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RELEASE BLITZ: The Villain by Viv Allen
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SERIES REVIEW: The Beast Who Bought Me & The Beast Who Broke Me (Clemenza Family Books 1&2) by Leighton Greene
Clemenza Family: The Beast Who Bought Me – Leighton Greene
I used to be a mafia prince. Now I’m marked as prey.
Someone is systematically eliminating my Family bloodline, and I’m the last heir standing.
No money.
No allies.
No way out…except one.An underground auction where the wealthy and the wicked bid on desperate, untouched men like me.
I expect to be sold to a stranger. Used and discarded.
Instead, I’m bought by a man with a two-decades-long vendetta against my dead father. A beast who drops ten million dollars to own me, then drags me home to a prison he built just for me.
He wants vengeance. He wants to break me. But I’m not as easy to break as he expects.
And when danger follows me into his territory, he becomes something I never expected.A protector.
A possessor.
He keeps me safe, even while he keeps me caged.I’m starting to think the most dangerous thing isn’t being owned by him.
It’s wanting him to keep me…
The Beast Who Bought Me is book 1 of an ongoing-couple trilogy and ends on a cliffhanger. Expect dark dealings, obsession, possessiveness, toxic dynamics, and all the red flags. These antiheroes will earn their happily ever after, but they’ll fight hard to get there.
Rating:
4.5 Stars – perfection is only half a step awaySoundtrack: Unleash The Rage
Artist: Tash Sultana
Album: Return To Roots
Clemenza Family: The Beast Who Broke Me – Leighton Greene
I escaped the beast who bought me at auction. I thought I could take my throne back alone. I was wrong.
I only have one option left.
Go back to the beast.But this time, I have a muzzle for the monster.
A choke-chain to bring him to heel.
I’ll use him. Control him. Pray that he’ll keep me alive long enough to take what’s mine.But every night I’m under his roof, the line between strategy and surrender gets thinner. And every fight ends the same way: with his hand at my throat and me begging him not to stop.
He bought me.
He chained me.
He’s still the only thing standing between me and whoever wants me dead.Losing him would end me.
But letting him break me might be worse.The Beast Who Broke Me is book 2 of a dark MM romance trilogy following the same couple and ends on a cliffhanger. Expect captivity, obsession, possessiveness, toxic dynamics, and all the red flags. These antiheroes will earn their happily ever after, but they’ll have to fight hard to get there.
Rating:
4.5 Stars – perfection is only half a step awaySoundtrack: Unbreakable
Artist: MIYAVI
Album: WHAT’S MY NAME?
Clemenza Family by Leighton Greene is a mafia romance trilogy set in the interconnected NYC organized crime world. Born from the fallout of the Morelli Family series, where Luca Di Amato killed the Clemenza Don and rose to lead the Commission, this follows the last surviving heir, Caligula Clemenza (love the name).
The Beast Who Bought Me opens with Caligula, on the run with killers hot on his heels after the rest of his family was killed. Penniless and desperate, he offers himself up at auction for protection and to everyone’s shock, Damiano Orsino, the Giuliano enforcer outbid everyone with a staggering $10 million.
Unknown to Cal, Damiano has been bidding his time to get his hands on the son of the man who killed his father. Expecting the worst, Cal’s Clemenza pride made him defiant, determined to get the upper hand on his owner, until his one-year contract is up.
The Beast Who Broke Me picks up after Cal escaped and ran into unlikely allies and the remaining Clemenza loyalists who crown him the new Don. His relationship with Damiano grows dangerously complicated, the Giuliano is the only one who can protect him, yet the irresistable pull toward each other blurs the line between hate and desire.
I loved that we get the perspective of one of the Families affected by the upheavals in the NYC Commission. Cal, grandson of the feared Don Louis, is haunted by the spectre of the old man. He’s a 21-year old virgin born with a silver spoon whose sexuality the old don scorned. Canny and manipulative, he discovers he shares more with his infamous grandfather, wielding seduction and steel alike.
Damiano is massive, tattooed, and hella determined to exact his revenge. Like a serial killer collecting trophies, he obssessively gathered pieces of the Clemenzas, with Caligula Clemenza the piece de resistance of that collection.
He will risk everything to protect that precious piece even as the aristocratic Cal pushes all his buttons. Dami who came from humbler origins and had built himself up still felt inadequate in the face of Cal’s innate hauteur that spoke of old money and privilege even in collar and leash.
