Consent (Power Exchange) Paperback – February 1, 2015

This book is not for the faint of heart. It's raw, pulsing with pain and anguish, intense and very angry. I was on the edge from the page 1. The investigation itself is scrupulous, bordering on illegal and extremely emotional. Tempers fly high while in pursuit of any lead that might get them closer to finding Myah. The strain of responsibility for making things right for his baby brother Cole, worry for Myah almost burn Gavin out, but Ben is there for him as his partner and his Dom. They grow closer, discover new limits and strengthen their commitment to each other.Parallel to the investigation Myah tells the story of her captivity, the horrors that are perpetrated on those who have no one to stand up for them. Her accounting is painful to read. It's very explicit and detailed. While Ben, Gavin and Cole untangle the web of lies that forced her out of Chicago three years ago, Myah is trying to cope and come to terms with all that is forced on her. She is as fierce as a lioness. In the end she lives - a woman, a mother, a caregiver, a survivor.I loved this book even though it was at times difficult to read. It's a testament to human strength and will to survive. The ending is romantic, happy yet a little bittersweet. Even after a passage of time the wounds are not completely healed. But Degrassi family takes care of their own, takes people into their fold and makes them their own. Wonderful intense read! I highly recommend it!

4.5 rounded to 5This was difficult to read at times. I was conflicted in trying to decide whether the violence and the heartbreak was necessary to tell the story. Ultimately , the question I asked myself was how would the story impact me if what happened to Myah and the boys were simply mentioned, just hinted at, or left to my own imagination. Undoubtedly, I would have felt their pain but would not leave a lasting impression about the horrific life of the victims of sex trafficking. I would have focused more on Gavin and Ben's relationship, which was intense and emotional.So what I loved:Gavin and Ben's relationship. I feel like I finally understand the BDSM relationship, what drives a Dom or a sub to seek the lifestyle, the trust that's required for both, the inner strength needed by both. Even in the scene where there was a third party, the focus was on Gavin and Ben. I thought that was beautifully written.Myah's strength..Yes, she endured and witnessed horrific acts. Yet her humanity was intact. Even though at times she felt like death would be better than surviving, she still managed to care about others. I wished Rose would have given more of her recovery process.What didn't work for me was the death of one of the characters. Of all the boys, he suffered the most. It left me feeling helpless even though other boys survived.AJ Rose is a talented writer. The first two books in this series are in no way a light reading, but this goes beyond angst. I loved it, kept me engaged, and I'm still thinking about it. Even though I didn't like everything about the story, it still deserves a high mark in my opinion.

This was not an easy read - this book contains repeated horrors - rape, torture, forced chemical dependency, and abuse of not only a primary character, but also teenage kids. Be warned!That said, I was staggered by the intensity of this book. When Gavin’s former partner on the force and his now sister-in-law goes missing, he jumps right in with both feet to find her and bring her home. What she and those she is with endure is gritty, raw, real, and incredibly difficult to read.Ben and Gavin’s relationship continues to heal and move forward, which was a balm to my soul in this otherwise daunting novel. There is an intense and insanely beautiful menage scene that left me gasping. There are also moments that left me in tears and shattered my heart soul-deep. It isn’t often that this occurs in my jaded existence, so it was all the more powerful for it.I was disappointed with the epilogue, I must admit - there’s a good chunk of information that happens off-page, as it were, and the loss detracts from the whole. It is for this reason alone that I am rating this at 4.5 stars. If your heart and mind are strong enough to handle this, I definitely recommend it. It isn’t a touchy-feely fluffy book - it will *wreck* you, but you will appreciate the fluffy all the more for having experienced Consent.

Consent: Book 3. Okay a word of the wise. Very Very graphic and disturbing novel. Numerous trigger warnings.This installment sees the continuation of the D/s romance between Gavin Degrassi and Ben Haverson. Our smoking hot guys have worked out their PTSD issues fairly well and moved on. Gavin has resigned from the SLPD and is teaching and, he and Ben are back playing games, and they've just finished rebuilding their home. Cole Degrassi and Myah Hayes have married and now have a four month old daughter, they're madly in love and sickeningly happy. Life could not be better.Then Myah is kidnapped and life goes to sh*t.This book no joke was very difficult to read. Painfully so. And unbelievably sad. It's told in dual 1st POV from Myah and Gavin. Gavin, Ben and Cole are doing everything they can to find Myah, its hard reading because their so hamstrung with Gavin resigning from the Police and Myah being taken across state lines. They have NO idea where she might be other than possibly Chicago. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack. The enormous pressure on Gavin to find her is exacerbated by Cole's impotent feelings because there's little he can really do. Their investigation is being funded by Ben ( thank god he's loaded) but its painfully slow going joining the dots and painting by numbers. This made for some explosive emotional angst between the brother's that might have soured their solid relationship if Ben hadn't been there to referee. It made for frustrating reading because it was very apparent just how tied their hands were and made the following the bouncing ball very slow. While I wanted to slap them up the side of their heads, I also wanted to hug them particularly Cole who unraveled with Myah's disappearance after the fourth hour and never really recovered.Meanwhile Myah is in a world of hurt. Kidnapped by men involved in Chicago's child sex slave trade industry. Illegal activity she raised concerns about the involvement of dirty cops at her old department before they shafted her to St Louis. With the arrest and charging of a high ranking detective, they're cleaning house and the middle level bosses want to know what she knows and who she told and they'll torture her to get it. Poor Myah is doing everything she can to endure. In her misery she comes across Marshall our poor abused teen from book 2, and another lad, Brady who were also kidnapped and are being used as sex slaves. Myah and they boys are suffering and she's doing all she can to keep them all alive. Its a excruciating endeavor because they're all being hooked onto Heroin and narcotics and physically and sexually abused.Even though AJ Rose gave us some distracting man on man smoking hot sex ( a little bit of it) with our guys Gavin and Ben and McKnight a street pimp with a heart of Gold, it wasn't anywhere near enough to soothe the pain of reading Myah's story. Even at the HEA I still needed a hug or ten. The journey was that bad. I wont go into too much because it will give spoilers, but suffice to say its was hellish reading. If you want a challenging book this is one.I thought the crime element was better this time around, though I was a little bit frustrated with the emotional bickering between Cole and Gavin, which even though it was reasonable due to the situation, I just found it glaring to read despite it being because they felt so dis-empowered over the whole situation. Ben was stellar, cool under pressure and smoking hot and thank goodness, I needed his calm soothing way.After the HEA, was an excerpt for book four? not sure when that will be out since this book hit the shelves in 2014 and its still not released. Damn shame really.The series overall has been well worth reading, the crime writing improved dramatically from 1st book to last, and I think that certainly helped. Not a huge amount of BDSM persay, mostly stuck with Gavin and Ben's power exchange dynamic with 1 or 2 small scenes. Still good reading and smoking hot sex.

