Book Review for Intricate Obsessions by Jennifer Rayes
I received this book for free. This did not impact my review.
Intricate Obsessions, by Jennifer Reyes, is the third book in the Intricate Series. The book follows Gaia as she navigates through complex political alliances with Raoul, and by extension, Kayamoto, as well as build up her task force to fight Salim and his associates with the help of her advisors and trusted officials. Meanwhile, Domonique attempts to mitigate the threat of the Governor, who hungers for bloodshed and war.
I absolutely enjoyed Gaia in this book. In the beginning, I thought she was ready to rip Dominique’s throat out, especially since Salim was now in Raoul’s custody. She was absolutely justified in her anger. After all, she, along with many others, have suffered under him. And I don’t necessarily agree with Dominique’s actions either, since, once again, he’s putting Gaia on a pedestal. Moreover, I liked the plan Gaia laid out for her citizens; it reminds me of the initiatives a couple of volunteer organizations used to preach. It does take energy and time to root out human trafficking, something that Gaia has already dedicated her entire kingdom to.
An interesting thing to note that this is, unfortunately, the first time I’ve become interested in Gaia’s love interests, primarily Dominique. It was subtle at first, but Rayes has spotlighted Dominique’s broken bird status. He reminds me of an evangelical sinner forever chasing the unloving arms of his deity. Every fuck up he makes, he expects Gaia to be there to comfort him. He’s fighting to keep his family safe, but he doesn’t know how. He keeps getting betrayed at every corner, and although Gaia (and I’m assuming Raoul), is in his corner, he self-isolates. It’s almost sad to read, and I’m all for it. And unluckily enough, since I love comparisons, I can definitely see a lot of Antoine in him.
Antoine is a very interesting character in and of itself. His obsession with Gaia eerily parallels with Dominique. They both see Gaia as this good, sweet, perfect thing, not bothering to take into account who she is or what she might want, or if she’s even human. To Antoine she’s like this cherubic angel that needs to be possessed, and to Dominique, a Goddess,l to be protected, none of which are healthy, all of which leave no room for Gaia.
As I’ve said with the previous book, it sets up the stage for the next book. It had a solid plot line, and I enjoyed reading about the intricacies in Gaia’s and Raoul’s government, as well as how Dominique deals with foreign powers. I would still like a lot more world building though. Moreover, something as shattering as a massacre warrants a bit more emotional processing than what Rayes writes in. Despite this, I enjoyed the book, and would give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.
