I feel like this is one of those books that you really should read, it’s not one that I would say I enjoyed or liked, but it was eye opening and important. I would definitely recommend this book as a teacher to students for a novel study. I have recommended this book to friends as the three stories are compelling and yet disturbing at the same time. I did feel after reading that something was missing, the three women who were the featured characters/stories in the book were all white, privileged women and although their situations were unique and difficult in their own ways, the viewpoints could have been far more diverse.

I'm not usually much of a biography/memoir/nonfiction reader, but I just had to read Three Women--and I am so glad that I did! What incredible, heartbreaking, and inspiring stories that came from these three women who endured so much. It is incredibly sad the things that women are still forced to deal with, even in the 2020s.

Thank you so much to Avid Press for allowing me the opportunity to read this incredible collection of stories during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. The stories of these women were so brutally honest and vulnerable, I wasn't exactly sure what I was expecting. I felt such a range of emotions throughout this whole book. Mostly, I will say that I am so upset that Maggie was made to feel like she was in the wrong. I hate that the North Dakota justice system failed her and allowed that predator to go back to teaching. In my opinion, this is a book that everyone needs to pick up because being a woman is so much more than what one can assume or sees on the surface. I know this story will stay with me for a very long time. And I hope that someday Maggie will know peace and her story will be believed. I'm so happy that she's making her dreams come true as a Child Protective Services social worker - helping children who were like her.

Disclaimer: For memoirs or nonfiction stories, I don't give a rating because they are not my stories and I am not one to judge, only listen and learn. But because this story made me feel so many emotions and was genuinely incredible, I decided to give it a 5 star rating.

Love love love the cover. Didn’t realize this was nonfiction when I first requested but I’m glad I did anyway! It was intriguing and a fast read, almost as if it was fiction!

This book was so well-researched and thoughtfully written. Not only did I grow attached to the women whose stories Taddeo shares, but I also recommended the book to so many women in my life!

An interesting look at the ins and outs of the lives of three real women. Frankly, I would have liked to read more diverse stories or the stories of three VERY different women, but this was interesting nonetheless.

This book did a great job showing how varied female desire can be, and the circumstances that inevitably come along with that. It showcased three women, and while the three stories differ from each other, I'd have loved to see it with more women. Additionally, I would've loved to see a woman of color included as well. What I also missed was a further discussion on the topic and issues the book presents. It did this somewhat in the epilogue, but I wish that was more of a highlight throughout the text. Great for starting a conversation, though. I finished and instantly wanted to find people to discuss it with!

I'd heard a ton of buzz about this from bookseller friends, but the squirm factor on this one was too high for me.

There are two reasons why I finished this book. One, is that I received it as an advance copy from net galley and therefore feel I owe them the courtesy of reading it and giving feedback. Two, I read the hype about this book. All my friends know that they will never seen me review a book with less than three stars because life is short and I don’t read one or two star books. One is given the impression that this is a more scholarly book than it truly is. It felt like a wannabe sociologist got confused and ended up writing soft porn.

I found this book so well written and devastating that any discomfort I felt was overwhelmed. Of the three women's stories, Maggie's was the one that stood out to me. Men in power can be the worst.

I really was looking forward to this book but I was a little disappointed. I didn't really connect with any of the three women and I didn't quite feel like the book was very cohesive. I get the idea--three women, exploring their lives and desires-- but it fell flat for me.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be completely known? Your deepest desires revealed, respected and sated? In Lisa Taddeo’s book, Three Women, I was able to live in the skin of three women: Lina, Maggie and Sloane through Taddeo’s immersive journalism in narrative form. Taddeo uses her investigative and observational skills to literally disappear into the lives of three women to tell their stories of lust, love and desire.

At its core, Three Women is a story about desire on the margin of acceptance, where society often judges women who unabashedly express their wants and needs. The expression of female desire can be unsettling for women. It upends the patriarchy and all that is familiar, safe and expected in the female code of conduct. Taddeo chose her subjects to express three examples of female desire on the fringes, a marital affair, an illicit relationship between a high school teacher and his student, and a married couple in an open relationship.

