Customer Reviews

The Stolen Kiss (Book 3 of The Secret Trilogy)

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Francine Saint Marie's third novel in the "Secret Keeping" series is wonderful, and it brings this worthy saga to an appropriate ending.

As you may know, the second novel, "Fortune is a Woman," left the reader with an awful cliffhanger. This book wraps things up very neatly.

And Lydia Beaumont...the woman who loves two women. Lydia, who loves her wife, Dr. Helaine Kristenson, and Lydia, who is in love with her at-work protege, Venus Angelo. Can we love more than one person at the same time? And how do we live with ourselves in this type of situation? How can things be resolved? Francine does resolve them...but not without some heartbreak, tears, and frustration.

You may want to reread the first two books before you tackle this one. And yes, we do have several new characters: Marcus, Mariah, Li, and Nien. And we have the return of Sharon Chambers, the woman we all love to hate.

Kudos, Francine, for a job well done.

The third part of the "Lydia Beaumont Saga" is a veritable thriller. I don't remember waiting for a new book as eagerly as I waited for this one. And when I got it, I wanted to read it all at one go; then I had to let it rest several times because it got too exciting and I had to stop biting my nails and catch my breath!

This trilogy is a tour de force without comparison. Francine Saint Marie's writing is funny, crazy, ironical, clever, deep . . . I could go on infinitely. With her short dialogue flashes she says more than another writer in several pages. Without long descriptions she creates many interesting characters whom we come to love. Without deep analyses we come to understand (and fear) the power of media. And through it all runs the current of love with the wonderful snippets of poetry.

The story? Can't tell you about that - might disclose too much. Do as I did, start from the beginning. It's certainly worth it!
Ms. Saint Marie - I take a bow. This was brilliant!

I'm in total awe, fellow readers, totally humbled. I'm not going to talk about the content, least I spoil this for anyone, I'm more inclined to talk about the form.

And before getting into that, please allow me to strongly recommend to anyone who feels the inclination to explore the lives of these wondrous characters to start at the beginning of the trilogy, with "The Secret Keeping". Book 1 can stand alone, but I think books 2 & 3 need the background to really "get it", to feel infused with the intensity of feelings, to understand that what isn't said is just as powerful as what is said, to be able sit momentarily stunned between the end on one chapter and the beginning of the next, thinking "what now".

"The Stolen Kiss" is as much a well paced thriller as it is a complicated love story, it's as much a detailed, larger than life depiction of human motives and interactions as it is an amazingly simple and recognizable description of following one's heart. The book reads exceedingly well as a continuum, but at the same time it can be savored as a fantastic collection of stories, a multifaceted, multidimensional Rubik Cube. Each chapter, and each character, describes one and the same story from different points of view, and that allows the reader, this reader anyway, to "feel something" for all protagonists, to feel a certain degree of empathy for all of this author's creatures, while gaining a very rich perspective on the complexities of the story and indeed the complexities of human nature.

The biggest creature in the whole trilogy, yet, is the literary tour de force that the writer pulls out of her hat. The narrative, the dialog, the "gaps" that are created by the different points of view (pay attention to chapter titles!) only to be closed later by a different point of view, are all consistent with the previous installments and all contribute to create a world were the reader's mind is free to speculate and to ponder, just as one would do in real life, and just the same end up surprised that life has an agenda of its own, not necessarily in tune with all the speculation and the pondering.

I'm left with a very strong feeling that these characters dictated where the story went, I never along the trilogy felt that the writer was "manipulating" the characters (much less the myself) in any given direction, on the contrary, at times I felt torn at their decisions and didn't fully understand their motives. I always felt that they were the ones speaking through the writer, instead of the writer speaking through them, and this is particularly true of "The Stolen Kiss". The characters' drivers --love and hate and vengeance and power and interests, are what moves this epic story along, and it's a funny feeling, like the writer was never there, or just acted as a messenger. Personally, I think that requires extraordinary talent.

I already said it for the two previous books in the trilogy, but it bears repeating: There is nothing ordinary about "The Stolen Kiss", it's totally original --after every few pages it begs the question "how did that happen and what oh earth can I expect next?" I think this whole trilogy, and very specially this last installment, requires a lot of trust in the author, that's she'll close the loops, that she'll make it all coalesce not only for the readers' sake but mostly for the characters' sake.

And she does. Does she ever. Bravo, Francine, bravissimo.

Wow! After the ending of the second book Fortune Is a Woman I was greatful that I was reading THE SECRET TRILOGY: Three Novels. Two Women. One Epic Love Story.
I don't think I could stand to wait for THE STOLEN KISSto arrive. This book was well worth the read. Great new characters, interesting plots and great outcomes. Lydia's torment was very engaging and I did root for a different outcome, but then I felt she should have her cake and eat it too.

Great serious... This book left me thinking at the end. I have to admit that I was getting very angry at the situation between Lydia and Venus but in the end I completely understood, though I still wish it would have worked differently. This book, actually all of them, Kept me up reading and not wanting to put it down for the night. Loved it!!!

The Secret Trilogy is one of the best novels I have read in years. It has everything to keep a thinking reader satisfied, action, plot, dialogue, words that create an incredible sense of depth and insight into the characters..real people not wooden romantic images that have become part and parcel of our "literary" culture. Bedtime reading that keeps me up long past the bewitching hour.

The author Francine Saint Marie deserves this years's award. But read all three novels in the order written to get the full depth of the lives she portrays

Stolen Kiss is the 3rd story in a trilogy. Don't read this review if you haven't read the trilogy yet. And if you haven't read it yet, what are you waiting for? Hurry up.

I've been gushing about Francine Saint Marie's prose and these stories all week but now I'm coming down off the high and thinking clear headed. This story is pretty farfetched. It's not that I didn't like it but I have some griping to do.

I don't care how hard Helene got hit on the head, she was remembering everything else and she was a relationship doctor. Wouldn't she have understood that after 3 years a person would move on? She might not like it but she should have understood it.

And wouldn't Lydia just bust right into the hospital room anyway? Would she really wait around for permission?

I keep thinking about Tom Hanks and when he got off the island Helen Hunt had married and had children with that other guy and she didn't pick Tom because she had moved on. It was hard but it made sense.

Lydia is a corporate president but she's too much of ding bat to have an opinion on her personal life? She just lets Venus make all the hard decisions and make all the sacrifices?

On the other hand, the story sort of reminds me of an affair to remember. That was farfetched too but it still tears you up when you think about if it had really happened.

I think there should be a rewrite and that the three women should really take to the ménages a trois in book two. Then book 3 is logistics.