Tag Archives: The Unbreakable Trilogy

Review: The Diamond Ring (The Unbreakable Trilogy #3) by Primula Bond

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Title: The Diamond Ring
Author:  Primula Bond
Publisher/Year:  Harper Collings 5/22/14
Length:  400 Pages
Series: The Unbreakable Trilogy #3

Overview

Passion. Love. Betrayal. And a very dramatic climax… The Unbreakable Trilogy reaches its unforgettable conclusion. A must-read for fans of erotic romance.From Primula Bond, author of Sunday Times bestselling The Silver Chain and The Golden Locket.“You don’t know how beautiful you are, Serena. That’s the danger.”Engaged to be married, life should be blissful for Gustav and Serena. It should be a time of happiness; a time to plan their wedding and their future together.But the ghosts of Gustav’s past have returned to haunt him, and one in particular casts a dangerous shadow over their relationship. Margot, Gustav’s bitter and twisted ex-wife, is determined to destroy everything that Gustav holds dear. Starting with Serena…From the glamour of Paris to the exotic wilds of Morocco, The Diamond Ring will take you on a sensual, sexy journey like no other – with a finale you won’t forget.

My Thoughts

I suppose I can say that it’s an appropriate ending to the series – you get exactly what you were expecting.  I think that my challenge is there was a lot of the same…..but let me explain.

So in this final installment to the series, we once again reunite with Gustav and Serena when they are in a happy place – G has proposed and they are getting ready to plan the next chapter in their lives.  Serena’s gallery is open and they are finally finding a good place to be in.  The challenge of course is that G and Pierre’s relationship is still a bit rocky and Polly has once again run off –  this time to Morocco in the hopes of straightening herself out.  Of course what we know though is that when there’s happiness, the other shoe will drop and their world will be turned upside down again, and of course it’s by Margot.

In this book, what we get is the incredibly evil side of Margot, and we get drawn into her plot that’s been devised to use people around G and Serena to break them up since Margot is delusional to believe that she’s got a future with Gustav.  Pierre was a pawn in it all, and while he came to his senses, the damage was done and the question in this final installment is will he and his brother ever fix their relationship and what will it take to get there..

The other piece of this story is the paranoia that Serena feels every day.  she’s forced to question everything that she believes to be true about G and there’s so much that leads her down the dark path.  He’s secretive about his business dealings, always leaving town for a deal or negotiation or staying out late – and when Margot plants the seed that he’s been with her, and show’s Serena films of it happening just the week prior, Serena has nothing to do but to believe that she’s been lied to .

Aside from the roller coaster plot though, we continue to get a lot of the same in the sense that we see Serena evolve even further into her voyeurism, and partaking of the pleasure when she’s on a job.  She reunites with the dancers from Club Creme and participate in their naughty activities and the story with them continues.  There’s a lot of exploration and intrigue as well since we know that Gustav allows her to play with others, and we see Serena continue to come out of her shell.  The downside to all this though is like i said before, a lot of the same.  I think that i’ve come to expect certain things to happen in each scene, and when they play out exactly as my mind expects, it’s a bit of a let down.

Regardless, there’s kidnapping, anxeity, lies, deceit, and well, a lot of romance and passion which makes for an exciting conclusion to a series.  I think that the path that this story takes is a nice one and you hope that certain relationships will fix themselves so everyone can be happy and you hope that some never existed to begin with.  It’s what some of the secondary characters bring that makes the story even more robust and that’s something that Ms. Bond has done nicely in this series.  I can’t wait to see what’s next for her since our journey with Serena and Gustav has come to it’s end.  I hope you enjoyed it!

Review: The Golden Locket (The Unbreakable Trilogy #2) by Primula Bond

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Title: The Golden Locket
Author: Primula Bond
Publisher/Year: HarperCollins UK 5/6/14
Length:  400 pages
Series:  Unbreakable Trilogy #2

Overview

Temptation would test them…

The second novel in the Unbreakable Trilogy, The Golden Locket follows Gustav and Serena to New York.

Ensconced in their Manhattan penthouse, all seems blissfully happy for Gustav and Serena. Still in the first flush of love, they have every satisfaction they could need.

But as they enjoy their New York pleasure ground, ghosts start to emerge from Gustav’s past, and when his damaged younger brother, Pierre, comes back into his life, he brings with him a dangerous threat…

With temptation waiting at every turn, can Gustav and Serena survive all the excitement that the Big Apple holds?

My Thoughts

so, after reading the introduction of the tale of Serena and Gustav, I had such high hopes on what could become of them since there’s so much anxiety and animosity running through the relationships.  we were left on such a cliff hanger, learning that Polly’s boyfriend is none other than Gustav’s estranged brother…and all hell breaks loose.

Fast forward just a short bit, and we are now in NYC where Gustav and Serena have relocated.  Gustav is using some of his connections to get Serena some work, and she builds a name for herself not just as a voyeur photog, but as one that acts on it a bit as well.  That’s a big change from the naive little girl that we met in the first book and we’re starting to see that she’s not only becoming a master, but is she possibly mastering Gustav?  She participates in activities with folks that a small town country girl never would think about, she becomes a temptress and seductress that men can’t avoid being drawn to her and fantasize of her…and she indulges in fantasies that were originally not her own, but have somehow become such.

