Title: Committed
Author:  Penelope Sky
Publisher/Year:  Barnes & Nobles Press 4/2/20
Length:  220 Pages
Series:  Betrothed #4

Overview

Hades has done everything for the woman he loves. Now it’s time for Sofia to do the same for him.

I never broke the curse…I just changed it.

Now I’m forced into a partnership with Maddox, and since I can’t kill him, I have to tolerate him every day.

So Sofia leaves me.

I’ve sacrificed everything for her, but it’s never enough. My love for her doesn’t change despite the betrayal. The torture continues.

What am I gonna do?

I have one option. I said no the first time, but I’m not sure I can say no again…

My Thoughts

Penelope Sky is one of my favorite authors these days i think, and getting back into the story of Hades and Sofia is exactly what i needed during these insane times. We left off at a point in the story where it seemed like everything was finally about to go well for Hades and Sofia – they were happily in love, they wanted to be together, and then Sofia was kidnapped by a psycho Maddox, Maddox forces Hades to trade places with her, and he loses his freedom and his business to Maddox. And all during that, Sofia learns that she’s pregnant. She’s not in a place where she’s having a child, her husband is now the ‘bitch’ to a man who will torment him forever, and the unspeakable things that Maddox did to Sofia while he had her means that she can never stay with Hades in Florence if Maddox is part of the picture.

The decision is made and Sofia leaves Hades – which causes the biggest rift imaginable. She asks for a divorce and he doesn’t fight for her to stay, so we now see the story take two paths, one in Florence where Hades is left to a life of misery and slavery basically and then one with Sofia in Rome with her mother, rebuilding her life as she waits for the birth of her son.

Throughout this series, all we have seen is the nature of this relationship, and how there’s literally nothing that will keep them apart since their souls are so intertwined. The challenge now though is that there’s truly so much between them, and the fortune teller never implied that this would happen that all hope and faith is lost. In true form of all men in this genre when their heart is broken, Hades dives into work, and into the bottom of bottle after bottle of Scotch, where nothing makes him feel any better anyway. His friendship with Damian is so far past repair and that likely would have helped him out, but at least on the flip side his relationship with his brother Ash is repaired, which is a bridge between him and Sofia since he’s in Rome and he’s still friendly and in contact with Sofia.

This is a dark and depressing fourth installment. Every time you want to hope that something good can happen, you realize that the obstacles in front of them are far too high. Sofia made her decisions to protect herself and her child, and Hades doesn’t seem to want to come to terms with that. He instead resents her for walking away and that turns into hate. Even though we know that he loves her and can’t live without her, he still does his best to push her away when all she needs is a partner as the baby’s birth comes near.

Once Andrew is born, we see this story take a variety of turns. Relationships grown in some cases and fall apart even faster than previously imagined. There’s yet another trip or 2 to the fortune teller and the worst option is the only option in order for Hades to break the curse. That choice means that every path that we want to see at the end of this series is impossible and that’s a direction that i honestly can say i’m surprised to see our author take. I think that the way that this story resolves is one that is worthy of the journey, but the path to get there was very complex and twisted.

My honest thoughts here are wondering why i can’t find a man who’s willing to give up his livelihood and his life to be with me and to make me happy. That continues to baffle me to know that these types of men are only in books, and perhaps that is the biggest reason for my hopeless romantic nature – and this quarantine time doesn’t help much! Anyhow, i’ve picked up First which is book #5 and Damian’s story which is long overdue. I can’t wait to see how this one plays out since he’s left in quite the precarious and down state in this book. So on that note, Enjoy!