Damiano is more bark than bite. There’s the build up of omininous pronouncements, promises of unspeakable tortures, and a contract whose implications made me sick to my stomach, but when it’s time for fangs to come out, Damiano holds himself back.
Dami and Cal’s connection is built upon a twisted blend of obsession, possession and revenge. A riff on the Beauty and the Beast trope, if Beauty is a viper and the Beast is a grizzly, it is a game of who breaks who. While the hatefucks are not exactly nuclear, the lust is explosive, the feels a slow-burning simmer spreading across two installments. They’re still not officially a couple at the end of the second book but by this time, the bond is unbreakable.
Dami’s found family of Rosa, Sammy, and Vito shows a softer side to the hard man and Cal uses that to his advantage, although he is also protective of them, especially Sammy, a victim of Clemenza hate crime. The ending of Book 2 had me worried about their fates.
The plot blends mafia politics with captive romance, excelling at both. The pacing is deliberate but the prose is compelling, capturing the delicious swirl of antagonism, danger and want with twists that kept me hooked.
I did not expect the books to end in cliffhangers so best to wait for the series to be completed if cliffhangers are not your thing. I also recommend audiobooking this, Michael Ferraiuolo knocked it out of the park as usual. It’s also best to read Morelli Family first, the events there resulted in Cal’s predicament here.
Clemenza Family is the ongoing saga of the fate of the last Clemenza. Shamelessly devious, ruthlessly single-minded, overall, a captivating tale of survival and obsession.
P.S.
Clemenza Family must be read in order. Also, I recommend picking up the Morelli Family first because who doesn’t melt a little everytime Luca calls Finch baby bird. Michael Ferraiuolo is narrating this too so best consumed as audiobook.
If you like my content, please consider using my Amazon affiliate links below to buy your copy of The Beast Who Bought Me & The Beast Who Broke Me. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying Amazon purchases at no additional cost to you.
THE BEAST WHO BOUGHT ME: Amazon UK | Audiobook
THE BEAST WHO BROKE ME: Amazon UK | AudiobookIf you like my content, please consider supporting me on Ko-fi or PayPal. Your donations will help keep this website going. Thank you so much!
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REVIEW: Ruthless by L. Eveland
The Ferrymen: Ruthless – L. Eveland
Falling for my target was never part of the plan. Neither was killing my mentor.
LUKA
I was created to be the perfect weapon with forty-eight confirmed eliminations and counting. I’m the best in the business.But my newest target is threatening to destroy everything. Who puts a hit out on a therapist? His biggest crime is talking to his plants every morning.
Now, instead of taking the shot, I’ve broken my contract to protect him and every Ferryman in North America is out to claim the bounty on my head.
We’ve got one chance at survival, and it means facing the man who spent twenty-six years molding me into his perfect weapon. Prometheus might have named himself after a god, but I know he’s just a man. And all men can die.
VINCENT
I knew I was in trouble when he showed up on my doorstep covered in blood and demanded I come with him.Now, hiding in an underground world built for professional killers, he’s my only chance of survival.
Luka is dangerous, damaged, and devastatingly attractive. I should run. Instead, I can’t help but try to heal the man beneath the scars.
As assassins hunt us without reprieve, I’m learning just how far I’ll go to protect the broken man I never should have survived, let alone fallen for.
I believe monsters are made, not born. Maybe they can be unmade by love.
RUTHLESS is the first book in The Ferryman series, a dark MM romance series about a secret society of assassins and the men who fall for them.
Ruthless is the first book in The Ferrymen, an assassin romance series by L. Eveland. Each installment follows a different Ferryman on a mission that unexpectedly leads them to love.
Luca, tasked with killing trauma therapist Vincent, becomes increasingly fascinated instead, spending three weeks secretly observing him. When his boss Prometheus loses patience and assigns the job to someone else, Luca is forced to act. He kills the rival assassin and abducts Vincent for protection, as the hit on him is now open to all.
Vincent, stunned to discover his gorgeous new patient is a killer, is thrust into a hidden world of assassins governed by strict laws, hierarchies, and Greek‑mythology‑inspired customs. Together, he and Luca seek sanctuary at the Acropolis, neutral ground where no blood may be spilled, while unraveling why Prometheus is determined to destroy an ordinary therapist.
