EXILED (Madame X #3) by Jasinda Wilder-Review and Giveaway

EXILED
Madame X #3
by Jasinda Wilder
Release Date: August 2, 2016
Genre: adult, contemporary, dark, erotic, romance

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date August 2, 2016

My name is Madame X.

My heart is torn in two.

And now I have to choose…

Caleb is everything to her: lover, caretaker, the man who gave her life meaning when she had none. But as she seeks the truth about herself and her past, she discovers that unravelling Caleb’s web of lies might very well be impossible.

Logan is everything she never knew she wanted: freedom, joy, and a passion she couldn’t anticipate. But is Logan’s love enough to save her from herself, from Caleb, and from the tumultuous truth of her past?

Caught between two equally compelling and seductive men, X must make the ultimate choice. But there’s more at stake than just her heart.

•••••••••••••••

REVIEW: EXILED is the third and final installment in Jasinda Wilder’s contemporary, adult MADAME X dark, erotic, romance series focusing on Caleb Indigo, Logan Ryder and Isabel De La Vega aka Madame X. EXILED is their continuing story, and should not be read as a stand alone as the events in book three are a culmination of the previous two installments.

SOME BACKGROUND: X is a woman who has no memory and no knowledge except for the previous six years, and in this, she relies on billionaire Caleb Indigo-a man whose control over Madame X is virtually master to a slave. Caleb is X’s rescuer, her confident, her protector, her master, and the darkness to her light. When Logan Ryder enters her life Madame X discovers the person she knew nothing about- the woman, the young girl she once was and now wants to be.

Told from first person perspective (Isabel) and second person points of view, jumping between the past and the present, EXILED focuses on Madame X, now known as Isabel, and her struggle to get on with her life. Finally leaving the confines and imprisonment of Caleb Indigo’s ‘protection’, Isabel begins to forge ahead with her new man, Logan Ryder, in an attempt to recover some of the memories that are slowly beginning to unravel. What ensues are Caleb’s attempts to reveal the truth and convince Isabel that she is the one, Logan’s need to protect Isabel from Caleb and herself, and Isabel’s struggle between the life she knows, and the future she wants.

EXILED is a psychological nightmare; a story of betrayal, lies, deceit and secrets, but it is also a story that crosses an imaginary line with respect to the love triangle trope, and one woman who finds herself drawn to two men. Isabel begins to struggle with her identity and her dependence upon a man who controlled her life, while forging ahead with Logan, into a future of which she uncertain and afraid. Caleb’s obsession with Madame X begins to unravel at an exponential rate threatening his sanity, Logan’s life, and Isabel’s tenuous hold on her freedom. A Stockholm Syndrome scenario tugs loosely at the periphery of the story.

The world building follows Caleb’s revelations about their past-his earlier years struggling to survive; and Isabel’s life before she became Madame X. The reader is tossed into a nightmare of Caleb’s making; an obsession, a delusion, a preoccupation with a woman he wants more than life itself, and life is something he is willing to sacrifice to give Isabel what she wants.

Throughout EXILED there are a few twist and turns that are predictable including a couple revelations that were easily deduced from the start. Some readers will have a difficult time with Isabel’s ‘choices’ and Caleb’s pull over the woman he molded into someone else. Logan’s easy acceptance of certain situations is questionable but his anger and need for retribution is understandable. In the end, Isabel will get her happily ever after but at a cost that may be too high for all involved.

EXILED is a story about obsession; about one man’s dark and dangerous past whose need to control all but destroyed the woman with whom he would fall in love. Caleb Indigo is the anti-hero; the barely leashed monster whose power and need outweighed his ability to distinguish between right and wrong. Madame X was a puppet whose life of virtual enslavement was choreographed by a man whose brilliant mind was tainted by his earlier years; Isabel is a woman struggling with her own demons as she runs towards a path of unknown certainty. Logan Ryder is the hero but a hero who readily accepts everything Isabel was and will be, and a man who would do anything to protect the woman he loves. At times, Logan seems to be too perfect; the knight in shining armor rescuing the princess in the high tower, and I was waiting for the proverbial shoe to drop with a twist of epic proportions.

EXILED is a revealing story line that answers the questions about the who, what and why. The premise is dramatic and intense ; the characters are tragic, flawed and sensational; the romance is a roller coaster of revelations towards a happily ever after. EXILED is a fictional story line meant to entertain and elicit the reader’s emotions.

Reading Order and previous reviews
Madame X
Exposed
Exiled

Copy supplied by the publisher through Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy

 

Jasinda Wilder is a New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and international bestselling author. She is a Michigan native and currently lives there with her family. Visit her official website at jasindawilder.com.

 

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