Title: At His Service
Author: Suzanne Rock
Publisher/Year: St. Martin’s Press 2/24/15
Length: 67
Series: At His Service #4
Overview
Leo Perconti’s life is spinning out of control. As head of his family’s hotel conglomerate, it’s his job to save his family from bankruptcy. At the center of his turmoil is Karin Norell, a quiet, alluring housekeeping manager who compliments his dominating personality and lets him feel in control once more.
As Karin explores her passion her feelings for Leo deepen. Unfortunately, Karin and Leo come from different worlds, and when the two worlds collide, the cost can be devastating. As the service staff at The Palazzo rise up against the Perconti family, both Leo and Karin are faced with losing what each of them holds most dear. Together they must learn that true power comes from vulnerability and trust that can only happen when you let your insecurities go.
My Thoughts
what would i do without Netgalley at a time like this – if i had to wait another week to get the finale of the series i think that i would have gone crazy (sorry folks who are going to have to read it without the opportunity to get the ARC). Where we were left off in the end of book 3 was a CRAZY place and i think that i can speak for everyone when i say WTF?
We know that things couldn’t continue to work out as they have – Karin and Leo’s relationship was only going to stay secret for so long and i think that it was safe to assume that it was already not a secret. The other bit is that while we know that Leo had to make a few choices for his business to continue, to help avoid the strike and what not, i think that we were all hoping that he wouldn’t be this callous and cold businessman that would just break Karin’s heart along with her hopes and dreams for her professional life. We spend a bit of this final installment watching both of them try to move on with their lives while trying to pick up the pieces and make things better and prosperous once more for the hotel and the Percontis.
The other story line that’s introduced here is the one of Ari – Leo’s sister and it’s her wedding to an aviation billionaire that’s supposed to make things right for the family. We know that she doesn’t want to marry him and that there have been several conversations on how to make it work out – given that her fiance isn’t necessarily in the relationship for emotional reasons either. It’s only when Ari reveals that there’s ‘someone’ else that piques my interest. I have a feeling from the VERY first mention of who it is (i’m sure more readers do as well) and i spend the rest of the book trying to sort out what’s going to come of it. I think that what we get is not where i would have gone, yet some place that’s really interesting nonetheless.
Throughout this final ‘chapter’ – we get to see how the family dynamic of Leo and his brothers, sister and mother evolves. It’s clearly been a challenge up until this point with so much weighing heavily on Leo’s shoulders that it’s nice to see that circumstances really make him take another look at things. (circumstances AND Karin at least).
The ending of this story is a great conclusion on all fronts except for the one noted in the epilogue. Knowing what i do of this genre – i’m almost expecting to see spin-offs of the other characters into their own novella series since i know that there’s so much more to Marco, Dante, Ari and Gio/Gianna (who we never really met). i can only hope that we’ll see passion and heat and anxiety leap off of those pages as well since that was the best underlying factor here. Anyhow – read on and enjoy this finale to the series and i can’t wait to hear what you guys have to say.