The chemistry between assassin and healer is explosive, but intimacy terrifies Luca, deeming himself too broken. Haunted by a twin sister he couldn’t save and years of abuse under Prometheus, he battles 26 years of conditioning. With Vincent’s unwavering care, Luca begins to reclaim his humanity, and perhaps even envision a future with the doctor.
I love the Ferrymen world! With nods to John Wick, assassins were paid in special coins, neutral zones were sacrosant, tribunals and judges deal with those who broke contracts. Prometheus, director of the North American region, is an extremely manipulative bastard whose long‑game schemes drive the conflict.
Plucked from war‑torn Serbia and groomed to obey, Luca’s fraught relationship with his mentor adds turmoil and darkness. While I expected a full circle moment for Luca, I was still shocked when Prometheus dropped his bomb.
Luca is both lethal and vulnerable, cocky enough to call himself a sex god, yet desperate for emotional validation. Right from the opening scene, his obsession with Vincent is deliciously thrilling, their dynamic a balance of power and healing.
Vincent helps connect Luca to the boy he once was. He’s a natural carer, whether it’s plants or his patients and his loyalty and devotion to Luca was a ray of sunshine in the murk. His fierce defense of the assassin in front of the tribunal and his graceful acceptance of his place in this shadowy world made me appreciate the good doc even more.
The writing tends to be repetitive, with multiple mentions of 26 years and sexual abuse, as well as memories retold several times, making the book unnecessarily long. Content warning: grooming, sexual abuse, physical abuse, PTSD, trauma, and violence.
Ruthless is a story of reclaiming humanity and forging healthy connections. Fierce, angsty and moving, overall, a testament to the power of empathy in this cutthroat world.
Rating:
4 Stars – minor quibbles but I loved it to bitsSoundtrack: Kintsugi
Artist: The Bottomless
Album: Kintsugi
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RUTHLESS: Amazon UK | Audiobook
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RELEASE BLITZ: The Geek and The Ghost by Cambria Hebert
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REVIEW: Sins of the Father by Isabel Lucero
Sins of the Father – Isabel Lucero
He comes to me through a lattice in a confessional booth in my church.
He’s brash, vulgar, and confessing to things that would send him to hell, and yet, I find myself intrigued by the mysterious man.
His sinful words thrill me. His way of life, so different from my own, has me coveting excitement that’s long been missing. The more I’m around him, the more I realize how long I’ve been deprived of so much, and the more my own deviance begins to emerge.
On paper, nothing about the two of us makes sense, and there are many reasons why I should keep my distance. I try to be pious, but if anyone were to find the skeletons in my closet, I’d be excommunicated from the church.
When something from my past reveals itself, I find myself being pulled into a way of life I didn’t think would be in my future, and now I straddle the line between right and wrong. Morality vs necessity.
I’m a priest. He’s a murderer. But we’re both sinners.
Sins of the Father is a standalone novel by Isabel Lucero about a forbidden romance between a priest and a hitman.
Father Carlo’s world shifts when a mysterious man delivers a cheeky non‑confession that awakens desires he’s long suppressed. The man, Javier, returns with provocative questions, eventually meeting Carlo face‑to‑face. His shameless flirting leads Carlo to discover a hidden taste for kink, turning a self-flogging session into eroticism
Their affair is tested when Carlo’s estranged father summons him back to inherit a legacy he resists. With threats to Carlo’s life and unaware of their connection, Carlo’s father hires Javier as his bodyguard. Determined to protect his priest, Javier finds himself caught between loyalty and love.
From their first faceless encounter in the confessional to the explosive finale, Javi and Carlo’s chemistry is electric. Carlo folds rather quickly, understandable, given his resolved is not iron-clad, having been forced into priesthood by a father who rejected his sexuality.
While Carlo struggled, we are spare much of the woes about faith and sexuality by having our priest go on a sabbatical and thus free to sow his oats with clear conscience. Javi, delighted to have a bonafide priest, had plenty of fun with the priestly vestments. Despite it being kinky, their connection is also surprisingly tender, genuine and deep.
Javi, a Latino hitman who hires his services to the mafia, shares a close bond with Carlo’s father, whom he’s also tasked to protect though has no idea of their familial ties. While some twists are predictable, the revelation of Carlo’s identity still lands with impact, especially told through Carlo’s perspective, where we only glimpse Javi’s reactions.
