Book Review: Buttons & Belief

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

What It’s About: Carmen leaves dinner with Griffin and Vanessa, who is in her second trimester. Carmen convinces Griffin that she if fine to walk the two blocks from the restaurant to the apartment, and Griffin listens to her instead of driving her down the street, especially when she tells him that he’d have to do a loop. So he leaves with Vanessa, and Carmen walks towards home only to walk right into a group of men who try to make her submit. She fights them off, hurting two before her hands are tied by another one, and a third guy holds a gun to her head. Carmen tells them that Bones is her brother, and the men hesitate, but then decide that they’ll need to kill her in order to make sure he doesn’t come after them.

Suddenly, a new voice speaks out, telling the men to get lost, and they run away after revealing his name–Bosco. He talks to Carmen, and she immediately knows that he’s trouble, the kind she needs to stay far away from. In exchange for saving her from the men, he asks for a kiss and she grants it to him, but they end up making out and dry humping against the wall, resulting in her coming for him, before she walks away leaving him there, and tries to forget the night.

Bosco calls Bones that night and tells him what happened with Carmen, clarifying that he’s repaid the debt favor that he owed Bones for hunting down a man who stole from Bosco. Bones shows up at Carmen’s the next day and tells her to steer clear of Bosco because he’s the king of the city. He adds that going forward she either needs to let him drop her off at home, or start taking taxis. Carmen promises him that she will do both. A few days later, Bosch visits Carmen, purchases flowers from her for her mother, and then invites her to dinner, which she declines.

Instead, she goes out on a date with a different guy, but she can’t stop thinking about Bosco. Suddenly, men in suits start escorting everyone in the restaurant out, and her date gets a phone call that has him running out of the door. Bosco walks in and they have dinner together, at least until Carmen walks out of the restaurant of her own free will. Bosco follows her and asks her to give him a chance, and she takes him up for a one night stand, which they do at her apartment, before she kicks Bosco out.

Bosco and Carmen continue to have several times–sometimes at her place, and other times at his place. He reveals that he runs an illegal casino in broad daylight, that not even the police will touch him. Bosco runs it tightly because his clientele is full of murderers and thieves–individuals from the underworld–so he has rules. Anyone who breaks the rules by stealing from the Casino (and effectively him) gets thrown into the Brawl, where they fight another person to the death. He also reveals that he was raised by a single mother when his father left after his brother, Ronan, was born.

Carmen tells Vanessa about her situation with Bosco without telling her the name because she doesn’t want it to get back to Griffin. She also tells her cousin that the relationship will not go anywhere because there’s no future. This is something that Carmen reiterates with Bosco by telling him that there’s no future for them, so he’ll be a dirty little secret. Afterwards, Bosco does not speak to her for a week and he also doesn’t visit her during that time, while still protecting her–fulfilling a promise of his to her. Carmen sees that in action when she picks up Luca, Carter’s stepson while Carter and Mia are in Milan picking up a wedding dress, and as Luca and Carmen walk down the street, she sees a man heading towards them that seems to be fixated by Luca. Her fight response picks up because she thinks that the guy may try to steal Luca, but then suddenly another man steps out of the shadows of the building, and stops the guy to tell him something that has the man heading in a different direction. Carmen calls Bosco later that day, and he confirms that it indeed was one of his men. At the end of the week, she calls him again, and he has her admit that she wants him and can’t be without it. Once she tells him that she wants him in her bed, Bosco comes over and they have sex. He is also aware of the details of Carmen’s conversation with Vanessa because one of his men had eavesdropped on the conversation and then reported it to him.

Carmen stays a night at Bosch’s and he has to go to the Casino to throw a man into the Brawl for stealing a single chip from him. When he comes back, Carmen is disgusted and panics, wanting to leave. Bosco tells her that he won’t hurt her, and when she’s not satiated with that answer, he gives her the code to his elevator if she wants to leave. She chooses to go back to bed with him.

Carmen meets with Vanessa and tells her that she doesn’t see the relationship going anywhere with the guy and reveals that it’s actually Bosco. Vanessa advises Carmen to get out of that relationship now, if she even can, because Bones doesn’t have anything good to say about Bosco. At the end of the day, Carmen calls Bosco to end the relationship. He comes over to her place, and tells her that he’s not letting her go; that she’s never truly given him a chance, and reveals that he knows all about her conversations with Vanessa. Bosco tells her that she is his forever, and now must satisfy him sexually forever. Carmen is a negotiator, and she negotiates the agreement from forever, to a three month relationship. This agreement gives him what he wants, and after the three months are up, he has to free her so that she can find a husband and start a family, something that she wants very much, but which Bosco has zero interest in. She manages to do all of this by telling him that he would be disappointing his mother if she knew he was forcing her to do this forever. As part of this agreement, Bosco tells her that she must tell Vanessa that she broke up with him and she must move in with him.

My Thoughts: This book was certainly something that I wasn’t expecting and the fact that Vanessa is in her second trimester tells us that substantial time has passed since the last book, yet at the same time Carter and Mia are not married still. So I’m curious as to the timeline–how long after Vanessa’s marriage did this start to happen? Either way, the budding relationship between Bosco and Carmen is to an interesting start. One thing that I have noticed throughout this series that is quite peculiar is the names–with one side being animal and jewelry related, while the other side is a bit more normal than the other in naming conventions, though Bosco is breaking that pattern. Think about it, there’s Pearl and Sapphire, both pieces that are used in Jewelry. The three men in that side of the family are Crow and Griffin–a bird and a mythological creature– and Conway whose name sounds too much like Conman, but actually is an Irish name for Hounds of the Plains and “holy river”. It’s a particularly rare name, so not very common to hear ever. And then there’s Vanessa, whose name is a more normal and more common. On the other side, you’ve got Cane and Carter–typical name one from the Bible, the other from a job of someone who transports by carts. You’ve got Adelina (Italian origin name for Nobility), Mia ( Moon in Australian), and Carmen (Orchard/Garden; originating in Mexico). Now we’ve got Bosco, whose name truly sounds like it belongs to a dog–come here Bosco! good boy Bosco! Here’s a bone Bosco!–though it’s an Italian topographic name for someone living or working in the woods (at least according to the internet). As much as I wish I could change Bosco’s name, I’m still curious to see how this relationship proceeds, so can’t wait to read the next one!