I have to make a confession… I love Kiru Taye’s writing, so from the start I have to say I am a fan.

Until now I have always read her books for pure leisure/pleasure and this time the reading was to review to story so I did have to take a different approach – stand back and see it as a piece of work – pull it apart a little bit to check if it holds together.

This is a story in two parts with time in between. What I did like straight away was that this was not about two people who meet, fall in love, have lots of sex, problem occurs but hey presto all is sorted within the space of a week. Bound to Fate takes place over a few years and you do get a sense of how the character’s have changed and developed over this time.

At first we see Lara and Ike in a school setting – now I have to say the whole student/teacher blossoming relationship did not sit comfortably with me. I think you hear these stories in the press and they stay with you. However, we learn that there are only a few years between them and Lara will be turning eighteen in a month. We find Lara who has recently suffered a bereavement taking the first steps – she is the one who forces Ike, her Geography teacher, to admit they have a connection and she is the one who out and out tells him she wasn’t to have sex with him. At this point I don’t think I connected with Lara and I didn’t quite understand her – she was distraught about her parents and having panic attacks yet bold enough to tell Ike what she wanted. The chemistry between them sizzled off the page and to be honest the way Ike is described; I would have gone for him too. What happens next. Well I thought we were going to get a sex scene that I wasn’t ready to read at this point. What we get is Ike pleasuring her but not taking her virginity. (sighs with relief) The scene is erotic and sensual but what make it intense is the dialogue. It’s not just a scene where it describes what he does or how she reacts, no, Ike asks her if she likes what he is doing, he coaxes responses from her and guides her to the ultimate pleasure of an orgasm. HOT!!!

The story turns tragic from here. As a reader we do not find out what happens but there is a sense of foreboding. We know something has happened that affected Lara badly and the person we see years later is not the same innocent young girl. Ike and Lara meet again. Their past is still there between them. Lara is a tough, independent woman and Ike is a successful businessman. She is haunted by the past and blames him. The sense of trauma is played out very well. Ms Taye hint at it, dropping clues though not revealing all. Though there was a part where she is overcome by the nightmare memories and goes into a catatonic state. When she come out of it she seems to try to seduce Ike. This jarred a little for me as I didn’t quite understand the way she went from one state to another.

The author entwines the theme of psychological trauma and the stigma attached to it. Through careful weaving she also shows how help through expert counselling can help overcome trauma and lead you – in this case Lara to a better place where she is free. I’m not going to spoil it for you at all – so no more of that.

This story is about first love lost, changes as a result of a hideous event and the slow path to facing the past and putting it behind you.

This is a story with bite because of the topics it touches on. There are one or two steamy scenes and the way they are written fit really well into the story and not just there for the sake of adding sex to the book.

A lovely story – I understand the next book Bound to Ransom is about one of the villains in this book – someone who I could easily stab in the eyes! So it will be interesting to see how Ms Taye plays that one.


Disclaimer: This book was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

Where to find Bound to Fate: