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A review by shelbanuadh
Love Him Wild by E.M. Lindsey
1.0
When I first read the preview for this, I admit that I wasn't overly looking forward to it, despite my love of this series. I wasn't a huge fan of Ronan and Parker going into this. I'm also not crazy about established relationships. And polyamory, I just find it baffling... I can hardly understand how someone can be romantically involved with one person, let alone multiple people. As Jonas says, "Falling in love once sometimes feels impossible. But with two people?" But, seeing as I am committed to this series, I decided not to skip this book and gave it a go anyway.
First, a warning. There are 3 on-page sex scenes involving Parker that are not with Ronan or Jonas, along with the mention of two other sexual partners, in case that isn't your thing.
Second, the first 1/4 of this book is a retrospective narrative. The first eight chapters focus on Ronan and Parker, and then Jonas gets one chapter (which is probably why I felt like I didn't know much about him). Seeing as readers of this series already know that Parker and Ronan are married and their friendship with Fritz and the fire incident, I don't think eight chapters was necessary. It would have helped to get the ball rolling if all that was sped up a bit. Aside from those first 9 chapters, there are still enough flashbacks that I would say a good 30-35% of this book takes place outside of the present.
Third, there isn't really a lot of relationship development. You have Ronan and Parker, who are established as having been in love with each other since they were young. They fumbled around with each other when they were 14, before the fire. Then they drift apart and spend about 14 years apart. The reunite and get married, like instantly. So we go from being told they love each other, to them not being together for 14 years, to them being married in the span of a few days. Then Jonas pops into the picture and all three of them are instantly attracted, physically and romantically. I want to read about the journey, not the destination.
Now, even though it was pretty much insta-love for the three boys, nothing tangible happens with that until over 60% of the way into the book. So you have this huge chunk where Ronan and Parker toy with the idea of asking Jonas to join the party and Jonas musing how wonderful it would be to be loved by both those men before they actually approach him about it. I honestly am not sure what actually happened in the 9 chapters between where the retrospection ended and the courtship began.
The editing wasn't as great in this as normal. There was enough typos that I was noticing them. Ronan is described as having Progressive-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis, "the rare one", when in fact it is Progressive-Relapsing Multiple Sclerosis (PRMS), which accounts for about 5% of MS cases. It's also mentioned at one point in incident where Parker makes a young girl cry at Levi's food truck with a trick with his prosthesis. Then Jonas is told a story of an Easter egg hunt, involving Parker and his arm, which the kids loved. But later, Jonas says, "If you're trying to make me cry like that little girl at the Easter egg hunt..." For one, Jonas wasn't told about the incident at the food truck with the crying girl, but also, he was told the kids enjoyed the egg hunt and it was never mentioned to him about any child crying.
Also, I hate Parker's nickname for Jonas. And the epilogue, but I always hate epilogues.
First, a warning. There are 3 on-page sex scenes involving Parker that are not with Ronan or Jonas, along with the mention of two other sexual partners, in case that isn't your thing.
Second, the first 1/4 of this book is a retrospective narrative. The first eight chapters focus on Ronan and Parker, and then Jonas gets one chapter (which is probably why I felt like I didn't know much about him). Seeing as readers of this series already know that Parker and Ronan are married and their friendship with Fritz and the fire incident, I don't think eight chapters was necessary. It would have helped to get the ball rolling if all that was sped up a bit. Aside from those first 9 chapters, there are still enough flashbacks that I would say a good 30-35% of this book takes place outside of the present.
Third, there isn't really a lot of relationship development. You have Ronan and Parker, who are established as having been in love with each other since they were young. They fumbled around with each other when they were 14, before the fire. Then they drift apart and spend about 14 years apart. The reunite and get married, like instantly. So we go from being told they love each other, to them not being together for 14 years, to them being married in the span of a few days. Then Jonas pops into the picture and all three of them are instantly attracted, physically and romantically. I want to read about the journey, not the destination.
Now, even though it was pretty much insta-love for the three boys, nothing tangible happens with that until over 60% of the way into the book. So you have this huge chunk where Ronan and Parker toy with the idea of asking Jonas to join the party and Jonas musing how wonderful it would be to be loved by both those men before they actually approach him about it. I honestly am not sure what actually happened in the 9 chapters between where the retrospection ended and the courtship began.
The editing wasn't as great in this as normal. There was enough typos that I was noticing them. Ronan is described as having Progressive-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis, "the rare one", when in fact it is Progressive-Relapsing Multiple Sclerosis (PRMS), which accounts for about 5% of MS cases. It's also mentioned at one point in incident where Parker makes a young girl cry at Levi's food truck with a trick with his prosthesis. Then Jonas is told a story of an Easter egg hunt, involving Parker and his arm, which the kids loved. But later, Jonas says, "If you're trying to make me cry like that little girl at the Easter egg hunt..." For one, Jonas wasn't told about the incident at the food truck with the crying girl, but also, he was told the kids enjoyed the egg hunt and it was never mentioned to him about any child crying.
Also, I hate Parker's nickname for Jonas. And the epilogue, but I always hate epilogues.