2-3-4 Challenge discussion

Laura and I are reading
.

All are welcome to join.

I've been naughty and started a trilogy Friday. Thought I could shift to Rivalry. Wasn't the case. So I'll be starting a bit late but as we have 2 time zones this will not be a problem. It's almost 8pm here.

Are you reading all four books in April?

Jonetta I don't think there's a time frame.

Both Laura and I hate cliffhangers so knowing us we'll motor along as we can.

We will be starting this weekend with the first book.

Okay, I’ll set the first book up on the bookshelf and add the others as you get to them.

Hhmmm dang it sounds intriguing

Michelle wrote: "I've been naughty and started a trilogy Friday. Thought I could shift to Rivalry. Wasn't the case. So I'll be starting a bit late but as we have 2 time zones this will not be a problem. It's almost..."

😮Kidding. Start whenever. I didn't want to be in your shoes so I thought I'd read The Simple Wild for the third time but that backfired. I'm in a Jonah Calla hangover right now. 😂

Shelby wrote: "Hhmmm dang it sounds intriguing"

It's KU if that helps.

Jonetta wrote: "Are you reading all four books in April?"

I'm guessing I will since all about same couple.

Laura wrote: "Michelle wrote: "I've been naughty and started a trilogy Friday. Thought I could shift to Rivalry. Wasn't the case. So I'll be starting a bit late but as we have 2 time zones this will not be a pro..."

The two of us are hopeless but I will start this.... Today? 😂 🤣 🤣 🤣

No, only joking. We can't postpone this again. We've been doing it for years now. I've got a few chapters left of the last book and it's a fast read. So this afternoon it is.

Jonetta wrote: "Okay, I’ll set the first book up on the bookshelf and add the others as you get to them."

Thank you Jonetta. As you can see Laura and I are hopeless. I actually started this thread discussion half in hope that it will make us at least start.

I’ve started! I’m not far though but I believe Celia has met her match.

Starting. Finally.

I love how she knows a game is being played but she just can't see what it is.

You are right she has met her match.
I actually sad for her. To always veer to the negative when she could so easily have turn to the positive.

I am done with the first book.This reads like it is setting up the rest of the series so it took me a little while to get into it but once(view spoiler)[they get married I am totally hooked. Oh who am I kidding, I was hooked at the sex club lol<\spoiler> (hide spoiler)]

As much as I hated her in Fixed I’m liking her a lot. She is totally naive that she believes she can get the best of him. I think that the games her and Hudson played were highschoolish compared to what he is about.
The last line of this book is WTF!

So(view spoiler)[I love OW drama so I was wondering hoping he’d be flaunting his mistresses in front of her. Like will Sasha show up in London, but with what he is really planning that seems small. <\spoiler> (hide spoiler)]

Sound like you are way ahead of me. I've got some catching up to do.

I'm halfway through Ch 10.

He has mistresses? Somehow I thought more submissives than mistresses. Or am I reading him wrong.

I still trying to figure him out.

Michelle wrote: "He has mistresses? Somehow I thought more submissives than mistresses. Or am I reading him wrong.

I still trying to figure him out."

Celia calls them his mistresses (he might have too I think) then she switches and calls them his whores lol

That does sound like something she would say.
I must say I'm still not liking Celia.

Michelle wrote: "Sound like you are way ahead of me. I've got some catching up to do.

I'm halfway through Ch 10."

No pressure take your time. I don’t sleep much and usually read most of the night.

Somehow I missed you writing you're finished with the first book.
Are you jumping into the second book or are you waiting for me to catch up?

Yes it's taking me awhile to really get into it.. Mainly for me it's my frustration with Celia. She's rwally is naive although she thinks she is clever. All these games.

As you said what she and Hudson did is high-school ish. But then she sees them as games and Hudson saw it as experiments. How to be or act human. Or what are human emotions, feeling and reactions.

She is a shell of a person that got hooked into this and now has no idea how to be a human being that have a whole range of emotions, interactions etc. The fact she has no friends is a redflag.

OH I just met Sasha and yes this is heating up. Have you red The Open Door?

Michelle wrote: "Yes it's taking me awhile to really get into it.. Mainly for me it's my frustration with Celia. She's rwally is naive although she thinks she is clever. All these games.

