Title: Buttons & Hate
Author:  Penelope Sky
Publisher/Year:  Createspace Publishing 2/7/17
Length:  187 pages
Series:  Buttons #2

Overview

I’m working off my buttons.

But I’m also giving them away.

The more I fall for Crow, the more I want him to do the things that I want. Dinners, dates, and evenings at the beach.

Everything comes at a price, and quickly the hoard of buttons I worked hard to earn are depleted. 
 

Will this go back and forth forever? Or will someone run out of their buttons first?

My Thoughts

This intense story continues down the same path that we saw throughout the first book. Pearl is now in a place where she knows what betrayal truly is, and her faith and trust in anyone is now gone. Once Crow revealed that Jacob was the reason that she was sold into slavery, she lost all will to try to get back to America because she knew that there was no one there waiting for her.

What that means is that we have a girl with a broken spirit, who doesn’t want to be where she is, yet who has no where else to go. This story line takes a turn for Crow though because it forces him to let his wall down a bit and perhaps to thaw. The challenge though is that every time he becomes a bit more human, we see that it costs him a bit of his soul and he’s not willing to let that happen. He closes up faster than he opened and Pearl is left to deal with that.

There’s still the jar of buttons that is the focal point of all that they do – Pearl does what she can to earn more and more, even willing to participate in things that she had no interest in before because of the price tag, and at the same time, Crow isn’t happy that her jar is almost full, and pushes to get her to pay for information that she wants from him.

Part of the motivation of the jar is the ability to really build on the intense chemistry that these two have. Kudos to our author Pene Sky for being able to give us such hot imagery that you know that what they have is really and it makes you a bit jealous. There’s a balanced mix of romance when forced, and BDSM esque stuff since they do love a power struggle.

What happens as a result is that we see a real relationship start to form. Even though Pearl has made it clear that she trusts no one and has no desire to love again, and we know that Crow isn’t capable of love, we see the compromises that they make to one another and it grows into a deeper connection. Pearl forces Crows hand towards being romantic and they see that there’s far more in common than is different. Is there a chance for happiness?

Well, no, because Cane isn’t having any of this, and he breaks into Crows house and beats Pearl to a second of her life. That is the pivotal moment in this story for all that happens in the back half. Pearl now lives in fear, Crown spends his breaths hating Cane, and Cane is trying to get revenge for Vanessa and feels vindicated a bit. At the same time though, everyone knows that Bones is still gunning to get Pearl back, and well, she’s not safe anywhere.

This takes the last few chapters for us on a roller coaster of even bigger proportions. The relationship that Pearl and Crow developed changes its dynamic past repair, the same goes for Crow and Cane. There’s no hope or good feeling between anyone to be frank, and it’s a shame to see how it all came to be. It’s the perfect moment though for Bones to make his move though no? We’re left with a break in, a kidnapping and even darker emotions than ever. The decision has to be made whether it’s even possible to continue to fight, when we know that fighting gets us no where. I guess that’s what we’ll find out in book 3. so enjoy!