Rating: 4.25 stars
Buy Link:
Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novel


Joel Priestly, known as Priest to most, changed his name years ago. He was born Joel Alexander Donovan, the son of the infamous Jimmy Donovan. At the age of seven, Joel learned first hand what his father was capable of and his life has never been the same. Jimmy Donovan made people afraid of him and forced young Joel to witness his violent ways. But now, Jimmy is behind bars and Priest walks the line as a lawyer.

Priest met his match with Julien, who is now his husband. Their love is strong and all encompassing, but Robbie stole both of their hearts without even trying. Priest and Julien both want Robbie to be a permanent member in their relationship, but when Priest waits too long to tell Robbie who he really is, Robbie begins to question everything. The three men fit together though and they are better together than apart. But, Priest’s past may not stay behind bars forever, and no one better get between Priest and his men.

Priest is the third book book in Ella Frank’s Confessions series and where the story behind Joel Priestly is revealed. This book is built upon the previous two in the series and is not intended to be read as a standalone. The story picks up where the previous one ended, with Joel getting news about his father. The world that Frank has created here, starting with the Temptation series, is one that is easy to fall back into and one that I look forward to revisiting with each new book.

Robbie now knows Joel’s true identity and is more than a little hurt that Joel only told him when he had to. Robbie feels left out and slightly disillusioned as Priest demanded complete honesty and transparency from Robbie, and while Priest didn’t exactly lie to Robbie, he wasn’t forthcoming either. Robbie has come so far since the early Temptation series books with Logan and Tate, and he is a well written and fully developed character at this point. He needs his space, but doesn’t run too far from the two men he needs in his life.

The book then moves to more relationship development and the current story of Joel’s father gets prolonged a bit. There are flashbacks to Joel and Julien’s early days, which was great to read, as well as scenes of the three men exploring their intimate time together. We also see one incident of Joel as a child with his father. The story is certainly traumatic for any age, but with all the buildup to this story, starting way back when Priest was first introduced in the Logan and Tate books, I was hoping (expecting) it to be more. I also felt this way in the previous book with Julien’s story, and it felt somewhat anticlimactic to me after all this time. Also, Priest is so adamant about protecting his men and that has always been his sole focus. Yet, he drives Robbie to where he needs to be, but then leaves Julien on his own. For as long as Priest had been planning for this day, he came off as unprepared, which was completely counter to his character.

Being that this series is a spinoff from Logan and Tate’s world, it’s perfect to see them show up on page and those brief cameos certainly increase the appeal of the book for me. Priest, Robbie, and Julien are still hot together and Frank’s bedroom scenes still remain a highlight of her books. While some of the parts of the story here didn’t come together as well as I would have liked, this series and the characters as a whole works well for me. I was thrilled to hear that the series does not end here and there will be a fourth book to complete the story of these three men, as well as additional characters and romances in this same world. Henri stole the scenes he was in here and I will always be on the lookout for additional stories set around Ella Frank’s captivating men.

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