As you said what she and H..."

I have not read that. I’m behind with her books. I still haven’t read the novellas or Chandler with Fixed.
There is a hint of an issue with Celia’s uncle, that may explain why she is the way she is, but remember in Fixed Hudson did her dirty so that is a reason also.
When I say I like her it’s between her and Edward so I’m team Celia. And yes I believe it’s war.
And yeah I’m starting the next tonight but I won’t say anything until you are ready.

Sorry Laura. It's a slow read for me. Mostly because I don't like Celia. My record is stuck I know but I just keep getting sidetracked. At least I'm up to her being in London.

Why does she not realise that she is the game. The more she tries to win against Edward the more she looses.

WTF indeed. I did not see that coming. Nor can I see him capable of it.

This first book is really just the beginning. You end up with more questions and frustrations.
That Uncle Ron? There is definitely a story there. And it sound like if happened pre-teens. The question is does the mother know?

What is Edward really doing? I mean I buy he wants the father's share. But if I remember correctly Hudson bought the father out . Or does Hudson just own controlling shared. The things he's said makes me believe that there is a kernel of truth to what he told his children when they met her.

All round there is all these truths coming out but we're heading into secrets and hiding true feelings.

All I know is I feel sorry for Celia. The more I get to know her the more I feel she has PTSD. I think whatever happened with the uncle set her on this road of having to control everything. Having to shut down and be empty. Does Edward really know all her secrets and know this game he is playing is the best way to break her out of that high tower surrounded by a moat she had build and live in?

Im starting book 2 now.

You are right about the questions. There are clues that I think? there is more to it? The shares to the company is an excuse. I think one of her games was against someone in his family maybe. He said or thought it that he was planning this for years. Did she cause his wife to leave? His father’s death? The fact that Camilla is involved makes me think she burned her too or why would she hate her so much or care what Edward is doing.
He moved all her possessions into his house. The diaries must be there and those will come into play somewhere down the line.

I’m reading the box set so hard for me to say where I am in book 2. This is like psychological warfare. His manipulation is interesting.

It bugs me that she just follows him so easily, like he will bark sit down Celia, and she’ll curse him in her head but she sits right down. Ughhh.

OK good I'm also reading the boxset. Was wondering myself how to keep track when discussing.

You're ahead of me but that usually. Darn time zones.

Anyway. From what you are saying all that could be possible but I'm thinking she is the tool to use against her father. She would have been to young for his father. Maybe the wife...

Haven't yet sussed the sister. But there is hatred there. But now I'm intrigued.

As for Celia easily following his instructions? I think she is submissive to and for the right person.

That is my other go to genre to read. So to me it's reading like she is soarly in need of letting go.
Her whole personality is that of someone that was hurt or neglected and now refuse to be anything but independent, strong and in control. Of everything around her. She is shut down and. I think Edward, if not for his own agenda, would be good for her. The signs are all there.

This might have started as a game on her part and revenge on his but they are what the other need if only they would just tap in to the emotions and feeling for one another.

Michelle wrote: "OK good I'm also reading the boxset. Was wondering myself how to keep track when discussing."

We can say percentage of where we are? Like I’m 37 percent right now.

Michelle wrote: "You're ahead of me but that usually. Darn time zones.

Anyway. From what you are saying all that could be possible but I'm thinking she is the tool to use against her father. She would have been to..."

That’s true about the age he was 13 so that’s theory gone lol

Michelle wrote: "As for Celia easily following his instructions? I think she is submissive to and for the right person.

That is my other go to genre to read. So to me it's reading like she is soarly in need of l..."

I don’t read this genre much so I’m not that knowledgeable. I like it though.

I still want my OW drama and I don’t think I’m going to get it.

Laura wrote: "Michelle wrote: "OK good I'm also reading the boxset. Was wondering myself how to keep track when discussing."

We can say percentage of where we are? Like I’m 37 percent right now."

Yes please. I'm at 24%

Laura wrote: "I still want my OW drama and I don’t think I’m going to get it."

I don't think so either. 😂
Especially after how she shut down the stewardess on the way to the honeymoon

Michelle wrote: "Laura wrote: "I still want my OW drama and I don’t think I’m going to get it."

