Unbound

By: Cara McKenna

Narrated by: Lucy Rivers

Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's Summary

Merry's lost a lot recently - first her mother, then close to a hundred pounds. Feeling adrift, she strikes out in search of perspective. A three-week hike through the Scottish Highlands was supposed to challenge her new body and refocus her priorities, but when disaster strikes, she's forced to seek refuge in the remote home of a brooding, handsome stranger. Rob exiled himself to the Highlands years ago, desperate to escape his own self-destruction. Haunted by regrets, he avoids human contact at all costs . . . but when Merry turns up injured, he can't very well run her off. And as he nurses her back to health, Rob can't resist his guest's sweet demeanor - or her flirtatious advances. The igniting passion between them rouses a secret appetite Rob has long struggled to keep hidden. But Merry craves nothing more than to help Rob surrender to his desires, and the journey draws the lovers into an entirely different kind of wilderness.

©2013 Cara McKenna (P)2013 Tantor

Critic Reviews

"McKenna is my go-to author for gritty, hot love stories full of honest emotion." (Victoria Dahl)

Near Perfect

I loved that the story seemed entirely plausible, though based on fate and good luck. But that’s true in life many times; serendipity has a role. I also loved how the coupling unfolded. It was yummy with its romance, its maturity, its pacing, and the immense sharing beyond sex. There are few things more appealing than being witness to a strong man becoming willingly vulnerable with a mate who offers him the safety to do so.
McKenna has the uncommon, but oh so delicious, ability to be utterly and amazingly evocative with almost every word. For me, I equate her writing ability and her ability to draw listeners/readers in with the same ability that author Megan Hart—another fave of mine—has. This ability is far too rare and, as such, always such a pleasant find for me, especially among authors of romance. It shows that romance authors can be as exquisite at their craft as any other “serious” author.
Regarding the romance, listeners should know that it’s not explicit with sexual language nor the description of the sex act, though it still might be too much for some listeners. It’s sensual and detailed but not exactly explicitly erotic, at least not in the common raunchy sense, which I’m not opposed to either. In fact, I think the sex act, intercourse that is, is fully described only twice, though there are other sexual encounters, albeit not numerous, IMO. These encounters primarily take the form of the h dominating the H.
The only negative for me and the only aspect that prevents this recording experience from being a five overall is that the author failed to clearly distinguish between words spoken and words thought. I struggled several times with the unclear line made between spoken words and thought words; that problem occurred too often, especially in the first 5 hours of the story. Still, it didn’t detract from my pleasant experience with a McKenna novel once again. Thus, I eagerly await another.

Acceptance

Cara McKenna takes a dark sexual secret and turns it into a loving acceptance. In Unbound there are only two characters, Mary who loves unconditionally and Rob who learns to love himself unconditionally. The setting is a 19th century cottage that has not been upgraded; so there's no electricity or running water. There are nights next to the fire stove however where slowly Mary and Rob are able to reveal each of their past lives and the effect those events have had on their lives.
This is a love story. It's touching and all encompassing. I was determined to hear it to the end wanting to know the outcome.(I won't be telling you that bit of it however).
Sometimes I've sped up my iPod through the audio book trying to capture the highlights as I go, but not so with Unbound. I didn't want to miss one little word.
It's well written, narrated and performed. I recommend it's worth of the 1 credit.

Beautiful story but beware of fetish

I thought the story was ok but the fetish proved to be too much for me because he need to be treated bad, demoralized and put down in order to fully enjoy sex and the only sexy scenes were about that.

PASSIONATE, EMOTIONAL & INTENSE

Captivating, compelling and complex are just a few adjectives I'd use to describe this powerful and profound listen that only has two characters in it. Chatty, kind and thoughtful Merry is an American who's on holiday Hiking alone around Scotland but she gets in trouble and stumbles on a remote old cottage inhabited by English Hermit Rob. Underneath a gruff exterior handsome Rob is a broken man with deep emotional scars caused by regrets over his addiction and shame because of his sexual desires which has made him unable to cope with life's pressures and Merry has her own insecurities but through patience and understanding they help each other to overcome then conquer their individual demons from the past.

