Book review

Third son by Dylan lane
Firstly did I enjoy the book … yes. Overall it's a good read and it's quite interesting.
The pov was a little bit sketchy at times as it's kinda third person then but then swaps to first person. Can be a bit jarring.

Now, the story is based around a girl who is brought up my her mother and moves cross country as her mother gets married to a man with two older sons. The big reveal is that this new community she gets introduced to has a belief system which is based on the Indians where the rule of 3 is considered sacred. So 3 partners in a relationship and roll credits… 3 sons. By living by these standards, they would then be guaranteed success and wealth. This is important.

As I mentioned, it's an interesting read, the scenes are definitely steamy but I will just outline a few points for me which didn't sit right.

I get this is a fantasy book and I wouldn't expect anyone to read this and take it as gospel. I understand this and therefore with that in mind I am happy to say that yeah great to read. BUT!! The red flags in this, I don't think I can go without mentioning them and they are the crux of my only concerns on the book.

So the story goes on and the main character Arien gets pulled into a romance with Tanner and Keller, her step brothers which actually I have no issue with. Arien’s mum is the third wife to the brothers father and they both tragically died after giving birth to the boys.. more on that later.. but the father (and members of quite frankly this cult) had a “vision” for the partner of his sons… and you guessed it, it was Arien and so when he met Arien’s mum while she waitressed at a diner, it seemed for me to suggest he got serious once he saw a picture of Arien. She was 17!! His sons were 22. Now although in reality the age gap is 5 years.. it gave me the ick. Serious grooming vibe. So he literally goes yes this is my son's future mate and manipulated his way into ensuring his kids union by… you guessed it and I quote “putting a seed in her belly that very day”. Just eww.

There is a scene near the end where he admits this all to Arian and I'm sorry girl but nothing else matters, I don't care if you love these men and it all turning out good. That was a moment where she should have run for the hills because no matter what, they disrespected you by manipulating you.

The second issue is when Keller gets it in his head that Arian only married him for his brother (at age 18 and after going against everything she held true to conform to this cults traditions) he treated her like utter garbage. This was *** level treatment. Again, we as readers are being sold a narrative that it all worked out in the end as she forgave him. Reality is that it's ***, she shouldn't have forgiven him or let him get away with it that easily and most situations like that do NOT turn out ok in the end as she loves him.

Again, as long as you know this is fiction and basically a fairy tale.. cool. But it's just normalising this *** and expectation of the woman to bend, conform and change your own beliefs and standards and if you love him enough and he loves you then it will all work out golden at the age of 18 is soooo toxic.

Lastly, probably would be an unpopular opinion but the end twist is that Tanners mum poisoned her older *** after she gave birth due to jealousy as she thought her husband loved the *** more and impregnated her first even though this *** was younger. Now this is a repeated theme with another person in a triad (Cassie) being a major antagonist which caused Kellers outburst above (he is not off the hook as he is in charge of his own actions) but the fact of this jealous streak in multiple triads being the root cause of hurtful attacks causing ripple effects for generations.. the grandfather gets involved then by poisoning his remaining daughter to apparently protect the grand*** but also to punish his son in law as he had jealousy over his own brother and wife and honestly I think he sympathised with his Cray Cray daughter. And finally he poisons Arians mother…. Because he thought Arian was going to leave for college and the loss of her mother would make her stay?? *Note, they didn't know how these women were passing and it was believed it was a curse*

NAH dude… nope. If I suspected that my mum passed from an unknown curse.. especially after finding out about the manipulation above and added to that this new guy who I've only known for about a year at this point..nah. I'm getting the hell out of dodge. There is no reality or fiction I want to believe this girl would throw away her career and stay and feel a maternal need raise her baby brother.

Now to be fair, Arian works on her own YouTube and goes to college online, gets popular and it all works out for her. But it is not guaranteed that giving up your future will work out.

The largest issue I have is this cult's belief that triad is best and therefore would be gifted with abundance.. basically putting everyone in the community into a box… and for some like Arians relationship with the brothers work… others, jealousy occurs and caused people to lash out at each other. Although the boys father didn't directly cause the death of her mother, his belief of Triad and the abundance of their success is just as strong as the belief of their granddad had of unfairness within the triad.