Title: Priest
Series: Confessions #3
Publication Date: August 14, 2018
Length: 290 pages
Reviewed by Meredith
Synopsis
I am complex.
My love is all-encompassing.
And when it comes to my heart, there
is only one rule:
Don’t mess with what’s mine.
Until the age of seven, I was Joel
Alexander Donovan, son of Jimmy.
The man who terrorized a town and
made its citizens fear
the very ground he walked on.
Including me,
the day I realized that ground ran
red with blood.
At age eighteen, I became Priest.
A man without a past.
A man determined to right the wrongs
of my father.
A man who never believed anyone could
love the son of such a monster.
But then a thief stole my heart.
A sweetheart lit up my world.
And I forgot for a moment you should
never turn your back on your enemy.
And thus begins a lesson to those who
would seek to harm: Never underestimate what the Priest will do to protect the
Princess and the Prick.
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Start the series with Confessions:
Robbie today!
Review
Robbie, book one in the Confessions series, was actually my first Ella Frank book ever. I knew after that book I was going to be hunting down all her books. The reason I gravitated toward this series was because menage is my most favorite trope. The whole arrangement, the psychology, the relationship as a whole fascinates me. With each book in this series the strength, love, devotion, and respect that grows is outstanding.
Priest puts a perfect bow on these books. Yes, the author has said there's another one but this book wrapped up a lot. I was intrigued by Joel Priestly from the very beginning. I wanted his book ridiculous amounts! Now, I knew Robbie was a character from Ella Frank's Temptations series but understand you don't HAVE to read those to enjoy these three men.
In this book things are getting very suspenseful. There's kidnapping, realizations, unbreakable love, and unquestionable trust. Each book brings something special to this series and in this one it really did fill any gaps in this relationship. Robbie, Julien, and Priest are the most imperfectly perfect throuple. Each has their demons (some larger than others) each has their vulnerabilities, but each also brings something to the relationship that makes it as strong as it is. This is all truly tested in this book.
I highly HIGHLY recommend this series. You do have to read Robbie first because it is a growing story arc.... but why wouldn't you want to?
Brilliant book by this author!
Excerpt
CHAPTER ONE
CONFESSION
My name is not Joel Priestley.
My name is Joel Alexander Donovan.
And a long time ago, I was taught that things
aren’t always what they appear to be—and neither are people.
JOEL PRIESTLEY, A.K.A Priest, sat
behind the wheel of his Aston Martin with his hands at the ten and two
positions and his seatbelt fastened. He’d been sitting like that for the past
thirty minutes or so. Ever since he’d pulled the vehicle into its designated
parking spot alongside his and Julien’s—his husband’s—black Range Rover.
Sinatra had been keeping him company,
as Priest tried to block out the phone call he’d made back in his office to
Henri. But no matter how loud he played the charismatic crooner, nothing seemed
to lessen the impact of Henri’s words and the way they had made Priest’s
stomach coil.
“Nice to know you can at least follow an order if it’s to
keep those you love safe… Be careful; keep an eye
out…”
And that was what he’d been doing for
the past thirty minutes or so. Sitting in his car, with his eyes trained on the
rearview and side mirrors, as his paranoia over what used to only exist in the
shadows began to slowly creep back out into the light of day.
Priest gritted his teeth and reminded
himself that Jimmy wasn’t out of prison just yet and likely wouldn’t be for
some time. He wasn’t about to appear out of thin air to exact absolution for
what he believed was Priest’s biggest crime—abandonment. But that didn’t mean
Jimmy hadn’t reached out to the others to find him. To track down the son who
had turned his back on his family if, and when, he walked free.
Priest cursed and slammed the heel of
his palm against the steering wheel, then he reached for the seatbelt’s
release, and as it retracted across his chest, he reached up and shoved it off
his shoulder where it caught. As it snapped into place, Priest pulled the
handle of the door and got out of the car. He needed to get upstairs. To get
inside a locked lobby, where a security guard walked the halls, and his condo
had a deadbolt on the front door. It was one of the main reasons he’d been
interested in Logan’s place to begin with. The additional barriers between him
and those he loved—and anyone who may want to hurt them.
Julien had already texted to let
Priest know he and Robbie arrived home safely. But as of yet, Priest hadn’t
heard anything from Robbie, their boyfriend. Not that he’d expected to. The
last image Priest had of their princess was an ashen face and betrayal in those
usually bright blue eyes, and Christ,
Priest wished he could erase that picture from his mind.
The three of them had been making
such headway lately. They had moved past the getting-to-know-you, comfortable
stage of their relationship, and had been thisclose
to slipping into that space where the heart and soul of the one whose body you
were worshiping was coveted.
But that had all changed now. The
truth about his father having wiped out any trust he may have built with
Robbie, judging by the expression on his face before Priest had left the
brewhouse.
All the joy, and all the happiness,
the closeness the three of them had been reveling in, had been smothered by the
dark cloud that descended on them, and Priest had a feeling it was going to
take a lot of explaining on his behalf before they could get out from under
it—if they ever could.
