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RELEASE BLITZ: Heal Me, Love Me by Kimberly Knight & Rachel Lyn Adams
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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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NEW RELEASE: Feral Hearts by A.J. Church (Excerpt)
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REVIEW: Bright Dead Things by Hailey Turner
Bitter Legacies: Bright Dead Things – Hailey Turner
If the forest stares back at you, you’re already prey.
Bran Gallagher grew up with three rules passed down through his coven: beware forest paths that lead to dangerous mounds, always keep iron close, and never speak of magic.
Cillian Dunne grew up with his mother’s love, his father’s absence, and secret warnings to never trust a witch.
In Pelham’s forest, where bright lights haunt the trees and hunt the lost, there are traditions kept for survival and others out of habit, none of which should be broken.
Bran and Cillian unknowingly broke tradition and ruined each other in the aftermath of a kiss years ago. Reunited in the wake of a family tragedy, they cross paths with something old, something terrifying—something that wants them dead. When Bran’s younger sister is stolen away by a nightmare into the Otherworld, they can only follow and try to keep each other alive in a strange and haunting land.
Trapped in a dangerous Fae Court, Bran learns being a witch comes with a death sentence. To save him, Cillian must fight against those who seek power from a past he has no memory of, and the only person he can trust is the witch who broke his heart.
But it might be too late.
For the Fae have never been kind, and they have always hungered, and this time, what they hunger for is revenge.
Bright Dead Things is the first book of Bitter Legacies, a fantasy series by Hailey Turner, bringing us into the chilling world of witches and fae.
The story begins with two deaths and a missing girl, Aisling Gallagher, sister to Bran, a Pelham witch now living in Boston and childhood friend of forest ranger Cillian Dunne. Estranged since Cillian rejected Bran’s kiss as a teen, the two are reluctantly reunited when Aisling disappears.
Forced to work together, they uncover dark truths in the Otherworld, where fae seek to destroy witches. Bran sacrifices himself to protect Cillian, who in turn discovers a secret that could destroy them both. And they have yet to find Aisling.
Bran, inheriting his mother’s mantle after her murder, is the last witch of his coven. He must guard the forest against grotesque fae-born monsters that lure mortals with lights. The warning often repeated in Pelham is stay away from the lights. These creatures haunt the Weirding, the shifting boundary between human lands and the Otherworld.
I loved the concept of these monsters. They are insidious creations of the fae, heartless predators feeding on mortals. The fae themselves are divided into four seasonal courts, with Summer and Winter at odds with each other. Their elemental magic contrasts with witches’ sigils and witchmarks. The witches are overseen by the Council.
The feud between witches and fae goes back centuries with the fae claiming Pelham forest as their former homeland and the witches keeping them at bay. In the Otherworld, Cillian and Bran experiences the atrocities of the fae. I think in the second book, we’ll see how cold witches can be when the Council makes their demands of Bran.
Trust is a major theme here, Bran was taught never to trust fae, while Cillian was warned against witches. He repeatedly distrusts his supposed allies, thinking only of protecting Bran and Aisling. As things became more dangerous, they learn to rely on each other again.
Their bond is tender and I loved how they became each other’s rock. Bran nearly sacrifices his identity to keep Cillian alive, while Cillian didn’t even think twice to abandon his legacy to remain with Bran and Aisling. They have the makings of a cozy boyfriends dynamic if their world weren’t so perilous.
The part where they were held prisoner by a fae lord gave me mixed feelings. While it’s admirable Bran would do anything to protect Cillian, I felt he capitulated too quickly to the fae lord’s demands. I didn’t feel the threat the fae posed, he just repeated the same one again and again and I thought Bran could have stood his ground more firmly.
Compared to the author’s other books, this is not as action-packed as I would have liked. The action scenes are far in between but they were still fantastic displays of magic. I thought the witchmarks were cool and Aisling’s big reveal was spectacular!
The vibe is wonderfully eerie evoking the desperation of being lost in endless woods. However, the sluggish pacing made the writing feel heavy. I suggest audiobooking this because Gary Furlong’s compelling narration saved this book for me. TBH, I’m not looking forward to experiencing this slowness again in the sequel.
Bright Dead Things is a story of family secrets, ancient feuds, and unlikely alliances. Atmospheric, twisty if slow-paced, overall it’s a dark and deadly unraveling of eldritich lights, secret identities, and the elusive hold of trust.
Rating:
3.5 Stars – that place between like and loveSoundtrack: Trick Of The Light
Artist: Charming Disaster
Album: The Double
If you like my content, please consider using my Amazon affiliate links below to buy your copy of Bright Dead Things. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying Amazon purchases at no additional cost to you.
BRIGHT DEAD THINGS: Amazon UK
If 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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RELEASE BLITZ: Don’t Fall by E.M. Lindsey
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PROMO BLITZ: The City Boy and the Rancher by RJ Scott
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COVER REVEAL: Heal Me, Love Me by Kimberly Knight & Rachel Lyn Adams
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RELEASE BLITZ: Kairo by Crea Reitan
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COVER REVEAL: The Villain by Viv Allen
