Book Review: Buttons & Hope

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

What It’s About: Carter is unable to go through with letting Mia go back to Egor, so he calls Vanessa and asks her for Bones. He then tells Bones the situation, and Bones tells him that he can help him–he knows someone who can get him a body and they can make it look like Mia set herself on fire as suicide. Carter agrees to go ahead with this and makes the decision on the spot, as Bones pointed out that he doesn’t have much time. Once decided, Carter informs Mia, who is absolutely grateful but she freaks out when Bones shows up because of how he looks, and Carter tells her that he’s a good person. She ends up leaving Milan with Griffin and stays with him and Vanessa for a while. In the meantime, Carter calls Egor and tells him that she’s committed suicide. Pissed, Egor shows up, checks the body, takes it and Carter sends him the money back for Mia. Once Egor is gone, Carter looks for and purchase a house in Tuscany that is further and hidden from the road. He moves Mia into the house under the pretext that she is his maid. Per Bones’s request, Carter tells his father the truth about Mia, which pisses Cane off because he realizes that it must be the reason why the Skull Kings went after Conway.

Bones goes on his last mission with his team, and while he kills the man he was meant to in Morocco, he gets discovered by the son, whom he also shoots. He has to escape the compound in Morocco through the mountains–hiding there for 24 hours before being airlifted out. He asks Max to lie to Vanessa that they had to change plans. In the meantime, Vanessa is at the hospital because Sapphire has been in labor for 10 hours and Conway’s son is born. They name him Reid, and she spends some time with them. She accepts Max’s answer in the moment as he calls her while she’s awaiting news of the birth, but later questions it because Bones does his homework, so the change in plan seems so unlike him. Crow tells her to trust max. When Bones comes home, he tells her the truth and she’s outraged, but accepts his explanation though he does promise that he will never again lie to her.

Crow invites Bones and Vanessa to his house, and upon their arrival, is only busy talking to Bones, ignoring Vanessa until she demands a hello from him. After dinner, he shows Bones Vanessa’s childhood room, telling him the stories about her from her child hood, and tells Bones that he was going to do this conversation with whomever became Vanessa’s husband. Crow then asks Bones to come work fro Barsetti Vineyards, and take the family business from him as no one else in the family wants it. Since Crow considers Bones his soon too, he is offering it to Bones so it stays in the family and is willing to pay him. Bones is touched by the gesture and tells Crow to make sure that none of the other kids want it, but Crow says that he’s already talked to everyone and no one wants to take the Vineyards because they’ve got their own businesses, so it’s all Bones’ if he wants it. Bones agrees to take it on, under the conditions that he doesn’t get paid until Crow and Cane retire, since he has a ton of money already, and only then he will get a part of the profit, which he will want to put aside for his children as a gift from their grandfather.

When Bones starts working at Barsetti Vineyards, Crow has him shadow him. Vanessa sees men in tinted window cars step out towards her, and she has enough time to call Bones to warn him that she is being kidnapped by Middle Eastern-looking men. Bones pulls Crow out of his meeting and tells him what has happened. Bones, Cane and Crow get on a flight to Morocco, and Bones calls Max but Max is unable to help him because everyone in the team is on a mission already. Max does promise to look into how these men were able to find out it was Bones that killed the Moroccan man, and about Vanessa, because Max usually has that locked down tight. Vanessa is taken to a palace and chained to a bed. One of the guards tries to come in and take advantage of her, but she tells him that Bones will kill him. That doesn’t deter the man, though when she tells the man that she will tell Bones to spare him when he comes (because she knows he will), the guy backs off. Bones chooses to enter the compound with a handful of men, leaving Cane & Crow outside to pick up Vanessa when he calls. Bones takes the men out in the compound, and enters the room that Vanessa is in, spares the man as she asks, and gets her out of the chain. He then makes her put on the Bulletproof vest that he had, and makes her stay behind him, while he shoots anyone coming their way. He gets her out, drops her into the car with Cane and Crow, and shuts the door on her. Bones then goes back inside where he proceeds to wipe out the whole compound. Once Bones kills the son that somehow got away the first time, he decides to go after the man’s wife and kid. Crow tells him to come back and let it go, but Bones is unable to do that because he’s so lost in his bloodlust. Vanessa asks him to do it and begs him to come back to her, which is what gets through to him. Bones meets them at the rendezvous point and kisses her deeply before they go home–he’s upset that his job nearly cost her her life.

At home, he can’t let her out of his sight until she tells him to go back to work. He does, and then has a conversation with Crow, where Bones admits that he should’ve listened to him and gotten out earlier. Crow tells him to not beat himself up over what’s done, and live in the today. After that, Bones finds a 700 year old mansion, with really thick walls, and once Vanessa loves it, he purchases it for them. Another day, he brings a ring with him to work and asks Crow for his permission to marry Vanessa. Crow tells him that he’s not ready for this, but he does give Bones his blessing.