Lina is having a long term, sexually-charged affair with a former high school boyfriend. Maggie was involved with her high school teacher as a teenage student and is now seeking retribution in the courts. Sloane, a privileged WASP, works with her husband in a restaurant they own and sleeps with other men at her husband’s request.

All three women experience desire in encounters that are both euphoric and soul-searing, rendered in graphic detail. Taddeo recreates the women’s’ inner lives with such lucidity that at times, I wondered much of the narrative is embellished and imagined for dramatic effect. (How is it possible for anyone to remember in such granular detail, events of the past?) I only pondered the authenticity of these sometimes overwrought accounts because the book is a work of nonfiction. Three Women is a titillating and insightfully honest read about desire’s nuances and truths revealing who we are at our most vulnerable selves.

The book’s open-ended ending leaves me with many questions. What becomes of these three women and the trajectories of their desires? I’m left searching for a takeaway. Should desire be something we contain, doled out in measured doses with the self-discipline of a weight loss diet? If so, what has all this control brought us?

In the epilogue, the author’s dying mother whispers her final words of advice: “Don’t let other women see you happy.” The implication being that women hate on women who are happy, content, and self-actualized. That brand of self-evolution intimidates the sisterhood, holding up a mirror to its own collective lack of courage and deficiencies in the face of needs, wants and sexual desires. Perhaps the takeaway from Three Women is the myth of sisterhood, a false camaraderie that propels and compels us to self-sacrifice for a higher purpose of “I’ve got your back.” I highly recommend this insightful and intimate look into female desire as an anthropological and entertaining read. I also suggest it for a book club pick because it is sure to stimulate thought-provoking conversations and confessions.

This book definitely crept up on me. I had a bit of trouble settling into these women's stories for the majority of the novel, and I'm not entirely sure why. Taddeo is a beautiful writer and the three women were very relatable. I've read nonfiction about feminism before and always liked that they had a new perspective for me to learn from or imparted knowledge on me, but in this case, I don't think anything was really gained for me. This was a novel about three women's sexualities, desires, and how their past and current experiences involving the aforementioned affect how they see themselves, and how this has shaped their relationships. I'm definitely oversimplifying it and I do see this as a book that many would appreciate and benefit from, so I do recommend it. I think I just like my nonfiction a bit more informative, but I will definitely check out Taddeo's novel coming out next year because she has a great writing style!

Thanks to Avid Reader Press and NetGalley for the eARC. This review will be posted on Goodreads and to Amazon's and Barnes & Noble's websites.

A stunning book, devoid of cliche. My only slight criticism is that the conclusion of each of the women's story tend to be melancholic and full of regret.

The writing is a little clunky and repetitive, and there are graphic descriptions of sex, so I really didn't enjoy reading this book. However, the message is important, and many readers find this book reassuring and empowering.

I'll be honest, it was hard to love or even enjoy this one. However, this is clearly not written as a means of escapism, and I had to keep reminding myself of that--that all of this is real.

It was bleak, and it left me bleak. Very well-written, with my only gripe that even in the end I would forget where each woman had left off at the end of her section. I understand why it's interlaced the way it is, but it was hard to keep up with.

I will be honest, I'm glad I read it, but I am looking forward to reading something light next. Which I guess is the state of female rage for me: it can be so consuming, so beyond words, that I escape by all means necessary.

Unpopular opinion time!

This has been one of the most hyped, talked about books of the summer. The topic was one outside of my general area of interest, but so much advance praise has been heaped on this book that I felt compelled to try it. Unfortunately, the book fell far short of the hype for me.

I’ll start by saying that I was impressed by Taddeo’s writing and the ambitious scope of the project. I also applaud the women profiled for their courage in sharing their stories. But none of that takes away from the fact that there are a lot of hugely problematic elements to this book.

