Three, Two, One (321): A Dark Suspense

I don't normally read books classed as romance. I also don't normally leave reviews. I especially tend not to leave reviews on books because I'm an author and somehow that feels like a bad idea, like maybe my opinions are going to be loaded.I decided to leave a review anyway because it's been a week and a half since I finished this book and the story is still with me. I picked it up out of curiosity -- I wanted to know what all the excitement was about when I saw how many reviews the book had, how well it was ranking, and how great the reviews were. And holy s***. 321 was amazing.I've always dug the "dysfunctional love triangle" story since I saw the movie "Threesome" in college, and this book does it exceptionally well. The problem with love triangles is that there's always a disproportionate distribution of affections and it's basically impossible for three people to truly love each other equally. That makes them inherently unstable and temporary, and that's a bittersweet aspect that Huss nails particularly well. The characters know they're in a honeymoon period between bad and bad (or at least different, and change is always scary), and that adds a ticking clock to the whole affair. And, for Blue, to her own sense of safety and protection.This book changed for me halfway through. At first it was just a great, dark, twisted tale. I love conflicted emotions and the way sometimes things can be both good and bad at the same time. I love turmoil and torment. Nothing is really black and white. All great. But then it's like the mystery resolved out of the fog and I got interested in THAT, and it became a new level of story to appreciate.The ending got me most of all. Without giving spoilers, I'll just say it was heartbreaking in just the right way -- again like Threesome, again like any good "this is too good to last" tale.I'm not a romance reader AT ALL, but after finishing this book, I immediately picked up Meet Me In The Dark. So I guess I'm a Huss fan now.

And then I decided he was waiting for me to come to him. He was waiting for me to leave the cage and let myself be free.I enjoy a good M/M/F book so when I saw JA Huss was coming out with one I grabbed it and started it immediately. From the very beginning this book was hot, hot, and…oh yes…HOT! I don’t know which was better, all three, Ark-JD-Blue, together or JD and Ark’s moments together. I start pulsing just thinking about it. Wish I could share my favorite moment the two guys had but doubt it’s appropriate to put in the review. Guess you’ll just have to read to see for yourself **smiling big**. But the hotness was only the tip of the iceberg for this story. It had the thrill of suspense, mystery, and a twist. Unfortunately that twist led to a sad turn in the story. I’m talking mouth dropping, tears falling. Thank goodness the ending made up for it. I fell and felt for all three characters. Another great read by JA Huss!And three mended hearts.I’m a believer now. I can see it with my own eyes.Everything should come in threes.

This story begins with Ark in police custody looking through pictures of women that are thrust in front of him. He is refusing to answer any questions until he sees the picture of her...the one he saw first.The story then flashes back to the night Ark and his best friend JD found Blue, drugged and shivering under an awning in the middle of a rain storm. From the moment his saw her, Ark knew he had to save her but he also knew it wouldn't be easy and not something he could do alone.This is the dark twisted story of the relationship that forms between Ark, JD and Blue and nothing is what it seems.My review:Wow, this book sucked me right in from the first paragraph and never let me go. I went in with an open mind expecting something dark and different and that was exactly what I got. None of the characters are "good" people but by the end of the story, you will come to love them all despite everything. This is defiantly a dark read that is not for everyone...I am not going to spoil anything, I want you to be kept guessing just like I was throughout. But I will say this...there is A LOT of dirty sex in this but if you stick with it you will find that this story is about so much more! My thoughts:POV: switches between Ark and BlueQuick hook or slow starter? 5 (I was hooked from the first chapter)Character development: 5Level of Romance between characters: 5Passion/Heat level: 5 (there is a lot of sex and some of it is hard to read but perfect for the story)Angst/Heartbreak: 5 (all three characters have secrets that can ruin everything between them)Cliffhanger?: No, everything is wrapped up in the end.Overall, I thought this book was amazing! Very different but another great read from JA Huss.

I walked away from this one a bit disappointed. For a time there, there were many things that looked promising. I will say the story kept me engaged. It kept me wondering what would happen next and why. But when it was time to bring all the chaos & mystery together to paint a picture of WHY this was all happening, it just fell way flat for me.The ending, for me, didn't feel like the story was closing. It felt like it was finally beginning.I'm personally not bothered by all the hotness in this book. For me the hotter the better. What bothers me is that there was no balance between the hotness & the story itself. So I can see why many would be quick to say it was too much sex here. I've read plenty of books with much physical hotness in the mix. The difference between those stories and this one, is that there was a true, clear point/ purpose as to why all the physical love was there. Some how it was one of the many things that showed growth emotionally with the main characters involved.HERE, it feels like it was just thrown in there between the main characters, often, so they could have something to do.So, yeah.. This held alot of promise overall, but in the end it just couldn't deliver for me.

