This book had a profound affect on me and I could not put it down. It was like entering the minds of the different women and experiencing their thoughts and feelings with them as they went through intense experiences in their lives. The fact that the stories were true made it an even more powerful read. This book really made me think about female sexuality, and how women are perceived in relation to their sex lives. This book also encourages you to explore your own opinions on the culpability of others. This is a really thought-provoking read, written in a highly engaging style.

This book is well-written and compelling but it’s not quite what I was expecting. For me Sloane’s narrative was by far the most interesting and nuanced so it’s a shame it felt more weighted towards Lina and Maggie. I enjoyed the narrative style and the way you can really get a feel for the characters as real people (which of course they are). There are some striking observations about women’s desire and the way society polices it but I was a little bit disappointed that there wasn’t more of this. I found Lina’s narrative painful to read in parts - the feelings are so raw - yet by the end it was quite repetitive, the sex detail became gratuitous,  and I think her story feels quite unfinished. 
I would say I just felt a bit unsatisfied and underwhelmed but overall a solid 3.5 stars.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will be recommending it to friends, family and the goodreads community. It was unlike any book I’ve read before especially because it tells the story of real women in the style of a fiction novel. I found myself getting so drawn into these women’s lives and journeys that I couldn’t wait to pick the book up at the next available opportunity. The writing was so accomplished that you couldn’t help but feel a connection to the characters – the feelings and emotions experienced by these women literally seeped out of every page. Being able to relate to some of these emotions was such a profound experience. A true gem of a book. The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars is because for my personal taste it got a bit explicit at times. I think the book would’ve been just as powerful without so much of this. Thank you for the opportunity to read an advance review copy.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher.  Not sure what sort of review I can give this book as I finished it but left no lasting impression and to be honest did not really enjoy it,  found it a chore

What an exciting read.  3 women, how their early lives shaped their adult lives.  Each story is different but in some way the women share some desires and disappointments.  It is one of the books you can't wait to get back to and find out how each woman is getting on. Its so interesting to see how each story builds to a crescendo and then starts to crumble.  The men involved with all three women have their own problems and needs.  Its a book that leaves you wanting to understand more about how all those involved felt after the ending of the different relationships.  Fascinating read.  A book that comes to and end far too soon.

4.5 stars 

I’m so grateful I had the opportunity to read this book. It received high praise from Dolly Alderton and that woman never disappoints with her recommendations. So, I requested it on a whim and oh my god, what a book.

Three Women comprises unrelated stories about the lives of well, 3 women. Having written this over the course of eight years, flying across the country to interview the women in their hometowns, Taddeo zooms in on the chaotic truths of their sexual desires with unflinching detail. These women are of different social status, are different ages and are from different parts of the country, yet their commonalities are clear. They each seek out something in sex that they were missing in their past. This is a challenging book which dives into the psychology of women, revealing hidden thoughts, desires, obsessions and ultimately, hope.

Taddeo’s writing is enthralling, and I was constantly having to remind myself that this is nonfiction. Reading about their experiences, it wouldn’t be hard to believe that these women are characters that have sprouted from Taddeo’s imagination. I felt for these women. I rooted for them. By the end of the book, I felt I knew them inside and out and I was left itching to know what these women are doing now. 

Furthermore, this book will enrage you. Reading through their experiences, we learn that they are judged by other women despite a man being just as involved in their individual circumstances. They are wrongly shamed for going against societies wishes and for doing as they please. Why? Well, a big part of that is because they’re women. Their desires are muted, exploited and denied by a society that continues to suppress our truths, while it simultaneously sexualises us in other ways. Nonetheless, each of the women demonstrates the ravenous forces that lie within us all, that have for too long been trampled down. 

I don’t read much nonfiction but, even if I did, I don’t think I could compare this book to anything else. I wholeheartedly recommend picking this stunning piece of literary non-fiction up and hope you are as astounded by the bravery of these women to have their stories told to the world as I am.

I can’t really say what first interested me in this book. I was intrigued by the reviewer mentioning In Cold Blood and having read this book, I can see how the two are connected. Like Capote, Lisa Taddeo doesn’t just tell a story, she shows an in depth understanding of a person - or in this case, three people. Here are three flawed but real people whose lives are bruised by their interactions (generally with the men in their lives) and the choices they make. 
Written in their voices, you feel party to their thoughts and feelings, and bruised by the hurts they endure. I found the book harrowing but redemptive, beautifully worded but never overwritten.
It is three stories - three quite ordinary stories with a universal theme so relevant in the #MeToo world but it never forces a political view because these are real people and real stories and Lisa Taddeo is not only an exceptional writer but one who has tapped into those stories with compassion and power.
I have and will continue to recommend this book to anyone that asks me for a good read. I doubt I will read anything better this year or have a book whose characters speak so clearly to me even as a man.

Lina, Maggie and Sloane all have different aspirations in life. Nothing impossible but they all seem to have missed out on them.Each one is living a differnt life to what they wanted.
This is a story of hope, love, and obsession.

Non fiction written almost as a novel intertwines the dysfunctional sex lives of three very different women. Too depressing for me but I’m sure it will be enjoyed by many.

Well this is one hell of a yes book for me. Three women talking openly about their sexuality & the way they, their family and society have viewed them through that lens. The bravery of these three women speaking so honestly reveals just how much we censor female sexuality still. Out in July - pre order or add to your TBR list fast!

