Book Review: Buttons & Deceit

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

What It’s About: Mia decides to do what she can to run, and after Carter reminds her that there will be consequences, she takes her chances. She films and memorizes his security code and on the day she makes the decision to run, she cuts her tracker out, and gets as far as the cars in the garage. Unfortunately, she can’t go anywhere because the cars can’t start without the keys (which she has), and Carter’s fingerprint (which she doesn’t know about). Carter captures her and drags her to his room and chains her up, ready to take advantage of her because she broke the rules. Then she tells him that he would’ve had a chance if he let her go, basically admitting her interest in him. He frees her and she gives herself to him, resulting in them having sex that same night. During dinner later on, Mia reveals to him that she cannot get pregnant because Egor had her tubes tied without her consent, when Carter demands that she get tested to show she’s clean and put her on the pill. In return, she asks him to be tested so that they both are tested and can prove that they are clean.

Bones and Vanessa live a pretty blissful life–sex at night, sex in the morning, he cooks and she paints. But Bones still has mission to get through before he can leave his career behind. Crow tries to get through to Bones, but when they go to visit Crow and Pearl, it is all too much for Bones. Bones cannot sit through the dinner with them because he’s sitting in the seat where he had been chained, and sees the marks still left behind by the chains–he’s still angry that Crow kept him away, which almost caused him to lose Vanessa for good. He storms out and Crow follows him to talk, but Bones rejects him, telling him that he’ll never forgive him. As a result, Crow tries to talk to Vanessa about getting Bones to give him a chance, but Vanessa tells him no because this is something Crow has to work on to fix by himself.

Cane brings up the Skull Kings and the hit on Conway as he doesn’t think that it is over, and everyone agrees that they have to ask Bones. Crow goes to talk to Bones, and Bones agrees to help him. Bones comes to the house the next day, and Conway, Crow, Cane, Pearl, and Bones come up with a plan. Bones and Crow will go to see the Skull Kings alone, as Crow doesn’t want Conway to come to fix this issue. He tells Conway that Conway’s lesson is to watch his father go into the viper pit on his behalf and potentially lose his own life, in order to learn to stop doing stupid stuff. As Bones leaves, Pearl comes up to him and asks him how he would be able to protect Crow if a fight breaks out. He tells Pearl that he can call in some favors as people owe him, and she invites him for dinner. They go to a restaurant, and before they dive into dinner, Bones speaks to a very needy Vanessa on the phone, telling her that he’s with her mom at dinner and will be home later. Pearl and Bones talk, which leads him to tell her that he forgives her. When Pearl asks about him forgiving Crow, he denies that he will, so she asks him what makes her different, and Bones tells her that he forgave her because she reminds him of his mom.

Bones leaves on his mission in Egypt to assassinate someone that deals in secrets, and he’s careful to not leave a trace to protect Vanessa. He also chooses to go home to Vanessa as soon as the body is cold instead of laying low. In the meantime, Vanessa and Crow hang out and he tells her about the mission he and Bones are going on with the Skull Kings. Of course, Vanessa is not happy that Bones is going to come home from one mission, but then leave so soon on another one with her father of all people. When Bones picks up Crow to start their journey to Milan, he watches Pearl hug Crow tightly, and realizes that Crow cares for his wife deeply. Bones respects the man for putting himself in harms way for his kids and wife in order to protect them. They drive in silence to Milan because Bones doesn’t want to talk to Crow and have awkward conversations. Vanessa calls Crow while they’re enroute to Milan, and talks to him, heartbroken. She tells him that he is her best friend and she needs Bones and Crow back. Listening to the conversation, Bones realizes how much Crow loves his daughter and the lengths that he went to save Conway shows the lengths the man is willing to go for his children. As a result, Bones starts to warm up towards Crow, unbeknownst to Crow.

At the Underground, Bones talks to the Skull Kings, and they say that they’re out to get Conway because they found out that he made money off of the women they were selling—he would get money from the women’s fathers, purchase them, and then pocket the difference. When they agree to accept the profit that Conway and Carter made in exchange for leaving Conway alone, Bones calls Crow. Crow walks in with a laptop, opens it up and asks the guy to put in the banking information. He hits send and once the money is in the other account, they leave. On their drive back, Crow admits to Bones that he doesn’t want to call Pearl because she’ll cry, so Bones calls Vanessa and they talk. Then Crow calls Pearl, they talk and then he goes to sleep in the car, while Bones drives through the night. When they arrive at Crow’s home, Pearl runs out of the house to give Crow a passionate embrace. She also hugs Bones, thanking him for all that he did and tells him that they love him. Crow extends his hand out to Bones, but Bones doesn’t take it, so Crow turns around in disappointment that things haven’t gotten better between them. Then Bones tells him that he forgives him, and that he sees Crow’s love for Vanessa, Crow’s love of and respect for Pearl, and the way that he raised Vanessa to be the best woman she could be for him. He wouldn’t have been able to love another woman the way he loves Vanessa because of the way she was raised. Crow is delighted that he’s gotten Bones’ approval, and the two hug it out, with Crow hugging him the same way as his own son, treating him as such.

After a few blissful days together, Carter gets a phone call from Egor. Mia sees the name on the phone, and follows Carter to his office where she overhears Carter talk to Egor about turning her over to him on Friday. She’s pissed, and she comes downstairs to the kitchen, where she grabs a knife and when Carter comes down, she begs him to release her. When he does not agree to that, she rushes him with the knife, but he traps her. He chains her up in her old bedroom, and won’t let her go. Mia then reveals that she has a son, who now is an orphan, and for whom she had found a reason to stay alive. Carter tells her he’s sorry but he cannot risk his family to save hers.

My Thoughts: Absolutely amazing to see how Bones and Crow work it out throughout the book, and start to have that relationship that I think Bones would benefit immensely from. I’m also now becoming more curious about Mia’s and Carter’s relationship–though I did figure out that she has a child that she’s living for, as it’s kind of hinted at throughout the other books, so we shall see how this plays out. Looking forward to the next book.