The mafia subplot is as compelling as the romance, as we witness Carlo’s transformation from reluctant priest to newly appointed heir amid gunfire and betrayal. Their father and son reconciliation is bittersweet, adding weight to the story’s emotional core.
Though Carlo trades one shackle for another, he ultimately embraces his legacy and really came to his own here with a violent yet liberating resolution, in a move worthy of Michael Corleone.
Sins of the Father is a story of fallen apples that are ripe for the taking. Dark, sensual, and irreverent, overall, it proves that forbidden fruits are worth the fall!
Rating
4 Stars – minor quibbles but I loved it to bitsSoundtrack: Sin
Artist: Nyline
Album:
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SINS OF THE FATHER: Amazon UK | Audiobook
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REVIEW: End It All by Brea Alepou & Skyler Snow
Vitale Brothers: End It All by Brea Alepou & Skyler Snow
What do you do when your only way out is to join a family you never knew existed?
I’m not well behaved, that’s a given. But meeting the Vitale’s puts my life into perspective. They’re everything I’ve longed for; rich, adventurous, fearless, and close. Really close.
This is supposed to be my family too.
So why do I feel like an outsider?
I have no choice except to fit in because I can’t go back home. Not when I’m on the run…
Amidst the chaos of a cooling war, a family struggle, and the law nipping at my heels, I meet Quincy. Bold, crazy, and hot as a five alarm fire.This man is the grand red flag of all red flags, but then again so am I.
And I’ve always loved to play with fire.
The fifth book in the Vitale Brothers series. Each book can be read as a standalone but is best read in order. HEA guaranteed. Make sure to check out the TWs.
End It All is the fifth book in the gritty, addictive Vitale Brothers mafia romance series by Brea Alepou & Skyler Snow. The Vitale clan may be a chaotic mix of half-brothers, but under Benito’s leadership, they remain fiercely loyal and endlessly entertaining.
The 5th Vitale brother is Blake Moreno, who only recently discovered he’s a Vitale after a botched bank heist turned him into a fugitive. Sent to New York to his father Cesare for protection, Blake meets his brothers for the first time, who were just as surprised to learn about his identity.
Not yet trusting Blake but still willing to protect his youngest brother, Benito (Say I Do) assigns Quincy Adachi, Harlow’s best friend and former bodyguard, to keep Blake in line. Blake and Quincy immediately got off on the wrong foot.
Blake kept trying to run away, and Quincy unerringly tracks his ass wherever he goes. Forced proximity did its magic because they might hate each other, but it didn’t stop them from jumping each other’s bones.
Blake is a semi-wild spitfire, not yet full-on Vitale like Gin, Enzo, or even Paolo. He’s street-smart but really naive. He has a stupid tendency to run away from the person protecting him when he’s supposed to be in New York for his protection.
Quincy is a dominant, alpha-as-hell power bottom who matches Blake’s arson-loving ferocity with his own daredevil antics. Quincy is Harlow’s best friend after all, and only someone as bloodthirsty as him could keep up with a psycho like Harlow.
Together, Blake and Quincy’s chemistry is equal parts volatile and magnetic. Blake’s rebellious streak and Quincy’s relentless dominance make for a fiery clash. Their dynamic was entertaining, with lots of sharp banter, flirty provocations, and cute nicknames. Quincy calling Blake “baby girl” tickled me pink every time because Blake is so precious and bratty, even if he tops.
The best part of the book is the Vitale family themselves, their outrageous antics, dark humor, and twisted brand of love. From Gin’s absurd schemes and his possessive devotion to Ash to Benito and Harlow’s stab-happy foreplay, the brothers never fail to entertain. Paolo and York got parenthood down to a science, and Enzo and Tex are joined at the hips. Loved seeing the Vitale “wives” joining forces and welcoming Quincy to the fold.
I thought the series would end with Paolo and York’s book, Never Say Never. Half of me thinks Blake and Quincy’s story was unnecessary, the plot not really bringing anything new to the table, and the romance is less intense as the previous books. While still dark and humorous enough for a Vitale, this is the weakest installment of the series.
It did give us a lead-up to Cesare’s book, which I also have mixed feelings about. Cesare welcomes Blake with open arms, but the brothers frequently warn Blake that the old man cannot be trusted. Blake agrees, runs away, then foolishly returns to Cesare.
Daddy Vitale’s motives are suspect throughout the entire series, so redeeming him in the 6th book might be a stretch. I’m not sure if I could root for Cesare, given how villainous he was. Also, it’s going to be an age gap romance. We have enough of that already. Give us old men yaoi instead!
