Bound in Moonlight (Hidden Grotto Book 2): Louisa Burton

It's time for sex-capades galore as we return, once again, to the Hidden Grotto with Louisa Burton's newest offering, Bound in Moonlight. Another round of visitors are casting off their inhibitions and no small amount of clothing, as the residents of the Grotto whip them into a fervor of lustful decadence. Will this sophomore effort from Louisa Burton pick up the slack that was left from the lead-in novel, House of Dark Delights?

As before the book is separated by three stories of carnality and seduction:

In "Tutelage" a young American heiress arrives by invitation from the administrator, a family friend, only to find her fiancé, an impoverished English lord, with his face firmly between the thighs of his mistress. The young lady, after much fainting, takes destiny and her vagina in hand and leaps forward into the world of sexual pleasure.

"Slave Week" focuses on a destitute and ruined young woman whose soldier husband was killed after only one night of marriage, and decides to sell herself into a week of slavery for the obscene amount of money that she will receive. She has only to survive the week. Unfortunately, she has no idea who will be purchasing her when she agrees to the terms. Are money, and the freedom found within it, worth a week of degradation and pain?

"Magic Hour" rounds out the novel and brings it back to the present with a deeper look at the Archer family who has long sat as administrators for the Hidden Grotto. The current Mr. Archer is ill and needs his daughter to take over. Isabel has no intention of living at, and seeing to, the needs of "Chateau des Freaks" as she calls it. She doesn't believe in the magic behind it and she has her own painful memories of the place. Can she see past this, and her attraction to the current seigneur des Ombres in order to maintain the line unbroken?

As with the previous novel there are high expectations that fall short on delivery. There seems to be an undercurrent in this one of "young woman take charge!" but the characters are flat and unsympathetic. Once again I was more drawn to the history of the place and the immortals then I was to the erotica. The book seems to be wavering on the runway; it just isn't getting enough power to lift up and take off. It's unfortunate because I really wanted to fully enjoy both of these novels but I just don't. Perhaps more time should be spent focusing and developing one story instead of devolving into several that splinters the reader in several directions and doesn't allow them to connect with any of the characters at all. And connecting with the characters is, after all, what makes a good story a truly unforgettable story.
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Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Bantam (December 26, 2007)
ISBN-10: 0553384139
ISBN-13: 978-0553384130