Enter The Black Oak

Jess had the perfect life and the perfect husband. Until... She finds out he was cheating on her, not with one, but several women.

It's hard to take the impact of Jess's pain. It's so raw, so real. She faced the situation like a boss and of course, she went to her adorable friends for help.

Kevin: The typical gay friend every girl needs. And reminds me of Samantha from Sex & the City.
Stella: Samantha from Sex & the City too, which means she's as cool as Kevin.
Maddie: By comparison again, she'd be Charlotte, my top fave of the show. I never liked Carrie or Miranda, so it's good Jess has no friends like them.

Jess and Jack's break up scene is so visceral that causes agony. Thank God I have never believed in marriage.
To top it all of, Jess finds out her husband is an abusive stalker. Well, along the narrative it's possible to see he's a very sick and unstable man. Not to mention, hateful. I'll throw crazy in the mix.

This book is very complex and evokes a lot of emotions. Especially anger, hatred and indignation when it comes to Jack. You'll ask yourself all the time how you'd react if you were Jess, and even though you thought you'd do different, you won't be so sure. This book is disturbingly amazing.

The dialogue between Alexandra Frost, one of Jack's lovers (a key character) and Jess, is sharp and deep. Alex has been cheated on so many times she has become skeptical. But Jess says she would never become so cynical, no matter who she's married to. Alex just replies:
"Then, I suggest you get in touch with a very good therapist. Preferably one who can prescribe medication." Touchè. Precisely.

One may consider Jess a weak, submissive woman, but along the novel, we realize she's fighting. She's strong, in her own way.

I loved Cameron. But even he has a dirty little secret...

And that's when sh*t starts to get real. I can't say anything about that, or else it would be a spoiler.

This book is so well written, the sentences so structured and there are many quotes one can take to their lives. Such as this one, when Lottie is advising Jess:

"By the time wisdom comes, it's often too late to use it. It brings you peace as you approach the end of your years, and you just hope you can pass a little on to your loved ones in the hope that they learn from your mistakes."

This is solid, confident writing and I'm *very* hard to please. But I still have to get used to at least dub con, to enter this dark world. Apart from that, great book.

I don’t know what I read, but it’s not a romance. This is a book about an obsessive, cheating husband and a pathetic, weak heroine. I honestly don’t like either one of them. The hero is obsessed with his wife but he can’t love her and treat her like he does. The heroine pretends to be independent and strong but she’s the weakest, stupidest heroine I’ve read.

The other guy in the triangle, Cameron, seems to be a hero until the end when he, too, starts sounding a lot like the overly possessive, obsessed husband. Nothing in this book is romantic or relationship goals. There’s no HEA I can imagine. The only good relationship in the book is the friends—The heroine’s friends seem to be normal, sane and supportive.

Also, the whole secret society component is just weird and unnecessary—shades of the old Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman movie, Eyes Wide Shut. I didn’t like this book. I don’t plan to continue this series.

Where have my emotions went? Like I feel this book tore me up!

First you start off with Jess who you believe is a strong willed woman right? Well she may have started that way but things got a little different halfway through.

Jess finds out her husband Jack is cheating on her, she wants to "make things right" and do the exact same thing but nope nope nope, Jack has different plans. She is suppose to be all his, untouched by any other man. Excuse me? You do something but think it's wrong for the other? OOOOKAY

When she finally forgives him and goes back things start getting better but then, what does Jack do, he cheats AGAIN. Did you not learn the first time?

She finally leaves, but I feel like she is broken at this point. I think this is where her strong will went down the drain.

When Cam enters the story and things progress through that relationship I can't help but think, is this Jack in a different body?

Even though I had some times where I did a double take to read the page again I really enjoyed this book. However, if you do not agree with cheating husbands or sex clubs then don't even read this book you will frustrate yourself more.

If you do love these things (in books only obviously) then you will very much enjoy this book!

I Read this book in one day. Could not put it down and now I'm on to the next book. First time with this author and I was hooked from the first chapter. I like a story with details and even though you need to buy the next book to continue their story which I don't normally do , I need to find out what happens next!!!!!

Monique Edenwood is a new author to me, and she has instantly become a favorite!
From first chapter to last I was completely immersed in her world.
All of her characters are bright, well defined and so relatable; you’ll love them or you’ll love to hate them.
The story is dark, steamy, and kinetic; with an energy and momentum that pulls the reader along with it. An impressive accomplishment in a first work.
I am overjoyed that this is the first of a series because I loved it so much I didn’t want it to end!

I realize this is Book One of a trilogy. I realize that this clearly states that cheating is the outcome at the outset of this novel. If you like cheating tropes, then this is for you. Perhaps I misinterpreted the blurb on Amazon - I expected that the heroine would learn about the cheating and that would initiate change in her - ideally she'd leave said husband and enter a relationship with a male worthy of her who would fight the ex. The author says she finds herself and she's feisty. She is NOT - she's a whiny dishrag.

