The Three

Oh Kristin Ashley. I know I only have myself to blame for not trusting in the darkness roiling under the blurb, but I'd foolishly put my trust in you after the Rock Chick and Colorado Mountain series. I just don't understand. Why make Lucien...the way he is?

I get some parts. If we're running with the realism line, he could've lost his mind after losing his dear mate. If something like that were to happen to the hero and heroine of a romance novel I love, I know sanity, blood, and morals would go flying. But then there was the option to make Lucien...not certifiable. When Leah first very clearly rejected him, he should've patiently coaxed her to the realization that she wasn't getting pimped by her mother to some celebrity vamp. He should've courted her. But no. What he did was bordering rape and I will never be okay with that, no matter how much her body may have “wanted” it. This wasn't even one of those cases where her no's are teasing and clearly mean yes. This was her emphatically putting her foot down only to be steamrolled. Yes, he could've gone insane with the 20 year wait and his obsession must've festered to obscenely dark levels. But no means no.

And then he cheats on her. Yes, he didn't have sex and he didn't even enjoy feeding from Kitty. But feeding is clearly taken seriously among what is continuously dubbed as “his people.” It's described as an intense, arousing, and breathtaking experience. Grand spaces have been built for mass feedings. You're allowed to kill if you so much as touch someone else's concubine. So yes, he cheated on Leah by feeding on the-slamp-which-shall-not-be-fucking-named. AND THEN HE COMES BACK AND HAS THE FUCKING GALL TO TOUCH LEAH. TO KISS HER WITH THAT SLAMP'S TASTE IN HIS MOUTH. TO USE THE SO-CALLED ENDEARMENT, “pet,” ON LEAH WHEN HE'D ALREADY USED IT ON SOMEONE HE DOES NOT HAVE A HIGH OPINION OF. It's already a propriety and demeaning term to begin with. But then he goes and proves that he uses it on anyone expendable. I will never be ok with that and I will never be ok with him. I don't know why he got so mad at Leah when she expressed her disgust at him because he is just that: disgusting.

But Ms. Ashley tried to smooth things over. It seemed like she was saying, “Oh! The Stockholm's Syndrome is OK to stick, y'all! They're LIFEMATES!” The notion that the status of concrete soulmates can take consent out of the question has never crossed my mind before. So I thank Ms. Ashley for that; this book got me thinking.

That and the fact that I was on the edge of my seat throughout this book is what prompted me to give 2 stars rather than 1 star. I was hooked and that screams of the writing and plot's master levels even if all I was gagging for was the scene where Lucien would certainly get hit by a truck or Leah would finally flee her prison.