANY PRICE, moi's Rita book, when Nick is feeling out-of-control because he is falling helplessly in love with the heroine, he comes to her in the middle of the night and ties her up and . . . oh, it was fun writing that!”

Eloisa James was the sole holdout and when asked if she had written a bondage book, she said, “Not yet.”

All I could think was — wow. My friends are a bunch of perverts.

But as I said, in THE BAREFOOT PRINCESS, Princess Amy kidnaps Jermyn Edmondson, marquess of Northcliff and chains him to the wall in her basement and demands a sizeable ransom from Jermyn’s uncle. It’s a simple plan, destined to succeed. Except Uncle Harrison is Jermyn’s heir and he would be delighted if someone killed his nephew and left him with the title and fortune, and it seems that Jermyn is handsome, arrogant and a little cranky with Amy for manacling him. So there is no sexual bondage in THE BAREFOOT PRINCESS.

At least … not at first.

So me and my perverted friends want to know — do you like bondage books? Do you think they cross the line into icky? (That’s okay! Everyone has their right to their own tastes … so to speak!) If you like them, what are your favorite bondage books? Your least favorite? And why?