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If you missed my last KU review on Heaven Sent, you can find it here.
Hi bookwyrms, I am back with another KU review: Avenging Skulls by LM Terry. It is part of the Rebel Skulls MC series. I don’t usually start a series in the middle but I saw the book on Tik Tok and when I looked it up on Kindle, I knew I didn’t want to start with the first one. It was fine. Avenging Skulls is an interconnected standalone but not so interconnected that stuff didn’t make sense. I said in my Heaven Sent article that I am on an MC kick lately and this is the kind of book I was looking for.
In the prologue, we meet Willow at twelve years old. Her brother, Ash, is leaving for the military and she is sad. Willow and Ash’s dad died leaving them with their mother and she is useless. All she does is party and do drugs. Ash promises he will be back in four years and take Willow away from here. They will go somewhere with lots of trees and have chickens and goats. In chapter one Willow is fifteen and some military personnel come to their door and tell her that Ash has died. Willow is devastated and her mother just walks out of the house saying she can’t do it anymore.
Needing groceries, Willow walks to the store at night in a horrible part of town. She doesn’t have a choice though. While on the way home she runs into Bradley. He walks her home and she lets him in. Bradley sends her to the shower and makes her food and leaves and she ends up passing out. At the start of chapter two, Willow is twenty. She has been with him since that night. Thankfully she gathers up the courage and when he goes into the store, she runs. She hops on a train and goes. When she finally gets off to stay, she finds a house with a dragonfly on it.
Willow camps near the house. She goes over and helps with chores and takes things here or there. Living at that house is Miss Maggie. She is a grandma and she is by herself. The Rebel Skulls MC is out there regularly, especially her grandson, Jackson. Miss Maggie calls Willow a fairy because she has never seen or spoken directly to Willow but she knows she’s there and they have a trade thing going on. Jackson and his dad, Raffe, are concerned that Miss Maggie is having mind problems when she talks about the fairy in the forest.
Willow is a curious person and sees Jackson feed a dead body to Miss Maggie’s hogs. She isn’t as scared as I would have been and keeps her cool. It isn’t long before Miss Maggie draws Willow out. Miss Maggie tries to offer Willow to come in or to give her aid but Willow will only trade and Miss Maggie strikes a deal with her. For a big haul, Willow would stay and take care of Jackson. Not in the house, just the area. Jackson tries his best to draw her out to talk to her but Willow trusts him even less than Miss Maggie but they manage a tentative friendship.
I love this book. As someone with PTSD from trauma with men, it was wonderful to see representation in this medium. Very often when I see a character with PTSD it isn’t handled well. What I mean is that either the author has had no dealings with it themselves or has done no research on it and it shows. In this book, I feel the author handled it well. They gave Willow the fragile steel thing I see in survivors. It’s the same thing I glimpse in myself once in a while. Willow fell apart sometimes, but she picked herself up and kept moving forward and eventually, made a difference.
Jackson, had his own trauma which affected his and Willow’s relationship. Watching him deal with his sexual trauma was interesting. I was happy to see that represented in the media too. Not that I wish sexual assault on anyone, but to let those men know that we see them too. Back to Jackson. He had the difficult job of helping Willow pick up the pieces of her life and coming to terms with his trauma. I do not envy that job. My husband has had to deal with the fallout of my trauma and I see the toll it takes on him. Jackson has that essence, that look.
This is the “softest” MC I have ever read. Not that they aren’t badass or won’t kill someone who needs killing, but them men are kind, compassionate, and will hug you as quickly as protect you. Everyone connected to the MC is that way. I am not saying this is a bad thing, just a different thing. The whole MC is made up of trauma which explains why they are the way they are. From what I can tell without having read the other books, everyone in that club has been either sexually assaulted or trafficked in some way. If not themselves then their child or spouse. It is a little confusing to keep it straight.
This book had my emotions up and down, racing and strolling, the whole time. I can’t say enough good things about Avenging Skulls but it does do its title justice. I will probably buy it so I can read it whenever I want as well as read the other books.
Have you read Avenging Skulls or any of the other books in the Rebel Skulls MC series? Have you read anything else by LM Terry? What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below. Until next time, have fun storming the castle!
