Book: The Rule of Three by Sara Cate
Reviewed by Booksbystarlightandshadows
Rating: 4/5
I went into this completely blind having only read one of the original Salacious Players Club series prior to this. It didn't impact my enjoyment but I would loved to have seen more interaction with the people from the prologue for some wider context beyond the three main characters. Even Julian's sister wasn't very prevalent and this has the best friends brother trope in it.
Archer was a lot of fun and his one liners cracked me up. The whole section in the lift was amazing in audio; the tension between Julian and Archer is palpable throughout but the forced proximity stoked that fire and then some! My stand out was definitely Brandon Francis though; his performance as Julian, the ice prince hiding a heart of gold, was so layered. Julian showed the most growth of the three and my heart broke for him when he spiralled. The later scene with Ronan was so perfect too; I didn't expect this to be as emotional as it was but I loved seeing people choose him for him despite his flaws.
Conversely, I found my attention drifted away from Freya towards the end. Knowing what she did about Julian's self destructive tendencies shouldn't give him a pass but when they had the big fight and Freya acknowledged she was doing the same at the time, I wanted her to be the one who made the move first as her actions were the reason for the fight. I don't mind a bit of jealousy when poly couple initially get together and the dynamic is being worked out, but I couldn't understand the jealousy from Freya when Archer had already stayed over without Julian at that point. For me, the MM romance felt like the strongest of the relationships and I could easily have seen this going in that direction with Freya being so reluctant to go public.
I'll definitely be looking for more of this series; I'll be picking up book one for sure as I'm intrigued to see what Julian is like from the perspective of others after seeing glimpses of his relationships with Jack and Amelia.
My interpretation of the star system;
3 stars - I enjoyed it; would read the author again
4 stars - I really liked it; I am invested and definitely want more from this author/series
5 stars - I loved it; I engaged with this book completely until I finished it and it is one I will re-read