Review: The Lone Wolf (Wolf #3) by Penelope Sky

Title: The Lone Wolf
Author:  Penelope Sky
Publisher/Year:  Penelope Sky 8/20/19
Length:  200 Pages
Series:  Wolf #3

Overview

My gravest mistake was falling in love with my husband.

It crept up on me so slowly that I didn’t even notice it was happening until it arrived. I assumed he felt the same way every time he kissed me…every time he touched me.

Until he proved me wrong.

Kamikaze is dead so I don’t need him for protection anymore. Divorce is all I want now. I’ll find a man that will love me the way I deserve, that won’t bring home two strange women just to hurt me. 

I don’t need him. 

Now it’s time to start over.

My Thoughts

This story left us in a very bad sad and dark place at the end of book 2 and i don’t know that anyone wanted to watch the demise of the relationship that was but wasn’t meant to be. Where we left off – Arwen performed as she always does at these parties but this time it was a new song that put all her feelings of love and emotion out there to the world for Maverick to hear. He wasn’t prepared for that and I think that he’s still too afraid to admit that he has those deep feelings for her, so he screws it all up. He brings home two women, beds them and acts as though he’s allowed to do this. In true Arwen form, she drafts divorce papers and leaves him.

So the beginning of this third and final installment is watching Maverick come to terms with what he did, knowing that he’s pushed Arwen so far past her breaking point that he’s lost the one thing that mattered most to him. Arwen on the other hand has so much anger towards him, that she uses that to fuel herself forward. She gets a second job so that she can support herself living on her own, she finds men to keep her company at night, and even starts seeing a man regularly even though her heart isn’t open to someone else and she thinks non stop about Maverick.

He grovels, he repents, he apologizes ,but the damage is too drastic for Arwen to let him in. The shock here is that it’s Caspian, Mavericks father who gets in the middle of things. He goes to the bar that she’s working at, with armed men. Threatens everyone in the bar so that he can have a conversation with her – to make her see that without Maverick, she’s still not safe. not from others and definitely not from him. Caspian as you’ll remember still has a vendetta against Arwen for taking away his full revenge. He provides color to what she’s living and as a result, gets her to go back to Maverick.

The build from here is a slow one – where we know that there’s no trust but there’s a LOT of romance and emotion and we know that at least with that foundation, there’s hope. So Maverick is in it for the long haul, doing what ever he can without pushing too hard too fast to get Arwen to see him as the man she loves. We spend the rest of the story watching that relationship try to repair itself, but i’ll be honest, what Arwen holds onto makes it nearly impossible to make any progress.

The other story line that we have is the one of repairing the father/son relationship. As we will recall, Caspian became a deranged man when his wife was murdered and he’s never come back from that. Arwen sees that there’s something there worth saving and tries to meddle over and over again to get the family back together. She’s persistent and she’s stubborn and it’s a quality that starts to make progress. I think that watching this unfold is something that makes the story even more compelling.

Add all those crazy story lines to a relationship that’s got so much heat and passion and you know that you’re going to have this amazing finale to the trilogy. The questions that we’ve wanted to have answered are resolved, and we see a glimpse into what could be. There’s no easy and direct path, but that’s what makes this such a great book to read. Ms Sky, our amazing author has done it again and now i’m sad to have to find something else to read. Enjoy!

Review: The Wolf and His Wife (Wolf #2) by Penelope Sky

Title: The Wolf and His Wife
Author:  Penelope Sky
Publisher/Year:  Createspace Publishing 7/23/19
Length:  169 pages
Series:  Wolf #2

Overview

Tensions rise and now I have two enemies that want me dead.

But I’ve never felt safer.

My wolf protects me. He cherishes me. And I think he loves me.

This arranged marriage was detested by us both, but now I look at him with new eyes.

My husband is strong, smart, and gorgeous. His coffee-colored eyes make me melt. My heart slowly starts to soften for this man and I fall deeper and deeper.

I fall in love with my husband.

My Thoughts

The dynamic between these two continues to get even more exciting and complicated. We see what happens between Arwen and Maverick change into something that’s a layer deeper, but outside forces make it impossible for there to be happiness.

In this second installment, we get to see how the story continue with Mav and his father and how no matter how much everyone tries, all hope is lost. They have the chance to kill Ramon, the man who murdered Mav’s mom, and that should have been the end of the story – a way to get revenge. The challenge is that Mav’s father takes things one step too far and takes Ramon’s wife and daughter as well and wants to give them the same fate as his wife. So, there’s no choice here but for Arwen to take matters into her own hands, free the wife and daughter and that means that whatever rifts were in existence with this family are even worse now.