In the meantime, Carter has to head to Milan for his business, and Mia is so afraid of being alone in the house that he lets her stay with his parents. He had hosted his family over one night, and they were so surprised that he had a maid, while Carmen asked him when he got himself a girlfriend, which he denies. Either way, they now know about her, so he’s okay with her staying with them. During Mia’s stay, Adelina knocks on the door and enters her room without waiting for a response–she sees Mia’s scars and the next day she tries to sensitively ask Mia about the situation. When Mia confirms that it’s not Carter that gave her the scars, Adelina tells her own story, and Mia tells her the truth about the relationship with Carter. Upon his return from his business in Milan, Carter has a sit down at Adelina’s request, and she tells him the truth about her past, which makes Carter realize why she never wore swimsuits in their presence. This story makes Carter feel like shit.

Luca, Mia’s son arrives, and at first he doesn’t recognize Mia because he was five years old when he last saw his mom–it’s been three years since. But once Mia uses a nickname for him that she only used, he warms quickly up to her and Carter, who in turn teaches him how to swim, and helps him with his math homework. Mia realizes that she never wants to be helpless again or to have something happen to Luca, so one afternoon she proposes the idea of a marriage of convenience to Carter. The idea would be that she stays with him, takes care of the kids, while he does what he’s always done (including seeing other women) in exchange for protection. Carter likes the idea as it would get his parents off his back, he wouldn’t have to deal with children, and he wants to keep Mia around forever.

At Vanessa’s and Bones’ housewarming party, Carter introduces Mia and Luca to the rest of his family. Bones makes a speech and proposes (but really demands) Vanessa marry him, and she definitely accepts. After the housewarming party, Carter visits his father and tells him about the marriage of convenience, to which Cane calls bullshit. He tells Carter that it’s time for him to be honest with himself and Mia in that Carter loves her, and that it’s better not to mess around especially when a child is involved so they don’t break the boy’s heart. Not only that, but Cane tells him that this kind of arrangement will break Adelina’s heart and make her disappointed in him, so Carter better sort it out before he comes anywhere near his mother with that kind of story. Carter tells Cane that he doesn’t know or see how Mia could possibly love him, even if he does feel that way, to which Cane says that maybe Mia doesn’t want to tell him how she truly feels because of the trauma she’s suffered at the hands of the other guy.

One night a little while later, Carter tells Mia that he loves her. She doesn’t say it back, and he’s disappointed, so he begins to shut down. When she realizes that something’s off, and asks about it, Carter tells her that it’s okay that she doesn’t feel the same way. Mia then tells him that she does feel the same way, and asks him if her asking him to marry her wasn’t obvious. Carter says it wasn’t because of how she presented the information, but he then asks her to marry him when she does tell him she loves him. Few days later, he puts the ring on Mia and she’s happy. He then tells both of his parents that he’s engaged to Mia, and they are so happy for him, including telling him that Mia better be wearing the engagement ring to Vanessa’s upcoming wedding.

In the meantime, Bones had taken a day off from the Vineyards, and Vanessa doesn’t know until Crow stops by and tells her that Bones was out for the day. Both are confused because he said nothing to either one of them, and they have no clue where he could be. Bones shows up while they are talking, with a gauze wrap around his hand. When Vanessa demands to know what happened to him, Bones unravels it and shows her that he got a wedding band tattooed on his finger. Vanessa is mad because she needs to plan a wedding and expects to make it happen next year, so he shouldn’t have a ring before they get married. Bones tells her that he’s not willing to wait that long and if she wants to have children sooner, he wants to be married to her before she gets pregnant. They compromise to get married that Saturday at Vanessa’s parent’s house.

On the day of Vanessa’s wedding, Carter tells Conway that he’s getting married while the two hang out together. During the wedding, Crow walks her down the aisle and gives her away to Bones. Bones gives a beautiful vow to Vanessa, making her actually speechless, and when she can’t find the words to speak her vows, he speaks the words for her. He cries a little when he kisses her–the third time she’s ever seen him cry.

My Thoughts: I absolutely adore the relationship between Vanessa and Bones, as well as Bones’ growing relationship with Crow–how he leans on Crow for advice or information, and goes to him when things go down with Vanessa that make him terrified. I think it’s so beautiful to see Bones grow into a person that he could’ve been if he had that stability of a home and a loving family, which is what he has now. I’m so happy that they got married. That said, I’m not a fan of Carter’s story–it’s falls a bit flat throughout the book. Whereas in all of the other Barsetti children stories, there was a lot of sass and comebacks, in Carter’s life, it’s quieter. I don’t know if it’s because Mia has a child and that softens him differently, but it definitely feels like Carter figured out from the get go that he loves her, even if he doesn’t want to admit it. It’s a little disappointing because he’s the only one from the Barsettis that isn’t going to have a book or two dedicated to his relationship and the changes he undergoes. It also makes him feel like an afterthought by the author when really the book should’ve been about his relationship as that’s what that feels like the snippet of the book was about.