Book Review: Buttons & Blame

Title: Buttons & Blame
Author: Penelope Sky
Genre: Romance, Dark Romance, Fiction

What It’s About: Cane watches Adelina on their flight back–she continues to surprise him with her strength, though when they return home, she needs space from him because she’s super emotional due to her visit to her parents. Crow in the meantime is pissed with Pearl because she took a flight on her own to see Tristian to purchase Adelina her freedom, but Tristian denied her request, telling her that he’d only exchange Adelina for her. Crow was terrified that Pearl had done that, and he slaps her when she returns home, tells her she’s grounded and stalks off into his own room, physically removing himself from Pearl until she apologizes.

It takes them a couple of weeks before things return to normal, when Pearl apologizes to him for that and promises him that she will not do something like this again–at least not without consulting him in order to plan it together. Crow apologizes to her for slapping her, and admits to himself that he shouldn’t have done that. They return back to themselves as they were before.

Time flies by with the remaining days that Cane has with Adelina. She spends time going to work in the Vineyard, and he often takes her sightseeing to give her as much view of the world as possible before she is returned and chooses to commit suicide rather than suffer at the hands of Tristian. Crow, on the other hand, is suspicious of his brother, though Cane keeps promising that he will turn Adelina over at the end of the 31 days without any further issues. In the meantime, Pearl also talks to Adelina and asks her if she’s in love with Cane, but Adelina doesn’t think she is–he is still her captor after all–though Pearl points out that Cane hasn’t cared about anyone as much as he cares about Adelina.

One point of contention between Crow and Cane is the weapons business–they are trying to find out who is going to be the next man on top after they’ve destroyed Bones in their area; however, Crow wants to leave the business so he can grow old with Pearl and knows that there is more to life than money. For him, he has enough, and he tries to get Cane to see his point of view, including adding that Cane could be involved in the Vineyard–a much cleaner business. Cane, however, continues to say that their parents left them this legacy; that they inherited this business, and so it doesn’t make sense to leave it behind. Besides, he admits to himself that he would much rather be a criminal and not have to pay taxes but make more money than ever. Cane then finds out that the Skull Kings have decimated the remainder of whoever was trying to run Bones’ old business, and that makes both Cane and Crow worry, because Cane is very intimate with the Skull Kings. They are an assassin group out of Greece with 12 men, who will kill their targets for money, and skin their skulls. He had been involved with them–being their 12th man actually, when he needed the money to pay off some debt.

Eventually, the time comes and Cane returns Adelina back to Tristian, even after trying to buy her off of him. When he sees Adelina back, Tristian then wires the money to Cane’s account, and kicks Adelina in the gut. This causes Cane to have a gut reaction to protect her, but he’s pushed back by Tristian’s men and has to helplessly watch as Adelina is roughly forced through the threshold of Tristian’s door. For the next few days, he falls into a depression–he can’t sleep and looks like shit, choosing to stay home from work. Crow comes by once to see what he can do, but Cane pushes him away. Pearl on the other hand is heartbroken–she can easily understand Adelina’s horror story because she lived it, so she’s distanced herself from Crow for a bit, until he turns her body on fire with his kisses and his dick.

Finally Cane visits Crow at the vineyard, and asks him for his help in getting Adelina back. Crow doesn’t want to help him with that because as far as he’s concerned, Cane doesn’t care for her and he did what he was supposed to do–return her. Then Cane admits that he’s in love with Adelina, and Crow knows that he has to help him. He just asks for a couple of days to stash Pearl away safely, though Cane tells him to just include her because she is more than capable of kicking ass as she had previously demonstrated. Crow tells him it’s not up for discussion.

Well, turns out that Pearl isn’t exactly happy about being shipped off and hidden in a different country away from Crow. His plan would have her hidden elsewhere and with a boatload of money that she could live out the rest of her life in peace if necessary. Besides, he’s sending her with security and with Lars, his butler. Pearl is furious, but he claims it’s not up for discussion, so she goes to visit Cane who tells her that he agrees with Crow on this one even though he knows that she can kick ass. He tells her it’s because Crow will have to focus on protecting her which can lead to injury on his part, and even death–so having her around could be very deadly for them both. Knowing she has nothing more to win, Pearl goes home. The next day she wakes up super late, Crow long gone for work, when Lars peeks in to check on her worried. He gives her a brown bag full of tampons, since it’s that time of month, and Pearl goes on to check her birth control pills–she has been taking them, but she’s way late on her period.

