Book: The Art of Three
Self Published
Contemporary romance
Publication date: March 28, 2017
Length: 253 pages
Reviewed by Erin
Synopsis
Jamie Conway has a charmed life. At 24, he's relocated from Dublin to London to star in his first feature film. Unfortunately, he also has one very big problem: He has a huge crush on his happily married costar.
British heartthrob to middle-aged women everywhere, Callum Griffith-Davies should have more sense than to flirt with his new-to-the-business colleague, but good judgement isn't one of the qualities for which he's known.
Nerea Espinosa de Los Monteros Nessim has better things to do than fret about her husband's newest conquest. She’s busy planning her daughter's wedding at the family's farmhouse in rural Spain. Besides, she and Callum have been married and polyamorous for almost 30 years; she's content to let him make his own bad choices.
But when Nerea flies to London after her artwork is selected for a high-profile museum show, she falls for Jamie too. Soon Callum, Jamie, and Nerea have bigger problems, and surprises, than international logistics. From ex-lovers and nosy neighbors to adult children with dramas of their own, The Art of Three is a contemporary romance that celebrates families, and farce, in all shapes and sizes.
British heartthrob to middle-aged women everywhere, Callum Griffith-Davies should have more sense than to flirt with his new-to-the-business colleague, but good judgement isn't one of the qualities for which he's known.
Nerea Espinosa de Los Monteros Nessim has better things to do than fret about her husband's newest conquest. She’s busy planning her daughter's wedding at the family's farmhouse in rural Spain. Besides, she and Callum have been married and polyamorous for almost 30 years; she's content to let him make his own bad choices.
But when Nerea flies to London after her artwork is selected for a high-profile museum show, she falls for Jamie too. Soon Callum, Jamie, and Nerea have bigger problems, and surprises, than international logistics. From ex-lovers and nosy neighbors to adult children with dramas of their own, The Art of Three is a contemporary romance that celebrates families, and farce, in all shapes and sizes.
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Review
There are some books that when you read them, you know when you've finished they will stick with you for a long time. Whether it's the characters, the writing, the story itself--or a combination of all or some of those things--something will resonate deep in your soul and make its mark. Such is the case with the gorgeous and emotional, The Art of Three written by the duo of Erin McRae and Racheline Maltese. I finished this book over a week ago and still find myself thinking about this book. I've never read anything by either of these extremely talented writers, but I can guarantee you that I'll be changing that immediately. After this book, I want all their words.
If you've ever wondered about and been fascinated by poly relationships then The Art of Three is for you. If you're a fan of romance novels, then this is definitely the book for you. What interested me more than anything is the fact that Callum and Nerea are a happily married couple of more than twenty years. They obviously have an open marriage as both have had numerous relationships with other people while maintaining and sustaining their own marriage. I wanted to see how this was accomplished.
This is a story of love and family and all the ups and downs that come with both. I wasn't at all sure what to expect when I started reading this book, but from the very first page, I was hooked. Callum and Jamie and Nerea are wonderfully complex, layered, and flawed characters. The way these authors have developed each individual relationship, as well as the one between the three of them, was so well done. Each one is unique, giving each person what they need from the other outside of the poly relationship between the three people. It's hard enough to balance time and attention and everyday demands with just two people, with three it's that much more difficult and McRae and Maletese brought this to life so realistically. Callum's fame, Jamie's burgeoning career, Narea's art and being a wife and mother, all of this must be taken into account and feelings and thoughts must be shared openly and honestly. There was SO much communication between them all and gosh, how nice that was to see!
If you've heard anything about this book, don't let the age difference between Jamie and Callum and Nerea scare you. It's a big gap, there's no getting around that, but the more you read about these characters, the less you'll notice it. As for sex, you might expect lots of it based on other books like this, but there's none on page. Oh, there's plenty of it, and the authors let the readers know this, but the intimacy between Callum, Jamie, and Nerea is done through words and actions, not focused on the sex and I found this so refreshing. The writing flowed effortlessly, the setting, especially the parts in Spain were so vivid and evocative, and then all the characters were so likable and engaging, not to mention really great bi and poly representation.The Art of Three is a lush, gorgeous book that I highly recommend. Make sure to check this one out!
