The Secret Trilogy: Three Novels....One Epic Love Story.

Ms. Saint Marie writes very well. This trilogy is epic and engrossing. The characters are well drawn with depth. When I see that Ms. Saint Marie has a new book, I download it immediately knowing that she always has something interesting to say and that I am going to enjoy reading it.

What I liked most about the Trilogy was the realness of the characters and their emotions. I found myself constantly gasping from surprise and even crying. Definitely one of the greatest love stories I've read, if not the best.

This trilogy sweeps you off your feet. I don't often set aside commitments to indulge myself in a story but this book refused to be put down. I hated that it had to end but when it did it left me with many wonderful images and characters that felt like old friends. Thanks for the ride!!

Did you ever want to read a book that was unlike any other book you ever read in a genre? A book that takes writing to another level, and that has you wondering how come you ever bought the "good lesbian romance", five star reviews before? A book that narrates the loveliest, most delightful love story without ever once resorting to any of the formulaic lesbian fiction props? Where the depth of each and every character makes you feel like you know, or would love to know, these people in real life? This is that book. And fancy what, it's not a book but three. This is the first thing any reader needs to know about this Trilogy: The protagonists and their motives carry over, but the books are distinct, both in content and presentation of the facts. The Secret Keeping, Special Edition is my all time favorite in the lesbian fiction genre, Fortune Is a Woman and THE STOLEN KISS are close seconds. On the genre, I'm convinced I don't do these books a favor by placing them in that category, I'd just as soon place them under great contemporary literature, but be aware, at least, that the lovers in this epic story are women. The second thing that's good to know about this Trilogy is that the author doesn't take you by the hand, and she most certainly doesn't point the way to any of her characters to save them the twists and bumps, the pains and anguish, and she most certainly doesn't make the glory easy. Both ladies and gentlemen in this story are on their own, being their own good, bad, ugly, twisted, humanly flawed people, and that makes them all a perfect reflection of what we all love and hate, love to hate and hate to love, in any breathing person we cross paths with. And that's just it, you won't only be reading a novel, you'll be breathing these people and their lives and choices in. You'll have to fend for yourself, while these protagonists and antagonists do the same in the complex world of relationships, wants and desires and hates and revenges. There's no absolute good and no absolute evil, this is a masterful depiction of personalities that transcend the written word. This drives me to the third thing worth knowing about the Trilogy: You need to be prepared to be frustrated out of your mind when pretty much nothing happens as you'd expect or wish. When does life ever, anyway? Be also prepared to be as mad as you'll be thrilled more than a few times and, above all, be prepared to be blown out of the water by the wit and smarts within these pages. These are three novels like none other I've read, and that goes for the story, the diversity and different nature of characters and scenarios and, primarily, this is a book like none other when it comes to intelligent prose. I'm glad to find, every once in a hundred full moons, a writer that thinks I can connect the dots, or that doesn't care much one way or the other if I can't. That would be the readers' problem, the novels just won't be disgraced by spelling it all out loud. Less is really mo

I posted part of this review under The Stolen Kiss, but I'm posting an edited/extended version here, in case it helps understand what can be expected from this trilogy, and from this author. Fellow readers, be prepared to be in awe, to be surprised, to be enamored by this extraordinary sequence of events and this collection of larger than life characters. If you're after content description, you won't find it from me, but I refer you to some of the reviews for the three books in the series where you can glimpse what this trilogy is about in terms of "storyline". I don't want to spoil it for anyone, suffice to say it is an epic love story. I'm more inclined to talk about the form, because, frankly, I've never read anything quite like it in the so-called "lesbian fiction" genre. For me, the byline for the whole trilogy is intelligent writing, very bold and extremely respectful of the readers' mind -Francine Saint Marie trusts that the reader will be pulled into the lives of these characters of their own accord, without pushing them in any given direction. The reader, in turn, is hereby advised to trust this writer and her masterful skill to accompany us for the ride, from a distance. She won't take your hand and smooth the way for you, though, more likely you'll feel about to be pushed from a cliff, no parachute in sight. This trilogy is a mental trip of intense feelings, of understanding that what isn't said is just as powerful as what is said, of sitting there stunned between the end of one chapter and the beginning of the next, thinking "what now". The three installments are a masterpiece of fluid consistency, of powerful and elusive characters that you want to know more of but you can't expect to until they are good and ready. This is true for the three books of the trilogy, but of course The Secret Keeping caught me unawares, being the first and all. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I know it rocked my world. I've read critics comparing this author to Virginia Wolf or Sarah Waters, and I'd think that'll give any reader an idea that this is very far from formulaic, plain writing, and very close to the very best of contemporary English literature. Smart, unique, engaging are the words used by reviewers to describe this first in the trilogy. Indeed, for me the pull and force of the story lays fundamentally in the way it's told, it is a romance, yes, but it is so much more in terms of literary currency. This is not a book you can rush through, it isn't a book where you can take anything for granted either, it's too sophisticated for easy guesses and easy ways out. Fortune Is a Woman picked up the narrative with a slightly different twist, it isn't arranged in "parts" but in chapters, there are more characters and more points of view (no, the two don't necessarily go hand in hand in most novels) -and this is a prelude to what you'll find in "The Stolen Kiss" in terms of style. Book 2 defines its very essence in the preface, if you're