Reviewed by Vicki

TITLE: Consent

SERIES: Power Exchange #3

AUTHOR: A.J. Rose

PUBLISHER: The Grim Writer

LENGTH: 350 pages

BLURB:

Content Warning: contains scenes of rape and graphic violence and may not be suitable for sensitive readers. Discretion advised.

Cole, what’s wrong?

Former detective Gavin DeGrassi likes his new life and his job as a university professor, molding the minds of the next generation of law enforcement. It keeps him in the field he loves, but out of the media and out of the danger he seems to draw. He’s settled and happy with his partner and Dom, Ben Haverson.

It’s Myah.

Until a middle of the night phone call from his brother, Cole, whose desperation and fear yank him back into the world of criminals and countdowns. Only this time, the stakes are much higher.

She’s missing.

Detective Myah Hayes, Gavin’s sister-in-law and former partner, has a past of her own, one that has returned to claim her. With only their instincts and the help of a rogue CSI, Gavin, Ben, and Cole will do whatever it takes to find Myah, following a flimsy trail of evidence to Chicago, where all is not what it seems—dirty cops, moral pimps, and a nest of snakes who call themselves businessmen.

They’re on a collision course with the worst of humanity, and more than Myah’s life is caught in the vortex. Can they find her, and if they do, will there be anything left to save?

REVIEW:

I’ll start by saying this is not an easy book to read, and the warning in the blurb is correct. I admit I had to skip over a bit of the more violent parts. But it is a VERY good book. When I saw this book coming out I wanted to read it, thinking I had read the first ones, but as I started this one I realized I hadn’t. I wish I had, this is the continuation of a story and I do feel I missed something.

Gavin and Ben are in an established D/s relationship, they have been together some time when this book starts. Ben is a Psychiatrist (Psychologist? I can’t remember which and what the difference is!), Gavin was a Detective, but is now a criminology professor. Some bad shit has happened to them, and Gavin has been really damaged. He’s healed mostly, with the attention, love, and dominance of Ben, but he still has some issues. Ben does as well, he’s still struggling with left over crap from their ordeals, but they are both getting better. I liked that this is the continuation of an existing story, with an established couple. They are a great pair of main characters, strong yet damaged, just how I like them.

The plot of this book is intense. Gavin’s former partner on the police force, Myah, disappears. Myah is married to Gavin’s younger brother Cole, who is a CSI expert. There isn’t much evidence for the local police to go on, so Gavin, Ben, and Cole decide to take up the investigation themselves, knowing how the system works, both for them and against them. Myah was run out of Chicago before she came to Saint Louis, so the three men start to look in to her past. There is some evidence that points them that way, and off to Chicago they go. I won’t go in to detail about what happens, but it involves dirty cops, rent boys, human trafficking, drugs, and violence. We follow Gavin as the three men work through this big messy story, I liked that part just fine. They work together well and not well, depending on the day. It is obviously a stressful situation for all of them, and way too much time passes when all sorts of bad things could be happening to the woman they all love. Gavin seems like a pretty wound up guy, Ben keeps him in line with a little D/s now and then. Gavin and Cole love each other and hate each other as they go through this investigation. All three push and pull at each other.

The part I strongly disliked about this story was what happens to Myah. It is not pretty. We see from her perspective, exactly how horrible it is, she is kidnapped, drugged, raped, tortured, starved and beaten. It was very hard for me to read, and I did skip over parts. Others are involved in this as well, caught up in the human trafficking ring. I can handle “off page” rape and abuse, but I don’t do well reading it first person. It was a challenge for me to get through it. Yes I knew it was there going in to the book, but I didn’t realize it was first person and how hard it would be for me. Not the authors fault at all, but not my thing!

So we follow Gavin as he, Ben and Cole struggle to rescue Myah, and we follow Myah as she falls more and more in to this dark and nasty pit of hell. The story worked for me, the details, the plot, the characters all were perfect for this world. There are moments of loveliness, Gavin and Ben take a man as a third for an evening, partly as a way to get information, but partly because he’s beautiful and attractive to them. I had no problem with that, but some folks who don’t like sharing in an established relationship might not like it. I loved it, they all got what they needed, both physically and as part of Myah’s rescue plan. There are a couple of boys with Myah that added a nice amount of extra drama to the story, I was quite wrapped up in their issues as well. The bad guys were all horrible and I hated them, I like my bad guys clearly bad, and they were.

The solution/big action scene was excellent.I’m trying to figure out how to say what worked without giving anything away… I’ll just say that I liked that Gavin, Ben, and Cole were involved, but were not vigilantes going in with guns blazing, saving the day totally unassisted. It was a big involved ending, and it wasn’t all happy. The ending to the drama I mean. The ending of the book was perfect! Sweet, realistic (things are not perfect for all of them), and there were some characters from earlier in the story I was happy to see included. I actually got a bit misty eyed and said “aww….”.

Overall I liked the book. I was discussing it on Facebook today with someone and she said she was sorry I didn’t enjoy it. Enjoy isn’t the right word. I appreciated it as a well written, dark and disturbing story, but I can’t say that I enjoyed it. I enjoyed parts of it, I love BDSM books and that part of this book was excellent. I enjoyed Gavin and Ben’s relationship and the way D/s works for them. I enjoyed the intensity of the plot, I enjoyed the characters and their interaction, both the main ones and the extra ones. But this is not a light book, the plot IS intense and dark, and there is a lot of trauma and abuse, not to Gavin or Ben, but still it was there and it was nasty. I did not enjoy that part! It fit within the story, this is not a complaint by any means, and I’m not lowering my rating because I didn’t like that part of it.

I would recommend this book to people who can handle intense BDSM with some pain. People who can handle reading the rape and abuse will do fine with it. If that is an issue for you, this may not be the best choice. If you have read the first two books, you’ll want to read this one. I’ll probably go read the first two at some point, I’d like to get the beginning of Gavin and Ben’s story. Carefully, but I’ll read them.

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

Amazon

Amazon.uk

ARe