This tag is hosted by Reading Is My Superpower. See the full list of books featured in First Line Friday.
Today’s book: Carnage by Shantel Tessier.
LOYALTY
Freshman year at Barrington University
I was born into a secret society. They say we’re the lucky ones. That the world will bow to us and we’ll never go without anything. As long as we pass our initiations, we’ll know riches beyond our wildest dreams.
I’m a Spade brother. To anyone on the street who hears that, they would think I have siblings, and in a sense, I do. Our last names aren’t Spade, and we don’t share the same parents. But we might as well be blood brothers. We grew up together. And one day, we’ll graduate from Barrington and run Carnage together.
Just like our fathers.
And their fathers.
And their fathers.
We’re a long line of Spade brothers. It was some bullshit title that the Lords gave our families centuries ago. Someone has to run their hell, and we were the unlucky ones.
Is it what we want? Doesn’t fucking matter what we want. We serve the Lords, and as a servant, you do as you’re told.
About: You’re not ready for Saint Beckham Carter, it’s just not possible. But it is so very worth it. This story is dark and decadent and wild, everything you expect from the Lords & Ladies of Barrington University and so much more. Ash and Saint are fire but they ay have the toughest road ahead of them of all the couples.
Blurb:
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.
