When Autumn was nine, her cousin Jessica had brought home a Brazilian boyfriend. Josef spoke almost no English and Jessica spoke almost no Portuguese but they soon got engaged and moved in together. Autumn’s family had found the situation utterly bizarre.
“How can you love someone if you don’t understand a bloody word they’re saying?” her mother moaned into the landline. “It’ll never work.”
Autumn, too young to be tactful, had gone up to Jessica that Christmas and asked her how she could have a boyfriend if she didn’t know what he was saying. She’d never forget the look on Jessica’s face, the mysterious smile, the warmth in her eyes. “Everyone’s gossiping about me, aren’t they?”
Autumn had nodded.
“Well you can go tell them all I don’t care. Love isn’t just saying words. What we feel is real.”

Captivated by Tessa Bailey and Eve Dangerfield was first published in June of 2018. Both Ms. Bailey and Ms. Dangerfield are similar in the skill that they wield when it comes to writing emotional stories filled with hot and messy sex of the good kind, with a healthy dose of dirty talking in the mix. After all, Ms. Bailey holds the title of Queen of Dirty Talk for a very good reason. So needless to say, when these two queens get together to write a story, I would say all bets are off.

Told in the third person from the perspectives of Blake Munroe, the hero, and Autumn Martha Reynolds, the heroine, this is the story of how Autumn, who moves to New York from Australia with her boyfriend, finds herself minus the boyfriend, wallowing in self-pity, and stuck in a limbo, unable either make herself take that needed step to renew her visa or tell her family back home how her boyfriend of six years that she had doted on and followed across continents, whom she had basically supported for months, had cheated on her with a bunch of improv groupies.

Employed as a veterinarian, with a penchant for rescuing and nursing animals even at her apartment which would most likely be frowned upon by The Landlord, aka Blake, Autumn does not know how Blake ends up featured in her comic-book-style pornography as the lead male, who acts out her fantasies. When that piece of comic ends up with Blake by coincidence, Autumn is mortified and then turned on beyond reason when she realizes that Blake has a penchant for taking control and dominance in the bedroom, the perfect answer to her own needs.

Autumn and Blake are opposites in every sense. She is petite where he is large and formidable and she is outgoing while he is an introvert, who would rather spend his time at home doing what brings him peace. However, none of that seems to matter when the fireworks between them are so bright and vivid, answering a need each of them has been denying for far too long.

Autumn and Blake both have issues, Blake more so than Autumn with a past that remains a sore point for him, one that he has not made peace with. Blake has always felt the like he is the odd one out, even amidst his large circle of friends way back. His tendency to listen better than everyone else in a conversation means that his observations are insightful and honest, which most people do not seem to like.

Having gone through a betrayal of the kind that he cannot forgive nor forget, Blake isolates himself in the building that he has been leasing out to tenants for the past seven years. His first impression of Autumn when she moves is, is one that makes him wary, for she notices his limp and goes out of her way to be considerate of the fact while most people never do. Knowing that lusting after another man’s girlfriend was a big no no, Blake had stayed away until fate throws him that lifeline, and he recognizes the loneliness that is mirrored in Autumn’s eyes as his own.

While the sex between Autumn and Blake burns hotter and brighter, and Autumn manages to get Blake bit by bit out of his shadowed existence, Blake too wants only the best for Autumn, for her to be able to follow her dreams without the fear of failure. But when reality bites, and Blake takes things a bit too far for Autumn’s comfort, it is up to Blake to fight for Autumn, the one woman who he cannot live without, the sunshine to his darkness, and the light of his life.

I really enjoyed Captivated and while this reminded me a lot in some ways of Eve Dangerfield’s novel Degrees of Control, most of the elements in the story were uniquely Autumn and Blake. I loved Autumn and Blake in equal degrees; Autumn for her beautiful kindness and Blake for being the intuitive man that he is, able to discern what his woman needs and wants without having to ask.

Captivated was in many ways a stimulating (and I don’t mean it in the sexual sense) and thought provoking read. I did find myself questioning how certain aspects of Blake’s past were reconciled with so easily (even with the understanding that seven odd years had passed since). But since when has real life offered that chance to the majority of the people who go through life harrowing and challenging circumstances that pulls them to their lowest? I am glad for people who do get the chance to reconcile with their pasts, but I for one have yet to meet anyone who has been able to actually do that in real life. The best we can do is make peace with the past for our sake and move forward.

