Tag Archives: Betrothed

Review: Truth (Betrothed #10) by Penelope Sky

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Title: Truth
Author:  Penelope Sky
Publisher/Year:  Penelope Sky 7/30/20
Length:  198 Pages
Series:  Betrothed #10

Overview

I had no idea she was going to tell Damien.If I did, I would have stopped her.I would have told her the truth myself.Now I’m afraid I’m going to lose her…and there’s nothing I can do about it.

My Thoughts

Well, that summary was lack luster, but at least we knew that the story ahead would be a good one given the up and down roller coaster. There are so many forces trying to push this couple apart, that even Cat is letting it happen since she’s not willing to give up her family.

We watched this couple fall in love, and we watched them try their best to make things right with Damian in order to be together. When he reveal more to Catalina about Heath than she knew, more background on the situation, she realizes that she’s never going to get his approval and she walks away from him. Damian thinks he’s won, knowing that Heath won’t kill him, that he uses this to his advantage and captures Heath. Which we see play out just in the same way that Cat’s initial capture played out. Heath is put in a cage, yet this time Damian beats him to within inches of his life.

He’s somehow saved – I guess the power of love truly is stronger, and we see how this creates an interesting predicament as the story continues. Catalina has made her decision on what she wants, even if it means the demise of her family. She tries and tries to make things right, and that doesn’t work. Balto steps in and picks up the slack with the Skull Kings while Heath can’t even move and that puts a new set of challenges at the forefront since his wife is pregnant. We watch that one play out and it makes us anxious.

In all of Ms Penelope Sky’s books, we see dark men who really don’t deserve to be saved. Yet they want to be saved by the right woman once she walks into their lives. We’ve watched it time and time again, and this isn’t any different. Heath is willing to give EVERYTHING up for her if that would help and while it works for some, it does’t for others. It’s only when Heath meets her father and they have a chat that we see that there’s more to the family history than anyone knew – and I have to admit, I actually toyed with the revelation in my head before it came.

Secrets that were never meant to come out are shared and they have both a healing and a destroying power. We watch Vox take his vengeance out at any length, forcing folks to go on the run, be prepared for a shootout and know that some characters that we’ve come to know well aren’t going to come out of this story alive. I feel like this is well set up for the culmination of this series, yet i’m sad to see that it’s over. We get an ending that’s right for this story – but there’s so much more that we could actually get into if our author decides to write it. So on that note, i’m off to find something new and i hope you enjoy this one!

Review: Secret (Betrothed #9) by Penelope Sky

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Title: Secret
Author:  Penelope Sky
Publisher/Year:  Penelope Sky 7/7/20
Length:  158 Pages
Series:  Betrothed #9

Overview

She saved my life.

She promised she wouldn’t intervene, that her loyalty was to her family, not me. But she did it anyway.

Now everything is different. I can feel it with every kiss, every time she’s underneath me. This isn’t a meaningless fling anymore.

It’s so much more.

I know it…and she knows it.

My Thoughts

I love everything that our author writes and this continuation of Heath and Catalina’s story just adds to my love fest. We saw this couple come together as part of a scheme to get at Damian for falling in love with a woman that ‘belonged’ to someone else, and we watched how their uncommon circumstances turned into a really amazing relationship – unexpected and intense, and so good all at the same time. Until it wasn’t.

Throughout this ninth installment in the series, the second for this couple, we remember where we left off – Heath was going to collect the taxes that Damian owed, and Damian had a plot to kill Heath and his men since he felt that he was unfairly being taxed. Catalina knew about the plan, and while she said she’d never go against her family, she realized that Heath meant more to her, and she warned him at the last moment. Saving his life, and resulting in a shift in the dynamic of just about everything from then out.

The way that their bond strengthened and changed was amazing. We saw that their ‘fling’ – their short term thing became love, even when they didn’t admit it to one another. In the moment that Cat called Heath to warn him, he saw right through what she wasn’t willing to admit and as a result, his own feelings became clear to him as well. Their relationship turned to something concrete. They had open entry to each other’s house. They were part of each other now, and even when Cat tried to fight it, fight Heath on it, she realized that she would always lose.

We spend most of this story watching how they are happy together and how they have something special. The only issue that they truly faced was the notion that Damian and Heath had a pure hatred for one another and as a result the two parts of her life could never meet. When she tried to make that change – she learned more about the past than she ever wanted to know, and that rips her and Heath apart. The things that he did to her family in the past was truly too much and the lies that he kept meant that she was now numb to him.