Priest jabbed the button of the
garage elevator, and when the doors slid open, he ran his key fob over the
panel and hit the floor button. He leaned against the back wall and shut his
eyes, and as the elevator ascended, he wondered how he was going to explain all
of this to Robbie.
He’d only ever had to do it once
before. Only ever found one other he deemed important enough to share this side
of himself with. And he’d been just as apprehensive, just as sick to his
stomach, at the thought of revealing all to Julien, as he was heading up to
face Robert Bianchi.
Priest walked down the hallway toward
their condo like a man heading toward his execution—or the execution of their
new relationship—and when he got to the front door, he paused before entering.
Scanning the hallway, he looked to
his left, where their neighbor lived on the other side of the corridor, before
he took a final glance back in the direction he’d come. Once he was satisfied
there was no one about, he unlocked the door and headed inside.
The first thing he noticed upon entry
was how quiet it was. Lately, when he’d arrived home from work, the TV was on
and there was the sound of someone doing something or other in the living room
or kitchen. But not this afternoon.
Right now, the place felt more like a
library. The kind of space where you should tiptoe and whisper in case you
offended whoever was inside—provided there was someone there to offend in the
first place.
But that was just his paranoia
creeping in again. Of course someone was inside—two someone's, in fact. Julien
had told him so, and when Priest stepped out of the short hallway, he spotted
his husband immediately.
Julien was curled up on the couch
with a blanket over his legs and his phone in hand, and the second Priest moved
into view, Julien’s legs came out from under him and he got to his feet. He
dropped the phone on the cushion beside him, and as the blanket fell from his
lap, it crumpled to the soft rug without a sound.
Julien rushed around the couch and
hurried over to Priest, and when he reached him, Julien took his face between
his hands and pressed a hard kiss to his lips.
“Mon
Dieu, Joel,” Julien said. “I’ve been a mess worrying over you. I’m so glad
you’re home.”
Priest wound his arms around Julien’s
waist, anchoring himself to the man who understood him in ways Priest had never
imagined possible. “You don’t know how much I needed to hear that.”
Julien trailed his fingers down the
scruff on Priest’s cheek and frowned. “Was there really any doubt?”
Priest shut his eyes and let Julien
soothe him in the way that only he could. His touch, his words, this man’s mere
presence—they were all vital to Priest’s survival. Priest let go of Julien’s
waist to cover the hand still cradling his cheek.
There were so many things he needed
to say: “I’m sorry”or “You were right.I should’ve told Robert about
this the second I found out.”But right then, all Priest could manage was:
“There was no doubt. Not about you. Never
about you.”
Julien’s eyes softened as Priest’s
shifted over his husband’s shoulder to the closed door of their bedroom. “Is he
still here?”
“Oui.”
“I…” Priest paused as he searched for
the words. “I wasn’t sure that he would be.”
“I wasn’t either,” Julien admitted,
and when Priest locked eyes with him again, Julien added, “He’s been in there
since we got home. Hasn’t said a word.”
“That was more than an hour ago.”
Julien nodded. “I know. But he made
it very clear he wasn’t ready to talk about things yet.”
Not knowing what to say to that,
Priest put his keys on the coffee table, and Julien placed a hand on his back.
“Listen, he’s processing right now.
What he found out about Jimmy… It’s a lot, mon
amour.”
“It’s more than that, Julien. You saw
his face when he found out.”
“Oui,
I did. I also spoke to him in the car on the way home.”
“He thinks I lied to him. Doesn’t
he?” When Julien didn’t reply, Priest ran a hand through his hair. “Fuck,” he
said. “Fuck. I should’ve told him
about all of this before he moved in.”
“And when should you have done that?
At CRUSH? On our first date with him? Or maybe the second, when he had dinner
here? I’m surethat would’ve made him feel right at home. There hasn’t been a
good opportunity. You know that,” Julien reminded him, and touched his fingers
to the sleeve of Priest’s jacket. “He just needs time to—”
“No,” Priest said, shaking his head.
“Time gives people a chance to distort things. To make them doubt what they
once believed. You and I know that better than anyone. I won’t have him
doubting this. Doubting us, Julien.
Not because of fucking Jimmy. I’m going to go and talk to Robert, and he’s
going to listen, and then the three of us are going to sit down and discuss
this.”
Something flashed in Julien’s
expression, but instead of saying what was on his mind, he let go of Priest’s
arm and said, “Okay.”
Priest narrowed his eyes in question,
but Julien remained quiet. So Priest turned on his heel and headed toward their
bedroom to track down their boyfriend and try to make things right again.
About Ella
Ella Frank is the USA Today Bestselling author of the
Temptation series, including Try, Take, and Trust and is the co-author of the
fan-favorite contemporary romance, Sex Addict. Her Exquisite series has been
praised as “scorching hot!” and “enticingly sexy!”
Some of her favorite
authors include Tiffany Reisz, Kresley Cole, Riley Hart, J.R. Ward, Erika
Wilde, Gena Showalter, and Carly Phillips.
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