Title: the World and the Sheep
Author:  Penelope Sky
Publisher/Year:  Createspace Publishing 6/18/19
Length:  180 pages
Series:  Wolf #1

Overview

Till death do us part.

My father married me off to one of the most powerful men in Italy.

Maverick DeVille. But I call him the wolf.

He calls me his sheep. 

The arranged marriage was detested by us both, but we had to make sacrifices for the right reasons. He needed to avenge his mother and I needed protection from the mobs that want to torture me.

He’s not what I pictured for my husband. He’s ruthless, calloused, and cold. His walls are higher than mine. He possesses cruelty that makes him feared.

But it doesn’t take long for me to respect him…even like him.

I rely on my husband more than anyone else in the world. He provides for me, protects me, and chases away all my fears.

He lets me graze in the meadow…not a care in the world.

Because the wolf is always watching. 

“When people look in the darkness, they see shadows. I see monsters. And I kill the monsters that hunt my sheep.” 

I hated this marriage in the beginning, but now I realize how lucky I am.

How lucky I am to be the sheep the wolf protects…and doesn’t eat.

My Thoughts

I was worried for a moment when i finished The Skulls series that i would be at a loss for all things Penelope Sky however YAY i found this new series. We go back to Tuscany, into the balance of legal and illegal doings – where bad decisions have implications on your life, and people die for it.

In this story, we’re introduced to Maverick, our leading man who runs a legitimate family business off the tails of some less than savory things that his family had done in the past. Those underwold jobs that were done came at a price about a year or so ago when Mav’s mom was kidnapped, tortured and killed. That changed the man that he was, and killed the man that his father was – making him into this man who was out for revenge and who had no affection or emotion towards his children outside of hatred. When there’s a chance for Mavericks’ father to get revenge in the form of killing the man who killed his wife, he jumps. This means that Mav has to marry the daughter of the man who’s giving information on the whereabouts of the killer, and thats’ a deal that no one wants.

That’s where we meet Arwen, the daughter who’s live is now being promised to someone else. She’s young, at the peak of her career and in a relationship that’s going down the road to love. What she doesn’t know is that her father is dying, and not only that, he’s made so many bad choices in the past that their fortune is gone and there are ‘bad men’ who want to collect. When her father dies, there will be no one to protect her and that’s why he makes the deal to marry her off.

So you can imagine the direction that this story is going to go in. Two very attractive people who are strong willed and who don’t have a say in their futures and are quite unhappy about what it means. But who both at the same time can’t say no to their fathers for a number of reasons, so married they will become.

The dynamic between these two is a fresh take v. the intense and immediate attractions that we’ve seen for all the other couples in Ms sky’s worlds. Maverick and Arwen both appreciate the physical qualities of one another, but they are both so guarded and closed off that there’s really no chemistry at all between them and no hope for it.

Of course it’s when someone’s life is threatened, and when someone’s shot and when someone is on the verge of being killed that things start to change and that means that the next installment of our series will be compelling and exciting. I’m constantly wondering what the turning point will be for them, and what the sacrifices will be when their lives take the turn. Who will have to give in more than they want, and who will be hurt for it. We know that Mavericks’ father always believes that his son is a coward and not capable of doing anything, and at the end of this installment we see Arwen take matters into her own hands for something serious and that means that now she’s a target as well.

So many questions, so few answers, but i can only assume that the heat will come soon, the angst will come soon and their paths will cross, converge and become something intense. on that note – off to read book 2. Enjoy!