Genesis by Christie Rich

Elemental Enmity #3

"Having just escaped the nefarious plans of the Order, Rayla Tate thinks all she has to do now is rescue her family and sort through her feelings, but bonding with five men might just be her undoing. Not only does she have to deal with all of them reading her mind, Rayla must choose a bondmate before she will be allowed to venture into the mortal realm to save those she loves most.

She has three weeks to get to know each lord, but her journey turns into far more than a simple choice of the heart. Rayla comes face to face with the underhanded dealings of the fae political system where good is a matter of taste and evil lurks under beautiful shells. Long held judgments crumble when she discovers the heart beneath the men she has come to count on. Rayla must overcome long held fears, discover the truth behind the creatures of the dark realms, and conquer her greatest weakness before she can take her place as the new queen of the fae.

However, her world crumbles when she discovers following her heart’s desire might just mean the destruction of the world. Will Rayla have the courage to choose the man who has risked everything to win her, or will she succumb to the manipulations of the fae council and those who would use her power for evil?

One choice: five men. The stakes have never been higher, but which one will prevail?"

This is the third book in the Elemental Enmity series. And so far the best book in the series. This book picks up right where the last one left off, with Rayla about to be partially bound to five different men. Clearly she would feel apprehensive about that. The Fae council seems to think it's the best a safest course of action. Not wanting her to be susceptible to Ainessa. There a few themes in this book that kind of rub me the wrong way sometimes. The ideals of women are only used as a utensil to make men more powerful, and it's been that way for a millennia yet no members but one power-hungry princess seem to really have an issue with that. Even Rayla and all her words about wanting to have her own life are ok with taking the back seat to a man as long as that man loved her. It sends mixed messages in a way.

My desire for the romance to stop floating around the idea that Rayla has romantic love in her for fewer men is shattered for most of the book. The Fae council has her spend alone time with all the Fae Lords in their homelands, to first get to know each of them and get training. Not only does the number get smaller, she actually starts to love all of them, to some degree, but still equally. Which is just unrealistic. In the last book she was struggling to sort out her feelings for just a couple guys then she meets Heath, and is just unsure of her feelings for him because he keeps compelling her, but then she falls for him too. But as she gets to know the other Fae Lords she falls for all five of them. Yet while she is spending time with all the other lords, her mind keeps wandering back to Heath, and he keeps entering her dreams.

Rayla finally makes a choice of who it is she really loves and wants to bond with. But that is when the shit really hits the fan. Through many circumstances, Rayla finds herself wanting to be with Heath. And I've got to be honest, I had always figured that it would be Zach that she chose in the end. But there is still one more book left who's to say that things don't change somewhere along the line there, in the last book she spent most of her time detesting Heath, yet now she's completely in love with him. The way the story went, apart from the relationship parts, in this book make me really curious and actually looking forward to the final book.