Three, Two, One (321): (A Dark Suspense) by JA Huss5 stars!!“Not everything should come in three’s.”Holy moly, I don’t know how I can put into words what I have just read, but seriously, JA Huss can certainly write M/F/M. I had a lot of “freezer” time while reading this book, my kindle wanted to combust, it was insanely HOT, but incredibly beautiful at the same time.Ark, JD and Blue…there is so much we know about them and yet so much we don’t. A story weaved around secrets, yet sometimes frank openness. But what we do have are three souls that found each other, they were in the right place at the right time, would this be their saving grace or would it be their ultimate downfall?“You’re gonna lose her if you don’t give in.”“Give in to what?”“Us. The three of us, Ark. This is how it’s meant to be. You knew it the minute we found her.”This is by far my favourite book of JA Huss, not only do we have an underlying horrific, yet beautiful story but we have the suspense, the mystery and the intrigue gluing this entire story together. Not only gluing the story, but gluing my hands to my kindle, I could not put this book down. I was swept away by their story, my heart was pounding for many different reasons, I laughed, I cried, I swooned, I fanned and I panicked, but at the end all I could think about was what a fantastic story I had just read.I really cannot go into details, this is one of those books that you need to read blind, go in with an open mind and let the story over take you. I was glad that I had not read anything about it, because as soon as I opened the pages, I was just blown away and transported into their world and their bubble.This is a book that makes you think, not only about the circumstances and scenarios that are unfurling before your eyes but I found myself trying to piece everything together. Some things made sense and some things didn’t so I had questions, lots of questions. I was constantly trying to read between the lines, I had my own theories and it wasn’t until the end that things finally started to make sense and you get your light bulb moments.This is by no means a traditional romance, it is dark and gritty and in places raw and it will certainly pull at your emotions, yet when it was just the three of them the whole book changes for just those scenes. I was flooded with warmth, need and desperation, these three just clicked, it was like destiny and fate had brought them together and as a unit they were seemingly perfect.“I want love,. I want it all ways too. I want the pain and the pleasure. I want the good and the bad. I want the light and the dark.”Ark was the sensible one, yet he was incredibly intrinsic, he kept a lot to himself and he obviously had secrets, secrets that even his best friend JD didn’t know. He was the brooding one, the man behind the lens and certainly uncomfortable in front of it. He was incredibly appealing though, secretive, enigmatic but fiercely loyal and protective but what was really underneath those suits?“I saw her first…”JD was more the jack the lad, he was hilarious at times but extremely broken, he had lost and lost hard and had a lot of guilt on his shoulders, Ark was his salvation, a chance meeting leading to best friends and these two were tight. Ark always knew what JD needed and when, he was the angel on JD’s shoulder and there was nothing he wouldn’t do for him. They seemingly saved each other.“We are polar. I am north and he is south. We are equal and opposites in almost every way imaginable. We are this and that. Black and white. Rough and calm.”Blue just happened to be in the right place at the right having escaped a living hell. She was lucky to have been found by Ark and Blue. In the first instance maybe their reasons were not the best but it soon becomes apparent there is more between these three. Blue constantly needs reassurance, she needs to feel protected and these two men cocoon her the only way they know how. They say sex sells, but it can also put a lot of band aids on a lot of hurts.“Selling sex is dirty. Selling sex is filthy. Selling sex is lucrative.”When these three were together the pages ignited, you could feel their dynamic changing, you could see the characters changing and you always had that sense of deep foreboding even though everything seemed perfect when they were in their bubble. Their lives are scattered across the pages, out of order, out of sequence, but when you get to the point where you are nearly there, the pages are sorted you are dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s, those final edits, it all clicks together, you can see the bigger picture. JA Huss delivers that moment with jaw dropping clarity, suddenly it makes sense but then how can this end?“She is not one lost girl. We are not two best friends. We are the trinity of perfection.”Fantastic book, one that I will not forget for a long time and will certainly be re-reading. Go 1click, but read in private, steamy scenes ahead!“One girl.Two friends.Three soul mates.”

