Three Women by Lisa Taddeo | July 2019 BOTM Book Review

Hello Friends!

For a while now the posts have all been Glam and not enough Books with all the FabFitFun and Ipsy boxes.  Now we are finally getting into the books part 😀

Last month I joined a book subscription service called Book of the Month where you can pick out a book from the month’s selection as your book of the month, with the option of adding on a 2nd or a 3rd book (you can also pick books from previous months’ selections and in any category).  The monthly subscription base is $14.99 which gives you 1 credit per month, and each additional book is $9.99 – shipping is free and you can always skip a month whenever you want.  The books are all hardcover, and if you are a book buyer, you know that hardcovers usually sell in the upper teens so that’s actually a pretty good value!  The selection of books are a mix of different genres and interests, as well as some new releases, popular books, and early releases of books set for later this year.  I actually found out about it from Alyssa Hertzig on Instagram (beauty editor & blogger – @alyssahertzig or @alyssaisbooked) and she shared a promotional offer to join…of course, being the lover of books that I am, I did not need telling twice LOL!

So for my July selections I chose “Three Women” by Lisa Taddeo and “The Gifted School” by Bruce Holsinger, literary nonfiction and fiction respectively.  For this post I will be focusing on “Three Women” for review and the next review post will be on “The Gifted School.”

As I mentioned, “Three Women” is a literary nonfiction book that was originally published on July 9, 2019, so it is a brand new release.  The book has a 4-star rating on Amazon, ranging from those who found the book enlightening, to those who were disappointed in what they originally thought it to be before reading it.  I personally found it to be a very interesting read, and a topic that sheds light on women’s issues that are often pushed aside because it’s just not something that can be publicly talked about without getting side-eyed or judged by others.

“Three Women” follows the life stories of three women (obviously!) over the course of 8 years that the author has spent with them collecting material and learning about their lives.  In the bio of the book, Taddeo had also lived for some time in the towns where these women lived to get a more precise picture of their social environment and the people in the community.  The women in the book each tell their story from the perspective of present time and also reflecting back on past events that led to where they are now.

The three primary characters in the book are Lina in Indiana, Maggie in North Dakota, and Sloan in the Northeast.  Those three women tell their stories with candor, supplementing their stories with written materials, such as emails and text messages.  As it is nonfiction, and those characters are very real women today, there isn’t a true happy ending as would be in a novel, or how we would like to see their story end, but more so a reality check of what real life is like.

We are first introduced to Lina, a stay-at-home mom of 2 in Indiana, who for some time has been starved for affection from her husband.  Her most basic need?  To be kissed on the mouth by her husband, who finds the sensation offends him – later validated by a marriage counselor that they go to see.  Frustrated, Lina reaches out to her old boyfriend from high school, who was her first love and who she never quite forgot.  He is also married with children of his own, but they both embark on an affair that is all-consuming, and eventually helps Lina come to the resolution of separating from her husband.  We also get a glimpse of what life was like for Lina before she married her husband, a type she thought she would ever be interested in, and how past events led to her separation from the love of her life.

Next we meet Maggie in North Dakota, who is a few years older than when her story starts at age 17.  As a 17-year-old high school student, she finds comfort in talking to her young, handsome, and married English teacher.  When she first had her first sexual encounter with an older man while visiting her sister, she was faced with much ridicule, criticism, and shame from friends and her family when it was found out.  Not knowing who to turn to, she turned to her English teacher who has always been supportive and told him about her experience.  Their relationship started out with supportive nightly texts and phone calls, often lasting for hours, and later became a physical relationship, though no intercourse, with the promise from him that it will happen on her 18th birthday.  Caught up in her love and admiration for him, Maggie fails to see his controlling and manipulating behavior, later leaving her heartbroken when he dumps her on his 30th birthday.  Years later, the present time of telling her story, she is without a degree, a career, or dreams to live for.  When she hears of him being honored as Teacher of the Year, Maggie decides to come forward with her story, known only to a few close friends and her family.  Predictably, the community is in disbelief and she is not believed by anyone, people assuming she is just out to ruin the reputation of a respectable and well-loved teacher.  As it was several years after the text messages (phone company unable to retrieve them), Maggie does not have enough to bring to the court case, except a book that he had made notations for her in, alluding to their relationship, which was eventually discounted from the evidence and he was found innocent.  I actually looked up the name of the teacher and read the news posts about this case, although it does not list Maggie’s name as she was a minor at the time (“Maggie” is also not her real name, but was changed for the book).

Finally, we meet Sloan in “an exclusive enclave in the Northeast.”  Sloan comes from a privileged background growing up and is a gorgeous, successful, and refined restaurant owner.  Her husband is the head chef of their seasonal restaurant, met when she was working as a hostess when she realized that this was her passion, and they have 2 daughters together – one of which is her husband’s from a previous relationship.  Although happily married and in love, Sloan’s husband enjoys watching her having sex with other men, often times picking out potentials for either threesomes or for her alone, with her sending him updates, pictures, and videos of the encounters.  Although she does enjoy it, Sloan comes to the realization of whether she is doing this out of her own desire, or for the desire to please her husband and those others she has those encounters with, something she realizes she has been doing her entire life.  When they introduce a new man to their bed, who has been working with them for some time, she recognizes the uneven power dynamics of her relationship, and how their lifestyle can ultimately destroy and ruin an innocent someone else.

As I mentioned, the book does not end with a happily ever after, with each woman getting her ideal life met, or, in the case of Maggie, justice for the injustice done to her.  The book primarily shows how the roles of desire and sex play in the lives of women and how much it can impact decisions, and even family life.  Although I don’t find the book as a female empowerment book, from the sense that these women overcame their desires and rose above others and conquered the world, but as a real life glimpse of the everyday woman who has been taken advantage of, or severely lacking the intimacy she craves from her spouse/partner, or giving in to a husband’s fantasy to maintain a marriage and finding herself in the process.  It is this that I think people might find as a turn off, who may be getting this book under the assumption of it being female empowerment – however, that is not to say that there are those who will see it as such and that’s perfectly ok!  Just being able to bring these topics to light and talk about them openly, and even have them on the shelves of our local bookstores, is an empowerment in it’s own in that we as women are no longer ashamed to say that yes we have needs, desires, and sexual fantasies that we crave to have fulfilled.  Now I will also mention that the book can, and does, get fairly descriptive and detailed in some of the sexual encounters the characters recount, as well as liberal use of the f-word frequently.  In a way, that can be empowering in being able to talk about these things and put it out there for others to read, while there will be those that this aspect might be a deterrent to picking up the book.

I hope you all enjoyed my first book review on here and thank you if you have read and gotten to the end 🙂 ❤

I’d love to know your thoughts on this book, whether you’ve read it or it peaked your interests as something to pick up or listen to.

If you’d like to get your own subscription to the Book of the Month click HERE to create your account and get your books.

Look forward to the review of “The Gifted School” by Bruce Holsinger coming later this week!!!  Until then…

~XO~