Title: The Silver Chain
Author: Primula Bond
Publisher/Year: HarperCollins UK 1/21/14
Length:  400 pages
Series:  Unbreakable Trilogy #1

Overview

Bound by passion, she was powerless to resist.

The Silver Chain is the first in the sexy, passionate and addictive Unbreakable Trilogy by Primula Bond.

One dark evening in London, photographer Serena Folkes is indulging her impulsive side with a night-time shoot. But someone is watching her – mysterious entrepreneur Gustav Levi. Serena doesn’t know it yet, but this handsome stranger will change her life forever…

Serena is fascinated by Gustav, the enigmatic owner of the Levi Gallery, and she soon feels an irresistible pull of attraction. The interest is mutual, and Gustav promises to launch Serena’s photographic career at his gallery, but only if Serena agrees to become his exclusive companion.

To mark their agreement, Gustav gives Serena a bracelet to wear at all times. Attached to it is a silver chain of which he is the keeper. With the chain Gustav controls Serena physically and symbolically – a sign that she is under his power.

As their passionate relationship intensifies, Gustav’s hold on the silver chain grows stronger. But will Gustav’s dark past tear them apart?

My Thoughts

It took me quite a bit of time to warm up to this book i have to admit.  While the idea of the story line is a good one, a small town girl who comes from a less than stellar home moves to London to pursue what turns into a lucrative career as an artist, all the while meeting a sexy, sophisticated patron who helps her make her way and earn quite a bit of money…..it dragged, and kept me wondering when things were going to happen.

We meet Serena at the very beginning of the start of her new life, moving from small town Devon to big city London where she’s hoping to reinvent herself and come into her own as a photographer.  On Halloween night though, her life changes when she meets a man coming out of the shadows who seems both mysterious and very sexy and alluring.  This man of course is Gustav and he will change her forever.  This chance meeting not only stirs up feelings that she only had for her ex at one point in time, but it introduces her to an opportunity at a gallery that she would have never had before.

Gustav has his own sordid past that we only partially learn about through this book through both what he reveals and what his confidant and assistant of sorts crystal shares with us and Serena.  He does things on his own terms and puts those terms forth to Serena in the hopes that she’ll bite and then they can see what happens.  What he asks of her is that she binds herself to him until her last photo is sold, and binding herself means that she’s literally at his beck and call, and is bound in the sense of an actual silver chain.

So…you can begin to see where i’m lost a bit.  the entire time that we’re in this story, we know that he’s got this dark past that’s made him into a control freak and we keep hearing about how Serena was neglected, but that’s really as deep as it gets.  For the first 2/3 of the story, we get relatively tame scenes with the 2 of them, although you get the sense that there will be more to come – you just don’t know when.

Also, the entire time there are these hints of calling him a vampire or implications that Gustav reminds us of one, and there’s a mention of Dickson having a bite on his neck…so i kept wondering if there was more to the story…yet that’s not a big thing that’s ever talked about.

The redeeming quality though are the last few chapters.  The story picks up a bit and you’re left to wonder what the outcome will be….and who will end up with whom.  Throughout, we keep hearing about Serena’s cousin Polly who’s apartment she’s staying at, and her boyfriend that’s this successful guy….yet we don’t know too much more about that…until the very end.

All in all, if i could have fast fowarded to the last 1/3, it would have been better, but i guess we sometimes need to have a slow progression and a round about way to get to the good stuff in order to get us excited about the next installment in the series.  I think that i’ll give it a chance though since my interest is piqued.