Bones
Dark Kingdom, Book #5
By Shantel Tessier
ISBN# 9798844472251
Author’s Website: shanteltessier.com
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Heidi
Review
*Beware of Spoilers*
“Show me a man in love, and I’ll show you his greatest weakness.”
Dillan ‘Bones’ Reed was groomed to take over Kingdom from a young age. It didn’t matter that he wanted nothing to do with it. He had dreams of going pro in baseball, but an attack that injured his arm as a teenager ended those dreams. He had to take on the future as a King as was expected of him.
One of Bones’s best friends, Luca, came to him distraught. He showed him a video of a girl that was getting ready to be sold in a sex trafficking auction. His baby sister, Mia, that the family had kept a secret. Nobody knew about her, not even the Kings. Luca asks Bones for the biggest favor of his life; to buy Mia and send her away to where she would be safe. Matteo, one of Luca and Mia’s brothers was the one selling Mia. Luca was convinced that his dad was involved and that once he got the money from the auction, he would leave Mia alone.
Bones goes to the auction and makes the purchase. He has to keep up pretenses and act like a sex trafficker, even to Mia. They wanted her to be afraid of him. He takes her to his beach house that he never gets to use in Malibu, and leaves her there with all the things she needs to start a new life.
One day Matteo and their twin brothers show up at the house. They inform Mia that their father wants Kingdom and he wants her to get it for him, by seducing Bones. They rough her up and let her know they will give her away to the auction for free next time, if she doesn’t get the job done. She refuses to do as they tell her. Three days later Luca, the only person she cares about, is shot, sending her straight to Vegas, right where her brothers want her.
Now it’s up to Bones to keep Mia safe while Luca is in a coma. However, when her brother reaches out again it becomes obvious, they don’t think she’s moving fast enough and Bones decides it’s time to give her family the show they so obviously want. He takes her public as a new love interest. The man that never has a serious relationship with a girl on his arm. And, now everyone knows the Bianchis have a daughter, a mafia princess. And, it puts Mia in even more danger.
Can Bones keep Mia safe? And, can he keep his heart safe as well? And, what can they do to neutralize the Bianchi men once and for all?
I’m sad that I’ve come to the last book in this series, even though Tessier is very good at giving us glimpses of them in the L.O.R.D.S. series.
And, poor Mia definitely got the same treatment the girls in the L.O.R.D.S. series get. The horrors her brothers put her through was heartbreaking. Killing her like her dad did her older sister, when she was born, would have been a kindness.
Bones was probably my least favorite of the Kings going into this book. And, my appreciation of him did grow as the story progressed. The way he fought for the woman he loved was commendable. Even when he had to fight his own close friend, Luca. Bones truly was the only person completely in her corner. And, he was willing to sacrifice himself to save Mia.
“This is your family’s fault. That includes you. And I promise you I’ll find her, but I’m going to slaughter every one of them. You and Mia will be the only living Bianchis when I’m fucking done.”
I don’t feel that this book really showed us Bones and Mia’s connection to the fullest though. We got to see a couple nice scenes, but everything was so focused on the threat to Mia, that I felt we lost a lot of the romance. That’s a shame, especially with this being the final book. I really wanted to be wowed, wined, and dined. And, maybe punished too. Also, it was kind of shocking how little BDSM was in this book considering Bones has been a long-standing member of Kink.
Bones’s brother, Grave, has been my favorite King. However, I didn’t like him a whole lot in this book. He did not want his brother to help Mia. He acted like a little jealous brat. He was going through a lot and he eventually knocked his crap off. I thought Bones was going to have to knock him down a block or two at one point though.
“My brother turns to face me. “You’ve never been that guy who thinks with his dick, so don’t start now.” Then he storms out.
“Ignore Grave,” Cross tells me, and I wave off his concern.
But little does he know, my dick is screaming pretty loud right now. And all I can think of is Mia lying naked in my bed underneath me with my hand wrapped around her throat again.”
I am still a bit upset at Tessier for taking Grave’s baby from him after he got clean for April and his child. I had hoped they would have had something to make up for that in this book, but there really wasn’t.
I did like Mia. She lived such a horrible life as a nobody. Her family hid her like they were ashamed of her. Luca was the only one that cared, but even he failed to protect her. She acted a bit rash at times and did things that put her right into Matteo’s hands. You’d have thought she would learn from her mistakes, but then she goes into the viper’s nest, not even properly armed. I understand wanting to stand up for yourself, but it definitely seemed like a suicide mission. It just made it more difficult for those trying to keep her safe.
Speaking of Matteo… He was such a horrible excuse for a fictional human being. The fact he wanted to rape his own sister should tell you all you need to know about him. He’s the man his dad raised him to be, I guess. But how did he come from the same parents as Luca and turn out so completely different?
I don’t like that at the end of this book, they left two very big loose ends out there running around that could lash out at Mia later on. They were glossed over like they were no longer a threat. And, there are no more books in the series to rectify that.
I did enjoy this series, and I’m sad to see it end. I can only hope to continue to see glimpses of these characters in the L.O.R.D.S. series or other Tessier books. And, I’m desperate to see who Jasmine’s ‘Big Daddy Dick’ is. I suspect it’s Kashton from the L.O.R.D.S, but it still could be Adam (also from L.O.R.D.S.) or even Nite. Ah the anticipation! This book was good, but it’s definitely not my favorite of the series.
“I want everyone to see how much you’re loved, Mia. You are my someone, and I wanted the world to know that.”
