Book Review: It Breaks Me

Title: It Breaks Me
Author: Penelope Sky
Genre: Romance, Fiction, Crime

What It’s About: It’s been six months and Axel meets up with Theo at Theo’s restaurant, where they talk about Dante, and to an extent Scarlett. Axel hasn’t seen her since the night he walked in with Cassandra at the restaurant and broke Scarlett’s heart. Theo suggests that they take the business out from under him, and then decides to make himself available as a distributor to Dante. Sometime throughout all of this, Axel and Theo trick Axel’s parents to meet with Axel at an event. His parents tell him that they want nothing to do with him and that there is no chance at reconciliation after his father had to go through with five surgeries on his arm.

Scarlett does bookkeeping and checking the scales for her father in his business and her dad tells her that he’s going to meet with a new distributor, that will get them out from under Axel. She does argue against him cutting Axel out, to no avail. She goes with her father to meet with Theo, the skull king, and they talk business. Theo tells him that he will have to think about it.

Theo talks with Axel about the decision and about Scarlett, when Dante calls. Axel hides in a different room, and listens into the conversation, where Dante negotiates with Theo. He tells him that he has the skull rings and gives one to Theo. Then he gives his blessing for Theo to date Scarlett and tells him that he will push her to say yes when the time is right. Dante tells Theo that he will get the second ring when he starts the distribution and the third when he marries Scarlett. It pisses Axel off but Theo accepts.

Theo visits Scarlett and asks her out, telling her that her dad approved. She confirms with her dad and he says to give him a chance because Theo is a good person. So she goes out to dine with him at his restaurant, where they chat a bit, and then they go back to her new place where she makes them cannoli. But Theo does not make a move on her even after she asks him to fuck her. Another time Theo asks her to go out with him and she asks what’s the point because he wouldn’t have sex with her the last time, to which he says that she is hung up on her ex.

Axel goes to meet up with Dante, bringing 12 men with him. Dante is surprised as he had hoped to kill Axel but was forced to let Axel go without harm. Business keeps going well and at some point, Dante and Scarlett meet with Theo. Scarlett notices a familiar face and wants to talk to her father alone but Theo realizes that she was far more observant and tells them both to sit down. He explains that he had doubled the salary of Dante’s men, and that he and Axel are taking the business over. He tells Dante that the only reason he is staying alive is because of Scarlett. Dante thinks to shoot them but Scarlett stops him and they go home where Dante wallows in his loss.

Dante visits Axel and Theo to negotiate, and gives Theo the remaining two skull rings, and for Axel he tells him that he can have Scarlett—for a portion of his business. He tells this to Scarlett and she is furious enough to go see Axel in his home, where he confirms that she must marry him in order for Dante to get back a portion of the business. She tells him that she won’t go through with it. Dante speaks with her and tells her that it doesn’t have to be forever.

So Scarlett meets up with Axel in a restaurant and he gives her an engagement ring. She agrees to marry him for a portion of the business but tells him that she will not wear the ring unless she has to and then she steps out with the food in a box, leaving him alone. He complains to Theo and Theo tells him to give it time. Dante comes by and visits asking what he should do, and Axel tells him that they are having a wedding not a courthouse marriage, so until he and Scarlett are married, he will not be getting any portion of the business. He also speaks with Scarlett who tells him that she doesn’t want to plan a wedding, so he gets a wedding coordinator.

The night of the Rehershal dinner, Scarlett struggles to go through with it, but her father reminds her that it is only temporary once they get the business back. She goes through with the rehearsal and then afterwards, the dinner is held at her father’s. For the most part, Axel leaves her alone, and she finds him sitting outside with Theo. When Theo comes in, he tells her that Axel’s family will not be coming and that he could use the support, so she goes out into the cold and sits with him, where they talk about his family.

The day of the wedding, she gets cold feet, and after 20 minutes, both Axel and Theo go looking for her. They find her at a cafe in her dress, and Axel puts her jacket on her before they go in and sit, and talk. They return to the church and get married. After the wedding at the wedding night, they go upstairs to their room, and Axel tells her that she has been nervous the whole time and to undress while they eat. So they end up ordering a meal and eating it at the table. They sleep the night at the same bed, and the next day Scarlett begins unpacking her things in Acel’s house, having a room to herself.

