*REVIEW* "Joseph Fallen" (The Estate #0.5) by M S Willis

There is a fine line between genius and madness…
Between love and hate,
Between right and wrong.
Joseph had created The Estate for her…
His wife,
The woman he chose to bear his child.
She was beauty unsurpassed;
And her song was unlike anything he’d ever known.
However, their love was a story that would not find a happy ending.
In this prequel novel to the Estate series, follow Joseph Carmichael as he creates a world unlike any other. Because, in order to comprehend The Estate, you must understand Joseph; but, in order to understand Joseph, you must discover how a man falls from light into the pitch black depths of ultimate darkness.

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MY THOUGHTS

"His name was Joseph Carmichael and when he started The Estate, he not only created Hell... He ruled it."

This book tore me up. In some of the same ways "Madeleine, Abducted" did, but even more so emotionally. We literally watch a good man, be taken over by power and money. Watch a sweet relationship fall apart at the hands of someone who has lost himself to a world of something he, at first, wasn't. 

"I must be honest in telling all of you, that without my lovely wife, Arianna, by my side, I would not have the drive to achieve my success. She is a fire that burns within my body, my heart and my soul, and, for her, I can accomplish anything..."

Joseph was a successful businessman from the start, but when he realized the amount of power that he held, everything started changing. It was beyond interesting to watch as he started slipping, and then fell over the edge, all at once. Slowly Arianna became more of a possession than a wife, and if she couldn't live up to her "job", she would be of no use to him. Although Arianna started seeing the signs of Joseph losing himself, she still believed that her husband was still somewhere in there, deep under this new shell.

"When Arianna accepted his outstretched hand from across the surface of the table, she did so with the newly discovered knowledge that there were two sides to Joseph Carmichael."

When I say "Joseph Fallen" tore me up, here is what I mean. You get used to happy endings, you get used to the good guy winning, but you know from page one, that isn't how this story is going to go. You know what Joseph becomes, and reading of how he got there in the first place, and the people he took down along the way, breaks you apart. You get attached to Arianna, as well as one of Joseph's original guards, Connor. And of course reading about Aaron and Xander as little ones, knowing their fate as well, just gets you right in the chest. You start coming up with scenarios in your head of "if this was me, how would I get out?". But when. even in your own head, you cannot come up with an escape, it makes your heart constrict, you feel.. helpless. 

Is there an amazing plot line? Of course. Is the writing brilliant, as usual? Come on, do you even need to ask? It's M S Willis, so absolutely. Does it make you FEEL? 1000%. Twist? You got it. Love story? Well, yes, actually there are several. New love, safe love, married love, abusive love, forbidden love, love of a job, love of drugs, love of sex, the love of a child...

"I'll never need those things, Joseph. All I'll ever need is you. Don't let the idea of extraordinary wealth tear you apart from me..."

All in all, this is the perfect back story, to a terribly twisted man, and a glimpse of his life before he went rouge.. Before "The Estate"..

"Life wasn't fair. The fairy tales and stories she'd been told as a child were nothing more than fantasy, a dream that could never become true."

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Read my review of "Madeleine, Abducted" The Estate #1 below:

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