Review: 4 out of 5 stars - superb world building
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 8, 2014
I don't even know where to start with this story. Okay,  I'll start with my some of my thoughts as I read. To enjoy this story, I  had to ignore what I would normally expect in a story.  About a quarter of the way in, I had to somehow stop expecting things and just read the story for the sake of reading it. Once I allowed the world building to happen things quickly started picking up.  I found myself shaking my head in disbelief one second and my jaw would drop in the next second. Havens knows that she's writing something some of us who like plot and substance might question and that what makes this a fun read.The first in Haven's Psychic Menage series, this does not have an HEA. I like HEAs. That's my big sticking point with this. I know it's a series but that doesn't mean I either like or expect an HFN.  What I did like was the world building. The imagination is a wonderful thing folks and Havens has an entire new world for us to play in. There's so many different factions of this new world that you might think that you'll need a dictionary but once you're in it - it all starts making sense.Fay Avalon is one of the best mind travelers and after her last spy job she's questioning what she's always been told by her government. Actually, not only is she questioning it she's set on finding out for herself who's telling the truth. That's always an interesting start for an adventure especially when you think you're on the side of the right and righteous. Fay is no different in her quest until she's discovered and shot down by her own leaders.  Discovered by the Aban brothers - Arlo, Drakker and Logan - Fay has to defend her role as a spy.  Arlo and Drakker are immediately captivated by Fay's looks and it quickly turns into love. But the rules of the Aban's brothers people say that one women can marry a line of brothers - it has to be all the brothers. It's too bad that Logan, the leader of his people, doesn't feel the same way about Fay that his brothers do.I'm the world's (okay, maybe not the world but I'm a big fan) biggest menage fan but I have trouble with more than two guys. The logistics of it boggle my mind and it's really just too many body parts for me to keep up with.  Now other than that - I was all in with it.  Fay's entire existence is dependent on Logan's acceptance of her because she can't go back to her world or she'll be executed as being a traitor for even questioning her government.  The question begs answering - what does she have to do to convince Logan that though she's a spy, she's not there as a spy for her government. Instead she's there to prove that either her government is lying or Logan's people are the savages and killers that she's been told that they are.The story took me a while to get into but I'm glad I stayed with it because once the action started I was fully committed. I think part of my problem was that I had too many external distractions that would take me away from reading and then I when I restarted reading I would have to get my mind back into the mindset when I left. On occasion, that proved to be a bit tricky for me.  Like I said, this is not a world where things happen the way I expected them to. so my headspace had to be where the author wanted me to be, not where I wanted to be. If I've not mentioned this before - that the world building is good.  The rules, governing and lifestyle of everyone and everything makes it fun and interesting. Even the concept of mind travelers and how they did what they did made me think outside my little box.The progression of the love story between Fay and her guys is relatively subtle but the sex isn't. The sex scenes are long and involved - maybe because there's 4 people involved and that takes a lot of explaining.  To add a little mixture in the plot, the world that Fay is from has instituted a ban on sex other than for procreation so she's got some repression to deal with from a lifetime of that law. Interestingly, the old world thinking only seems to show itself after the sex act has been completed. But I'm not judging. I actually started skimming over those scenes to get back to the story and the action. There's a lot of action. It's not easy being on the run from your government and always having to defend yourself with the people who claim to love you. Fay definitely doesn't have a easy go of it. But she keeps getting stronger and does allow the brother s to easily ride roughshod over her.The brothers each have their own personality and each bring something different to the menage. Logan seems to have the biggest piece of their story though and that was okay. Maybe we'll find out more about the brothers as we get further into the series. There's a lot of story to read and many things to tell. There's a war that's being waged. There are things to fight for and everyone has a reason for wanting the other guy to lose; for some it's about survival while for others it's power and control. I haven't figured out whose side I'm on yet because everybody thinks they're right but I will tell you that I'm going to keep reading to find out.Happy reading folks!Rating: B-*ARC provided by authorReview posted on www.redhotbooks(dot)com