Review: Bound for the Forest (The Greenwood #1) by Kay Berrisford

Blurb:
England 1817
Ex-soldier Melmoth Brien returns to his ancestral home in the ancient Greenwood, intending to retrieve his family's valuables and get the hell out of there. When he's beaten to it by Scarlet, a young woodsman turned thief, Brien overpowers him and ties him up, demanding he help him get the family fortune back by leading him deep into the forest. The flash of sexual fire between them is undeniable, but a force more powerful than rivalry or lust is ratcheting up the tension.

Brien's family are Protectors of the Greenwood, a responsibility he has discarded like every other in his life. To Scarlet, whose very life-force is bound to the Greenwood, this makes Brien a traitor. He would use anything, even his body, to drive him away. After all, a traitor may stir the fouler Spirits, who will demand blood. And Scarlet knows he is marked for sacrifice...

Lured ever deeper into a realm of ritualized sex and magic, bondage and blood, the fighting gives way to rampant lovemaking, but Scarlet needs more than just sex to survive. Can Brien admit his identity as a Protector and bind his underling forever, or will the Greenwood Spirits enslave them both?

Publisher's Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: BDSM theme and elements, dubious consent, male/male sexual practices, ritualistic sexual practices, ritualistic impalement, sex in partly shifted tree form, violence, voyeurism.

My Thoughts:
This is the first book I have read by Kay Berrisford, but I can definitely say it won't be the last. I made sure to put the publisher's note above in bold, simply because it is not something I usually read when looking for a book, but if I had I would have been alerted to the part warning about sex in partly shifted tree form. This was a fascinating part for me as I had not yet read a book with sex in any kind of partly shifted form. So yeah I dove right in and was reading along then wham, there it was!

Brien doesn't want to stay in the Greenwood any longer than he has to, but he stumbles upon Scarlet and all his fortunes are gone. Scarlet claims he can help, after all he is the one responsible. The connection between these two is explosive and forbidden. Brien needs to find his sister and then he can go, Scarlet can never leave even though he really wants to. It seems this pairing is doomed from the beginning.

While this book is a historical, being set in 1817, it does not read like it. The world building in this book was excellent and has set the stage for the rest of the series. I am looking forward to revisiting the Greenwood very soon.

I loved the lust and chemistry between Brien and Scarlet, it was enough to heat up the pages! I didn't quite reach the emotional connection I was hoping for, but I was taken by surprise a few times throughout the story by different plot twists.

I will likely reread this book and I will certainly be revisiting the Greenwood!

My Rating: 4 Stars

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