ARC Review: Forbidden by CD Reiss

There is no review that is going to be adequate to convey the meaning of a book like Forbidden.  Fuck what you know about romance and literature, this book is on an entirely different level. I've read a lot of books, I've reviewed a lot of books but I honestly can't remember the last time an author was able to effect me the way CD Reiss can with her writing.

I originally read this book when it was a series so I started with Kick, then Use and Break was my final voyage on this journey. I want to first tell you that if you have ANY triggers, this book probably isn't for you.  This is a book about the deep down darkness in the human heart and the lengths people will go to just to find meaning in life.  Read between the lines, it's ugly, crazy and relentless.There is consensual sex but with all kinds of uncomfortable taboo features, there is nonconsensual sex, same sex sex, the main characters have sex with other people, it's a free for all, really. BUT there is nothing in this book that is gratuitous unless the gratuitousness is the point.  Everything that happens in this book is an expression of the author's purpose in explaining what makes Fiona empty, desperate and honest even in her dishonesty.

To say the characters you will encounter in this book are complex is like saying the Grand Canyon is big.  I mean, that's true but it's ridiculously inadequate.  You don't really know any of the characters, you discover them in the book as they discover themselves.  I can't tell you who the heroes and heroines of this book were, everyone is just who they are, there really is no good or bad, it's all relative. 

A love triangle develops in the book but even that is not fully descriptive.  It's not a "love" triangle so much as it is three people, Fiona, Deacon and Elliot trying to figure out who they are and where they belong in Fiona's life. The dynamic between Fiona and Deacon is fascinating, it's a situation where one person loves another because she hates herself.  Elliot and Fiona is something else entirely, mutually assured destruction but with a startling willingness.

I know I haven't given you a summary of the plot but this isn't that kind of review.  CD Reiss is fucking brilliant and sitting here trying to tell you what this book is about wouldn't work and would do the book a disservice.  The book is an exploration in survival and redemption.  The story is told in language that makes you uncomfortable reading other books because you wonder if anybody else really knows how to write.  You have to be in the right head space to read this because a lot of it is kind of dark in its brutal honesty. This book will stay with you long after you've read the last word.  You won't forget these characters or this story and you will be telling everyone how amazing CD Reiss is. Or, you'll be like that was some sick shit and never pick up another Reiss novel.  Either way, this book is going to stick with you.

**ARC Provided by TRSOR Promotions**

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