It’s not dark romance but it tries to be to an extent. Instead, this is kind of how I felt about the book Docile too. I mean, if you’re going to commit to writing a mafia romance and have non-con as the premise of the relationship, then I’d say go all the way and go full dark romance. It’s disconcerting and doesn’t really work for me? There’s no grit. I would say this book reads like how you’d almost expect what a standard contemporary romance to sound, but dumped into a mafia setting. This is a new-to-me author and just from reading this book, I would have assumed that the book was a debut instead of a book from an author with over 100 books in their backlist. Is he just content because he’s poor and now he’s living the high life or because he hadn’t seen the darker side of what the mafia life really means at that point? I don’t know, but I just find it hard to buy into the fact that Peter never tries to leave and is so enamored with Lucien despite everything he’s heard about his family. Peter seems to be pretty content in Lucien’s life after awhile.

And Peter is swept up into Lucien’s life at the drop of a hat with no way out.

I guess Lucien is all those things but he doesn’t always come off that way. He has his brother and cousin who work with him, but Lucien is supposedly controlling, powerful, and overall intimidating. Lucien is the head of the family (even though his father is still alive). Turns out, the position was really for Jimmy to pay back a really large debt to a dangerous mob family – the Marchesi’s.

When his good for nothing cousin Jimmy says that there’s an offer for a receptionist job open that he’s not interested in anymore, he gives Peter the chance to take his spot. There’s Peter, a guy who is just nice and having a hard time finding a job. The story is told from alternating viewpoints told in first-person. Trigger warnings for non-con, kidnapping, torture, and violence. Like, I understand this is dark romance ~lite, but what does that even mean? I love reading dark romances and I’ve read my fair share of mafia books, but this one just wasn’t what I was expecting based on the blurb. I guess I’m the odd one out but I didn’t really like this book. This MM mafia romance is the first book in the Marchesi Family series. Lucien vowed to protect me from his enemies…īut who’s going to protect my heart from him?/p> Once I looked into his eyes, I couldn’t leave. I shouldn’t have gone to Lucien’s office. I never imagined the protector I longed for would be a mob boss who demanded complete control.

Finding Release by Silvia Violet