Title: The Catacombs
Author: Penelope Sky
Publisher/Year:  Hartwick Publishing 11/16/21
Length:  200 Pages
Series: Cult #2

Overview

This man is the only thing that keeps me safe.

The only thing that makes life worth living.

But I know he’s coming…

I know he’s out there.

And until Benton kills him, he’ll never really be gone.

My Thoughts

There are so many directions that this series could go in my mind, and so many extensions that we could see, yet I don’t know if any of that is in the works. Our amazing author Ms Penelope Sky needs to do us readers a solid and GIVE US MORE

We left off the first installment of this series with Constance and Benton being in an ok place. Where he really felt that she was an imposition before, we see real feelings grow between them. They are both still naught to admit what they are, and they don’t want to complicate things, but we can see what’s there. Benton appreciates all that Constance did to save Claire from the camp, but his loyalty ends there since he’s not sure why she needs to hang around. Until he opens his eyes one day and realizes that there’s something more that she does for him.

Constance on the other hand uses Benton for the safety that he provides. When he’s around, she feels safe, like Forneus can’t get her and when he’s gone, she’s afraid for her life. We know that Forneus isn’t giving up on getting her back, we know that he’s stalking her, but at least she has some comfort and security while benton is there.

The plot of this story gets a bit twisty in places. We have that main story line where we know that Constance is living on bought time, but we don’t know what can be done about that. She’s moved into this role of mother type figure to Claire, one that everyone truly loves, and she’s found her place in Benton’s bed which is nice for both of them as well. There’s the daily fear that Forneus will take her, and we see his attempts time after time. Some have wider implications to innocent people, and some attempts take the innocent on purpose.

Then there’s the story line between Benton and Bartholemew. We learn what started their friendship and we understand why there’s so much disappointment once Benton left. Benton does his job by being Bartholemew’s right hand to expand their business and territory, but we continue to see how that’s going to go awry. He’s got the same ambitions that Fender had in the first series, and we know how that has the potential to end. I mean….that’s how the camp was lost to Bartholemew no?

Fender makes an appearance in this story – but in a context that’s not his norm. That’s a nice tease, although nothing more really comes from it.

We have passion and heat. We have fear and security. We have revenge and lies. and we realize that what caused all the dominoes to fall in the first place was something done at the hand of someone that we should have trusted. There’s almost nothing that is salvageable at the end, but as a reader that has hope, we want something to come out of the ashes. We get closure as it’s needed, and I suppose that will have to do.

Personally, i’m itching for either a story on Bartholemew now or one about Benton’s brother Bleu since he played a big role, but I don’t know if that’s in the future for us. The Chateau series teased us with the Cult in the epilogue but no such tease was done in this one. So….on that note, enjoy!