The author states in her introduction that her intent is to show what informs female desire. An interesting topic perhaps, but absolutely not what’s actually chronicled here. Two of the three women whose stories are told are the victims of severe trauma at a young age. Does that experience shape their “desire” later in life? Sure. But it in NO way fulfills the overarching claim to demonstrate female desire. This is an account of how trauma shapes desire, rather than how being female shapes desire. Those are two hugely different topics.

I’m also stunned by the number of critics hailing this as some sort of feminist manifesto. I am not suggesting that it is anti-feminist, but rather that it badly misses the mark, because there is absolutely nothing empowering about what happens to these women.

The book was called “both salacious and feminist.” The only way a book could be both of those things is if the women in it were consenting adults in their “salacious” encounters. Reading instead a graphic, detailed account of an abuse victim’s sexual relations with her abuser is certainly salacious, but it’s in no way feminist.

I understand that Taddeo’s intent was to be real and raw, but in including these graphic accounts of abuse, reading it feels far more akin to voyeurism.

Supposedly it “reads like fiction.” Supposedly that is a compliment. I don’t disagree that it does in fact read like fiction, I’m just not sure that’s a good thing in this case.

If you know nothing about the psychology of trauma survivors, this might be an educational read. And certainly, it evokes a deep empathy for the women profiled. What it doesn’t evoke is a feeling of empowerment, and it in no way is an accurate portrayal of desire for women in a general sense.

Finally, in a book that’s supposed to be about telling the story of these eponymous three women, what we actually get is the story of the men who took advantage of them. We are led to believe that these women are making choices based on who their experiences have made them. But it’s the predatory men involved who actually inform those choices.

Taddeo is an exceptionally good writer. But her choice of subject as it relates to what the purported goal of the project was is a swing and a miss.

I finished this book a few days ago and I'm still having trouble articulating my conflicting feelings about it. On one hand it was fascinating to take a look inside these women's lives and relationships. Taddeo doesn't just focus on their sex lives, she delves into their backgrounds, upbringings, families, and life experiences in a way that demonstrates how all these things converge to affect the way the women view themselves, their partners, their sexuality. I flew through the book because it was so compelling to read. But on the other hand, I found all three of the women's stories to be completely and utterly depressing. The shock factor was a large reason why the book was so interesting, but shock was quickly followed by sadness for these women. None of the three seemed truly happy with their life choices, nor did it seem like they were on the path to happier, healthier lives. I was hoping to find some kind of redemption at the end, but instead I was left feeling bleak and wondering at the point of it all. This is what ultimately brought my rating so low.

Taddeo's reflections about her mother contain some of her most beautiful writing. It felt the most genuine and authentic to me. I liked that she began and ended her book with these reflections on her mother. I think she tried to carry the same tone and writing style throughout, but her writing had the tendency to lose meaning in her effort to achieve the same level of eloquence.

Many women will connect with this book and the experiences shared by Maggie, Lina, and Sloane, so I expect it will be a huge hit and a bestseller. There is much to discuss and analyze so it's an excellent choice for book clubs as well.

I received an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I appreciate Lisa Taddeo's letting readers come to their own conclusions about the Three Women. She relates everything she learned form the women in a clinical and thorough manner, never judgmental or opinionated. It almost read like a novel, so conversational is her style. This book. I'll have to say, made me very sad. Sad for the women, sad for my gender, sad for our society in general. Each woman's story was shaped by her childhood, her environment, society's expectations, and their own personal demons.
I can't say I "enjoyed" or was "entertained" by Three Women, but I do feel I am better for having read it.
Three Women is by no means an easy read, it requires a commitment and an accepting heart. Lisa Taddeo and the Three Women are to be commended and celebrated.
I received my copy through NetGalley under no obligation.

Three Women by Lisa Taddeo follows the lives of three women over the course of multiple years. Amazingly, the author embedded herself in the lives and communities of the women that she studied and wrote about. Lina, Maggie, and Sloane are brave women who voluntarily opened their lives up for judgment and observation. I'm hoping there's a follow-up in the process of being written.