Verbose
Ellie is lost. She works hard in her drab office job. She reads, watches movies and does some crafts but she's a homebody. She's not a party animal. But, one night, celebrating with her friend the promotion she thinks she should have gotten, she decides to go to a bar with them. She figured maybe some dancing, a drink or 2 tops, and go home. Instead she is grabbed in an alley and rescued by 2 bouncers. And that was just the beginning.
Spoilers ahead.
This was the most verbose book. Everything was talk, talk, talk. I love dialogue but this wasn't gentle leading, hints or a path of clues to follow. This was a bludgeoning by words. Ellie has parental issues and speaks so hatefully of them. She's had a bad relationship, where it seems like it went from verbal and emotional abuse and was quickly leading into physical. She mentioned being grabbed and having bruises but doesn't mention a beating. She doesn't date anymore. She just exists, both at home and at work. Her friend belittles her in the name of constructive criticism. Belittling is the kindest way to describe the verbal beat down she gave her. The book calls itself a menage but, honestly, the 1 is just there to breed kids. The other is a hapless mess. Their first date is a several page rant about parents. The next is the same but about exes. The guys are hiding their dual natures, which isn't wrong, but take a haranguing over it due to a phone call that was listened in on. Her inner monologues do not match the conversations she has. Her parents offered her up as a gift to the pride, without her consent. One minute she's ripping into them over this, the next she's all on board. One conversation with Rick and she's ready to get busy popping out babies. I'm going to ignore the fact that any place people can access they go hiking through, and a giant lion mural (African lions, not pumas) would garner a crap ton of attention. Especially in the age of drones, Google mapping and satellite pictures. Mud hut villages on the plains of America aren't going to go unnoticed. But, all that aside, she just walks off her job, away from her apartment, her bank account, all of it. Jobs will fire you, if they're decent bosses they may put out an alert or have a home check to see if you're ok. If she owned the apartment, less tricky to walk away from, but it would give them a place to stay in the city. Utilities would be tricky, though. I kept reading, hoping, that Ellie would grow a spine, that she'd make her own choices, that she'd just quit floating. It was frustrating. It didn't feel like love, it felt like knuckling under and co-dependence.