They go to a meeting with an Ambassador together, and Axel rests his hand on her thigh during the dinner, and after in the car on the ride back. Slowly, they go to sleeping in the same bed, to having her move into his room, to showering and bathing together and to having sex. This biggest point of contention is Dante and finances at one point because Scarlett wants to make money and Axel tells her he gives her 50-50 split, as she is his wife. He tells her he wants her to use the gifts he gets for her that he works hard for her, and knows that she doesn’t care for his money but for him. Another point of contention is that Scarlett wants to continue bookkeeping at her dad’s house and she does it only one time, until Axel makes it clear that it’s to be done in his home and study.

Axel meets with a lawyer who tells him that there’s a gallery function and the ambassador wants both Axel and his parents present, so they have taken out a restraining order. Axel signs it and sulks, where Scarlett finds him and he realizes that he doesn’t want to be alone m, but with her. He tells her what happened. They attend the gala, and the ambassador calls him over while he is talking to Axel’s parents. They decide to be rude and walk away, and Scarlett follows them, breaking from Axel’s grip when he tries to stop them. She talks to them, and basically his father reiterates that he wants nothing to do with Axel, that he shouldn’t have turned to crime, even with the conviction and that he may have had a chance for reconciliation. But now that he has had his arm broken, there’s no chance. The party ends, and Scarlett talks to Axel who is drunk and tells him his dad is a prick. They walk around the museum.

Throughout this time Scarlett had met with her dad once and he had told her that he wants to squash Axel and Theo, to which she had said to just let it go, but he wouldn’t, and it made her uncomfortable. She returns to see her dad under the guise of having dinner and tells him that she is not going to go agains Axel and backstab him, that she cares for him. Like always, her dad throws the words that Axel is manipulating her. He then tells her that he has a meeting with the Colombians who want 10% cut, but that he had agreed to a 2.5% extra. She offers to tug along and he agrees that men act better in front of ladies. They go to the production facility, and it quickly turns into a bloodbath.realizing that they had walked into a trap, she had dropped her location to Axel and silenced her phone that will lead him to come to her. She does defend herself but the man who had wanted to get a hold of her to get Axel to give up his business, decides that she is too much trouble with her fighting back that he will kill her. She is passing out when Axel comes and saves her, killing the men. He gets her into a chair and takes his rage out on Dante who tells him that he understands that Scarlett is Axel’s to protect. During the ordeal, Axel had said I love you to Scarlett. He gives them space after threatening Dante that if he does this again, he will kill him, and Scarlett accepts her father’s apology. She says good bye to him and gets in the car with Axel.

Once they get to the elevator of their apartment, Axel tells her he doesn’t want to know whose idea it was but from now on Scarlett has to promise him that she will stick to bookkeeping. She promises him and admits to him that she does not want anything to do with the business. When they’re in the house, she says she’s going to take a showerc and he asks her if she is going to pretend that she didn’t hear him say I love you. He repeats it again and tells her that he’s loved her before and even while they were apart, and urges her not to let what happen get in the way of her feelings. She admits she can’t be angry with him, and he tells her that it’s because she knows him, just like he knows her—even though she is not ready to say it, she cares for him deeply.

My Thoughts: What a spunky way to get back the girl of your dreams! Go, Axel, Go! But this would in reality never work if someone hates another person. I think secretly they were both in love with each other which is why deep down Scarlett did agree to marry him. But I’m so happy to find them together at the end of this book, and there was a moment where it was scary that he would not get to Scarlett in time before the Colombians got to her—I really didn’t care about Dante, because as far as I’m concerned this man is the reason that Scarlett is in this mess in the first place; if she hadn’t wanted to impress him and be on his good side, she wouldn’t have gotten into the mess in the first place and could have been with Axel from the beginning. I can’t wait to see how their romance evolves in the next book, and whether she chooses to believe him that he loves her and always had loved her.