I also did not understand why Blake was in the wrong for cutting off his so called friends, who had all known what was going on behind his back. Your true friends would tell you the truth, no matter how hard it is for them to face the consequences that may arise from saying it as it is. I was #TeamBlake all the way, and even had he chose not to go down the road that he did, I would still have loved him. For who would not love a gentle giant who broods and is able to melt the panties off any heterosexual female?

Recommended for romance readers who love their heroes on the strong and silent side and their heroines with just the right touch of stubborn filled with a whole lot of love!

Final Verdict: Captivated is a story that left me pondering on betrayals in life and how much of what life throws our way can we truly reconcile with and forgive.

Favorite Quotes

Being held by him was like being held in a cage, a gentle, living cage. With another man it might have felt oppressive, but as Blake kissed her deeply, all she felt was warm and safe and turned the fuck on. Within seconds she was rubbing against him, moaning into his mouth. Her landlord couldn’t talk worth a damn but god he could kiss. He kissed like it was his mother language, like he could tell whole stories with his lips and tongue.

He removed his hand from her mouth and kissed her. This time the kiss was deep and hot and animalistic. He was claiming her, exerting his will over her weaker feminine frame. Autumn strained against his hands and found she couldn’t move an inch. Her arousal ratcheted up another degree and when he pulled away, she had to stop herself from moaning his name.

“What are you doing?” she said, sounding exactly as turned on as she was.
He didn’t reply. Instead he bent down and inhaled along her neck. All the hairs on Autumn’s arms lifted and her knees shook so violently she thought she might fall. Looking down the dark hallway, she could see customers milling around, hear the indie folk playing on the speakers. No one knew she was alone with Blake, no one knew he was not quite touching her. He kissed her neck, raising goosebumps on her skin. His breathing was deep and harsh now, and she knew if she reached out and touched him, he would be rock hard beneath his jeans.

Blake’s tongue lapped her neck, tasting her sweat. “That’s it. Come for your owner, baby. Make him proud.”
She did, bucking so wild and hard against her restraints that if Blake was any other man, she’d have worried about hurting him, but seeing as he was huge and hard, she decided not to be worried. Instead, she focused on the bright trickles of pleasure threading through her body like veins. She was flying.

“People always act like women are another species. Like they’re cats or planets or whatever the fuck else. It’s not hard to see what people want if you actually look and listen.”
“That’s not really an answer.”
Blake bent down so that their faces were close, their bodies contained in a private bubble of this noisy, trendy bar. “You’re a busy woman,” he said. “You feel obliged to give all of yourself all the time, to those dirty pigeons, to the gym instructor, to the other tenants. Now I found out your parents leaned on you pretty hard and that doesn’t surprise me at all. The day you moved in, you were the one making everything happen while your ex was on his phone. You…”
He broke off.
“What?” Autumn urged.
“You cleared that path for me to walk through,” Blake muttered. “You saw my leg and you knew…that’s just not something a lot of people would have done, but you did. You care, Fun-Size, you notice things. You run the show and you do it well so people assume that’s what you want.”
“And isn’t it?” she whispered.
Blake shook his head. “Nope. You want me to order your drinks, pick where we eat and choose how we fuck. You don’t care if I pick a pink drink, or a blue one. If I screw you standing up, or on your back. You care about not having to decide. You want someone else to be dependable for once. To make you feel like if you fall, someone else can catch you. That’s why being tied up makes you feel free. It puts the burden of responsibility on me, that way you can relax and enjoy yourself without feeling guilty. That’s what you want, Fun-Size. To feel like you matter enough for someone else to try.”

Blake slipped the book into his inner coat pocket, switched off the lamp and tucked his apartment keys into his pants. He intended to pick Autumn up at her door, but when he opened his, there she was, her hand poised to knock.
“Hello,” he said, surprised. “I was just coming to get you.”
She dipped her chin. “Thought I would pick you up for a change, landlord. Men deserve to be courted, too.”

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