Title: Dander in Lingerie
Author:  Penelope Sky
Publisher/Year:  Createspace Publishing 9/25/18
Length:  198 pages
Series:  Lingerie #13

Overview

Griffin offered to take me home but I refused, knowing he needed to get Vanessa home. 

I walked to my apartment and took a short cut down an alleyway.

That was the worst mistake of my life.

Four men grabbed me. I fought them off, but when the barrel of a gun was pressed between my eyes, I knew the game was up.

But then a man appeared from the shadows and scared the men away like rats.

Tall, dark, and handsome. 

His name is Bosco Roth.

He just saved my life, but he didn’t do it for free.

He wants something in return.

A kiss. A hot and passionate kiss right up against the wall.

But that kiss is just the beginning.

My Thoughts

AHHHHH we finally get Carmen’s story and it seems like it’s following the nature of all the Barsetti women – being with a man who’s completely wrong on paper, someone that their family would never approve of, yet this same person is EXACTLY what they need. The path that we go down with Carmen and Bosco is very much reminiscent of that of Vanessa/Bones, so i guess we’ll have to wait and see how things play out.

Carmen sadly is in the wrong place at the wrong time, she turns down Griffin’s preference to walk her home one night and well, that was the wrong choice. She’s grabbed by a few men in an alley whos intentions are to rape and kill her, and since she has the Barsetti moxy, she fights back, and threatens the men not only with her family name but that of Bones. While it doesn’t do much for the men who are attacking her, another man walks to the front of the alley and hears Bones’ name and puts a stop to everything.

Here comes Bosco. A man that knows Bones, and owes Bones a favor for a job that was done (thank goodness Bones doesn’t always collect money for his work) and Carmen’s life is spared. Would have been a good ending of course except that Bosco is the kind of man that you dream of, built in a way that’s insanely strong but not boxy, eyes that you can get lost in, and a power that makes you want to submit in ways that you never imagined. He gets under Carmen’s skin, but once she learns that he’s not the right guy at all for any number of reasons, she tries to exterminate. Doesn’t work of course.

The path that this story goes on is one that’s rather familiar. Carmen tries to put Bosco out of her mind, he pursues her because he’s intrigued. They realize that while they can be everything for each other, it won’t be easy. Carmen voices her concerns to Vanessa who pushes her to end things with Bosco, but what we quickly learn is that he’s not willing to lose, and not willing to lose her. Carmen is his, and he wants her forever.

There are more questions than answers here in this story. We learn what it is that Bosco does to be the King of Italy essentially and it’s not a direction of work that makes anyone happy. We learn what’s made Bosco into the man that he is, the pain that he’s had in his past from his father who left and his mother who passed away. We see that he’s got a brother who maybe sees further into his soul than anyone else and begins to question his motivations. At the same time, we see that Carmen isn’t just a woman who’s strong, but a woman who knows that she wants to have the greatest future with a family and everything that comes with it.

Where we are left off is a point where they are forced to compromise but that’s not an answers that really gives anyone any peace. Bosco has to fight harder than ever to get Carmen and she needs to figure out how she can be happy either with him or without him.

Families will never allow this romance to happen, yet their chemistry is so intense and heated that it would be a shame to let it go. Penelope Sky does it again with crafting an amazing story and set of characters, although this time around i think that we’re starting to see a similar story to what we have in the past, so i’d love to see how the next installment turns out so that we can get a truly unique story. Enjoy!