Incredible story of love, greed, murder and fear. This is Ms. Wilder at the top of her game. If you've never read one of her many terrific books, this is the place to start. Wilder redefines dysfunctional family with this gang. I'd give it 6 stars if I could. ( )

This is not a gentle story. Paris tells it, and Paris is a broken man, though Roy doesn't know it when he meets him. We the readers have some idea. (We think we do.)

That's just in the first few pages. You read the excerpt on amazon, you think you're ready. You're not. I was careful where I stopped reading each day, so I could sleep. I could finish it because this is a Romance, but holy crap the end. And the clever last chapter.

I have a couple of criticisms, neither important:

The sex got kind of boring, this happens in many erotic romances. Only the feelings and the funny bits were great - but that's a plus. They remained and got more personal.

The other is how Paris thinks of the colors he sees. They're very plain from a painter's view, unless he always chose visually and never read the names on the tubes - possible, but not shown well enough for me to notice. No umber, cadmium, cobalt, ivory black, titanium, ochre.

If you're ready for intense, read this one. ( )

I was given Complementary Colors by the author for an honest review. The story is told in first person through the eyes of Paris Duvoe, a tormented abstract artist under the heavy-handed control of his sister, Julia.



I painted to silence them.
I painted to tell the truth.
I painted to free the boy whose name I couldn’t remember.

Paris Duvoe is a tormented artist, physically, emotionally and mentally. He’s trapped in his mind by something terrible that happened in his childhood and his sister Julia plans to keep him there as long as he makes money that keeps her in the lifestyle that she’s grown accustomed to. She drugs him and abuses him, physically, emotionally and sexually because she pimps him out to people who buy his works of art. Julia is an ugly creature, perfect on the outside, but incredibly controlling, dangerous and crazy on the inside. Alice, Paris’s other sister, is quiet, sweet and fearful. She’s also under Julia’s thumb.

Paris lives the rich life, with expensive dinners, art shows and parties. He lives in a penthouse. He’s jaded, and drugs himself to escape his life. He knows what to expect when people use him for his art and for sex so he doesn’t have to feel for anyone. He has everything money could buy, but his life is devoid of love. Paris’s paintings are hideous works of art that control him more than he controls them. Painting is a way for Paris to keep the monster inside his mind placated. He expresses that monster through his art when it stirs, and if he can’t, the monster erupts in a pathological rage. The only other way the monster can be placated is with drugs, alcohol and sex. The only good part is that Paris likes sex, lots of sex.

This story has us believe that the monster in Paris is the monster of the boy and it was coming to get him. But I think the monster was also Paris himself, trying to claw his way out from under Julia’s control where she’d buried him so deep and where Paris had to swallow all his anger and rage about what had happened, and what was happening. Also his rage at what he didn’t do in the past. Another possibility is a point in the story when Paris remembered dropping the boy in the well and wondering if he should go down there and keep the boy company. Paris buried himself there, if only symbolically. His sister kept Paris buried under her control and he was the monster trying to dig his way out.

There’s another creature in Paris’s mind, a white rabbit. At first I thought the rabbit was a tormentor because Paris seemed to fear the rabbit whenever he saw it. If it came near him in his mind, he’d try to escape it. But near the end of the story, the rabbit turned into something else. It turned into a companion to keep Paris from being alone in his head. It was an advisor and someone he could talk to when he wouldn’t talk to anyone else. It was also Paris’s rescuer, saving him when he needed it.

The one significant person who happens into Paris’s life and begins all the changes to set Paris free is, Roy Callahan. At one of the art showings, Paris sees Roy and gets Roy to fuck him. From there, they start to run into each other and then search out the other. Roy is poor and the last years of his life have been very hard. He lives in a rundown building in the poorest of neighborhoods. He can only afford the barest amount of food and keeps the temperature as low as possible in his apartment to save money. But his heart is overflowing with love and when he finds Paris, he finds someone he can pour all his love into. He fills the emptiness and all the dark places that Paris has inside him. He gives Paris unconditional love, even when Paris disappoints him, hurts him, Roy keeps on loving him. Roy is also the first person to make love to Paris; all Paris’s other partners just had sex with him. It scares Paris because no one has ever loved him that much, except his mother whom he really can’t remember. Paris is afraid to love Roy back for another reason, because of what happened to the boy that kissed him.

