Synopsis from Goodreads:

Born into one of the leading Mob families in Chicago, Aria Scuderi struggles to find her own path in a world where no choices are given. Aria was only fifteen when her parents betrothed her to Luca – The Vice – Vitiello, the oldest son of the head of the New York Cosa Nostra to ensure peace between the two families.

Now at eighteen, the day Aria has been dreading for years is looming dangerously: her wedding to Luca.

Aria is terrified of marrying a man she hardly knows, especially someone like Luca who got his nickname ‘the Vice’ for crushing a man’s throat with his bare hands. Luca might be one of the most sought after men in New York thanks to his good looks, wealth and predator-like charisma that radiates power, but the society girls throwing themselves at him don’t know what Aria does: that the bad boy aura isn’t just a game; blood and death lurk beneath Luca’s striking gray eyes and arrogant smile.

In her world a handsome exterior often hides the monster within; a monster who can just as easily kill as kiss you.

The only way to escape the marriage to Luca would be to run away and leave everything she’s ever known behind but Aria can’t bear the thought of never seeing her family again.

Despite her fear, she decides to go through with the marriage; Aria has grown up among predators like Luca and knows that even most cold-hearted bastards have a heart and she has every intention of working her way into Luca’s.

My review:

“If I’d done that today, you would have lost control. The only reason why you didn’t was because I treated you like my husband, not a monster.”

This book is the perfect example of a guilty pleasure, or at least one of my guilty pleasures.

Some of you may or may not know this about me, but I have a particular fascination with anything Mafia-related. I’m not sure if I should credit that to spending my childhood watching Al Pacino movies with my older brother, re-enacting The Godfather, and writing scenes of bloodshed for the big screen, but damn… I’m pretty sure I spent a solid year of my life thinking I lived in the setting of “A Bronx Tale”. Don’t ask me why. I was an odd kid. Anyways, my point is that this is my kind of novel. This was long before I discovered YA Fantasy. Back then, my version of fantasy was far from faeries and werewolves. In fact, I wrote something similar to this book when I was in high school (granted there was a substantially smaller amount of sex in it) but it was thrilling just the same. But I digress. This book was action-packed.

There were a couple of things that bothered me, but I won’t mention them because they are spoilers. You’ll have to read the story for yourself. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of alpha males. And not the white-collar kind of alpha male. I mean the kind that kills a man when he’s only 11-years-old. That kind. It also goes without saying that this is pretty much an adult novel. I’m never sure what counts as erotica but this probably falls somewhere in that category.

I should also mention that aside from some spelling mistakes that made me cringe–hard–the writing was very easy to read. The writing, like the characters and the action itself, was fast-paced and didn’t waste any time.

★★★★ (4 stars) because y’all are tripping if you think I haven’t already got my hands on the next three books! I need to know what happens to the rest of the characters! Who’s next?