Early one Sunday morning, Ark and JD find a girl shivering in the rain, not even wearing enough to keep her warm. Something about the girl calls to them, and they take her under their wing, despite the fact that they can't use her for their porn empire. Blue has escaped from hell, except she doesn't always think about it as hell. Learning to live again takes time, and Ark and JD have to earn her trust before she'll give into them completely. With each of them falling for the other two things are about to get complicated, particularly as all three of them are keeping secrets, and big secrets at that.Link to GoodreadsLink to amazonI'm not sure how I feel about Three Two One, it was a book that captured my attention from page one, but I kind of felt a bit guilty about it doing so. Ultimately it's a story about three kind of messed up people falling in love and becoming even more messed up, and that's without adding in the sex. As each chapter progressed there were more mysteries added than were solved and I found I wanted to know the answers.So...let's start at the ending. Honestly I had no idea what was coming from page to page, so the ending itself was a complete mystery to me until it happened. Even looking back I don't think I could have seen it coming, and that was a good thing. It meant that I was never trying to guess how things would end and ultimately I enjoyed the story more for that. As to the ending itself, I thought that it worked well, personally I was happy with it.I'm guessing you could kind of call Three Two One a whole book about a love triangle. The three characters were in a sort of triad but it was clear that there was still a little bit of competition going on. I did like to see that the two men weren't so cringey about touching each other as most are in menages, but at the same time I never had a sense of it lasting as a triad.What I found particularly interesting was that though they were all in it together I had a favourite coupling. That doesn't normally happen with me in this kind of book (but it does when love triangles are involved). And I genuinely thought that Ark was better for Blue in the long run.Now the sex scenes...so I may have been a bit worried that my kindle may set on fire due to hotness. But there was also a part of me that was thinking that it wasn't right that the scenes were so hot, particularly in the beginning when ultimately Blue was being taken advantage of. It was strange, but did work well with the story line.Three Two One was defintiely an enjoyable read, though at times I wondered what kind of person I was to be enjoying it! Definitely different, and I definitely loved the fact that I had no idea how it would end until it did!Challenges: 2015 New Release Challenge

All I knew about this book was what I'd read on the blurb. When I saw there were secrets I was in!I love a book that plays with my mind and this one certainly doesn't disappoint there.There's no big back story or lengthy explanations at the start and this works for me, it all adds to the intrigue.The writing is amazing it draws you in and doesn't let go. I connected with the characters in such a way that it was like a movie playing in my mind as I was reading. I couldn't switch it off, it was there constantly, my brain trying to process all what was happening and make sense of the secrets.I didn't have a clue what was going on, just when I thought I had it sussed I was taken on another journey of intrigue.It's unique, unpredictable, even unbelievable in a believable sort of way.I loved that the chapters alternated between Ark and Blue, do wish we could have got JD's point of view though.When the pieces all started coming together I was literally on the edge of my seat with my jaw on the floor! How,why,what......no way!!It had me worried for a while which way it would go and then the ending happened and it was perfection.This is my first book from this author and I'm already looking for the next. Cannot recommend highly enough :)

This is the first book I've read by this author, but it won't be my last! I read quite a few reviews before, I'm just sorry some people gave up reading part way through as there was so much more depth to the story and the characters than the initial introduction to their world of porn indicated (I hate to give up and not see a book to the end, so I know for sure!) Two men seemingly taking advantage of a girl, a situation, but it was something she appeared to desperately need too. This was darker material than is my normal read and I had no idea where it was going initially, but it was compelling and really well written. All the emotions came off the page. The second half had me gripped, I so wanted to find out if there could be a HEA for these 3 damaged, tortured but actually beautiful (in their own way) souls. It was tough subject matter, but I think it was tackled very well and thought provokingly about the darker side of human nature. I didn't see the ending coming until it happened, but I think it was really fitting and I really liked it. I'll definitely be reading more by JA Huss

This is one of those books that in parts had me cringing but at the same time had me rethinking what "normal" is. It's definitely dark and won't be for everyone...not for the faint hearted. The love story that shines through is quite beautiful...tale as old as time. Something so good still manages to emerge from all the badness.The quality of writing is excellent...up there with the best. The plot is well put together and although disturbing, it's told without sensationalism. The characters' relationships are beautifully built and I felt like I knew them all by the end of the book, which in itself is an achievement. Not many authors have this talent.I've never read anything by this author before and will definitely be trying more. She's bold and forthright in her writing style and in various ways reminds me of a few of my favourite authors... Cara Mckenna being one of them, who for me is one of the best writers of Erotika. She is brave in her subject matter, not unlike Alessandra Torre, and the plot is of a similar standard to J M Darhower. I rate all of these authors very highly and am pleased that I bit the bullet and tried this one as I now have another to add to my growing list of winners. True quality.