It certainly wasn't what I was expecting but I was pleasantly surprised by this haunting listen which turns two very different people's self-loathing into a journey of self-discovery, self-improvement, acceptance and, in the end, redemption. It was an atmospheric, erotically charged, heartbreaking and heart-achingly beautiful tender love story that was slow building but the eventual outcome was well worth the path they had to travel in order to get their dream HEA.

Worth a credit? A very well written, enjoyable, moody, character driven, sexually charged, passionate and intimate story that will stay with you long after the listen ends. However, it had a bit of an abrupt ending so I longed for an Epilogue and, at times, it was difficult to distinguish between the verbal as opposed to the inner dialogue. But YES, well worth a credit.

Unlikely male sub story

This book was another untraditional female Domme male submissive book. The hero had a kink that made it difficult for him to “feel” he could be around people held by societal norms. I honestly didn’t think his kink was that bad(I’ve done worse) but he was insecure and a woman had never made him feel he was normal for.

I liked that it was untraditional because it made him being a mountain man have purpose. It is essentially a bdsm novel but there was a lot of backstory that gave it a romance feel too.

It’s instalust/love but the scenes were awesome. The heroine really went out of body and they worked well together.

I had some issues with the heroine but they were biased reasons that weren’t related to the story. Overall I loved it. I can’t believe it took me so long to read this gem!

Exceeded My Expectations

I believe this is the first audiobook where I enjoyed listening to the story even more than when I READ the book. And, I DID enjoy reading it. I was hesitant to give this a try based solely on how much I disliked this narrator's reading of another Cara McKenna book I'd LOVED in print (After Hours). However, after enjoying the heck out of another audiobook Lucy Rivers narrated, I felt compelled to give this one a go and was immensely entertained by her performance. Exceptionally well done all the way around!

A very tender love story.

If you could sum up Unbound in three words, what would they be?

Intense, emotional and tender.

What did you like best about this story?

This was a true love story. The subject matter was very different but the story was told so well that it worked. My only negative about the book is that the ending seemed "unfinished". I love my HEA but I'm not 100% sure that I got it.

Which character – as performed by Lucy Rivers – was your favorite?

Rob. Fantastic.

Any additional comments?

Now I am on a mission to find every Cara McKenna book.

I am in love with Cara McKenna.

Would you consider the audio edition of Unbound to be better than the print version?

I have read almost all of her books. Hard Times being one of my favs. This book was really interesting. A hermit hiding from his past sins in a tiny little house in Scotland. A woman having just lost over a hundred pounds, finally finding herself and the body she is in, hiking over Scotland. The chemistry was great and his fetish was so sexy. It was like looking in a window and spying on these two people and their string of issues. yeah ok I admit to being a wee bit of a voyeur. Read it!!!!!

Wow- one of the best I’ve listened to this year

This is definitely in my top 20 best books of all time. So many romance novel are based on one of 5-6 basic premises but this is truly unique! Kinky as hell, and oddly believable, the characters are the kind that stick with you.
A few weaknesses: I really do wish there had been a epilogue- I want to know how it worked out! The book was so good it really deserved a narrator that could do a proper English/Scottish accent! But I forgot about it after awhile. And the cover is ridiculous -this sat in my library for six months because the beefcake cover photo led me to believe it was just another common romance novel -it’s really not! Get new cover art!!
Still I loved it! It’s one of those books that makes you sad it’s over.

meh...

It was ok, but I didn't find myself wanting to know what happened after. Worse yet, I didn't want to HEAR what happened. This narrator did fine with the female character (that's how invested I was...I've forgotten their names), but the guy's voice was AWFUL. He was supposed to be British and didn't have an accent. Instead, he just made these gutteral grunts most of the time...like Ron and Harry impersonating Crabbe and Goyle. There weren't any other characters...just a guy who made bad choices and couldn't get over them...or himself...and some American-trying-to-find-herself-on-holiday