I know some reviewers have labeled this a dark story, but I don’t know if I can call it that. It’s tormented, yes, especially when Paris remembers everything about what took place that day in one long mental vomit. The one part where the boy begged for Paris’s help and held out his hand because he was so afraid ripped my heart out. That was the hardest part for me to read, but I understood Paris’s fear. He was as trapped as the rabbit. I can understand why Paris couldn’t forgive himself for not saving the boy even though he would have likely died too, and then he had to help dispose of the body also. He could never heal after that. A book like this would normally tear me apart, but it didn’t. I think what ‘saved me’ from feeling all that pain, what outshone all the pain and horror, was the love. The pure love Roy had for Paris and finally the love Paris had for Roy. For me, this is a love story. Not a romance, but a love story.

This story is a study in contrasts, not just in emotions, but in time and place. At the beginning of the book, we aren’t as exposed to the darkness and horrors in Paris’s world and mind, nor to the people who love him, except his sister Alice. As time goes by, we are swept more into Paris’s nightmares and the horrors of his life. As those grow darker, the light and love that is Roy grows stronger and finally Paris is able to feel love for Roy. In the end he wants to sacrifice himself to save Roy, but instead, saves himself to save Roy, and to be strong for Roy because Roy is strong. When Paris was a child, he had no one to give him strength and help him when he needed it like he now has as an adult. Paris was able to experience, with Roy, love. The kind of pure love he had when he kissed the boy. No strings, no demands, just love.

There are more similarities in the situation involving the boy’s death, and Roy and Paris trying to escape Julia. Both Julia and Harrison were batshit crazy. Both the boy and Roy loved Paris. Both were willing to sacrifice themselves to save him. Paris never got to tell the boy he loved him before the boy died. Not comforting or helping the boy also haunted Paris. But when Paris was shot, he was able to tell Roy he loved him, something he never could tell the boy. Paris was also at peace if he died in Roy’s arms, when he wasn’t as a child. The difference was, Paris had the power as an adult to save himself and those he loved, and as a child he couldn’t. Paris also now had people who helped him, whereas he was alone when he was a child.

I’ve read through some of the reviews and some people have mentioned that Paris is still f***ed up at the end. Their remarks leave me to think that the reviewers believe Paris will never get better. But here are a few lines thought by Paris near the end of the story that say otherwise:

But everything would be all right. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but it would.
In truth, we’d be better than before. No more secrets. No more lies.

Although I loved this book, there are a few things that didn’t work for me in the story and seemed like holes that needed fixing. First was the fact that Roy was not rich. He was, I would say, living at poverty level. He was frugal and always counting how much it cost if he spent money. But throughout the story, he had the money to take a taxi just about everywhere. Paris and Roy did walk places at times, but not as much as grabbing a taxi and taxis are not inexpensive. So how is spending money on an expensive taxi ride explained away in comparison to the amount of money Roy has?

Another thing about Roy, what was it about Roy that made him so special that he could see what was hidden inside Paris’s art and what Paris was trying to say? It’s never explained in the book, it was just some mysterious thing that Roy could do. I would have preferred that there was at least an explanation of some sort, even if it was something esoteric.

I also have a question about the gallery that is mentioned near the end of the story.

”The Lorenzo gallery wasn’t large, but it was fast becoming the jumping point for many new artists and attracting the attention of several artistic celebrities.”

Is this gallery named after the boy ‘Lorenzo’ that he kissed? Was this Paris’s gallery that he created in memory of Lorenzo?

This is a story of opposites in just about every way possible and the author weaves them throughout the tale. It was like searching for Easter eggs and then finding what the author was showing us. I know I’ve missed some of them, which only urges me to re-read the book again. The characters are complex especially Paris and Roy and their development, or rather the reveal of their feelings and of Paris’s mind unfurl like a flower. I could go on and on about how this story made me 'feel' but this would turn into an even longer review than it already is. I will say this can be a difficult read for some people because of the topic of mental illness and past violence and horrors, but I also found it full of hope and love. And yes, for those who want to know, they do get their HEA, but not after much hard work and pain. I have to put Complementary Colors at the top with my other favorite reads. I give this story 4.50 stars because of the holes in the story that I think need to be answered, but raise the final rating to 5 Stars.

( )

This book was a bit twisted, and it had a ton of angst, but despite that I enjoyed it. The book was really well written and had an intriguing story supporting all of the dysfunction poor Paris suffered with. I'm glad I read this. My heart really went out to Paris, and Roy was such a great character. I wish we got to know a bit more about Roy, but the main focus was Paris. I put this on the dub con shelf because of the story line Paris was pretty much forced to be pimped out, but none of it was between the MC's; they were great together. ( )

Dark

This is not an easy book to read. I almost stopped several times, but pushed on and I’m glad I did. Paris is a tortured soul and Roy is in love with him. Paris has many secrets kept hidden so deep that he can’t even remember them. Can they survive when they begin to come out? ( )