♡ Thank you for the free book, author Emily McIntire and BookSparks.
Synopsis
Venesa Andersen has never been good. She wasn’t good enough for her parents, and she isn’t good enough for the gangster uncle who took her in after they died. But she’s cunning. Beautiful. Dutiful to her uncle’s demands. And she doesn’t have time for a moral compass, anyway. When her runaway cousin returns to their coastal southern town, she brings a man with her…and Venesa soon realizes he’s the only one who’s ever seen her for her.
There’s just one problem: she can never have him.
Enzo “Loverboy” Marino is a wealthy businessman by day and prince of the underworld by night. Underboss to a notorious mafia syndicate, he answers to no one except his father, the strongest don in the Northeast. When he’s tasked with marriage, Enzo doesn’t think twice.
Until he meets his fiancée’s cousin.
Venesa is everything he never knew he wanted, bewitching him with her sultry voice and supple curves. But Enzo learned long ago that for a man like him, life is better without the things you want.
When plans unravel and temptation sings its siren song, they’ll both have to choose what’s more important: duty to their families, or a forbidden love that was never supposed to be.
Thoughts
Book six in the Never After series not only introduced me to mafia romance, but also got me started on this popular series, which has been in my TBR for a shamefully long time. Since each book is a standalone dark fairytale retelling, I had no problem jumping into the series at this point.
This book is a bit The Godfather meets soap opera. Turn up the heat and add a hint of The Little Mermaid. I do not read a lot of dark romance since I do not seek out dark themes, but once in a while one pulls me in. This did that, and kept me turning pages until the end. I thought this was a well-executed story, full of suspense, drama, and even love.
Based on this book, I plan to continue on with the series, likely circling back to start with book one, Hooked. I am so curious to see how McIntire incorporates pieces of some of our favorite fairytales into her dark reimaginings.