I don't think so either. 😂
Especially after how she shut down the stewardess on the way to the honeymoon"

Damn

41 % and I thought I was getting what I anted and it was just Camilla damn.

What do you think about what her uncle did?

I’m done and my thoughts on this one.(view spoiler)[I’m surprised that they declared their love so early in the series. What are the next two books going to be about. Well I guess with the title revenge we know about the third anyway. In a way I am a little let down that his game was really about the shares and business, not too original. I was expecting a more WOW reveal. His sessions that just involved talking got a little tedious. I thought the breaking would be more sexual and physical in nature.
I’ll be starting the next later tonight (hide spoiler)]

Sorry Laura RL did a number in me. Friend popped in out of the blue and spend the whole day. I'm so Far behind. I'm at 30%.

He has just landed for valentines day. Can I just say that island stay? Nope that's just cruel. But I understand. Part of the breaking her down. Was it necessary? I have to wait and see.

Laura wrote: "41 % and I thought I was getting what I anted and it was just Camilla damn."

Th eway that was written I don't blame.
Then out gets.... Camilla. 😂 😂 😂

Laura wrote: "What do you think about what her uncle did?"

That is sick. The grooming. And the father's reaction.

Laura wrote: "I’m done and my thoughts on this one.I’m surprised that they declared their love so early in the series. What are the next two books going to be about. Well I guess with the title revenge we know a..."

You're right. His reason for it was anticlimactic. But I had thought it was something like that. But to want to kill her for his revenge? Surely there would or could have been some other way. His been plotting since he was a teenager. Some holes there lik ehow he missed the fact the uncle was in charge of the London branch.

As for the sessions. I wasn't bother by the nonsex. I think he realised early on, before discovering the journals, that sex wouldn't really be a means to break her down. A person with tuis many barbs and walls and emptiness, nothing but the breaking of that would have worked in her. She was hiding too much. It was obvious she has no self worth, no matter how she thought she had any. The isolation from everything and everyone was a way to break her as well. Being alone with your own thoughts with nothing to do but be with yourself? Great and powerful weapon to use on someone that played games with no regard for the real consequences to others or herself.

I had a love /hate thing going for both Celia and Edward. And like you I know what the next book is all about. But then another? And a novella? I'm just hoping the tone changes now because I'm over all the Celia of it all.

The murder was to get the shares because they would go to him. upon her death. Great way to put it, a Love/Hate thing. I agree. I still like her more than him. I’m still not buying with how she behaved in the past that she would bow down to him so easily. Sure she challenges him, complaints about it while she’s obeying. That drives me nuts. I still am not convinced she has a submissive bone in her body. I gave 3 1/2 stars for both but I rounded up.
I’m very early into the next and it’s interesting so far(view spoiler)[in that we are getting Edwards story in the past and he just met Marion. I’m interested in that whole thing. Also he said he is more into psychological sadism than physical so now his behavior makes more sense to me. (hide spoiler)]

I suppose for me him saying he is going to kill her was out of character for him. Well I suppose we don't really know him. What a the glimpse I got didn't say he would ever do so.The thing about only having once voice l the thing.

As for her easy capitulation. 🤔 Hmmm. It wasn't that difficult for me to buy it. He left her there for 3 months at a time. Alone, even with the other families. She wouldn't really have been part of them. Sure she did start interacting more with them but I think in her mind she wouldn't ever have been easy with them.

See.To me she was always a bit of a rich, princess personality. A poor is me because my parents never really gave me any parental attention. So she could and did become a facsimile of what and how a human being should be. Alll the games she played. No real friends or anyone close to her. To go from that to being a prisoner on an island, cut off from technology etc. It would speed up things. Then add that he was pulling her strings. The gifts. The treats. Even those visits forced her to confront her pass.

I don't know. I believe that she was forced to become more in touch with her feeling and if you are reliant on one man for everything? Wouldn't a sort of Stockholm syndrome start happening?

I agree with the 3.5 *. I understand where the author is going with it all. Is it always believable? Not so much. This is fiction and sometime I feel that is being used to fill gaps. Don't look too closely or too logically. Just except human failure is sometimes part of it.

Why is it that at the end of the book I feel like my question were answered but not all and now I have more.
Is this thrid boom a switch from her to him? Do we finally get to see his pov? I'm hoping...