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Review: Secret (Chicago Underground #6) by Skye Warren

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Title: Secret
Author: Skye Warren
Publisher/Year:  Book Beautiful 4/30/15
Length:  150 pages
Series: Chicago Underground #6

Overview

I’m the one with the dark past, the scarlet letter, the soul so black there’s no hope of redemption. At least, that’s what I always believed… Luke has secrets of his own, and the more I search, the more I’m afraid of what I’ll find. But I have to know. My survival depends on it.

My Thoughts

This is the finale that we’ve all been waiting for – to see how the story end up for Shelly after all that she’s gone thorugh in the last 2 books of her story and even in the pages of Allie’s story. We know that she’s trying to get Henri, figure out how to take him down and clear her name, make Claire safe and figure out all the mysteries surrounding her, luke, her father. There are just too many unknowns to name.

In this third installment, we see what happens when Shelly thinks that she’s invincible. She puts her faith in Luke and finds that while he’s trustworthy – he’s not above the means of people who are up to no good. Throughout this story too we see another side of him – we learn what brought him to where he is today – the life that he grew up in and why he’s so comfortable in Shelly’s world. It’s a bit of a surprise on one hand but not at all shocking on another.

Shelly tries to help the ‘good guys’ take Henri down and instead finds herself back in his grasp. she’s been taken back him and forced into the world that she wanted to get away from, even though we know that she can’t escape it. She’s doing all this as I mentioned to clear Claire’s name as well as her own, and to allow Claire the chance to have a normal life – since she’s so young.

There are strings being pulled behind the scenes which we don’t know and that’s a lot of the motivation in this story. We don’t know why Shelly was brought into the life that she’s in, yet we know that her father is connected some how. We know that Claire was taken for a reason, and yet we don’t know what that is until the end.

We watch kidnappings happen, shootouts, escapes, torture, fear, love – all the things happen. it’s a roller coaster of emotions but where we do net out is an ending that’s worth the story. Secrets are revealed and i’m shockingly not surprised at any of them. Frankly I should have figured out a few of them on my own. Anyway – I think there’s an adjacent series that i’m off to find – so enjoy!!

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!