BOOK REVIEW: Third Party by Brandi Reeds @_SashaDawn @LUAuthors @AmazonPublishing #thirdparty #bookreview

Seriously twisted! For once I didn’t read too much about a book before going in. Brandi Reed’s latest thriller Third Party is daring and uninhibited, exploring a very twisted web of secrets, lies, and betrayal. What a ride! By about one third through, I couldn’t put the book down. A twisted thriller with some expert reveals!

About the Book

Is it murder? Is someone playing mind games? Or is it both? The chilling answers are in this twisting novel of psychological suspense by the Amazon Charts bestselling author of Trespassing.

The apparent suicide of a beautiful aspiring law student unites two strangers, connected only by their tangled suspicions: that nothing about Margaux Stritch’s tragic end is what it looks like.

Firefighter Jessica Blythe is courageously making her mark in the male-dominated Chicago Fire Department while navigating a complicated relationship with a detective. A first responder to the crime scene, Jessica has a professional duty to Margaux. Then there’s Kirsten Holloway, a wife and mother pulling herself together after an emotional breakdown. But her husband’s infidelity has left her in a place full of mistrust and fear. Her dreaded curiosity about Margaux’s death has become very personal.

Two women are about to converge on a trail of blackmail, secrets, troubled pasts, and hidden shadows, where violence and desire entwine, unchecked. And they’re not the only ones stepping into the dark. Someone else is following. But is it to warn Jessica and Kirsten? Or to usher them into a nightmare?

Reflection

We open with what is thought to be a suicide by an aspiring law student, Margaux Stritch. Firefighter Jessica is on scene with her on-and-off fling Detective Decker, and she starts to suspect that the suicide isn’t what it seems. Jessica was an interesting character, torn between her desire for bad-boy Decker and her blossoming relationship with financial analyst Jack. In the opposite of how magnetic her attraction to Decker is, her relationship with Jack is slower and much more normal and healthy. But most of us can’t resist a bad boy, amirite??

The death of Margaux leads Jessica to meet Kristen Holloway, a wife and stay at home mother who married her high school sweetheart. When Kristen finds a pair of red panties in the pocket of her husband’s sportscoat when she is taking in his dry cleaning, her world crashes around her. I loved Kristen. She’s not the docile woman you would think she is from the description. Kristen confronts her husband and remains skeptical of his attempts to explain away the underwear. Kristen saw her husband talking to Margaux at his cousin’s wedding not long before her death. Was her husband having an affair with Margaux?

We also see flashbacks into Margaux’s life in the months leading up to her death. Margaux has a very twisted tale! Margaux got taken advantage of and her trust was spent, leaving her unable to afford law school without a job. And the quickest way to make the money is to work at an underground sex club called the Aquasphere. I enjoyed the way Reeds wrote Margaux’s chapters. Because she was dead in the present but alive in her chapters, I felt I could never fully get a handle on Margaux. Her story is tragic and engaging. I was shocked and horrified by some of the things in her life, but I’ll leave those to you to discover!

Three women with very different lives are entangled by this series of events. And of course, there is another person. A third party. This person seems to know exactly who all of the players are and what happened to Margaux, and who seems to have an ulterior motive. I was so fascinated to find out what the deal with the third party was, and I wasn’t disappointed!

I thought the resounding theme of this book was actually about feminism and how women are treated. Jessica, Kristen, and Margaux all have complicated relationships with the men in their lives. These are men who think they know better and have the power. I thought all three women were so strong, and there was a tone to the novel that the abused, the taken advantage of, and the victims still have a way out, through the power of women. Even Kristen’s daughter Quinn had some excellent moments in the book, though she’s a minor character. There is another female character who becomes more prominent later (so I don’t want to mention her by name) who I was cheering for.

I really enjoyed this book! It was gripping and had a great message. I loved the author note at the end. That said, there is some very sensitive content that I’ll post at the end of the review (I don’t want to spoil it if these things don’t matter to you). I loved this, but I don’t think it will be for every reader!

Thank you to Lake Union Publishing and Amazon for my copy. Opinions are my own.

About the Author

Brandi Reeds also writes under the name Sasha Dawn. She lives and writes about the city and suburbs of Chicago. Her recent works touch on survival instinct and suspense. She spends her time with her daughters and dogs, her partner, teaching English, and writing in the middle of the night.

Third Party is available on Amazon through Kindle Unlimited, so I recommend checking it out!

Content Warnings

I don’t normally post content warnings, only these were such driving themes throughout the book, I would feel irresponsible not mentioning them. This book heavily explores abusive relationships, BDSM, consensual and nonconsensual sexual encounters, and to a much lesser extent, suicide and child abuse. The overal message is one of survival and feminism, but if reading about any of these is triggering for you, this book may not be a good fit.