Title: Queen in Lingerie
Author:  Penelope Sky
Publisher/Year:  Createspace Publishing 6/6/18
Length:  167 pages
Series:  Lingerie #4

Overview

Muse told the world how she felt about me.

Instead of feeling joy, I felt terror.

This isn’t what I want.

This isn’t how our relationship is supposed to be.

I end things because I have no other choice.

But I struggle to cope with my misery, to sleep in an empty bed without her beside me.

My Thoughts

Again, i think that the summary doesn’t do the book justice. What’s alluded to here is just one snippet of the greater story that we’re really immersed in. In this 3rd book, we see what Sapphire and Conways relationship has truly become. There are real feelings and real emotions, and while sapphire is more honest with how she feels, Con is never going to admit it. He does things for her, and protects her in ways that he would never have before, but that makes him uncomfortable on a different level.

The journey in this installment takes us on some amazing adventures. We see Conway and Carter’s participation in the Underground evolve, with an after affect that hurts their family and uncovers something that they never expected. We see adventures taking us to romantic locales, Sapphire getting to experience the luxury that Conway can give her in Greece and beyond. We see Sapphire finally decide to admit her feelings and that’s where the story takes a sharp left turn.

Conway is a man who NEEDS control and won’t survive if someone else tries to take it. When Sapphire takes things into her own hands, she finds herself thrown out of Conways house in the middle of the night with nothing, no money, no assets, and no where to go. Thankfully she had that offer from Andrew Lexington to be his model for years, so she uses that as an opportunity to rebuild her life.

This bit of the story seems very reminiscent of Pearl and Crow- when Pearl went back to America because things just weren’t what they should be. Here, Sapphire has a job, she crafts a new life in the hopes of getting past the heart break, and starts to build a new friend ship with a successful man named Nox who helps her realize that she’s worthy and should be cherished. Conway realizes the error in his ways, tries to make things right by chasing her to NYC, but when he can’t offer her what she needs in ‘forever’ – he goes back to Italy with his tail between his legs.

The path that this story takes is so moody and sad. Sapphire can’t seem to move past Conway and how she feels about him, even when she tries to live her life. He’s always in her thoughts but she also knows that she deserves better. It’s only when Conway’s world crumbles, his work suffers and he’s unable to design anything, all he does is drink and starve himself…Crow talks to him and gives him the kick in the pants that he needs. Crow shares with him a bit of his experience with his mom and we see that maybe it lights a fire and there’s hope.

If only that’s where our story ends right? Seeing Conway come to his senses, but we also know that regardless of what Sapphire feels for him, she’s not going to back down for what she believes she deserves and their journey continues to get complicated, even with unexpected twists and turns in both their professional and personal life. That bit of the story i won’t go into, but know that it’s compelling and intriguing.

We have all the romance and chemistry layered into this story as we have in the others- the connection here with these two as something that’s super symbiotic and it adds a dynamic that we haven’t seen with the other couples.

What does come as a surprise (but maybe not?) is what happens with Knuckles here. I think that we were all jaded if we thought he was going to disappear and well, he comes back with a mission and that’s to get Sapphire back somehow, putting the entire Barsetti clan on alert and presenting a show of force that would make anyone cringe

The story doesn’t stop there, and i’m happy to say that the version of the book that i have gives me the next installment and i don’t even need to go searching for it! Enjoy!