REVIEWED BY CINDY
TITLE: The Master
SERIES: Free Men Series Book 3
AUTHOR: Kate Aaron
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 178 Pages
Blurb:
Being rescued was only the start.
Otiz lies in ruins. As underlord of the region, Lysander knows where his responsibilities lie. He has an obligation to the survivors to rebuild their homes and their lives. But what about his home, his life?
Kai needs help. The damage inflicted on him goes beyond the marks left when he was tortured, but healing him might require more from Lysander than he’s capable of giving. Of one thing he’s certain: Tam and Kai will never be endangered again because of who he is, even if saving them means setting them free.
All Lysander wants is to be left in peace. To recover from the horrors of his experience at the hands of his enemies. But with pressure piling up from every angle, peace is the last thing he’s likely to find. Suffocated by guilt, Lysander begins to spiral. How can he hold everything together, when inside he’s falling apart?
Review:
This is the third and final book in the Free Men series by Kate Aaron and I’m very sad to see it end. This one is told from Lysander’s POV and as the Master, he has a heavy burden.
Lysander is a man with a lot of responsibilities on his shoulders, all of them seeming to conspire to push him away from the two men that he loves, although loving them isn’t something he’s admitted to anyone, even himself.
Tam and Kai mean everything to him but he feels like the best thing he can do for them both is let them go. But it’s not going to be easy.
I loved Lysander in this story. All he wants is to be happy with the two men he’s come to care for more than anything but the circumstances that have brought them all to this point in their lives are threatening to tear them apart.
This series is amazing. The characters are all people that are easy to connect with and understand and the world they live in is interesting and one that begs the reader to explore.
Watching Lysander struggle between duty and love is heartbreaking and he has a few realizations about himself as he watches Tam and Kai help rebuild Otiz. There is one particularly gruesome scene that had me shuddering every time I thought about it, but it’s realistic and honest and totally works for the story. War is hell, so the saying goes, and people do terrible things, in a horrific situation and this scene is definitely the definition of that.
This rebuilding is also where Lysander and Kai’s relationship grows and shapes itself into what it was meant to be. The way they see each other changes and helps them find their way together so that they are Lysander and Kai for each other and not just brought together by their love for Tam.
This book also helps solidify in our minds the different kinds of strength that each man has. We are never in doubt about how much Lysander, Tam and Kai care for each other and the lengths that they would go through to keep each other safe.
I know that at this point that I should probably try and be objective and find something critical to say about this story, or even the series as a whole, but I simply can’t. There was nothing that distracted me enough from the story to warrant any kind of negative remark and as many people know, I am a terrible story snob. I don’t always like that most popular stories and I sometimes see merit in stories most people dismiss, but this story is one of the best that I’ve seen in a while and I don’t mind saying so.
Bad things happen to these characters, but with reasons that make sense, just as the good things that happen to them do. I sometimes find authors throwing in gratuitous angst just to work the reader up without it serving any purpose in furthering the story and it’s something I dislike.
Ms. Aaron adds just the right amount of stress and anguish to make the story believable and the character’s motivations are never called into question.
This is an excellent example of the kind of story we need to see more of in this genre.
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