Reviewed by Anna Lynn

TITLE:  Forbidden: King

SERIES:  The Four #4

AUTHOR:  Sloane Kennedy

PUBLISHER:  Self-Published

LENGTH:  335 Pages

RELEASE DATE:  September 28, 2021

BLURB:

King
My brothers think I have a lot of secrets. They have no idea…
My job is to rescue kids who’ve been stolen from their families. I’m good at it and it helps me forget my own ugly childhood, but I’m a grown man now and the family of my heart is all I need.
Except that I haven’t seen them in two years. I walked out of their lives without an explanation. I walked away from him without even saying goodbye. I know how much I hurt him. I know how badly I broke his trust. But even though we’re not related by blood, our family thinks of me as his uncle.
Yet there’s no part of me that thinks of young Giovanni Covello that way. Problem is, I shouldn’t be thinking about him at all, especially since my thoughts have become less and less innocent since Gio turned eighteen. He’s closing in on twenty now and there’s no escaping him anymore because he’s in New York, the place I rest my head. I don’t trust myself around him, yet I can’t stay away, not after learning about the painful nightmares and frightening memories he’s experiencing about his own abduction and imprisonment as a child.
He’s the son of one of my best friends and he’s had a crush on me for years. But I have to leave him alone. I just have to.
Not because I don’t want Gio, but because he shouldn’t want me. I can’t give him what he wants, what we both want.
Not now. Not ever.

Gio
Things didn’t make sense until he came along. Four years ago, he saved me from myself. Now he’s trying to do it again. But I don’t need saving. I need more than that. So much more…
I don’t remember much about the life I lived as a child after I was stolen from my family, but my doctor says I will. Apparently, the wall in my head will come crashing down one day and all the ugly memories of what had been done to me will come rushing back to me.
I haven’t told anyone, but it’s already happening. I just need to get through the computer course I’m taking in New York City so I can prove to myself that I can live an independent life before returning home to Seattle.
My plan is a pretty good one, but I forgot to include one important variable.
King.
He’s supposedly my uncle but I’ve never seen King that way and there’s not even one drop of shared blood between us.
Two years ago, he was my protector and my friend. And then he was just… gone.
He’s back now and wants back into my life, but not to resume our friendship or to act on the attraction he’s finally admitted to having toward me. No, he just wants to keep me safe.
But that’s a good thing, right?
What could go wrong with having the guy I can’t stop thinking about living with me under my own roof?
Answer: Everything.

REVIEW:

The Four is the spinoff series from The Protectors by Ms. Sloane Kennedy. We met the eldest brother of five, two biological brothers and three adopted brothers, Vaughn ( we met him in Unbroken, Book Twelve of The Protectors, he is now married to Aleks, who is Dante Thorne’s, another Protector, younger brother) is the eldest of the five and next comes Luca whom we met in Forgotten: Luca, Book One of this series. And then Book Two was Foreseen: Lex where we learned more about Lex, another adopted brother and his partner, Gideon. And then we had book 3 which told us about Con/Zeus and his partner, now husband, Micah.

In Book 4, we will finally have King’s own book. And what can I say about this last installment in the series? Whew! This one broke me, several times! I never expected King’s story/backstory to be this hard, the angst level was through the roof! I knew that he was hiding something from his brothers, you can actually feel that during the first 3 books. Whenever a certain topic will be brought up, he clammed up. Either he leaves or deflects, definitely hiding something.

King has always been drawn to Gio and when finally, Ronan’s team got Gio back, he was able to make up for all those years that Gio couldn’t be found. He stayed by Gio’s side in the hospital every night and after Gio was released, they always kept in contact through text messages and calls. They saw each other during family gatherings. But then when Gio turned 18, King just left. He left Gio and he left his family.

Gio is trying to take back what was taken from him when he was abducted. Choice. He chose to live apart from his family, all the way in New York, in order to prove to himself that he can do it. That he can be his own person, make something for himself and rid himself of the helplessness and despair he felt when he was a captive, a prisoner. He used to be able to talk to King but he had left. He knows that his family will always be there for him, his father especially, but he needed to be on his own for a while.

When King learned that Gio is in his city, he couldn’t not be there for him so he started watching over him, inside his apartment, when Gio was asleep. And eventually he just stayed. It was a contentious living situation because at first Gio didn’t want him there. Each of them have their pasts that they want to forget, they each have their own coping mechanisms but there are times when they just both lose themselves in their respective memories and it’s crippling. As they got to know who they are to each other now that Gio is turning 20 and an adult, both realize that they mean more to each other than just an Uncle and a Nephew. Well, King is not really Gio’s Uncle as we know because King is not blood-related to either Luca or Vaughn, more of like an adopted Uncle. King tries his best to maintain that gap, even after revealing how he truly feels to Gio, because he respects Luca too much and he doesn’t want to lose him as his best friend.

But love prevails! Always! When finally, they decided to accept this, they went all in. But then King’s past appeared again and he just can’t allow it to disappear without doing something about it. When Gio learned what this particular past did to King, he wanted to help. King’s secret is only known to him and Gio, he never wants his brothers to learn about it at all.

Oh My God! This book broke me, I mean really tore me apart! I couldn’t believe that King went through all of his pain all on his own. His love for his family is immeasurable and his protective instinct is just so out of this world that anybody would be proud to call him brother or best friend and even life partner. Gio is smart and so strong because what he went through himself was/is not something that I could even survive, and now he is trying his best to put all these broken pieces back so he can be whole again, with King.

Ms. Sloane Kennedy, you are AWESOME/AMAZING! Your stories are so well-written and their plots are out-of-this-world! You are so talented and a great storyteller. I simply cannot wait for your next book! Amazing!

RATING:

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