Review: A wonderfully engrossing and sexy tale
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 12, 2010
This book was a surprise. I've read a couple of romance novels involving three individuals, but never found them as compelling as traditional two-person romances. This really pulled me in though and kept me turning the pages to read more. The background story of what appears to be a serial killer preying upon Quinten, Montana was fleshed out in great detail, and the combination of a solid suspense story, extremely well-developed characters and dialog, and an unconventional romance all add up to a very compelling story indeed!Jace Maxwell is a Deputy in Quinten, Montana, a town experiencing a solid growth spurt. When his best friend Hunter left to fight the war in Iraq, Hunter made Jace the legal guardian of Hunter's young sister Sarah. Watching over her with a hawk-like eye, Jace does his best to keep Sarah safe and try to scare away possible suitors. Sarah is now 24 years old and works in the Sheriff's department in a clerical/receptionist position. Sarah has been dating the incredibly shy and polite Jasper Simmons, a cowboy on the Hawkins Ranch. Jace never worried about Sarah when she was with Jasper because Jasper is so shy, he can barely get a word out without stuttering. What kind of threat could he pose? What he finds out later though is that Jasper is hopelessly in love with Sarah, Sarah finds him to be the sweetest, kindest, and most gentle man she's ever known, and their relationship is now very intimate and sexual. Jace has a real problem with this when he finds out, as he's fallen in love with Sarah long ago. To make things more complicated, he's also starting to see Jasper in the same light Sarah does.Unknown to Sarah, Jace is attracted to both women and men. He has had relationships with couples before, and they've ended either disastrously or leaving him heartbroken. He views himself as a "third", seeing the couple as the backbone of the relationship, with him being an additional person. He wants more, but feels it's not his place to interfere in a couple's relationship. The story is about all three of them coming to terms with their mutual attraction and love for each other, and forming a threesome where everyone is equal. This is all developed with great detail in dialog and character portrayal. Characters are rich and nuanced and quite endearing, each with their own quirks. Emotions are laid bare in the prose, and empathy is easily generated for even secondary characters (who are equally as well-developed).And beyond the romance/erotica part of the tale, there is a very very compelling story of a killer who performed a ritual slaying. Great detail is put into the police work involved in bringing in this killer. From a suspense point of view, the story is quite gripping, and even thrilling at times. It's a wonderful balance of romantic erotica, deep character portrayals, and detailed detective work. The greatest thing about this story is that it gives so much more than you expect. As with other works from Cameron Dane, you start out expecting a good, well-rounded romantic/erotic story, but end with something much deeper and much more fulfilling than you had hoped for.A solid five stars!