In certain circumstances, the husband (Jack) could have also redeemed himself, although I'm not a cheating trope fan and it would have had to really be done well for it to work for me to forgive him as the reader. As more of a traditional romance reader, I would have wanted her to move on to a better man.

Some minor plot details ahead ----- NONE OF WHAT I EXPECTED ABOVE IS TRUE! The blurb is misleading IMO.

The author GLORIFIES Jack the husband. He is just so hot that the heroine is having sex with him weeks after learning he's cheated and she was devastated. She leaves him for a half a second. She's weak, has no conviction. Of course she's also a virgin and innocent when they met, she's never been with anyone but him. He's preyed on her since college, selected her innocence because she's the perfect gullible victim. Her friend Cameron (I think that's the other guy's name but halfway through the book, when I stopped reading - I DNF because this book was so bad- he STILL had barely shown up so I'm not sure) liked her but wasn't ever able to date her because Jack staked his claim right away. Classic signals of a possessive spouse bordering on abusive control issues. He wouldn't let her be around any other men.

Jack is reprehensible and I detested him. So when she decides he's her number one guy and the author seems to think so too... I checked out. The guy I thought would be the hero - the college friend she was forced to forget, never showed up. If there was a secret society... where.... when? the only time I got somewhat interested was with the sexy plumber, but Jack has her tracked and he spoils that possible romantic encounter and won't let HER cheat. But then he leaves and cheats himself in the next chapter. It's super fun. I got to when she ran away... but she's so whiny and weak... I figured she'd run back to hot Jack soon so I decided to get rid of the book. Honestly I should have returned it but I didn't realize that was a thing.

This one has been really tough for me. The blurb sucked me in and since I loved The Aquisition series by Celia Aaron, another secret society based story, I was looking forward to this one.

To be honest I didn't really get invested in the plot until about chapter 25- that was more than 1/2 way through the book! I think this story being told from the 1st person POV of Jess, really does it a disservice. I almost put the book down at chapter 12. I think a few short chapters from Jack, or even Cameron's POV once he was introduced to the plot, would have helped. Those chapters didn't have to be detailed, but it would be enough to get engaged and invested in why and how Jack felt about not being in control of his current situation.

Jess is clueless as to what is going on with Jack, her husband, related to the society (that no one feels she should know about). And the way she just lets him roll over her when she finds out about his "affairs" was hard to read. She is supposedly this woman who has taken self-defense classes and supports women standing up for themselves. She is his doormat. That I can deal with, I don't care for a h who weak the entire story, but I can deal. My biggest problem was how Jack treated her as a possession. Even his dirty talk left a bitter taste in my mouth. Saying she would be a slave to him, that he owns her, and she was his possession. Now, before the affair, that might be OK to say in bed, but after the affair it became painfully obvious that he truly believes that, it wasn't just him being kink-e.

I like that once she has proof, AGAIN, of his infidelity, that she leaves. She recognizes he will not let her go without a fight and tries to leave when he cannot stop her. Of course, this is where she runs into trouble and Cameron comes to her rescue. I feel like Cameron is supposed to be this knight in shining armor, and he does come off that way at first and he does care about her.

Once Jess learns the truth of the society, you start to see how evil some our villains are, especially Alex, who has a hold over Jack that Jess cannot break.

I really want to like this series, so I am going to try book 2. Hopefully, things pick up and the plot and Jess' backbone makes an appearance. The 3rd book is not out yet, so whether I finish the series will depend on book 2. I feel like the story has a lot of potential but with a slow plot and unlikable Hs (I would say both Jack and Cameron are the H), and a weak h, it is hard to rate it higher than a 3 star.

Spoilers ahead, so stop reading here if you don't want specific details from the plot.

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And the fact that she was not as turned on by him anymore and he just told her she needed to get over it? Nope, sorry, this guy is a total tool. If it is painful for her, she cries during s£x, and she tells you to stop and you don't, it doesn't matter if you are her husband.

However, Cameron has known about Jack's secrets from the beginning and sacrificed his friendship with Jess rather than tell her the truth. The fact that he is in love with her makes his lies of omission even more confounding. I know the society is dangerous, but if he really loved her, wouldn't he have done everything he could to protect her?

In the last chapter, Cameron confesses his love to Jess and they are about to have s£x. This would have been fine, except Cameron starts spewing the same "you are my possession/slave, you belong to me" crap that Jack did. How is this not lighting up every red flag in her head? Hello, you are going to leave one controlling jerk and attach yourself to a different one?

First off I would like to say that I absolutely HATE Jack. I love all the drama of cheating romances. This was a unique turn with a cheating romance
I highly recommend it.