Review: Aleatha Romig is pure genius.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 19, 2014
Aleatha Romig gives us a special treat in this expanded version of what she originally thought would be a simple companion novel. Instead we see the events play out through the eyes of all the men in Claire's life. Tony, Harry, John, Brent and Phil.... They all get a voice.When I read the third book in this series there was a a huge gap of information that I was dying to know about. I wanted to know how Tony survived while in prison, being away from Claire & Nichol and how he came to the conclusions he came to by the time he was released. But beyond just Tony's revelations we got the insight into the others.Phil. I has skeptical of him early on. But his caring for Claire and Nichol in this put me at ease and actually made me appreciate him far more than I expected.Brent. Can you say, rock & a hard place? Getting to see Brent struggle with the two sides of Tony and his feelings of loyalty and friendship towards the man.Harry. Now, I was not a fan of Harry. Not really at all. But I felt horrible for him through most of this. He was in difficult spots with every woman he ever loved and dealing with that on top of the way he had to let go of his life for his job made me actually change my tune. By the final chapter of this book I was ready to start asking for a Harry book.John. My thoughts on John are really skewed by his c*** of a wife. Emily. Jesus did I want to punch her in her face, over and over and over again. John dealt with her much better than I would have. I think I would have smothered her in her sleep. For me, John's POV was more of a window into Emily rather than John. But you saw how he did care for Claire as a protector, being the one in her life when she lost her parents and I think he balanced Emily out enough to ensure that Claire and Tony could eventually get her to forgive him for the past.Tony. What an emotional mess this man made me. I was so choked up during most of his parts in this and then completely lost it towards the end. The change he made and how he realized so much while he was placed into a situation that he placed Claire in, gave me the knowledge to be at peace with my feelings towards him. Tony was one of those characters that you struggle with. You know that you shouldn't love him, hell liking him is immoral... but you just can't help it. In this book, you see beyond all that - you see the man and the reason behind his actions. It doesn't change what he did, but it gives you the hope that you need that he truly wishes he could undo all the damage that he did.Now this story does expand just past the third book (eventually). And although I've seen a few posts about this being repetitive, for me that was not the case. Sure we now how the pieces all fit together, but we only saw what Claire allowed us to see - we didn't see these events through the eyes of the major players.Aleatha Romig's mind must be a wonderfully eff'd up place to be. Pure genius is contained within the folds of this series. For those that loved the Consequences Series, these add-ons are must reads.