Book Review: Buttons & Shadows

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

What It’s About: Carmen goes out to dinner with Bosco at a restaurant where she thinks she’s certain her father doesn’t have any connection as a result of his wine business. Bosco orders a Barsetti wine and it escapes her notice during the meal, even though she does tell him that he doesn’t have to try to impress her by liking her family wine. The owner of the restaurant later calls Cane and tells him that Carmen dined with Bosco in his restaurant. Cane gets angry, so he grabs his gun, and marches in front of Crow, who also starts to get ready even though he doesn’t know what it’s about. Cane tells him what’s going on, while Bones listens on, and Crow is ready to go help save Carmen. Then Bones talks some sense into the two men–they can’t go wage war with Bosco anyway because he just has so many men. So, Cane and Crow come up with a different idea–they’ll give Bosco 100 million dollars and pay him off to leave Carmen. Cane is also pissed because he heard that Carmen was sporting a bruise, but Bones confirms that Bosco wasn’t the one who laid a hand and tells Cane that she got it in the bank robbery, where Bosco actually saved her.

Carmen meets up with Vanessa, who gets outraged over Carmen’s black eye until Carmen tells her that it was the result of the robbery. Vanessa backs off, and Carmen confides in her that she doesn’t know what to do–whether or not she should stay with Bosco because she does love him. Vanessa advises her to either as Bosco if he would give up the underworld and give Carmen the life she dreams of–a house in Tuscany and four children–or to just walk away is she truly cannot see herself with Bosco.

Cane & Crow visit Bosco with the 100 million dollars, and he tells the men that he and Carmen are in love. But Bosco is also honest about how the relationship started, and mentions the contract–he says he will let her go if that’s what she wants at the end of their agreement. Cane & Crow leave with the money, with the promise that no one will speak of this with Carmen.

Bosco visits Carmen at her shop and wants to purchase a bouquet of flowers from her, but Carmen makes him a new one and gives it to him for free, when he tells her that it’s for his mom. He asks her if she would like to come with him to see his mom at her grave for her birthday. Carmen agrees, locks up her store and they drive to the graveyard, where they are met by Ronan, who comments that their mom would have loved to have all three of them together for her birthday. Another day Bosco visits Carmen at her shop and asks to grab lunch with her, but she says that she’s going with Vanessa for lunch. Bosco convinces her to let him tag along, and at first Vanessa is worried when she sees him because of Bones, but she then decides to give them a chance. Bones shows up, finding out about Bosco from the bodyguard he hired for Vanessa. He punches Bosco in the face after a small argument with Vanessa where he tells her that he will deal with her later, treating her like an afterthought and a child, which infuriates her. Bosco’s men come to his aid, but with just some hand movements, he sends them away choosing not to hurt Bones because Carmen asked him not to hurt her family. Carmen rips Bones a new one, and later takes care of Bosco while he sports a concussion.

This in turn causes a rift between Vanessa and Bones, where they argue. She makes him sleep on the couch in their Florence apartment because she can’t to look at him after he refuses to apologize for what he said to her. The next day at work, Bones tries to work off his anger by doing physically demanding work. Crow comes in and just stands there when Bones refuses to talk. When Bones asks him what he’s doing, Crow says that he usually waits silently for his children to feel ready to talk to him. Finally Bones tells him what is going on, and Crow advises him about Vanessa’s perspective and tells him to apologize for the words he’d said. Vanessa also gets a phone call from Crow telling her that Bones just loves her a lot and to remember that everything he does is out of love for her. That night she returns to their home in Tuscany and they both apologize to each other and work it out.

As the time draws near to the end of the contract, Carmen is undecided on whether or not she wants to stay with Bosco. Ronan visits her and they talk, with him trying to convince her and hoping that she will stay with Bosco because it’s the happiest that Ronan has seen Bosco since the death of their mother. During her conversation with Ronan, Carmen decides that she has to leave at the end of their agreement because she just wants something different. Ronan promises her that he will tell Bosco they talked about girls and girl advices; however, a day before the end of the agreement, Ronan breaks his promise to Carmen. He tells Bosco the truth at the Casino, while they’re both overlooking the floor of the Casino. Ronan then asks Bosco if it’s worth doing all of this (the Casino) and letting go of Carmen, because being the King of the Underworld, running the Casino and making millions of dollars is going to get old at some point. He offers to take on the role instead, and Bosco doesn’t say anything. Instead, he turns away from Ronan, hurt that Carmen is still thinking of leaving.

After having wonderful, good-bye sex, and after hoping that Ronan did tell Bosco the truth that she’s leaving because she thinks it would be easier, Carmen knows that she has to leave. She starts chucking her own items back into her suitcase, and once she’s packed, she walks back into the foyer, where she sees Bosco sitting in the living room. She realizes that he knew that she’s leaving, and it doesn’t make her feel better. Bosco gives her a soft kiss, but his expression is pained, and when she enters the elevator with her suitcase, he tells her that his men will take her home but they have to take her first somewhere else to show her something. He then lets the door shut. Carmen is driven by his men through roads going towards her parents home, but they turn off at a mansion. One of the men gives her a box from Bosco and in it, she finds a key to the house, an engagement ring and a letter from Bosco. In his letter, he tells her that if she wants him, he is prepared to hand over his business to Ronan in full, give her the house and ask her to marry him–all she has to do is return to him at home, if she wants him. Carmen goes back to his home, and he almost doesn’t believe that she’s back, until he kisses her. Cane then calls Bosco that evening and asks if Carmen has left him, to which Bosco says no.

