Book Review: Lover

Title: Lover
Author: Penelope Sky
Genre: Romance, Dark Romance, Fiction

What It’s About: Hades walks into Damien’s house and informs him that Maddox has Sofia. Damien is in shock but doesn’t say anything about Hades’s tears, and promises him that they will figure out something to get Sofia back and get Maddox killed. Hades is heartbroken and terrified because he cannot think about what Maddox will do to Sofia as Maddox is not known to be empathetic or kind, and loves to torture others. Hades blames Damien for this situation and knows that for now, they will have to work together in order to save Sofia but he is not planning on forgiving Damien for his stupidity.

Sofia is in a room but she cannot tell where she is or what time it is—her phone had been taken from her upon her capture by Maddox, and Maddox comes in and gives her the option to shoot herself with a gun. He tells her that this is the kindness that he can give her, if she wants out, but she chooses not to do it. As she chooses not to do it because she wants to spend time with Hades and see him again, Maddox tells her that she will be having sex with him daily, starting now, and proceeds to rape her.

Hades is not able to find Maddox and tries to get more information on Maddox to get to Sofia, when Ash arrives and tells him that Damien had called him. Ash and Hades work things out and Ash tells him that he forgives him, which hurts Hades because he had wanted to break the curse so that he can get Sofia to love him. No one understands why Maddox is so obsessed with Hades, but they keep asking why would he be so obsessed with Hades. Sofia asks Maddox one day to let him call Hades, and he agrees. They barely talk but she knows that they are both suffering based on the little that each of them said to each other, and she finds it so hard to be on the phone call with Hades even though she though it was a great idea in the beginning.

After the call, Hades decides to hand himself over to Maddox, and both Damien and Ash wonder if it’s a bad idea, but Hades cannot let this go on any longer because he loves Sofia so much and he doesn’t really know what Maddox is doing to her. So he calls Maddox up and tells him that he will give himself up in exchange for Sofia, to which Maddox surprisingly agrees. They meet up in the middle of nowhere in Tuscany, and Maddox shoves Sofia towards him, so she runs to him and hugs him, before Damien takes her away. When she realizes that Hades is staying behind, she puts up a fight, and Damien explains to her that he gave up himself for her. He then gives her Hades’s wedding ring, and she begs Damien to go back around in the morning to see if Hades is still there and alive.

Hades is still on the ground, completely beaten up by Maddox, who used a baseball bat on him. Damien gets him off the ground, into the car, and saves his life by putting him in the hospital. He comes over to the house and tells Sofia that Hades is in the hospital but doesn’t want her to be there as he is bad and he is in surgery. He promises to keep her up to date on what is going on with Hades as he will be in the hospital. Ash comes by to the house once Damien is gone, and Sofia asks him to stay with her, because he is her brother-in-law, and because she would feel safer if he would be around her. When Hades is out of surgery, and finally well enough to be awake, a couple of weeks have passed, but Damien convinces him to let Sofia see him because they are husband and wife. She comes over to the hospital, and spends time with him, taking care of him while he is still recovering, but they both wonder if the other does not think them worthy of their love any longer. She continues to take care of him when he returns home, and even goes with him to physical therapy but he asks her to stay in the car, because he does not want her to see him weak.

Weeks go by and Hades gets better, but there is a chasm in their relationship. Sofia continues to change in the bathroom, and she does not want sex, nor any sort of intimacy, and Hades doesn’t want to hear what happened to her because he knows it will hurt him for not being able to protect her, something that he promised to do. He tries a couple of times to initiate intimacy, but she doesn’t go for it, so he doesn’t push. He does tell her at some point that his opinion and feelings for her have not changed and she is still sexy to him, so she does stop hiding in the bathroom for a little bit.

Then, one day, she is at the Hotel and Damien comes in to talk to her, because he and Hades are in a fight. Sofia shoves some papers into a drawer where she has tampons, and at first it doesn’t register, but then she realizes she hasn’t had a period in a while. She doesn’t tell Damien anything because she’s not sure, but when she has a chance, she takes a pregnancy test, and she is indeed pregnant. She’s terrified because she doesn’t know if it is Hades’s baby or Maddox’s and tries to sort out her feelings around the child. Then she goes to a doctor’s appointment, where she finds out that she’s four months pregnant—and that puts her at the possibility that it could be either man because she was Maddox’s captive for a month. Hades demands to know where she was when she returns to the hotel, and he is furious because no one knew where she was. She asks him to drop it and tells him that it was a personal appointment, to which Hades softens, realizing that it might be related to what happened with Maddox.

