Title: ⟫ War Games (The Hanged Men #2)
Author: ⟫ Daniel May
Blurb: ⟫ Sons of opposing mob bosses, secretly married when they were seventeen, Nerva Alms and Joseph Pascal were doomed from the start.
After his father's gruesome murder, Pascal was mutilated and banished, and Nerva grew to replace his own father as head of the Hanged Men. Now, ten years later, Pascal has returned.
War Games is book two in the Hanged Men series, following Blood Sports. While War Games is standalone, the story is best understood in the context of the first book.
Reviews: ⟫ I discovered that this had come out from a post on Reddit and you better believe I switched to my Amazon tab so fast I gave myself whiplash!
If book one was a laugh alongside the horror, book two is a different beast. It comes after the events of the first book, but Daniel has provided a handy recap at the beginning and it can be read as a stand-alone.
The beginning of this book was torturous – my heart broke in several places for both Nerva and Pascal. Imagine finding your person at such a young, impressionable age and then losing them – completely devastating. Which explained why Nerva appeared so cold and unfeeling to everyone. And then we met Pascal.
When people talk about a roller-coaster of emotions, this book encompasses that feeling. Sorrow, fear, confusion, hysterical laughter – all in a matter of chapters and sometimes within just one of them. There are flashbacks – some of them sweet, some painful – with an underlying story/mystery slowly unravelling for Nerva and Pascal that made me feel sick at the world they live in whilst completely enthralled.
There’s no real way to talk about this book without spoilers, but Mars is my second favourite character if only for the attitude. Hadrian remains my favourite and I need a story with him because I think it would be amazingly chaotic and astounding! The special horses make another appearance – in the background and then more and more integral to the storyline – and I still can’t decide how I feel about them. I think I’ll settle for terror and stick around Nerva’s level when it comes to the horses.
This was a fantastic read and more than satisfied my itch for the Hanged Man – for a short time anyway. A hearty 5/5 from me.