Carmen convinces Vanessa to have dinner with Bones and Bosco at a restaurant, which they agree to do. Bones is hesitant about accepting Bosco, until Vanessa reminds him that he was no different and how much work it was to get her family to accept him. As a result, Bones decides to help them–or at least not to stand in their way–especially when he realizes that Bosco does love Carmen. Cane is upset that Carmen hasn’t left Bosco, and he complains to Crow while drinking. Bones walks in on the two men drinking their feelings away, and gives a speech about how all men are assholes until they meet the one woman that changes them to be better and for whom they want to be better.

Carmen visits her dad shortly after her dinner with Vanessa and Bones, but Cane is flustered and blows her off. She visits again two days later but he blows her off again. Bosco finally calls Cane and tells him to cut the crap as he’s hurting Carmen. Cane finally calls Carmen and tells her to visit so that they can talk. At their meeting Carmen has every intention to tell her dad about Bosco, but Cane admits to her that he’s already known about them because of her date, and had tried to rope in Bones to get rid of Bosco, even going as far as taking money to Bosco to get rid of him. Carmen is pissed but she tells him that she loves Bosco. She yells at Bosco when she gets home, and then storms into Vanessa’s shop about Bones knowing about Bosco thanks to Cane, but Vanessa is as surprised as Carmen is about Bones knowing about Bosco from Cane.

Cane is mad at Carmen so he refuses to talk to her, but Carmen’s mom, Adelina shows up in her shop and ask her about Bosco, specifically whether Carmen truly loves him. Carmen confirms that she does, and Adelina says that is enough for her, so she will work on Cane, but she needs time. A few days later, Cane invites both Bosco and Carmen to dinner, during which Bosco constantly stands up to Cane. As a result, Adelina really likes him because he’s not willing to bow down to someone as scary as Cane, but Cane doesn’t like Bosco still and it’s because he thinks that Bosco is arrogant.

One night, Carter helps Luca with math homework while Mia is out at groceries. When she comes back, Carter helps her but first makes out with her, pushing her against the car. That gets interrupted by Luca who asks for candy, but Mia tells him to finish his math homework first before he gets canned, and adds that she has another surprise to him. Carter goes up to his office, and when it’s time, Mia calls him down to dinner. Before he goes down, he gets a phone call from Egor, which bothers him and he wonders whether or not Egor knows the truth about Mia, but Carter figures that the best way to play this out is to act like nothing happened. He picks up the call, and Egor asks him how married life is and asks how Luca and Mia are, which makes Carter realizes that Egor knows the truth. Egor accuses Carter of being a thief and asks that he return Mia and Luca to him, or else he will pick up this pretty girl with green eyes–describing Carmen in detail–who is walking somewhere in Florence at that moment. Carter gets off the phone and calls Cane, who grabs Crow and tells Carter to meet him out front, where he will pick him up so they can save Carmen.

Carmen leaves her shop and walks two blocks to a pizzeria. Bosco’s men call her asking where she is and she tells them, to which they say they will go meet her. Suddenly, a man steps out of a car, and tries to grab her–telling her that she’s going to take Mia’s place because of her brother being a thief. Carmen realizes that this gross man was Mia’s cruel captor, and she fights him off after his men kill Bosco’s men. But there’s too many of them and they capture her. Suddenly, Bosco and his men show up, kill Egor’s men and Bosco has her put into the car so that she doesn’t watch what is about to happen. Carmen wants to, and steps out of the car to tell Bosco that this was the man that hurt Mia. Bosco drags Egor to the gutter and slices his neck open to bleed out. He tells his men to leave the body and to let the police know to leave the body to wither there on the sidewalk until it decomposes, because this man doesn’t deserve any kindness. Carter, Cane and Crow arrive belatedly to the scene, and Bosco tells Cane that they would’ve been too late. Cane then accepts him.

Epilogue: Carmen sits at a dinner table, pregnant with twins, while Vanessa is three months pregnant. Bones holds Crow Jr, their son, who is asleep in the chair next to her. Cane comes out of the kitchen with a two year old girl–Carmen and Bosco’s daughter–saying that he gave her ice cream. An argument ensues about how they’re not strict on their grandkids as they were with their kids, and then Carmen complains that she wants ice cream. Bosco comes out of the kitchen, with a black wedding band, and she asks him for ice cream. He goes back into the kitchen, only for Ronan to come out with the ice cream, and Carmen proclaims that he is her favorite Roth brother. They continue teasing each other. Adelina then says something about Carmen getting pregnant two more times, but Carmen says that she only wants 4 children–she has one, and is currently carrying two, so one more pregnancy. Someone tells her that it’s not fair that she’s getting two for the price of one, Carmen asks how many more grandchildren do Adelina and Cane want–they have two from Carter (Luca and another grandchild) and will have four from her total, bringing it up to six grandkids. Bosco replies something to the effect that she’s carrying his kids, so she gets what she wants, which shows that he’s very much enamored with his wife and his children.

My Thoughts: That was a pretty good ending I think for everyone involved, and at this stage in the series is where I started to like Carmen and Bosco together. I actually like Bosco more than I like Carmen, and I wish he was with a different person. I feel like this relationship is still missing that spunkiness and that spark that Bones and Vanessa had, so it doesn’t reach the same level for me of interest. Honestly, I would have loved to have more stories about Vanessa and Bones and their lives with children. I also do wonder what was the surprise that Mia had for Luca–I assume it’s that she was pregnant with their baby–but that’s never explicitly stated anywhere, and I would have absolutely loved to hear that she got her dream, which was to have another child, and how she dealt with that. I do feel like Carter and Mia are shoved aside a little bit in this series, and I wish I could hear more from Mias’ perspective on things. Overall good boo, but love love love Vanessa and Bones.