That’s the path that we’re on throughout this book. There’s so much hatred, so many opportunities of breaking trust and worrying that nothing will ever make things ok that we’re left to wonder how far Maverick will take this ruse. It’s only when Kamikazee comes along again, and makes attempts at kidnapping Arwen and forces a war that things change.

I spend a lot of this story thinking that there may be hope at some point, that we may be able to see a happier ending, but i think that there are far too many obstacles to find happiness. There’s clear chemistry between them, there’s a sense of friendship between them that makes you feel like there’s a true foundation, but through a series of events, our world is turned upside down.

So, what to say now – i’m really left shaking my head at what happens at the end of this 2nd book. There are so many things that are now up in the air, and yet to be determined that we don’t know how this relationship will shake out. Mav does things, Arwen does things, and well, i’m unhappy with everyones reactions to everything. I have to now wait another couple weeks before the third installment comes, but i think that we’re going to have our minds blown however this ends up. On that note – enjoy!

Review: The Wolf and the Sheep (Wolf #1) by Penelope Sky

Title: the World and the Sheep
Author:  Penelope Sky
Publisher/Year:  Createspace Publishing 6/18/19
Length:  180 pages
Series:  Wolf #1

Overview

Till death do us part.

My father married me off to one of the most powerful men in Italy.

Maverick DeVille. But I call him the wolf.

He calls me his sheep. 

The arranged marriage was detested by us both, but we had to make sacrifices for the right reasons. He needed to avenge his mother and I needed protection from the mobs that want to torture me.

He’s not what I pictured for my husband. He’s ruthless, calloused, and cold. His walls are higher than mine. He possesses cruelty that makes him feared.

But it doesn’t take long for me to respect him…even like him.

I rely on my husband more than anyone else in the world. He provides for me, protects me, and chases away all my fears.

He lets me graze in the meadow…not a care in the world.

Because the wolf is always watching. 

“When people look in the darkness, they see shadows. I see monsters. And I kill the monsters that hunt my sheep.” 

I hated this marriage in the beginning, but now I realize how lucky I am.

How lucky I am to be the sheep the wolf protects…and doesn’t eat.

My Thoughts

I was worried for a moment when i finished The Skulls series that i would be at a loss for all things Penelope Sky however YAY i found this new series. We go back to Tuscany, into the balance of legal and illegal doings – where bad decisions have implications on your life, and people die for it.

In this story, we’re introduced to Maverick, our leading man who runs a legitimate family business off the tails of some less than savory things that his family had done in the past. Those underwold jobs that were done came at a price about a year or so ago when Mav’s mom was kidnapped, tortured and killed. That changed the man that he was, and killed the man that his father was – making him into this man who was out for revenge and who had no affection or emotion towards his children outside of hatred. When there’s a chance for Mavericks’ father to get revenge in the form of killing the man who killed his wife, he jumps. This means that Mav has to marry the daughter of the man who’s giving information on the whereabouts of the killer, and thats’ a deal that no one wants.

That’s where we meet Arwen, the daughter who’s live is now being promised to someone else. She’s young, at the peak of her career and in a relationship that’s going down the road to love. What she doesn’t know is that her father is dying, and not only that, he’s made so many bad choices in the past that their fortune is gone and there are ‘bad men’ who want to collect. When her father dies, there will be no one to protect her and that’s why he makes the deal to marry her off.

So you can imagine the direction that this story is going to go in. Two very attractive people who are strong willed and who don’t have a say in their futures and are quite unhappy about what it means. But who both at the same time can’t say no to their fathers for a number of reasons, so married they will become.

The dynamic between these two is a fresh take v. the intense and immediate attractions that we’ve seen for all the other couples in Ms sky’s worlds. Maverick and Arwen both appreciate the physical qualities of one another, but they are both so guarded and closed off that there’s really no chemistry at all between them and no hope for it.

Of course it’s when someone’s life is threatened, and when someone’s shot and when someone is on the verge of being killed that things start to change and that means that the next installment of our series will be compelling and exciting. I’m constantly wondering what the turning point will be for them, and what the sacrifices will be when their lives take the turn. Who will have to give in more than they want, and who will be hurt for it. We know that Mavericks’ father always believes that his son is a coward and not capable of doing anything, and at the end of this installment we see Arwen take matters into her own hands for something serious and that means that now she’s a target as well.

So many questions, so few answers, but i can only assume that the heat will come soon, the angst will come soon and their paths will cross, converge and become something intense. on that note – off to read book 2. Enjoy!