High profile couple Suki and Gabe Bridgewater have the perfect marriage, or at least, that’s the image they portray to the world. Behind closed doors, Gabe’s dominance in the marriage is unravelling and he decides to test Suki, using Josh as bait.
For Josh it should be just another easy job, but two things go horribly wrong.
One, Josh falls in love with Suki.
And two, Gabe refuses to let her go.
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A phenomenal book that easily ranks as one of the best I've read this year. Amazing to think that this was the product of a relatively new author as well, for she manages to weave together the threads of several very complicated relationships via three different first person POVs and does it in a way that is so skillful that many more seasoned authors could stand to take notes from her I think. The subject matter isn't easy, and some of the behaviors, especially Gabe's, will have you wanting to scream with outrage or wishing you could reach into the book to smack the everloving crap out of him.
Gabriel, more often known as Gabe, is a selfish asshole and a sadistic monster who is quite adept at hiding his true nature behind a friendly, congenial, and often loving facade. While I can understand why Suki was initially eager to try to rekindle things between them and rediscover the closeness they had when they were first married, I believe that if she had allowed him to try anything truly kinky in the bedroom it would have ended up as an abusive situation because he seemed to regard her as little more than a living doll meant to satisfy him however he wanted. He cared nothing for what she wanted or needed - I don't think it ever even occurred to him that she would have wants and needs of her own separate from his. He seemed to have the idea that a wife existed solely to serve her husband, and that it was ok to use any and all tactics necessary to "bring them to heel" if they tried to think for themselves too much. I'm somewhat surprised he ever let her have a career to begin with, though I suppose her media career probably worked to his benefit a lot of the time by giving him greater access to key media figures through her.
Suki starts out kind of weak. She's too willing to follow Gabe's lead and do whatever he wanted her to or told her to do. Still, there were signs right from the beginning that she was beginning to question things, and rebel against him to do things her own way. Stopping at the cafe for an illicit coffee was one thing. The sessions she'd been doing with Babs are another. She does grow throughout the novel, and gains greater self-confidence and courage to stand up for herself. I loved how once she'd really opened her eyes to Gabe's treachery and believed it she was determined to stand her ground and refused to play by his rules.
I liked Josh from the start. Even if his morals were a bit questionable at times, you could tell that he really was a decent guy at heart. He wasn't really hurting anyone doing the honey trap bit - the women he got evidence on weren't forced into anything after all, but still, it was rather shady. I get why he tried to conceal the truth as much as possible, but also had to respect him for coming clean, at least as much as he could, once the situation demanded it. When push came to shove, he sucked it up, swallowed his pride, and did the right thing. I'll be really interested to see where his story goes in the next book(s), as I was quite intrigued by the house, and the other people that seem to just know him despite having never actually met him before.
This book will take you on an emotional roller coaster that will leave you wrung out, angry, exasperated, happy, curious, confused, and probably a few other emotions to boot. Even though there is a resolution to the immediate situation between Gabe, Suki and Josh that comes complete with a (mostly) HEA, there are still many unanswered questions at the end along with teasers that we may have only just begun to scratch the surface of the real story in this series. There isn't a cliffhanger ending per se, more a pulling back of at least one curtain to reveal the stage here encompasses a lot more than we'd been told so far. Besides the glimpse we get of the next level of the story, there are also a few threads of this story that don't get completely tied off. I will not be at all surprised if a few things come back to haunt them in the future from all that transpired here.
Overall this is one that I would highly recommend to anyone who likes romantic suspense, thrillers, contemporary romance, and paranormal romance. Be prepared for a dark and twisted read that will leave you gaping at the lengths to which some people will go to "protect" what they consider to be theirs, but will also have you smiling at how much determination and true love can accomplish when they truly set their mind to it. 5 glowing stars from me for this first book in what promises to be an extraordinary series.
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