Book Review — Convicted (Consequences #3) by Aleatha Romig

Theirs was a long, complicated story with a monster and a knight. What made their story unique was that these two players were the same person.

• Buy CONVICTED (Kindle) — New release!!!!!! Just went live!!!

This is the final book of the Consequences Trilogy.

What a story!!

The very first chapter of Convicted will start you on a rollercoaster ride that will leave you gasping, ohhh-no-ing and wondering what the fuck is going on!! I mean it — my jaw was on the floor! Everything I though I was sure of was turned upside down leaving me wondering how on earth things could ever be fixed and trying to figure out how things could have possibly gotten to that point!

One of the things I love most about this whole series is how completely unpredictable each scene was. I never, not even for a second, had a hold on where the story was going. Each time I gained any sense of balance or thought to myself that maaaaaaaybe I’d finally figured things out, some shocking twist would come right out of left field knocking me back to square one with my jaw on the floor.

Since this is the third book in this trilogy and absolutely must be read after both Consequences and Truth, I’m not going to talk about the plot in at detail here. Suffice it to say that the first chapter is set in the future in 2016 leaving you with all sorts of but how, but where, but why, but who questions. This doesn’t last too long though because by chapter 2 we are back to present day and the journey begins showing us how things got from the events at the end of Truth to that future scene.

My strong recommendation though is to re-read at least Truth before reading Convicted or at least re-familiarize yourselves with all the characters and details because if you don’t know who Catherine, Amber, Derek, Simon, Patrick, Marie, Harry, Emily, Patricia, Brent, Roach, Liz, Meredith, Courtney, Eric, etc are off the top of your head and don’t remember their connections to each other (such as we’d learned to this point), then you may end up a little confused. Personally, I had to stop after about 5% and go back give myself a refresher.

As a whole, Convicted was just as strong as the first two in the series. I didn’t find it to be quite as ‘shocking’ as they were though mainly because in this one, there’s a lot more focus on pulling all the threads of this intricate complex plot together. Or rather it’s like, so far, in the first two books, we had found all the puzzle pieces and in this book the focus was on putting them all together to make one big picture. We get a lot of answers — in fact, we get all the answers and I really have to give the author major props for genuinely tying up all the lose ends.

Emotionally, I do have to say that I definitely did love Tony is this one. His humanity really shone through. It’s complicated because he was both the monster and the knight in this story. I both wanted him to find happiness for the rest of his life and simultaneously wanted to let him rot in a jail cell. Lord know, he deserved it. My poor heart and brain warred back and forth over this but… the heart won. It usually wins.

“I fell in love with you while you were supposed to be my prisoner; however, I’ve loved you since before I knew love existed… I will spend the rest of my life atoning for my sins against you and against others.”

See, he’d changed. Genuinely changed. And I’ll even admit (and I really mean this guys, cross my heart) that there were scenes where I even swooned and aww’ed over him! Never once did I ever predict I’d be capable of feeling anything like that for that man but… he was such a different man than the one we’d met in Consequences. He’d grown so much. It didn’t change the past but he certainly did a wonderful job of proving his ‘new’ self through his repeated actions. He lived it and showed it every day.

It was hard sometimes to believe that they were the same man but I feel it’s important to note though that the New Tony was not replacing the Old Tony… we remembered what he did, Claire remembered what he did, and he certainly remembered. The past was in the open, understood by everyone but that didn’t suppress the desire to build a better future.

However in flashbacks, it was downright chilling to see just the detached, seamless and cooly calculated degree to which he had planned and manipulated everything. He was… cold and utterly devoid of compassion. It made my heart ache for Claire and reading those scenes totally messed with my emotions because they were so polar opposite to the things I was feeling for him in the present day. It was a chilling reminder that this was indeed the same man. It was like – I could deal with him in present day because I saw the man he now was but just every once in a while, his past action would just really hit me and stop my warm, fuzzy feelings cold in their tracks.

More than anything, this book raised the question — what do you do when the hero and the villain are one and the same. Do you root for them? Or crave them to be brought to justice?

The thing that swayed me though was this: it was clear that Tony hated himself for what he did to her. But he couldn’t escape it his actions and carried the weight of his sins with him every day. He couldn’t save her from himself but he could change for her.

“The thought of someone doing to her what he’d done filled him with rage. If it were another person… Tony would want him dead. He’d leave no stone unturned to make him pay for his sins.”

I think Brent said it best actually here:

“He wanted to believe the Tony of 2010 was gone; nevertheless, the fact he once existed lingered.”

From the shocking start to the intense ending, this book was filled with one twist and turn after another as all the interconnecting threads were woven together to create a complex and masterfully crafted plot.

It was just such a multi-layered story really and was told from multiple perspectives in third person in such a way that gave a fleshed out view of everything. Everyone had their own agenda and their own version of the truth and in this book we were able to see them all and begin to formulate our own conclusions.

While the story raised many questions along the way, we also got answers to so many questions such as these for example:

• where did Claire go?
• who was with her on the island?
• who was responsible for what happened to Simon?
• how long exactly had Tony been involved in Claire’s life?

We got to see several full disclosure chats with Tony giving us confirmations, revelations, new insights and facts we never even knew to begin with. And he wasn’t the only person who had shockers either. Harry also discovered some new twists that I certainly never saw coming. But everything fell into place together in the end. It all made sense and all the missing pieces were found.

As the book neared the end, it kept me on the edge of my seat at the past and future story lines began to come closer and closer together. The final 20% was a fast-paced, non-stop, intense roller coaster. My heart was in my throat. Pounding. I don’t think I blinked. Might not have breathed. At one point, my heart might have stopped all together. The ending though is just amazing!!! I re-read certain sections and lines over and over again just drinking them in.

Claire and Tony were one in a million. They had the most messed up past. People theorized about them and judged their relationship, but at the end of it all, they were the only ones who could make the final call because it was their story. They lived it and it was up to them and them alone to determine their future.

This series truly has carved it’s own niche in the book world. It straddles several genres — but mainly dark romance and psychological thriller. You want different? You want dark? You want a complex, multi-layered story that will keep you guessing right up until the very end? Then, read this series!!

If I had to rate it, I’d give it the same rating as the first two books: 4.5 stars.

• Buy CONVICTED (Kindle) — New release!!!!!! Just went live!!!

 

♥ SERIES READING ORDER ♥

Note: This is a completed trilogy.

Book #1 — CONSEQUENCES
My review | Kindle | Paperback

Book #2 — TRUTH
My review | Kindle | Paperback

Book #3 — CONVICTED
Kindle | Paperback

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SERIES SALE BUNDLE

This bundle includes all 3 books for $9.99 (savings of $3 overall)