Throughout this story, we get a lot of insight into various sexual experiences, which of course are all designed to test Serena and see how devoted she is to Gustav?  does she pass, does she fail?  Well, what i will say is that she takes a commission to go to Venice and Gustav does not come with her….so make your own decisions there.

In this 2nd installment, Pierre rears his ugly head towards Serena since i have a feeling that his intentions are not on the nice and innocent side.  All the while, his relationship with Polly is crumbing and that’s a story line on it’s own.  Along with that, there’s the woman that both men started their hatred of one another from, Margot, and she seems to be coming up a lot and possibly may be planning and plotting a way to come back.

I have to say though, that there’s one small thing that i really enjoyed about this book aside from seeing where the friendships, brotherhoods, and relationships go – it’s the locket itself.  All throughout the book, we’re told about this lovely gift that Gustav has given Serena, and we know that something’s inside, and i’d be lying if i didn’t say that EVERY page i kept wondering what was in it.  is it something dark that would align with the vampire esque conversations in the first book, or is it something overly anti-climactic.

So, i will have to keep my eyes open for this 3rd and final installment that’s still untitled i believe, since i have a feeling that the roller coaster that we were on so far is only just beginning.

ARC Review: The Silver Chain (The Unbreakable Trilogy #1) by Primula Bond

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Title: The Silver Chain
Author: Primula Bond
Publisher/Year: HarperCollins UK 1/21/14
Length:  400 pages
Series:  Unbreakable Trilogy #1

Overview

Bound by passion, she was powerless to resist.

The Silver Chain is the first in the sexy, passionate and addictive Unbreakable Trilogy by Primula Bond.

One dark evening in London, photographer Serena Folkes is indulging her impulsive side with a night-time shoot. But someone is watching her – mysterious entrepreneur Gustav Levi. Serena doesn’t know it yet, but this handsome stranger will change her life forever…

Serena is fascinated by Gustav, the enigmatic owner of the Levi Gallery, and she soon feels an irresistible pull of attraction. The interest is mutual, and Gustav promises to launch Serena’s photographic career at his gallery, but only if Serena agrees to become his exclusive companion.

To mark their agreement, Gustav gives Serena a bracelet to wear at all times. Attached to it is a silver chain of which he is the keeper. With the chain Gustav controls Serena physically and symbolically – a sign that she is under his power.

As their passionate relationship intensifies, Gustav’s hold on the silver chain grows stronger. But will Gustav’s dark past tear them apart?

My Thoughts

It took me quite a bit of time to warm up to this book i have to admit.  While the idea of the story line is a good one, a small town girl who comes from a less than stellar home moves to London to pursue what turns into a lucrative career as an artist, all the while meeting a sexy, sophisticated patron who helps her make her way and earn quite a bit of money…..it dragged, and kept me wondering when things were going to happen.

We meet Serena at the very beginning of the start of her new life, moving from small town Devon to big city London where she’s hoping to reinvent herself and come into her own as a photographer.  On Halloween night though, her life changes when she meets a man coming out of the shadows who seems both mysterious and very sexy and alluring.  This man of course is Gustav and he will change her forever.  This chance meeting not only stirs up feelings that she only had for her ex at one point in time, but it introduces her to an opportunity at a gallery that she would have never had before.

Gustav has his own sordid past that we only partially learn about through this book through both what he reveals and what his confidant and assistant of sorts crystal shares with us and Serena.  He does things on his own terms and puts those terms forth to Serena in the hopes that she’ll bite and then they can see what happens.  What he asks of her is that she binds herself to him until her last photo is sold, and binding herself means that she’s literally at his beck and call, and is bound in the sense of an actual silver chain.

So…you can begin to see where i’m lost a bit.  the entire time that we’re in this story, we know that he’s got this dark past that’s made him into a control freak and we keep hearing about how Serena was neglected, but that’s really as deep as it gets.  For the first 2/3 of the story, we get relatively tame scenes with the 2 of them, although you get the sense that there will be more to come – you just don’t know when.

Also, the entire time there are these hints of calling him a vampire or implications that Gustav reminds us of one, and there’s a mention of Dickson having a bite on his neck…so i kept wondering if there was more to the story…yet that’s not a big thing that’s ever talked about.

The redeeming quality though are the last few chapters.  The story picks up a bit and you’re left to wonder what the outcome will be….and who will end up with whom.  Throughout, we keep hearing about Serena’s cousin Polly who’s apartment she’s staying at, and her boyfriend that’s this successful guy….yet we don’t know too much more about that…until the very end.

All in all, if i could have fast fowarded to the last 1/3, it would have been better, but i guess we sometimes need to have a slow progression and a round about way to get to the good stuff in order to get us excited about the next installment in the series.  I think that i’ll give it a chance though since my interest is piqued.