*****Spoilers*****

More a 2.5 I think. I'm not sure if I'm being generous or if I just liked that Roman and Serena were both in bad situations and came out of the mess of it together. Roman is the head of the McCall family with the death of their father Duke in the previous book. Roman has a stronghold on the local community with some of the cohesive family loyalty beginning to fray. Most of the McCalls are racists and so Roman has been in the past, despite the fact that he's mixed, despite the fact that his mother is Black, despite the fact that he's the family's protector and some of his brothers have Black girlfriends or more. Even so, and besides the stigma in the community, Roman has always been attracted to Black women but never crossed the line until he kissed Minnie in the first book and latches onto Serena in this one. I'm not sure I actually know how old Roman is though his age is a thing since reference is made to Serena being 20, only a couple of years older than his supposed daughter Katie. Serena has been abused and was raped by one of Roman's McCall cousins which resulted in a son. A son she had at 14 no less and they've been living on a run down property previously owned by the child's father without much and barely enough to live on.

Along comes Roman who first visits Serena because another two of his McCall cousins, one of which is another Serena rapist, has been harassing her but the brother wants her and asks for Roman's help in keeping his brother away. Roman sees Serena and has a plan he proposes to Serena where she'll keep house for him and have sex with him whenever he wants for 6 months. In exchange, Serena gets a home, a weekly payment for her services, and food and other necessities for her son. The deal is struck and Serena moves on to Roman's land in a separate house on the same property as the main house. To assist with making the deal easier, Roman gets am elderly family member to care for Serena's son when needed. Serena is fine with the plan because she has already made similar bargains and the money she'd make would be worthwhile by the end which Serena planned to use to further their circumstances.

Serena and Roman have some fits and starts with the more intimate parts of the arrangement interspersed with family drama on Roman's side, that rapist cousin is out to get Roman for taking Serena and wants to rise and take over the family. There's some danger and eye rolling on my part for Serena taking off trying to be the sacrificial lamb without telling the man who makes the rules for the McCalls. Sighs, just will never get that impulse to jump and not use resources available but she's a mom so guess that explains her nature. Some things in this one is how easily it was to get Serena to get so angry with Roman that she took off on him but stayed holed up in the disgusting trailer for so long. The almost immediate trust of the babysitter when Serena and her son had just been the two of them for so long. Roman grew a conscious for a couple of pages when it came to the sexual nature of the agreement with Serena because of a few words from the babysitter. It didn't last so not sure why it was included, particularly when Serena was open to it and not just for the money but a natural attraction. That's actually a theme in this book where angsty situations are introduced only to be resolved soon after. The only thing that lasts is the rapist cousin and his bid to head the McCall empire. I liked Roman a lot more than the prior book and his reputation made me think his personality would show. Serena had a quiet strength and was willing to go the extra mile for hers.

Some of what I expected this book to cover more of was Duke's death and its impact as well as the federal presence. There are snippets and I think Roman's mom killed their dad and we got the agents late, not sure where that part is going if it doesn't involve Roman though.

Brand	N/A
Rating	4.4 (1145 ratings)
Price	$4.99
Category	African American

Small Town King (Sins of the South Book 2)