An honest account and one which illuminates women's sexuality and desire in a way which is seldom discussed. I found "Three Women" to be compulsive reading and found much of it relatable. I think the women who told their stories were brave to come forward and I've no doubt that they will help, encourage and give comfort to others.

This book is an unflinching study of female sexuality and desire which reads like fiction, but tells the true stories of three women. This book is fascinating, frustrating and heartbreaking all at the same time, and I related to - and empathised with - each of the women in one way or another. With these stories, Taddeo makes some great points about how women view and treat each other:

"Lina understands that some women, like her mother and her sisters, truly care for another woman only when that woman is in pain, especially in a kind of pain that they have already felt, and then overcome."

I found myself particularly caught up with Maggie, who has a relationship with her high school teacher and presses charges against him a few years later. Taddeo's writing was so involving that I couldn't help but feel I understood exactly what she went through and why it affected her so deeply. 

"What the fuck do you know about young women, Maggie thinks. We don't remember what we want to remember. We remember what we can't forget."

I guess my overriding feeling when I'd finished this incredible book is that the desire to be desired, the need to be loved, the search for a connection that chimes makes women vulnerable. The women who are the subjects Lina, Sloane and Maggie were looking for validation that they were wanted and needed, yet none of them found it. It would be easy to point the finger at men, too easy perhaps as here they don't cover themselves in glory, however, I think we must acknowledge that women generally want more from their sexual relationships than men. A man once said to me that having sex was like quenching a thirst. I remember thinking that this statement simply objectified women, turned them into something to be used for the benefit of men, but I know not all men feel the same. I found the minutiae of thoughts as they experienced profound moments was enlightening. I'm sure these unconnected thoughts have occured to all of us at strange times. Perhaps it's the human way of accepting an action that we know in our psyche is wrong. Disturbing, enthralling and thought provoking.

I was not very far into this book when I realised it would not be my cup of tea. I know there are those who will say I'm missing a little gem judging by the reviews I've seen so far. However, I have to say that it is beautifully written with stunning visuals and glorious language. For me, it was just the subject matter. I've given it four stars for the quality of the writing.

It was hard to remember at times that I was reading non fiction; this totally read as a great work of fiction. But when I did remember it truly brought another level to it.
The story, as the title suggests, of three women. Three unrelated  real lives, documented over a few years  Lina is stuck in a loveless marriage who reconnects with her first teenage love. Maggie recalls her troubled teenage years where she finds complicated adulteress love with her schoolteacher leading to him facing charges. And finally Sloan, a married mother of two who, alongside her husband, seeks sexual thrills elsewhere but with full knowledge and often participation of her husband.

Deep themes of love, sex, desire alongside the complexities of characters, their backgrounds, their families. This truly examines the lives of three modern women. Unflinching, very compelling, and brilliant

A truly inspirational book for modern times. I absolutely loved all the different stories between the three characters and their, sometimes incredibly messed up relationships. Thoroughly enjoyed this xx

Three Women follows - somewhat unsurprisingly - three women in contemporary America: Maggie had a relationship with her teacher when at school and is now at the trial to see whether he will be convicted, Lina is in an unhappy marriage and turns back to the one man in her life who ever satisfied her sexually, Sloane lives to fulfil the sexual whims of her husband who likes to watch her sleep with other men. The reader gets to know these women over the course of the book, which I took to be anything between several months and a few years, I don't believe it was ever explicitly stated. Taddeo lays bare the innermost thoughts and desires of these women, mostly in the context of their sexual relationships - what makes the book so compelling and unique is that Taddeo does this in such a non-judgemental and revealing way, so much so that this reads like gripping fiction when in fact it is entirely non-fiction about these real womens' lives.

The stories of these women and how they approach and deal with their relationships and the men in their lives revealed things to me about myself and how I act in relationships with men I have dated which I had never before considered. Even if your experiences have differed to these women you will almost certainly find something to relate to here, and even possibly learn something about yourself.

This is quite a perplexing book as I'm not sure what Taddeo's intentions were. She takes three American women and tells their stories of failed love, disappointing marriages, unmet or unfulfilled sexual and emotional needs. 

In some ways the stories are different and, almost deliberately (?) echo themes covered in recent fiction: Lina, in a sexless marriage, falls into an affair with her high-school boyfriend; Maggie is 'groomed' into a sexual relationship with her high-school teacher; Sloane finds herself introduced to open marriage built around a ménage theme, and recognises herself as a submissive after reading 'Fifty Shades of Grey'. 

And yet, all three have commonalities: all three women are essentially unfulfilled; all are, to greater or lesser extents, exploited by men. Lina and Maggie are desperately pleading for love from married men who call them up when they choose. Sloane has a troubled history of  anorexia/bulimia and despite her seeming assurance, traces early examples of male familial disapproval which affected her adolescence. 

What I found disturbing about the book is a seeming gender essentialism which shows us abject women in thrall to powerful men who control their relationships whether through being unavailable emotionally and physically, sometimes because they're married, or, in the case of Sloane, by a voyeurism which makes her the sexualised object beneath a dual male gaze. The overall tone is one of dysfunctional masochism, especially in the cases of Lina and Maggie.

It's fascinating to see other women's inner lives but it's also frustrating to see how much pain, misery and lack of agency inhabit these (love) lives. The implication seems to be that whatever happens to level the playing field for women publicly and professionally, there's still an underground struggle for some women who want to be loved in ways that their men and their own choices seem to preclude.