Hello friends! đ¸ Welcome to another book review and thank you for taking the time to be here! Today’s book is one of the best books I have read in a couple of months, and I am so excited to write about it. I have been part of book bloggers or Bookstagram communities for a good while now. I can say that it was in 2014 when I first started being part of a blog and ended up continuing alone for the past 10 years. And I have seen some overrated books within those 10 years because the book community is very interesting in certain ways. Back then, it was more innocent and kinder; now, it is a lot more focused on the clicks and popularity of certain things. This is why I usually do not read very famous books where on TikTok and on Instagram everybody talks about. I usually stay away from these books because either they turn out to be an incredible disappointment and people have been raving about them, either because the publishing houses do send the books to them or it is just popularity that goes on and this is what gives you clicks.
I am so mad at myself for not reading this series earlier because I feel like this is a genuinely good book, I don’t know if this is self-published or is published under a publishing house, but from the editorial control to the clean style of writing, this was a really good book. Of course, I’m not expecting people to enjoy a very dark mafia romance book because these kinds of books usually have very depressing or triggering themes. However, if you have the stomach to read it, since you are here I assume you have already seen some of my book reviews and you are somewhat in the community of dark romance, I am sure you will enjoy this book.
Well, of course, there are good and bad things about it; however, this was such a page-turner to me I could not break a star for a couple of things that I thought could be different. I always say that I am not much of a fast reader, and if a book is not a page-turner to me, if it is short it’s going to take two days, if it is long it can even take longer, and even worse if the book is somewhat less intriguing, I end up getting into a very bad reading slump. This book exactly saved me from one of these situations.
Now, it is about two cities and something called “Alliance”. Of course, I’m going to write about this not as spoilers because I have realized that the series is highly connected to each other unlike other mafia romance books where each book has its own plot and the overall plot is not as connected to the rest of the books. This is a very well-connected series which you have to read together or not read at all.
Our main character is a very strong woman who was raised by a father who had all the wrong ways, I should say. Her name is Morana Vitalio, and she is a tech genius, something that we don’t really see in mafia romance books. We often have these very fragile, hardworking but not so brainy characters in these kinds of books; however, Morana was like a breath of fresh air on a very hot summer day.
Our male main character is called Tristan Caine. Tristan is the second most important character in this mafia family which rules the other city where the Alliance is in operation. Both Morana and Tristan are from enemy sides. Of course, the enemy situation that they have in the modern-day is not as bad as it was; however, it is very clear in the book that you don’t go to the other family side if you don’t wanna die. Since it is on the first page that we see, I will tell you what Alliance is supposed to be; however, I’m not going to spoil the full story for you.
Basically, in the first book, you see two men in a secluded area agreeing on something, and then the book mentions little girls in a truck. So you can assume that there is something like child trafficking or flesh business. However, until the very last page of the book, a lot of things are unexplained. Morana decides to learn what is going on with this disruptive alliance she thinks her father is a part of as well, and she also needs to take back a very strong and dangerous creation she had made as this tech genius and possibly not destroy what they had done.
One thing that bugged me a little in the book was the fact that these codes weren’t explained. You don’t know what these codes do or what she had created; you only know that it is incredibly dangerous and it is something that they should take back from the wrong hands if they are in one. Tristan, on the other hand, is a very complex character with a lot of pain. I am not going to say that the things he went through are normal or his grumpiness can be justified. This man went through hell, and he doesn’t trust anyone, and he has all the valid reasons to not trust anyone.
And it is one of the most well-written characters I have read in this mafia romance craziness. I really enjoyed how sceptical he was, and the name “predator” fit him so well, and the author had managed to give that fear anger and pain throughout the entire book very nicely, and it was so much fun to read. I cried my heart out on several pages, and I really want physical copies for myself as well, but I cannot find them anywhere so when I go on a trip for work, I will try to find them no matter what happens.
The next thing I really liked about the book was the side characters. All of these side characters were amazing, including DANTE. I am so excited because the third book is about him, and I have already finished the second book immediately after I finished the first one, so I cannot wait to read how his story will unravel because he is one of the best side characters I have read which had a decent role, lots of interactions with others, and a crucial role to the general plot of the series.
I just cannot tell you enough how much I enjoyed this book truly. I hope you enjoy it as well, and of course, before I stop all my babbling, I have to mention that the steam in this book and the tension between Morana and Tristan⌠chef’s kiss. I am not joking. This was so so so good. Just give it a time if you enjoy mafia romances. And I cannot wait to read the rest of the series because I am genuinely interested in the rest of the plot as well. Like I want to know what these girl abductions are, I want to know what these codes are, if there is an explanation, I want to know what comes off this research they have regarding their families and what these mafia families have been doing. It is really intriguing, and I cannot wait to complete this series.
Until I see you in my next post, take care and give this book a chance. Bye! â¨
Luster of Books 