Title: Dark Inheritance
Author: Charlotte Byrd
Publisher/Year:  Byrd Books 12/26/21
Length:  190 Pages
Series: Dark Intentions #5

Overview

Now that all of our secrets are out in the open, we must live with the choices we made and the truth of who we really are.

Jacqueline has found out the truth about her brother, the secret that I vowed to never reveal. She wants to see him again and doesn’t care that it will endanger not only her life but all of ours.

The thing that I have feared has happened. The worst of the worst men are after us and they only have one goal: to take our lives.

It’s time to RUN.
Darkness descends. Yet hope remains.

The danger that I tried to keep at bay this whole time has come for us with a vengeance.
Will we ever have a happily ever after or will our life together (what’s possibly left of it) continue to teeter on the edge?

My Thoughts

We left book four in the parking garage of the hospital, Lincoln and Marguarite were waiting the impending birth of their baby, Jacqueline and Marguarite were threatened by assassins who were were trying to kill off the entire family since they were in one place, but the girls were able to pay them off a million dollars for them to go away. What happens next though to end the book is crazy. There’s a shooting in the parking garage and it’s Dante’s father who’s in dire straights.

Book five takes us a bit into the future, everyone has scattered around so that there’s no way to get the entire family together anymore. Lincoln and Marguarite are in North Carolina trying to make their life work there. Dante is still always on the road for work – he’s gone around the world and finds his way to various family members to check on them from time to time. Jacqueline, her mother and Michael (who’s now really alive) are in Boston – although Jacqueline lives on her own there – away from her mom and brother. Dante learns that his mother is in Mexico, with his father and that is unsettling in itself.

Jacquline continues to be our focus, watching how she’s reinventing herself as a writer – going back to school and trying to make her life into something worthwhile. She of course misses Dante but doesn’t know if their future is ever meant to be together. When she learns that Michael is in touch with him and that they have plans to meet, that’s something that she’s got to hold on to and we watch how that has the potential to implode – with Jacquline going against what’s smart and tagging along on that trip.

The reason for the trip -a need to take out all the people who have a hit on the family so that they can live their lives more freely. It’s something that they all want since they miss aspects of what they had, friends, comfort, jobs etc. But the outcome here is nothing at all what we expect and yet we should have expected it all along.

There’s another story line happening at the same time – Allison and her fiance are still in their bubble until a plane crash changes the trajectory of things. There’s a small plane crash that happens off of Cape Cod and there are 2 people on that plane that make us take pause. One is her Fiance’s best friend – a man that he’s known for ever, had as a manager, and now who’s passed. The impact that the death has on their relationship is one that has miserable intentions. while initially they cling to each other for support, they find that they are slowly losing the spark and the need to have something with each other. Instead, Richard finds solace with his deceased friends wife, a woman that he had feelings for all those years ago, and it results in an affair. When the affair is uncovered, there are threats made to Jacqueline for her own safety and that leaves an uncertain future all around.

Then there’s the dark underbelly of this story. We know that the family wants to kill all those that have a hit on them, but it’s easier said than done. Dante has a plan that no one wants to listen to, and then there’s a plan that they can’t walk away from once they realize that their safety bubble spread out around the world isn’t so safe. What happens when they corner the assassins, well that’s an entirely different twist of fate, and not everyone that we’ve grown close to in this series makes it out alive.

So, what we end up with in this series finale is closure for sure, a glimpse into the future in some cases, and a curiosity of whether anyone is ever safe and what the motivations are for that. So, on that note, if you haven’t read this story yet, you should (esp since I didn’t realize that book 5 literally just came out days ago), and now i’m off to another cast of characters to enjoy.