Conclave (Devil’s Night, #3.5). ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Conclave by Penelope Douglas

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“Do you know what a papal conclave is?”
DAMON
Will is gone. He hasn’t been seen in months, and the texts coming from his phone are almost certainly forged. Something’s wrong. We need to act now.
Michael is ready to tear down The Cove, Rika’s hiding something, Evans Crist is a threat, and Winter’s father is still out there.
Everyone is off in a million directions, and we’re vulnerable.It’s time to do this.
It’s time to claim our place.
RIKA
A few years ago, I never thought I’d be here. On board Pithom. Miles out at sea. At a table with Michael Crist, Kai Mori, and Damon Torrance—men I now consider family.
We’ve locked ourselves on this yacht for however long it takes to address our agenda, and we won’t leave until everything is on the table.
Even things I don’t want to talk about. Things Michael doesn’t know.
We will find Will. We will solidify our plans, and we will remove any threats.
If we survive Conclave.
Conclave

“You can’t make a decision at all when you’re not talking about it.”

“We’re not criminals, and I have to constantly remind myself of that. We don’t break laws for personal gain. We do it for fun.”

The Hero(es):
Michael – From Corrupt, a famous NBA player and Leader of the group.
Kai – From Hideaway, the good guy of the group who can be very bad.
Damon – From Kill Switch, a bad boy with a killer attitude.
Will – From the next book, Nightfall the tortured alcoholic who is missing.
Misha – a loner who is Will’s cousin and wants to find him. He suspects his family.

The heroine(s):
Rika – From Corrupt, Michael’s girlfriend, she is a graduate student, mayor and inherited a thriving jewelry empire, she is hiding something from Michael.
Banks – From Hideaway, girlfriend to Kai, she is Damon’s half-sister and the sole heir of their father, they have one child.
Winter – From Kill Switch, girlfriend to Damon, she is blind and a ballet dancer and pregnant with their second child.
Alex – a college student and prostitute who had an ongoing (paid) relationship with Will. She is best friends with Rika and part of the group.
Ryen – Girlfriend to Misha.

Will is missing, secrets are being kept and nobody is talking to each other.Misha thinks that Will has embarrassed the family too much by being sent to prison and his antics since he got out (i.e. blowing through his inheritance on alcohol, drugs and hookers), and the family isn’t taking any more of it. Damon suggests a Conclave to get everything out in the open and formulate a plan to find and retrieve Will.

“They started doing this, because eight-hundred years ago, it took three years to choose a new pope due to political infighting. People don’t solve problems if they’re not forced to face them, you know? Now, the cardinals are led into the Sistine Chapel, there’s a shout of ‘extra omnes’ meaning ‘everyone out’, and the doors are chained shut, locking them in until they solve the problem.”

Will comes from an extremely wealthy family and his Grandfather wants to run for Governor. It was intimated that the family took action and sent him somewhere against his will. The guys think that is a place more dangerous to Will’s well being than prison was.

It sounds to me like some sort of black site for the children of privilege that can’t be brought to heel. But from the rumors about the place it sounds a bit like a Lord of the Flies situation where the the inmates run the asylum and it is every man for himself.

Michael and Rika are also having problems and both of them want things between them to get better so a conclave on the yacht seems like the perfect place to talk, where neither of them can leave if the going gets rough.

Overall this was a nice quick little interlude between the third and fourth books and a great way to set up Will’s book which should be a good one.

View all my reviews