Guest Post
Love is love is love is love. We all keep saying it. Lin Manuel-Miranda said it so spectacularly during his Tony Award wins that it became a t-shirt raising money to promote equality. But in the romance genre the fact remains there are still certain expectations about what type of content goes with what type of romantic pairings.
For a long time, these assumptions affected writers of MM and FF romances. Sometimes, they still do, but as the market for both types of books has expanded to include large numbers of books from sweet to erotic, the harmful belief that same-sex content automatically upped the heat level of a book has been fading.
However, as Erin and I have worked to promote The Art of Three, an MMF romance, we’ve found ourselves in a strange position. It’s a ménage, so it must be super explicit, right? Wrong. The Art of Three is a sensual, fade-to-black romance. Although Erin ad I have written many books with very high heat levels, explicit sex just wasn’t right for this particular story about family, community, and international logistics.
Getting that message across, though – whether to Erin’s mom or websites eager to put the book in their erotica sections hasn’t always been easy, mirroring to a certain extent the many people perceive real life polyamory as being solely about lots of sex as opposed to lots of communication and a very expensive calendar and colored pencil habit.
Erin and I are both big believers that polyamorous stories have a lot for readers to identify with in terms of balance, insecurity, and the thrill of new relationship energy whether they’re poly or not.
So love is love is love is love. No matter how many times we have to say it… or how many people are involved.
Excerpt
The cab ride to the flat was silent. Nerea sat in the middle. Jamie was acutely aware of her warmth, especially where their thighs were pressed together. At one point Callum shifted, Jamie assumed to put an arm around her shoulders, but Nerea leaned forward ever so slightly. Jamie felt Callum’s hand warm on his back. Fingers slipped up under his jacket. Jamie wondered if it were possible to spontaneously combust from anticipation.
When they got out of the car in front of Callum and Nerea’s building, Nerea frowned and stepped out of her high heels right in the middle of the sidewalk.
“You’re so tiny,” Jamie exclaimed. He hadn’t realized how high her shoes had been. Or how nice it was to be around a woman who was shorter than him. At five foot eight, most of the actresses and models he worked with definitely weren’t.
“I’m not climbing those stairs in these,” she said like Jamie hadn’t spoken, gesturing at Callum with the shoes.
“This is still an annoying flat.”
Callum laughed. “You love the flat.”
“So do you,” Nerea shot back. “Until you hit your head on the ceiling. Again.”
“The place seemed like a good idea when we got it.”
It was obviously an old and fond argument. Jamie felt privileged to witness it. He stuffed his hands in his pockets, nervous all over again. Callum and Nerea had decades of physical and emotional intimacy between them. Was he a fool to think there was room for him at all, even for a night?
Jamie put his doubts aside when Callum gestured for him to follow his wife up the stairs.
Nerea swung her hips more than was probably necessary, and Jamie watched her magnificent curves as she climbed the flight ahead of him, her shoes dangling from her hand. Below, Jamie heard the now-familiar sounds of Callum locking the front door behind him.
His footsteps were still somewhere down a flight when Jamie got to the top landing and was met by Nerea’s smile and a beckoning crook of her finger. His mouth went dry; Callum was all very well and drop-dead gorgeous, but Jamie had never kissed someone as stunning and completely out of his league as Nerea before.
“Do you not want to?” Nerea asked quietly when Jamie hesitated. She wasn’t being a tease. She, like Callum, genuinely wanted to know.
“No, no, I really, really want to,” Jamie said, nodding with embarrassing amounts of enthusiasm. “I just….”
How was he supposed to say that this was a very nice dream but he was afraid he would wake at any moment?
Before he could get the words out, Nerea went up on her toes, slid her slender arms around Jamie’s neck, and kissed him.
Jamie sighed into her mouth. He had forgotten how nice it was to hold onto someone smaller and softer than him.
About the Authors
Racheline Maltese can fly a plane, sail a boat, and ride a horse, but has no idea how to drive a car; she’s based in Brooklyn. Erin McRae has a graduate degree in international affairs for which she focused on the role of social media in the Arab Spring; she’s based in Washington DC. Together, they write romance about fame and public life. Like everyone in the 21st century, they met on the Internet.
Contacts
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thank you
that is hard but love to me is my children
ReplyDeleteLove is an emotion that encompasses all.
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