Sofia continues to hide her body because she doesn’t want Hades to know, but she does tell Damien the whole thing, including the part that it might be Maddox’s. Damien realizes the conflict she is going through, but he tells her that the best thing she can do is tell Hades—that he will never kick her out or want nothing to do with her at all. When she asks him why, Damien tells her that he just knows and that Hades is not that type of man. She struggles to tell him, and Damien keeps the secret for her. Then, one evening, while she’s in the bathroom, Hades steps into the shower with her, and while she tenses, she realizes that she’s running out of time. So she places his hands on her belly and looks at him. It takes Hades a moment to realize what is going on, and he is elated. She then tells him that she’s four months along, and he tells her with certainty that it’s his, but even if it is Maddox’s, he will do whatever she wants to do. She’s caught off guard about his certainty that the baby is his as well as that it is a boy, and the way that he doesn’t seem to be bothered if there is a chance that it is Maddox’s. They end up having sex, when he tells her that he finds her still sexy, even with the pregnancy. Sofia and Hades then have the conversation a couple of times around her fears that it is Maddox’s and he assures her that it will still be his son even if it’s not half him, because it’s half her and he will raise him. But Sofia cracks and decides she needs to know both the gender and the paternity of the baby. So they go to the doctor, and the doctor confirms it’s a boy and that Hades is the father.

Some time later, she approaches Hades to talk about names, and suggests Andrew, which is Hades’s legal name, telling him that she wants to name the boy after his father for the kind of man he is and the way that he cares for her. He is touched that he is worthy to be named after, because he did not think that with all the crimes he had committed, anyone would want to name a kid after him. But he agrees with the name and so they refer to the baby as Andrew going forward. At some point, Sofia learns that Hades’s birthday is that same day, but he doesn’t like celebrating his birthday at all. So she does a lowkey dinner out with him, and then when they return home, the space is set up beautifully. She gives him a gift—a new watch, as he is a collector of watches. When Hades turns it around, he is struck in shock because the engraving says I love you. He decides that it will be the only watch he will ever wear—it is his favorite because his wife gifted it to him—and he tells her I love you back.

Hades wants to kill Maddox and exact revenge for what he had done to Sofia and even to him. He even went as far as promising Sofia that he will kill Maddox. Unfortunately, they are not able to find Maddox anywhere, so Hades, Ash and Damien came up with a plan to destroy Maddox’s business by hitting his couriers and the drugs themselves. Their last stop was to destroy a shipment meant for the UK by killing the couriers, throwing the drugs into the water, and killing the ship crew. But Maddox never comes out after any of these events, so they are not able to get to him, and Hades does not want to use Sofia as bait, in any way. Then, one day, Hades and Damien get a call that one of their facilities is down, and when they arrive there, they find themselves surrounded by Maddox and his men. Hades punches Maddox several times for what he had done and tries to kill him, and Maddox lets him until he’s had enough. He has the men pull him off and Damien steps in to get Hades away from Maddox, because he knows they don’t stand a chance with the amount of men that are there with Maddox. Maddox tells them that they are now business partners, since they destroyed all of his stock and his business, but to make it a bit more high-stakes so that Hades doesn’t take him out, Maddox tells Hades that if he tries to kill him, Hades will not be able to do so. This will mean that Maddox will kill Hades and then he will kill Hades’s unborn son, and continue raping Sofia. This enrages Hades, but he will not risk his wife and unborn child, so he realizes that he has no choice but to do this in order to protect Sofia. At the same time, he knows that he’s breaking his promise to Sofia to kill Maddox and exact revenge. When he tells her that there is nothing he can do, she is furious because she knows that neither her nor Andrew will be safe as long as Maddox is around, and she will not risk the baby. So she tells him that if he will not kill Maddox, she is leaving him and moving far away for their safety.

My Thoughts: This one was a lot darker when you realize that Maddox is obsessed with Hades and the things that he does to Sofia while she is his captive. I really enjoyed how the author portrayed the fact that Sofia suffered at the hands of Maddox, her fear of finding out that she was pregnant, and what Hades would do, because she realized that she loved him while he was in the hospital. Likewise I loved how Hades responded to Sofia’s announcement that she is pregnant, certain that it is his because of the prophecy that she doesn’t know about, but he still supported her in the best way he knew how—helping her get the tests done when she wanted to get them done. And the moment when she gave him his gift and told him that she loves him, that was beautiful and heartwarming. You could tell that Hades melted and realized that the curse had been broken. But at the same time, there was a lot of heartbreak when he could not go through with his promise to her to kill Maddox, and protect her or keep her safe, and so she leaves. That was really messy, and I wonder what will happen to her in the next book and how they will find their way back to each other, because that’s how all of Penelope Sky’s books end—a happy ending.