When I published The Binding, I wrote this on Amazon:

Women in the Western world are living now through the best time they have ever known. I realise that there will be some who argue with me and accuse me of not being a Feminist, but I stand by the statement. It’s true. What I set out to do in this book was to show the changes in the way women are treated now and how they were treated a century or so ago. I started with two female characters, both of whom Society might see as somewhat dissolute though I hope their underlying humanity shines through; my intention was to compare the way one was dealt with at the end of the nineteenth century with how the other fared in the twenty-first. Then I added two men, one a model of Victorian manliness and one with some pretensions to being a “New Man”.

The story always comes first with me. My characters will make love, because that’s what people do in real life, and I don’t hesitate to show the love-making in graphic detail, but what most interests me is: How are they feeling while they’re doing it? And WHY are they doing it? People in real life have sex for all sorts of reasons, and so do my characters. In another of my books, Lovers in Their Fashion, the time is today, but still we have a man and a woman struggling to find their way to each other. There’s probably a little less sex in that one. The Unquiet House, coming later in the year, goes back to the Victorian/modern day split and is probably the most sexually explicit of all my books to be published this year.

I got a nice review from Manic Reviews:

The Binding by S F Hopkins is an enjoyable read. In the beginning I felt just Rodney and Melissa’s story. It had more substance. However, as the story went on I came around to Caroline and James. Still Rodney and Melissa were my favorites in this book. I like how the past and present intertwined with each other. There was good balance between the past and present. Readers who like historical romance stories with a happy ending and don’t mind some spice should check out this book.

But the review I got today on Amazon really made me feel I’d hit the mark and said what I’d wanted to say in the way I’d wanted to say it:

***** Five Stars Excellent Historical Erotica

I loved this book. There is an interweaving between present and past as Caroline and James are introduced, by way of handwritten letters (they used to do that), from Captain Rodney McKenna, of the Indian Army, and the diary of Melissa Blaze, the great great grandmother of James. Of what significance are these letters and this diary? Captain McKenna states “…because I desire that one, at least, of those that know me shall know the truth behind the calumnious statements of me… with instructions that they be opened one hundred and twenty years from today.”

These letters and diary are of an erotic nature that Caroline and James feel compelled to act upon. It is a brilliant premise to base a story on, similar to the 2004 movie, The Notebook. I found this to be an excellent read. I couldn’t wait to find out what was going to happen next, and why.