Reviewed by Amber
TITLE: Bound to Fall
AUTHOR: Jaime Samms
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 350 pages
BLURB:
With so many fences between them and happily ever after, two men wonder if it’s worth opening the gate.
Ten years ago Eddie Crane, an actor on the rise, loved his costar and dreamed of the day they could be together. But his love, with his submissive nature, couldn’t handle fame, and before Eddie could help him, he died in a car accident—with Eddie at the wheel.
Now, guilt-ridden, Eddie buries himself in bad decisions and prays that a stunt—on or off camera—will go wrong.
Teenaged fantasies about the actor on his wall distracted Arthur Pike from real life—his dead father, runaway mother, gruff grandparents, and his unrequited love for his cousin’s straight husband. Now grown and off the farm, Pike is a horse stuntman hired to teach a reluctant Eddie to ride.
Pike is drawn to Eddie’s dominant nature despite the sadness clinging to the actor. Eddie let one lover down, but in Pike’s submissiveness, he sees the possibility for redemption.
REVIEW:
Eddie Crane has let his life and career spin dangerously out of control. Having once been a very successful actor the loss of longtime lover has left him drifting. His alone, guilt ridden, and in pain. His manager/best friend gets him a movie deal to play a gay cowboy. The thing is, Eddie is deathly afraid of horses. In order to put in the best performance of his career all while trying to salvage his professional life he knows he’ll need help.
Arthur Pike is a professional stunt men, specializing in horses. He’s contracted as Eddie’s stunt double in his upcoming movie and also to help him get comfortable riding and being around horses.
The attraction between these men is pretty immediate. They both are hung up on the past and have to get over that in order to move onto the future.
I am so completely torn with this story. The things that worked, were done really well. Like the writing for instance, this is a quality author, there is no denying that. The plot structure, character development, and pacing of the story was good. I was interested in these characters and truly enjoyed watching things play out.
On the other hand, the things that didn’t work for me were pretty big issues mostly because they were recurring things. I honestly felt like I got whiplash from the D/s personality switches that kept happening between the main characters. There was a point at the beginning that I had to go back and re-read the blurb because I couldn’t remember who was suppose to be the dominate because their personalities shifted so many times. To clarify, I understood Pike needing control in the business setting but his struggling with being submissive happened in the bedroom and at his apartment too. And I actually liked the characters and even though Eddie was the “damaged” one I liked him more than I liked Pike. Pike was very quick to blow a fuse and that was a turn off because it came off as childish, like a temper tantrum that kept happening over and over again. I love angst in my stories but his reactions were so over the top and that put me off. I also had issues with the Ryan/Cory not letting go, constantly pining thing. It almost felt like I couldn’t enjoy these two men as a couple because we were constantly bombarded with Cory/Ryan talk.
I do have to admit there were a couple of BDSM scenes that were well done. When Eddie actually came off as a capable and confident Dom the scenes turned out pretty damn good. The problem was he was unsure quite often so it just made for some frustrating moments.
I always enjoy a good “movie star” story. I like all the glitz and glamour and paparazzi this story had all of that plus the slimy good for nothing Producer. I also enjoyed the interactions with the horses. They are almost treated just like a human actor, I really liked that.
Overall, I did enjoy the story although some things just didn’t work for me but like I said the things that did work were done very well. Plus, the ending was pretty much the definition of perfection.
RATING: 
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