Title: When I Say Yes
Author: Lisa Renee Jones
Publisher/Year:  Julie Patra Publishing 1/25/22
Length:  200 pages
Series: The Necklace Trilogy #3

Overview

I believe that there is one person in this world that can both break us and make us whole. One person who can love us more than life can hurt us. With this comes deep, intense passion, and a burning connection. But in turn, that person can destroy us, cut us, make us bleed in ways no other ever could. They have power over us. 

For me, that one person is Dash Black.

He walked into my life in a rush of sunshine, in the darkness of heartache and uncertainty. We were broken apart, and whole together. He healed me. I believed I did the same for him. Until the past became the present, and every moment of suffering in his life consumed him. Instead of seeking refuge in me, he pushed me away. As the famous quote from an unknown author says, “If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it’s yours; if it doesn’t, it never was.”

I’ve set Dash Black free. Now, I wait.

My Thoughts

What an insane ride we get to go on with this series – and this final installment doesn’t disappoint. This couple that has so much in common and so much against them continues to struggle with what their reality is. We watch them fight for each other and fight against each other and where we were left off in the end of book 2, they were fighting against each other.

If you’ll remember from that last installment, we were in New York with our characters, they were there for a book signing for Dash and we knew that NY was a place that triggers a lot and has a lot of Allie’s demons. Her demons come to a head with them in the form of Brandon, her ex who’s now the agent of Dash’s father, and forces them into a signing together, which of course causes strife.

We watch how Dash tries to take control, to be the bigger person, but Brandon is still so spiteful of everything that happened that he’s not willing to let things go. He provokes Dash and that results in Dash pushing Allie away and he goes to self destruct.

So we pick up this next installment at that point. We know that Dash is going to fight in an underground club since that’s his MO and Allie needs to find him before it’s too late. She calls Tyler, knowing that it’ll anger Dash but she has no other idea where to go. When Tyler isn’t able to find Dash, she goes to Mark, and as we’ve seen in the In and Out series, Mark will never cease to surprise and amaze us, and the role that he takes in this book is one that we really learn to enjoy.

Mark finds Dash and helps devise a plan to get him out of the fight club. It works, but Allie thinks that they are over regardless. What happens though is that Dash realizes that Allie is his means to saving himself, not fighting and we watch their relationship take a new and powerful direction.

The balance of this story follows a few different paths. There’s the question of where Allison is and why she left, and no one knows the answer. The more that Allie learns and the more that she digs, the more concerned that she gets. Tyler finally comes to admit all that she meant to him, and he continues to try to contact her to no avail.

Then there’s the concern over what Brandon is going to do next to hurt Allie. and what that will mean for Dash. He’s vindictive and that means that they all need to be on high alert. Brandon doesn’t let us down – he attempts to go after Allie and we’re ready for him!

Throughout this story we watch and the rollercoaster goes for this couple. They want to be together but they worry that there are too many secrets to let them have their happily every after. Allie’s digging into Allisons whereabouts puts her in the crosshairs of quite a few people that she likely shouldn’t be in contact with. We met Brad Waters in an earlier book and he gives us a bad feeling. We meet Benjamin (Benji) in this installment and his vibe is similar. and then there’s Jack, Tyler’s father. All men that are powerful and fit the description that Allison had in her journal of the man that she went to after Tyler broke her heart. Not sure who is our prime suspect but they all give us the feels that they could be it.

What happens to bring things to a close is a series of events that were placed in a path in perfect order. Allie learns just enough, enlists the help of Neil the FBI source that is helping Dash, and gets a few additional pieces of information that give her what she needs to get her answers. What happens though is something that we should have expected but didn’t think about in completion and ends our story on a serious note. There’s a shooting, there’s a surprise appearance of someone that we’ve known well, and there’s a creation of sorts of something new that makes sense but was also unexpected.

So on that note, I REALLY enjoyed this finale because we do get closure on what we were hoping for. We continue to watch Allie handle the necklace with care and we watch how her future is uncertain and then gets some more clarity. She’s forced to make decisions that impact not just herself but others, and the choices that she makes seem to be the right ones in my opinion. Enjoy!