This brings pleasure to Damian of course because it now opens the door for him to take Heath down, and that’s exactly what happens. We see Cat torn – she’s numb, and she’s standing by her family, but of course life and love are never that easy. The end of this ninth / second book leave us at a crossroads of where Cat will be knowing that she’s vowed never to choose against her family but her future was already chosen by that same fortune teller in Morocco that directed everyone else’s lives in this series. So….I now have to wait until the next installment to see how this plays out. Enjoy!

Review: Lie (Betrothed #8) by Penelope Sky

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Title: Lie
Author:  Penelope Sky
Publisher/Year:  Barnes & Nobles Press 6/2/20
Length:  198 Pages
Series:  Betrothed #8

Overview

Why did I let her go?

I can’t answer that. How do you expect me to answer that when I don’t even know? I’m the Skull King. I never let ANYONE go.

When I see her at the bar six weeks later, she’s still the feisty handful that I remember. She owns the room in that tight dress and that fire. Now that she’s not dirty in a locked cage…she’s stunning.

She cleans up good.

I decide to say hello…and see what happens.

My Thoughts

I love how we were introduced to Catalina’s story and what it ultimately means is that things are going to get very complicated very fast. We knew there was some type of connection between them when Heath realized that she was more than he first thought – and seeing their ‘relationship’ evolve throughout this story shows us that there’s much more than meets the eye.

When we first met Heath, youll remember that it was in Balto’s story and there wasn’t much that Heath had to redeem himself. He was rough around the edges, didn’t really have a sensitive notion at all in his being and even knowing the story around who Cassini was both to Balto and outside of him, there wasn’t much that made you want to like him. We saw him do things for his brother to help when needed and as a result, when. Balto stepped down as the Skull King, Heath stepped in.

He’s not the typical king and we saw that through his interactions with Damian. Sure, he was out for the money piece of things since that’s how the Skull Kings made their business thrive, but he also had vendettas and revenge to deal with. He also has Vox in the back of things to make life miserable. Vox being the Skull King that felt that he was next in line to be king and will take whatever opportunity he can to take the throne.

Catalina on the other hand is exactly as we remembered and is exactly how all other leading ladies are in Penelope Sky stories. We see how independent and strong she is. how she is able to take care of herself and needs no one, yet has this idea in her mind of how her life should be. She’s made the mistake of seeing the gypsy as well and feels like she’s got to follow that premonition to a T since the prophecies have played out for Hades and Damian.

This first real installment of their story is one that’s rough. We see that Catalina continues to avoid Heath, push off his advances because of what he has against Damian as well as what he put her through when she was kidnapped. It doesn’t matter that there’s an insane attraction between them, it’s still something that’s never going to work out.

Heath of course is persistent and we see walls come down. We see what could be between them and we see how there are still far too many obstacles to make it work as it should. It’s not until Catalina is trafficked that Heath comes to her rescue, and there’s a chance for whatever it is that they want to make their relationship to become.

If only Damian wasn’t an issue and he didn’t continue to come at Heath every chance he could get. We know that it can’t possibly end well for everyone and when we watch Catalina get put into a position where she’s devoted to her brother and yet wants to protect Heath, someone’s going to die and that’s not good for anyone.

We’re left off watching a plot go wrong, and then we don’t get to see the after affects. – that’ll come in the next installment which i think i have to wait a month for. So…i’ll be patient, try to find something else to read in the meantime and enjoy this nice weather. Enjoy!

Review: Forever (Betrothed #7) by Penelope Sky

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Title: Forever
Author:  Penelope Sky
Publisher/Year:  Barnes & Nobles Press 6/2/20
Length:  204 Pages
Series:  Betrothed #7

Overview

She’s mine once again but she’s practically a ghost. 

She’s just using me…not that I mind. 

But her indifference is suffocating. I mean nothing to her…less than what she used to mean to me. Admissions of regret and apologies aren’t enough to fix it. 

I have to return to the gypsy…and hope for the best. 

My Thoughts

I don’t think that the summary really does a good job here in describing what your’e going to read. In this 6th book of the series, it’s not that Anna is indifferent to Damian, but she’s in a tough spot still. She’s made her decisions in life because that’s what she felt was the best thing at the time and yet she’s miserable. Everyone’s miserable.

