Madness

Five Stars: "The tragedy of Madness is also the beauty of it..."

Natasha Jackson, Readers' Favorite

Madeleine Holbrook has decided she's done with men.

Ian McLaren has decided he's ready for Madeleine.

Jacob Turner hasn't decided anything.

Among the rich and miserable of Denver, Madeleine's career as a professional mistress has been an open secret. But at the ripe age of twenty-seven - and after nearly ten years - Madeleine's ready to retire and start solving her own problems. As soon as she can get a handle on what, exactly, those are. But Ian's been waiting five years for her to be free: he has no intention of letting the opportunity go.

Weighed down by a past he refuses to discuss, Ian's tried all the usual things to forget: expensive scotch, disposable women, more scotch, more women. Staring down the barrel of forty makes him want a fresh start, and Madeleine looks like a hell of a blank page. He's amazed he can look forward to a future with her when he hasn't looked forward to anything in a dozen years. Riding high on hope, Ian's unprepared for Madeleine's no, and surprised by his best friend Jacob's resistance to his pursuit.

Ian is the closest thing Jacob has to family. Hell, Ian is family, and Jacob's not about to let some common whore break his heart. He's taken good care of Ian, scraping him out of the gutter and dragging him from inappropriate beds. If Ian can't quite see that, it doesn't matter to Jacob. Much. He's got Ian's back, whether or not Ian wants him to.

As Ian's secrets spill and Jacob's animosity grows, all three of them find themselves testing the boundaries of friendship, confronting the dangers of desire, and trying to ignore the consequences of the lies they've told themselves.