Ames’ review of Binding Love (Raising Cain, Book 4) by Maggie Casper.

When Cooper McCain’s past lovers show up in Chaos, Texas, in order to rekindle an old romance, Cooper knows he’s in trouble. He’s worked hard to put both Mallory Johanson and Liam Jacoby behind him. The memories surrounding their past relationship have left him feeling bitter and afraid of trying again.

Letting go of heartbreak is a hard thing to do. Nearly as intimidating is knowing that to do so means coming out of the closet to those closest to him.

Is love reason enough to forget past hurts, to move forward in a relationship that has the ability to make the three of them very happy? Is Cooper willing to risk everything in order to find out?

Although this is book 4 in the Raising Cain series, it is ok to read as a stand-alone.

Two years ago, Cooper returned home after business school with a broken heart. His family has worried about him and so when his ex-girlfriend Mallory calls, Cooper’s sister Casey invites her to their hometown.
Cooper is furious when he discovers what Casey did. He refuses to explain why but when Mallory and Liam show up in Chaos, the truth becomes clear.

Cooper was seeing Mallory while they were both students and she was also seeing Liam. Since theirs was not a monogamous relationship and Mallory openly slept with both men (sometimes even at the same time) Cooper and Liam thought it was no big deal if they started sleeping with each other. But Mallory and Cooper quickly realizes that it is a big deal and so Mallory walked away from the men and Cooper walked away from everyone.

But now Mallory and Liam are back and they both want Cooper. But can Cooper and Mallory get over what happened in the past to start building a future?

I thought Binding Love had some extremely hot love scenes, but the rest of the story didn’t quite wash for me. First of all, the big misunderstanding between Cooper and Mallory. Two years these people didn’t talk but they still loved each other. And then when it comes down to hashing out what really went on, I felt like there wasn’t enough explanation from either of them. And then, without that resolution, they hopped right into bed together – all three of them. For me, I just wanted more between Cooper and Mallory to be resolved before they resumed their relationship.

Then there’s the wee bit of conflict. Cooper is afraid to come out as being bisexual to his big, manly brothers. Despite everyone telling him they would be ok and never mind the fact that two of them were with one woman, he thought despite their unorthodox relationships, that he would be judged. This felt like a tacked on conflict because it doesn’t really cause Cooper a lot of grief and then Liam and Mallory don’t really force the issue until a little bit at the end. Meh.

But hot hot sex scenes. Liam is very dominant in bed – with both Mallory and Cooper. Binding Love gets a 3.25 out of 5.

This book is available from Ellora’s Cave. You can buy it here in e-format.

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