The log line on Christine Warren's web page is "Home of sex with fangs and romance in restraints" and she is known for werewolves, werecats and witches, but in The Bargaining there's nary a fang in sight. There are restraints though. The Bargaining follows up a short story entitled The Offering which Ellora's Cave first published in the Pleasure Quest anthology.

Whenever you picture your most noble protagonist, he's shoving everyone else through the door and taking on the bad guys so that the rest of the crew can get away. He's the one with the hero hat, willing to give his life for his companions. In The Bargaining, he's Rebel leader Eric Deacon, making sure his teammate Eve Cartwright and team leader Michael Taggart escape the Protectorate soldiers and royal guards. After fighting like a demon against impossible odds, he ends up in a cell somewhere inside a Protectorate prison, and in true hero fashion, rather than succumbing to the impossible odds, he goes into scheming mode. Luckily for him, he has a potential ally in the palace--Kishantiana, one of the Prince's stable of nitara (sex slaves.)

Unfortunately, all Kishantiana has is a desire to leave Ankhar and a plan. She needs the help of someone like Deacon. She'll get him out of the prison, if he gets her off the planet. That's what her bargain is about.

This isn't exactly the kind of bondage novel with the Dom forcing the sub to submit. It's just a fact of the story that Kishantiana is a sex slave and the male natives of Ankhar all seem to be jerks. Of course, there's a lot more to the plot than what I've mentioned here. There's a whole lot of chemistry between Deacon and Kishantiana which includes a big build-up of tension which Deacon examines in intimate detail--and there is the escape (or not!) from Ankhar.

Christine Warren delivers The Bargaining with a lively and immediate writing style, with smart-alec tongue-in-cheek humor, a fast pace and absolutely delirious sex.

Reviewed By Maitresse
(c) March 2005