Book Review: The Skull King

Title: The Skull King
Author: Penelope Sky
Genre: Fiction, Romance, Dark Romance

What It’s About:

Two years ago, Balto brings his men and meets with Lucian, as part of a meeting to recruit him to work for Balto and the Skull Kings. Balto gives Lucian one of the skull rings—supposedly stolen by Sir Francis Drake from an indigenous tribe in India and worth a lot of money. Lucian is smitten with it, but then declines to do business with Balto; however, Balto had not come unprepared—he did his homework, so he hauls Lucian’s brother out of the car and when Lucian doesn’t do anything to agree to help Balto, Balto kills him.

Balto is at a bar—one of the few people there when he notices a beautiful woman come in. He sees that she’s wearing a ring, clearly being married, though that would not bother him at all. Cassini looks at the tall, blue eyed stranger at the bar, and he moves over to her, telling her that she is eye-fucking him. She replies back that he is eye-fuckable and they banter together for a bit, but she turns him down when he proposes that they actually go ahead and have sex, telling him that her husband is dangerous and will kill him; that he is too pretty to die. He gives her a business card and tells her to call him when she changes her mind.

Cassini goes home but cannot stop thinking about the blue-eyed hunk that she met at the bar, even imagining what it would be like to have sex with him, while her husband fucks her. She had given up her freedom in exchange for saving the man she loved—Evan had been threatened by Lucian and she agreed to marry Lucian to save Evan. Evan then went on to marry another person and have children. When Cassini is free, she goes to visit her brothers who own a pasta company in Tuscany, something that they had inherited from their parents as the pasta business has been in their family for generations. Her two brothers—Case, the older one, and Dirk, the younger one, are not happy that she married Lucian because of the deal she made, and they don’t think that she is happy. But they agree not to talk about it at all.

When Lucian leaves for a couple of trips, each time Cassini goes around to spend time and have sex with Balto, returning home by eleven pm at night to not arouse suspicion. At one point Balto gives Cassini a cellphone—identical to the one that she has, so that if her husband looks, he wouldn’t be able to tell the difference, but it’s meant to be a form of communication between the two of them only for their affair, and they text and call each other on it, having phone sex. But on the days that Lucian wants to be at home with her and have her in his bed, Cassini imagines that she is having sex with Balto, and Lucian begins to believe that she might be into him after a year of marriage. He starts paying more attention to her, and asks her to go with him on a business trip to Turkey, which Cassini manages to get out of by telling him that she’s uncomfortable being around his business associates. So she continues to fuck with Balto while Lucian is out, though Lucian does call her one time while she is visiting Case and Dirk and asks her where she is, before telling her that he has an outfit sent to the house and expects her to wear it when he gets home.

Balto visits his brother in prison a couple of time—Heath is his identical brother, and after the second visit, Heath agrees to work for the Skull Kings and Balto. So Balto has Heath taken out of the prison—after all he had put his own brother into the prison himself because he paid people off. Balto brings him to his home, sets him up in the third story apartment, and they go out to the bar to pick up some women, but Balto doesn’t pick up any because he is stuck on Cassini. Heath picks one up and then they get home. Balto also visits a pasta factory. The first time he meets with Case to tell him that they will need to start paying a tax to him as the Skull King for the products that they are moving, and Case manages to negotiate it down from 20% to 15%. The second time he meets with Case and Dirk, he is impressed with their drugs as it’s different than what is out on the street, and they tell him that they will be getting more of it produced soon. He picks up his cut of the money, and wonders why they are in the business, to which they reveal that they are not drug users, and they mention a sister but they don’t say anything more than that. Cassini visits Balto after seeing her brothers, and they have sex, but she is back home before Lucian returns.

Lucian tells Cassini to get dressed and takes her out to the opera, even though Cassini doesn’t want to go. Balto finds out that Lucian will be at the opera and decides to give him a visit just as a reminder. While Balto is waiting in the opera, he has his twin brother act like him downstairs, coming across Balto. Heath tells Balto that this is bound to be interesting, but he doesn’t tell him more than that, and only once Lucian and Cassini pass by Balto’s view, where Lucian barks at his soldiers to keep an eye on Balto, does he realize that Cassini is Lucian’s wife. While the opera is happening, Cassini keeps looking for Balto, having seen him approach Lucian earlier and wink at her. She had been terrified that there would be trouble, but Balto seemed happy to head on his own direction. Suddenly, she feels his touch on her shoulder and his kiss, before Balto shows up in front of Lucian, who is clearly terrified of him. Balto talks to him, asking Lucian to work for him, but Lucian says nothing. Cassini realizes that Balto had snuck up on them in the opera, even silently killing the two men that Lucian had behind him. Balto tells him to think about it, and then walks out of the opera box, after telling Cassini that it was a pleasure to meet her.

Lucian is so bothered by this situation that he is in a foul mood for days. Balto sneaks into Cassini’s room, and they have sex for hours right in front of Lucian’s nose. Then Balto sneaks back out of the house, despite there being many security guards around Lucian’s property. But it bothers Balto later that Cassini would end up having sex with Lucian without any condoms thereby mixing their come. So he calls Lucian in the middle of the evening, demanding that he has Cassini ready with him for when Balto shows up. Lucian commands Cassini to get dressed for guests, which bugs her, and then they wait outside on the patio. Balto shows up and tells Lucian to either make bombs for him or he will take Cassini with him. Lucian hesitates, and so Balto takes Cassini, telling her to come with him and leave her wedding ring behind. Cassini takes it off, and Lucian is about to say something, but she slaps him and walks off with Balto.

My Thoughts:

This is a slightly different version of Penelope’s typical dark romance stories, where the two main characters meet at a bar, and one convinces the other to come have sex. And from there, their interest in each other grows. I did enjoy the sneaking around as part of the forbidden romance element of this story, though I wonder what the deal is with Evan, Cassini’s former boyfriend, and why he moved on so quickly after she gave herself up to Lucian in Evan’s stead. I really hope that Balto ends up killing Lucian and of course, with any of Penelope’s stories, the main romantic characters always end up together, so I look forward to reading just exactly how their trials and tribulations take place and what leads to them finally being together.