We spend much of this next installment watching everyone go through the motions knowing that they have to bide their time in order to get what they want. Liam continues to be a problem, he’s got this hold over Anna that makes no sense to anyone, and yet it’s still there. He doesn’t yet realize that Damian is the man that holds Anna’s heart until he actually does figure it out and then we watch the downfall of everything. He’s out for blood, Anna won’t let Damian kill him, and that means that someone’s going to die and the who dynamic of our characters will shift.

If that weren’t enough, the Skull King Heath is in the mix yet again. He continues to have this vendetta against Damian and that means that he’s not going to give up his quest for torture and revenge and insane need to just make the poor guy miserable.

Throughout this series, we’ve always felt that Hades and Damian could figure out how to get through anything, how to pull in the right resources to get what they need done, yet in this book, that’s not going to happen. Heath and Liam are on the same side. Bones is out of the game, and while Hades will always be there for his best friend, he’s got a family to think about and that means he’s not as ready to put his life on the line.

There are moments of despair when we see that Liam can’t seem to keep it in his pants and Anna learns about his infidelity again. We hope that it means that she can finally be with Damian, but that’s too easy. She’s too moral and wants to put time and space between any decision that she makes. Damian is patient, but that also means that he’s suffering.

At the same time, we watch Liam realize that Damian is the guy that has come between them and that means that he’s out for death. He comes after Damian time and time again, and it’s not until he breaks into Damian’s house and there’s a gun battle that the story changes and not in a good way. Where that one resolves is the expected way yet the path that they take to get there is unorthodox.

Then there’s the involvement of Heath in all this. Liam engages him to kidnap Catalina in order to get under Damian’s skin and what we always knew about Catalina is that she’s tough and she gives them a run for their money. She’s not the kind of girl who will give up easily and we watch that one with sheer enjoyment. The way that her involvement is used in this story gives us a direct and clear path to see what book 8 will be and i can only imagine how poorly all this will go down since there’s nothing good that can come out of where i think this story will go.

So on that note, i can’t wait to dive into the next book since this story keeps getting better and better. Enjoy!

Review: Second (Betrothed #6) by Penelope Sky

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Title: Second
Author:  Penelope Sky
Publisher/Year:  Barnes & Nobles Press 5/5/20
Length:  198 Pages
Series:  Betrothed #6

Overview

She’s gone.

But the fortune can’t be true because she means nothing to me.

Nothing at all.

But the doubt starts to creep in. My thoughts only focus on one thing. The other women no longer satisfy me.

It starts to drive me crazy.

When I finally confront her, the horror shatters me.

She’s marrying someone else.

My Thoughts

At the end of the first book we had to watch Anna marry her ex husband again – truly believing that he was the right choice for her at this point in time since a future with Damian was off the table and Liam seemed to truly regret and repent for what he did. This of course crushes Damian and we have to wonder what that will mean for the rest of this book.

Throughout this second installment of their story although the sixth of the larger series, we watch Damian try to move on with his life as best he can although that doesn’t mean that he’s really interested in moving on with another woman. Can’t stomach the idea. When one is put in front of him, he uses the situation for what it is, but hates that any time he crosses paths with Anna, it turns to a jealousy thing. He truly wants to find a way to be around her knowing that he walked away from her to protect her. The threat that his lifestyle proved to all of those that were close to him was too much for him to risk, even if it sacrificed his own happiness.

We watch Anna try to be happy – to be the wife and partner that she should be with Liam. She truly believes in the vows of marriage and will do anything to make it work, even though she’s admitted that she’s not over Damian. Liam is willing to take all the time that’s needed in order to get her to love him the way that she used to, but i think that as readers we all know that it’s never going to happen. He promised to give up death fighting to be with her and that’s something that we know will come back to bite him. curious to see if Damian is his opponent.

It’s a rollercoaster of emotions that we go through in this story. Watching Anna and Damian try to figure out how to be friends since they are in the same circle. Watching them both clearly love each other but never admit it out loud or even to themselves. We watch Anna move on with her life and then at the same time we watch Damian go through the motions.

If romance and love wasn’t enough, we also have the Skull King as a pain in our butt through out the story as well. Heath continues to be a thorn in their side and since we all know that he’s a loose cannon even outside of these guys, it’ll be a huge question of when he’ll go off the rails and what that will mean. Damian is adamant about killing Heath but doesn’t have the right plan yet since his only option isn’t in the game before. (you guys will all remember a man named Bones right?)

