A PUPPET
The men in the secret society known as the Lords think they rule the world. And in a way, they do. Each has sold their soul to the devil at a young age in exchange for power and wealth. Like anything else, they have different levels of success. The more they’re willing to serve, the more power they have.
Among them are the Spade brothers, who run Carnage. It’s where the Lords who have not held up their oath go to live out the rest of their lives in shackles. Tucked away from the world as if they never existed.
I VOW. YOU VOW. WE VOW.
I once belonged to a Lord—Saint Beckham Carter. Although nothing was holy about him, I still kneeled as if he could grant me eternity in a world where only evil existed.
At the time, I willingly vowed to be his and allowed him to share me with his “brothers.” But things changed. And what I thought couldn’t get any better got exceptionally worse. So I did the only thing I could and ran from him, knowing I could never return.
Now he’s found me and dragged me back to his hell, where he will make me his pet. The world already thinks I’m dead, so no one will miss me. And I’m just another name on a long list of those who will never know freedom.
What he doesn’t know is why I ran from him in the first place. A Lord doesn’t listen to reason, so it’s not like he’d care anyway. Saint was born a Lord, and he will die as one.
If life has taught me anything, it’s that we all pay for our sins. And Saint will never let me forget that my place is at Carnage, serving him on my knees until death is granted.
Update: I am about 40% into the book I received as an ARC in exchange for an honest review, and OMG! It is everything I hoped it would be and then SO much more! I will give more updates as I go, this is merely meant to be a placeholder for my in-depth review.
Today is the day I felt utter hate for a fictional character and wanted to slap the living shit out of her. Aside from that, I must say out of them all, this is the most addictive, I am hooked and went through the whole thing needing to know what happened and why. I am nearly done reading and will most likely finish this evening.
This review will be heavily detailed so please read at your own discretion.
Let's start in the beginning, it began as they all do with some background on Saint and what he has to go through. Though it is vastly different than the rest of the Lords, which I appreciated. The whole of Carnage was explained and gives you a better understanding of why the boys are as they are-personally I love the way they are -and why they do what they do. Then we are introduced to Ash-we also find out there was a fourth Spade brother, her brother- and everything she has to go through as the daughter of a Spade brother. She is made to keep her virginity and then is basically trained to be the perfect puppet for the brother she is gifted too-which is Saint.
Now, their relationship starts as one in this world does, but there is a sneaky shit going on throughout this exchange and it gives you a reason to pause with the what the fuck outlook on it. Also note the therapist Ash and her mother see is fucky at best, she gave me the same feeling as watching Joffrey interacting with Sansa. I wanted to beat the shit out of her multiple times with whatever I could get my hands on.
Any who! The sexual parts were of course wonderful as always, they are perfectly fit for a spade brother and his counterparts. The tension building up to Saint and Ash for the ceremony was omg good. But then shit the fan! Turns out the woman and daughter who Tyson had to take out was none other than Ash and her mother, which means Adam was the crazy pants killing all kinds of girls-or was he setup? Who knows, you have to read it to find out!
After Saint and the boys come to get her, she is forced into Carnage as a prisoner, which means she is branded with their signature 666. This as you can imagine puts a wedge into Saint and hers relationship, though that doesn’t last crazy long, and they go about life as normally as possible.
BUT THEN all hell breaks loose in Carnage, Ash shots Saint and then the boys are placed in some form of punishment by the ass hat of a therapist! This is the point I started really wanting to beat the fuck out of her, I cannot tell you the grip I had on this damn book reading her bullshit! AND THEN when she fucking called him a ‘Good boy’ yea I lost the plot for a moment, as I said before this reaction to a fictional character hasn’t happened to me in a while so well-done Shantel you had be ragging lol!
So now we are jumping to four years later and this is where the Sacrifice ended, the Spade brothers have Whitney, and they are doing what they do to find Ash. The brothers are no longer as they were, without her the pain of her betrayal has seeded hatred into them and now they are blind and hungry for vengeance.
Sadly, enough we are back with Ash—Sorry Brittney and she is well doing what Saint trained her to do, then boom she is drugged, strapped to a table and back in Carnage with the very man she shot. This is where I squealed and smiled, I have been DYING to know what happens when they finally get Ash back! So, here is where my feelings on everything happening gets a little tricky, while I am happy Ash was able to escape because god knows what the Fathers would have done to her, in the same I am pissed about it. The boys were fucked with and ‘trained’ the worst of it all was towards Haidyn. For some reason I prefer Haidyn over the other two and that formed a slight soft spot for him. After Ash left, he was morphed into well easily put the Devil himself would have been afraid of him.
What broke me most was this segment:
‘Is she here?’ Haidyn asks, ignoring my pervious statement.
‘Yeah’ Kashton and I arrived with Ashtyn yesterday morning, but we hadn’t seen Haidyn until now. I kept her sedated for quite some time. I wanted her to heal somewhat before she awoke and realized her life has forever changed. I have plans for her, and I can’t start fulfilling them until she’s ready.
His hands fist as he whispers, ‘You shouldn’t have brought her back.’
I run mine through my hair, ‘She’s here for us to use. You…we all deserve our revenge.’ I loved Ashtyn, but I let her cloud my judgement. It made me soft and almost got my brothers killed. I won’t make that mistake again.
He turns around to face me. ‘I’m going to kill her,’ he growls. ‘Don’t you get that? If I touch her, she’s dead.’ He takes in a deep calming breath. ‘And the worst part of that is she doesn’t deserve it.’ He hangs his head and shakes it. ‘She’s not responsible for what happened once she was gone.’
That… all of what Haidyn said broke me.
On to something EVEN better! I have been looking for another series to start reading within the world of Shantel and then boom like the universe was coming to my aid the name ‘Bones’ creeps into the book giving me a moment of wait a second is ‘The Dark Kingdom’ series intertwined?! Now my ass is going to start that this evening! Back to the book at hand, I love knowing he still loves her even though he tries to deny it. I also really like that Shantel has kept the brothers relationship with Tyson, Ryat, and Sin.
Seeing the way Haidyn is now compared to then, especially knowing he knew Ash’s secret makes this all that much harder to witness. I must say, Shantel has a way with words. Now, the shitty therapist is rumored to be within the basement cells of carnage and Ash has learned this. I was DYING to read that interaction, in truth I was dying to finish the book, to see redemption or in the very least a little revenge, especially on Haidyn’s part. I wanted to see a part of heal in a way I suppose. Kashton I wasn’t really worried about as I feel he has someone waiting aka Jasmine and Saint well you could tell he was going to at some point forgive Ash and find a way to show her love again.
But Haidyn, he was broken and as always, we wish to fix what is broken because seeing a broken man is one of the hardest things to witness, even if they are fictional. The way he is written, the anger and hatred with underlining love pulls at the nurturing part of you. It begs to be released so you can mend and love, that alone is enough to make you feel as though you could fix something that isn’t even real. This whole book is just wow, it makes you feel everything from happiness to utter despair.
All in all I will be recommending this to anyone and everyone, I will be reading it again and waiting for the next Spade brother to tell their story.
KU: Amazon.com: Carnage: A Dark Revenge Romance eBook : Tessier, Shantel : Kindle Store