Crow comes home and cannot find Pearl–he finally asks Lars who gives him a cryptic message that not all is lost, and that Pearl is outside. She’s pensive, and when Crow tells her that she’s gotta go to Santorini, for once she gives in and agrees with him. That immediately sets him off as Pearl usually would fight him tooth and nail to not go–she then reveals that she’s pregnant. That night, while she’s asleep, Crow invites Cane over, and tells him that he needs to pull out of the mission. Cane is upset over it, but then Crow explains that Pearl is pregnant, and he doesn’t want to leave his wife and unborn child without a father. Cane is excited but he also understands. The next morning Crow tells Pearl that he’s leaving with them, and she tells him that no–his brother means too much to him and if he goes with them, he will regret this, especially if something happens to Cane.

Ultimately, Crow puts her into a car, and turns away from it so that he’s not watching them drive off, while he cries. Then the whole regiment of men drive all the way to France and to Tristian’s home in France. They go through the home, and Cane finds Adelina, puts her in a car, and returns back to the grounds of the house only to get a message from Crow in the earpiece that Tristian had escaped–he finds him jumping on a boat and riding away. Cane tries to shoot him but it’s too dark to see if he hit his mark, and when Crow comes down to meet him, he tells Cane that Lizzie is dead–they found her body in a body bag. They return home, and Cane takes care of making sure that Adelina heals, though he doesn’t look at her much. She confronts him about that and he tells her that he just doesn’t know if she wants to be stared at considering all that she’d been through, but she tells him that she wants that stare from him. Adelina had been abused again during that week away from Cane, but she couldn’t kill herself with the cyanide pills because she’d stashed them in her room, but when she was returned to it, they were gone.

Pearl keeps freaking out about Crow, and he finally calls her once it’s done. He tells her that they don’t know what happened to Tristian, so it’s not safe for her to return home. Then Crow and Cane begin searching for Tristian, trying to figure out what is going on with him. During a meeting at the compound, The Skull Kings show up to talk to them to give their business over, and Crow wants to stand with his brother to meet them; but Cane tells him to sit down–Crow wants to leave the business, so he will get to do just that. Cane walks out to meet Constantine, the head leader of the Skull Kings, and they talk–he asks Constantine if he heard about what happened to Tristian, which the guy says yes but that it wasn’t them who took Tristian out. Cane tells him that he was the one who did because Tristian crossed him–sending a subtle message that he’s not to be trifled with. Then Cane hands Constantine a card of a potential buyer, saying that he’s got his hands full and can’t take on another buyer at this time.

Crow returns home and calls Pearl, who complains to him that she’s bored with Lars, who is waiting on her hand and foot and wants to know when she’ll be able to come home. Crow tells her that she’s lucky to have Lars cooking her fresh meals because he’s only got Lars’ frozen stuff. Suddenly, there’s a breaking of a window and gunshots ring out. Crow dives down, tells her to call Cane, and heads the hell out of the house, killing a few men, before ultimately he gets captured by Tristian who wants Pearl, but cannot find her. He tells Crow that he will get it out of him, though Crow is adamant that he won’t.

My Thoughts: Everything is so intense in this book, with so much tension between the brothers, and Pearl about Adelina. It’s just heartbreaking that Cane realizes he loves her after he returns her to Tristian, and she has to suffer at Tristian’s hands. But I’m glad that he gets her back with Crow’s help, though Crow now will have to suffer for it. That said, I was kind of expecting Pearl or Adelina to get pregnant long before now, but it’s nice to see that Pearl is entering another chapter of her life–motherhood, though she may have to do it without Crow alongside her. Who knows what will happen, but I’m really hoping that Crow is found in the next book and they get a happily ever after ending.