So….we are left at the end of this story on so many open paths. what’s going to happen with Anna and Liam since there’s definitely no way that he’ll keep up his end of the bargain. At the same time, we also have to wonder what’s going to happen to Damian since we know that he’s a masochist but this is taking things a bit far for even him. And then there’s Heath – what will happen there. Only way to find out is to read on to book 7 now – which i’m going to try to do. Enjoy!

Review: First (Betrothed #5) by Penelope Sky

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Title: First
Author:  Penelope Sky
Publisher/Year:  Barnes & Nobles Press 3/31/20
Length:  206 Pages
Series:  Betrothed #5

Overview

Hades retired from the business. 

Now it’s just me. 

Look at me now… Bitter… angry… depressed. I resent my former friend so much, even hate the guy, but I’ve never been the same since he refused to forgive me. 

I meet a woman. She’s like all the others…beautiful, interesting, good at the fun stuff, but I don’t feel anything. 

One woman will love you for you, not your money or your power, but you’ll lose her. And once she’s gone…she’s gone. 

That gypsy wasn’t right about me too, right?

I’ve got trouble on my doorstep when the new Skull King shows up. He wants a cut of my business. 

Like he’s getting anything. This is all I have left. 

Once again I become swallowed by the underworld. 

Will I survive it?

My Thoughts

The way that Ms Sky has evolved this story has really taken us on a journey that makes it both necessary to love Hades and Sofia in order to push Damian forward but also hate them because this story wouldn’t happen if the struggle wasn’t real. What we have here in this first installment of Damian’s story is the path that his life takes now that he’s not in a good place with Hades and likely never will. Maddox is dead, so he’s now the sole owner of the drug business and yet at the same time he’s still partnering with Hades in their bank. Every day is worse for him and all he wants to do is drink himself into oblivion, that is until Anna walks into the bank one day to get his help and Damina’s life is changed forever.

While the summary above reminds me that Damian got a prophecy from the fortune teller years ago, that really doesn’t come up in the context of this story so we almost forget about it. Anna is newly divorced from a powerful man who ironically she wants nothing from aside from getting off of anything that’s attached to him (namely his bank accounts). at the same time she really wants to start a new life for herself which means she needs to clean our her only personal account so that she can buy an apartment. This transaction not only puts Anna fully on Damian’s radar, but that means that we get to be on the peripheral of another guy that we likely do not want to ross (Liam – her ex).

The story that we have from here is one that really results in a lot of pain and suffering. Damian still has lost his best friend, the only person that means anything to him and as a result, he’s also lost Sofia since there’s no way to co-exist there. At the same time, he’s found this attraction to Anna but he knows that he’s neither in a mindset in his life to be a good guy for any one single person, nor does his professional life lend itself to being safe for anyone else. Yet that doesn’t stop either of them from the attraction that’s shared and we have a wild ride come out of it. (Anna’s no stranger to danger given that her ex is a death fighter so the shock is minimal here).

We see positive momentum come from their relationship and then we see it crash and burn when tragedy hits. Some of our favs from other Penelope Sky series come back in this one, in the form of the Skull Kings where we get to see Heath in his role as King trying to take what he feels he’s owed by Damian. Pride of course gets in the way and what we have is a kidnapping, death and fear. Every time i think that we’re about to see something good happen, a truce with the Skull Kings, a change in the trajectory if the relationship with Hades and Damian, hope for romance, another curve ball is thrown and makes us realize that hope really is lost.

We end this first installment at a wedding and then we wonder what the future will bring. So on that note, i’m picking up the next book to see what happens next for everyone! Enjoy!

Review: Committed (Betrothed #4) by Penelope Sky

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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!

Review: Lover (Betrothed #3) by Penelope Sky

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Title: Lover
Author:  Penelope Sky
Publisher/Year:  Penelope Sky 1/5/20
Length:  195 Pages
Series:  Betrothed #3

Overview

I lost the only thing that matters to me.

My wife.

And I’m the only one to blame.

I will sacrifice my life, my pride, and everything else for the woman I love.

Whether she loves me or not.

My Thoughts

When we parted ways in the last book, we knew that Hades was still far gone over Sofia, knowing that she was the one woman that he loved, the one woman he couldn’t live without, but knowing at the same time that she hated him and never wanted to be with him. He stood for all that she didn’t believe in and she wanted to take away what she felt was hers and wha she worked so hard to achieve.