This book was a huge disappointment. I loved "Power Exchange", which provided a nuanced description of the D/s relationship, with three-dimensional characters and an engaging story. "Safeword" was a little less accomplished, but that tends to happen in second books. I was eagerly waiting for the third one, but it fell flat for me.I'm perfectly willing and able to suspend my disbelief when reading fiction, but the author is asking a bit much in this case. First we have to believe that Gavin, a retired detective, and Cole, his CSI brother, both have so little trust in police competence that they have to go rogue and take the investigation into their own hands. We then have to believe that Ben, a licensed psychologist and police consultant, apparently agrees with this hare-brained scheme to the point of participating in it. And we can only shake our heads when Ben, an experienced Dom, goes straight off the reservation in pursuit of facts, or when Ben and Gavin take a break from the investigation to have a little threesome with one of the witnesses.Everything that was mildly irritating about Ben in the first two books comes into full bloom in this one. He doesn't come across as a Dom, or indeed a grown-up; he comes across as a brat who has no business dominating others, to say nothing of being a psychologist, while he is such an utter mess himself. Gavin and Cole have also lost much of their complexity as characters. Everyone in here feels like a cardboard cut-out, and I found myself looking forward to a happy ending for only one reason: the book would end.I will definitely be downloading the sample before I purchase any more books from this author.

.....and if you are not totally burned out emotionally and feeling anger seep from every pore then I would seriously question your humanity. A J Rose writes scenes that take you to the black depths of despair about what one human being is capable of inflicting on another but Rose can also write to make your spirits soar at the ability of love to overcome all obstacles.I couldn't put this book down, reading it constantly over the space of a few hours and during the final chapters I had to constantly remind myself to breathe.The subject matter was horrifyingly brutal a relentless onslaught and it will take sometime to work through what I read on paper but at times felt I was experiencing in real life.I cannot say I thoroughly "enjoyed" this third book of Gavin and Ben's lives - the subject matter is bleak but compelling nonetheless. I can say I am glad I made it through to the end - and I hope I am a slightly better more understanding person because of the journeyThank you A J Rose

Consent ist nun der Dritte Teil der Power Exchange und Safeword Reihe von AJ Rose. Die ersten beiden Bücher sind ein Muss zu lesen damit man die Story hinter Ben und Gavin versteht. Man schwankt zwischen Spannung, Aufregung, der völligen Liebe und Vertrautheit der beiden zu absoluten Schockern die AJ in eine verstörend spannende Geschichte packt.Ben Haverson ist mit Abstand zu den anderen D/s Büchern die ich bisher gelesen habe, einer der besten Doms nach den Regeln der Szene und die Beziehung zu Gavin absolut herzerweichend schön.Das Ende kommt.. wenn man es geschafft hat, leider wie immer viel zu schnell.

Please regard the warnings. This book is not suitable for sensitive readers.I’m a huge fan of “Safeword”, the book before “Consent” and like many other readers, I’ve been expectant and afraid at the same time for the sequel. How to top a book like “Safeword”?You could say, A.J. Rose did and didn’t succeed with Consent.First: The crime story. It’s her very best so far in my opinion. Brutal, cruel, shocking. There are probably only two week points where I had to question the story line. Why keeping Myah alive? Especially in the end? And the other person (I’m not going to spoil who), why was this person in Chicago? To be near Gavin, with whom this person had lost contact anyway? Chicago is 5 hours away from Gavin, this was very farfetched.But as I’ve said, this was her best crime so far.Second: The love story. Don’t get me wrong, Ben and Gavin still burn the sheets but – and this is something completely subjective – I haven’t been as touched by them as in the previous books. Especially this scene, which should have been the most emotional one, before Ben gets to be the hero, is far too “technical” for me. But as I said, it’s me…..Actually I hope that this had been the last book about Ben and Gavin. I love them so very much that I don’t want them to end like so many other favorite couples, written to death until the magic is all gone. Let’s them keep some of their secrets forever, let us dream about Ben, the best DOM ever and his strong man.