End It All is a story of family ties and baby criminals. While not hitting the same highs as the rest of the series, overall, it sets the stage for biggest battle ahead. In the Vitale world, loyalty is blood-deep, betrayal is inevitable—and sometimes, ending it all is the only way to begin again.
Rating:
3 Stars – not exactly setting my world on fire but I liked itSoundtrack: Alive In New Light
Artist: IAMX
Album: Alive In New LightP.S.
Vitale Brothers can be read as standalone but each brother is a force of nature.
Take Me Apart is the raw intensity of Enzo.
Paid In Full is the wild insatiability of Gin
Say I Do is the nuclear explosion of Benito.
Never Say Never is the chaotic mayhem of Paolo.
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END IT ALL: Amazon UK | Audiobook
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RELEASE BLITZ: Be My Monster by Davidson King
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NEW RELEASE BLITZ: Besties In Crime by Rob Loveless (Excerpt)
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NEW RELEASE BLITZ: Guarded Obsession by Brenda Murphy (Excerpt)
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REVIEW: Stay In Your Lane! by Cari Z. & L.A. Witt
Stay In Your Lane! – Cari Z. & L.A. Witt
The tasks are simple. Everett Mulligan is there to collect the body. Kyle Bowman is there to clean up the scene. Easy peasy. Get in, get out, get gone.
But Everett, for all he can be on another planet with fourteen tabs open in his brain, isn’t stupid like the cops think he is. Something about this death scene isn’t sitting right, and he’s going to figure it out. Bonus? He gets to team up with the adorkable crime-scene cleanup guy to solve the mystery.
Kyle, ever the thorough and detail-oriented cleaner, can’t ignore the scene’s irregularities either. He also can’t ignore the seriously attractive himbo from the mortuary who insists they should work together to solve what the cops insist isn’t a crime. Especially when that himbo is also enamored with Kyle’s cats and fiercely determined to make friends with his cranky piranha, Steve.
There’s a reason this death isn’t being treated as a homicide, though, and there are people who are very motivated to keep it that way.
And they’ll do whatever it takes to keep the pair of amateur sleuths from uncovering the truth.
Stay in Your Lane! by the acclaimed writer duo Cari Z. and L.A. Witt shines the spotlight on the unsung heroes of crime scene investigations: the cleaners and the morticians. All too often overlooked, the focus is often on the detectives and the forensics; these underdogs handle all the nitty-gritty bits, a.k.a. the dirty work, literally.
What happens when they see something that the police and forensics have missed? Everett Mulligan, the mortician, and Kyle Bowman, crime scene cleaner, found out the hard way that sometimes investigators see what they want to see or, in this case, unsee.
And the powers that be want them to stay in their lane or else…
Oooh, this is fun!
The romance developed so cutely alongside their investigation. Everett, whose brain and mouth go a mile a minute, wouldn’t let the issue of an unsolved murder rest. He found a kindred soul in Kyle, the sassy cleaner whose pet piranhas and cats Everett is crazy about. Joined at the hip, they quickly bond over crime and pets, a geeky power couple of crime scene cleaning.
These do-gooding dorks embarked on their quest to collect evidence that the suicide of the ex-con was actually a murder, so they could persuade the police to investigate. The chilling way the powers that be tried to hush things up hinted that this conspiracy goes all the way to the top. The bad guys were pretty obvious, like faceless cannon fodder for a John Wick movie, just there to do bad things when Kyle and Everett were rattling a few cages.
The fluffy romance led to suspenseful escapes, car chases, and a climax that was equal parts bombastic and hilarious! My favorite part is how they frequently meet at a diner, Waffles?, home to misfits such as conspiracy theory wackos and anti-establishment goth kids. It was only fitting that the big showdown happened there. The scenes at the diner were a riot!
Stay In Your Lane! is an entertaining blend of rom-com, murder mystery thriller, and sharp social commentary. Humorous and suspenseful, it also paints a vivid picture of the consequences of challenging the status quo. Overall, a funny and insightful story that lingers after one dares to step out of line.
Rating:
4 Stars – minor quibbles but I loved it to bitsSoundtrack: Color Outside The Lines
Artist: Chris Colby
Album: II
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STAY IN YOUR LANE!: Amazon UK | Audiobook
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