In this third book, we see how things can change and how they can evolve when they both realized that the choices are out of their hands. Sofia is forced to come to terms with the fact that she will have to marry Hades, even after she turned him down and they parted ways. It’s the best thing for both of them, and it’s inevitable. From that, we see how their lives change.

They create a relationship and a bond that becomes more than they each anticipated. They both found that there’s more to the other than they knew, and it’s enough to change how they feel towards one another. Or at least how she feels about him since he’s been so far gone in love with her from day one it seems that there’s no where more to go.

If we recall from the intro to the series, there was a fortune teller who has laid out what Hades future will be. When he’s not willing to accept that, he goes back and tries to understand what he can do to break the curse. He’s told either he can make Sofia forget about him or Hades will have to atone for his greatest evil, which was killing his father. That means that he some how needs to gain the foregiveness of his brother Ash, and that’s an impossible task.

We spend much of this story watching that play out – watching the failed attempts at a reconciliation and it’s a pipe dream that there will be a way to make things better so that Hades can live the life he wants.

Just when it seems as though they have turned a corner – when things seem to be settling across the board, an enemy comes at them again and again, and it’s through some stupid decisions made by Damian that we see everything crash and burn. Sofia is kidnapped and this adversary is so good that there’s no way to track him down to save her.

The remainder of the story from here is a dark one. There’s torture and pain. There’s fear and depression. There’s the notion that Hades and Damian will never be friends again because Hades puts all the blame on Damian for making rash and stupid decisions. We see Ash take a role in things and we have a glimmer of hope that’s very short lived.

There’s no way to get a step ahead in this story. There’s no way for Hades and Sofia to come out on top because every time it seems like they may, something happens and that something is Maddox. A man who inflicts pain, who has some weird motive and obsession, and a man who is impossible to beat. It’s because of this man that we are left at the end of this third book with everyone walking away. There’s no protection, or safety or security left, and we can only hope that perhaps in book 4 we will see his demise. I’m not so sure, but it would be interesting. So, on that note, i now have to wait for the next book but i’m excited to see how this plays out. Enjoy!

Review: Husband (Betrothed #2) by Penelope Sky

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Title: Husband
Author:  Penelope Sky
Publisher/Year:  Penelope Sky 12/10/19
Length:  188 Pages
Series:  Betrothed #2

Overview

Two years of bitter loneliness have passed. The woman I love is now the woman I hate. I lose myself in beautiful women every night and tell myself that fortune reading was nothing but a scam. 

But then her mother asks me to marry her. 

I say yes. 

Now this woman will be mine forever. 

Maybe the prophecy really is true. I’m committing to a woman that will never love me in return. 

But it was better to be her husband than allow someone else to take my place. It was better to conquer her body every night than be lonely with someone else. 

Much better. 

My Thoughts

well, i love all things that our author Penelope Sky writes so this second installment to the series featuring Hades and Sofia is at the top of my lists for great ways to start of 2020. There was such a connection between these two characters from the moment they met with Sofia was just a teenager, that to see it blossom in book one was amazing. And then it crashed and burned.

So we pick up their story in book 2 where there’s still such hatred between this couple. Sofia feels blindsided by what Hades truly does for work, and the fact that he paraded another woman in front of her was too much. Hades however has such intense feelings for her still, to the point of pain and when Sofia’s mother pushes the idea of marriage at him again, well, he jumps.

The journey that we go on in this second book in an interesting one. there’s the need to build some type of foundation here between the two of them sine Hades wants Sofia on the same page as him, even if it’s almost impossible. She wants to find happiness, but also is 100% opposed to the notion of love. She doesn’t trust easy, but she finds that the fact that he has such respect for her to be something that could go in the direction of strong feelings.

Add to that story Damian, Hades best friend that we met in the beginning of book 1. The same friend who was at the fortune teller in Morocco and who has a huge stake in everything that goes on in their business, which inevitably turns into a quest for too much power and greed, which results on catastrophic events happening from there. There’s a kidnapping, a bit of torture, and Hades is forced to make tough choices about his future.

Then add to that Hades need to figure out a way to prove the fortune teller’s premonition wrong which results in even more struggle and stress. What we do get from this though is the introduction of Ash (a name that i feel like i’ve seen in other Penelope Sky books), Hades’ brother, and a man who i believe will come in handy at some point.

We’re left in this story at a point where there’s been a huge betrayal and now there are consequences to those actions. One person’s choice has led us to the kidnapping of another person and we really don’t know yet how this will all play out.

If that story and plot line wasn’t enough to keep you engaged, we get what’s become to be something that i expect and crave from Ms Sky – the intense connection that she’s able to share and create for our main characters – something that makes you feel the passion and heat even when it doesn’t seem ideal. And to see the potential for romance and something deeper when they don’t believe it themselves.

Luckily i only need to wait until next tuesday to continue on this journey with some of the best characters.

Review: Wife (Betrothed #1) by Penelope Sky

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Title: Wife
Author:  Penelope Sky
Publisher/Year:  Penelope Sky 9/23/19
Length:  187 Pages
Series:  Betrothed #1

Overview

I was twenty-one when the gypsy read my future:

As punishment for your crimes, you will only love one woman…but she’ll never love you back.

I didn’t believe a word of it.

Until I met Sofia Romano almost ten years later.

I fell hard for this woman. Would die for this woman.

But she left me.

Now years have passed and Sofia needs a husband. Her father is gone and her mother is trying to marry her off to a man that can protect their family, protect their company. 

She’s looking for someone powerful.

Check.

Someone rich.

Check.

Someone handsome.

Double check.

Now it’s my chance to have the only woman I’ve ever loved…and I’ll make sure she feels the same way.

I have a lifetime to make that happen.

My Thoughts

I’m a huge fan of Penelope Sky which by now i’m sure that you guys have all realized so I’m happy that there’s a new series for me to sink my teeth into. In this new series Betrothed, we’re taken back to Tuscany, the setting for just about everything in her world, to see how the underworld mixes with the ‘proper world’ and how once secrets are reveled, life is changed.

This story takes place in a few different time periods. We open the story with our leading man Hades and his friend Damian on a trip to Morocco to celebrate Hades 21st birthday, and there his life is changed forever, but he doesn’t really know what that will feel like just yet.

Then we push forward a bit to where we meet Sofia, when she’s just eighteen and thinks that she’s mature but still has so much more to learn. She meets Hades at an event at her father’s hotel and is so attracted to him that she wants to pursue him, yet he makes her realize that she’s still got so much more to learn before that’s realistic.

Then we fast forward a few more years to see how Sofia has grown up now, out of university and trying to get a chance to run her family business now that her father has passed, she’s gotten an education, and wants to learn everything from her stepfather. Her mother seems to think that it’s a silly concept, to be left to whomever she marries, and there’s a lot there behind her words that we don’t know yet but will find out. Strong women are fully capable to run a business, but once we learn more about how the financing of the hotel has been done and who does business there, well it’s quickly becoming clear why there’s a need for a strong powerful man.

This is where Hades comes into play, but not in the right context. Sofia and Hades cross paths again and well, now that she’s experienced life, they some how manage to combust together, allowing the intense chemistry that’s been building for years come to a head and explode. What they have together is hot and intense and the exact connection that they both say they need. Neither is looking for a relationship with strings so what they have is great. until it isn’t.

Hades feelings come on strong and he’s quickly falling faster for Sofia than she is him. This i actually a huge trait that we have in most of Ms Skhy’s books if i’m honest. The man is the one to admit his feelings first and then he finds that it’s an uphill battle from there on to make things work as they should.

He pushes her too hard and she pushes him away. He gives her one chance to redeem herself and it seems to work, again until it doesn’t. When Sofia is almost raped and hurt, Hades comes to save her and we all think that a corner has been turned, but no – Sofia’s walls are still up. Hades doesn’t read it the same way and makes a proclamation that changes the course of this story for good.

There’s now hated. They’re at am impasse. There’s no hope for redemption. And there’s jealousy.

We’re taken taken two years into the future again when Sofia’s stepfather passes away unexpectedly, Sofia’s mom is alone and deems herself too old to find them the right protection for the family and puts the weight of the world on Sofia. Sofia is forced into a situation that she never wanted, feared and abhorred. The question becomes who will save them and who’s going to be on the other side of the coin to hurt them and take them down? We know that the mafia in Italy is something intense (thank you for all the other series that we’ve read to learn the true depth and breadth of what it is that they handle and do to those who don’t comply).

Will the hate between Hades and Sofia be the family’s ruin? Will the premonition that Hades got when he turned 21 turn out to be true and what will that mean for the progression of things. How much can Sofia take before she breaks and who’s going to be the one to break her? So many questions and so few answers. I need book 2 to be out already so i can see how this plays out. Enjoy!