Five years ago, my fiancé disappeared. He left me with a wedding dress I’d never wear. Left me with the kind of scars that can’t be healed. The man I built my future on vanished like a ghost. All that remained were my broken heart and a million unanswered questions.

Until a mysterious stranger arrives in town.

Tall, dark, and dangerous, Kage is as full of secrets as he is sex appeal. Though I know he’s hiding something, I’m drawn to him like a moth to flame.

Heat crackles between us with every look, desire flares into passion, and I fall hard, helpless to resist.

But then I discover he’s been sent to collect on an unpaid debt from my missing fiancé…

And that debt is me.

Avery’s Thoughts About the Book

I want an undomesticated Russian mobster…

I dove into this series as a reading rec from $mut $luts, a book group I belong to on Facebook. All I knew was that it was rec’d to me as an excellent mafia romance series with steam for days. I’ve been on a mafia kick for months and I 🖤 J.T. Geissinger books so much. I snagged all four on Audible and I regret nothing.

Okay, so the first thing to know is that each of the four books follows a different couple but the four books create one story linked by the four parts. So if you read book three first, you’re going to be confused where the overall story arc is concerned. lol Start with book one, Ruthless Creatures.

Right out of the gate, we’re introduced to Natalie (our main character for this installment) and her best friend Sloane. Sloane is a queen. 👑 I love this bitch so much. She’s hilarious and smart. She provides great comedic moments but she also loves Natalie to pieces. Aside from her habit of insulting the intelligence of everyone around her due to her super-smartness, she spends most of her time on the page raising her best friend up.

One of the things I love about Geissinger’s books is that her heroines are always hilarious. Always. She writes all of her women with a solid sense of humor and Nat is no exception. I will say that without her humor, Natalie would be a pretty flat character. There isn’t anything that stands way out about her personality outside of her quippy mouth. It’s not that there are qualities to bitch about either. She’s always pleasant and kind to just about everyone (the town gossip more than earns her tiny hand slap). She doesn’t have any annoying habits or over-the-top irrational behaviors. She’s just….beige. And beige is a perfectly nice color. Goes with everything. Her humor makes up for her beige-ness though. Natalie Peterson is an artist and sixth grade art teacher whose fiancé vanished the night of their wedding rehearsal dinner. When we’re dropped into the story, it’s the fifth anniversary of the fiancé’s disappearance and Nat is intent on drinking her feelings away. Rather than let her best friend wallow in solitude, Sloane convinces Nat to take her pity party out on the town. They hit a local bar and that’s where we meet Kage.

Kage Porter is six and a half bossy feet of muscle, tattoos, and a wonderfully dirty mouth. The man likes to talk and pretty much everything he has to say is NSFW. I’m totally here for it. When these two get together, they’re instantly explosive. Complete opposites but somehow perfect together. He’s direct and she’s more conservative. His life is dangerous and exciting and she’s the walking embodiment of small town charm (without the annoying naivete).

Ah, but it wouldn’t be a Geissinger book if the author didn’t throw you for a loop between sex scenes, so not everything is as it seems (I swear I type that phrase every single time I review one of her books). The first time you hear Kage’s thoughts, they allude to the fact that there is something else going on. Some other reason he’s there and that his meeting Natalie was not completely by chance. I despise spoilers so I’m not going to get into it in any further detail. Stay on your toes, that’s all I’m saying.

The mafia world backdrop has an intricate storyline which spans the four books. Ruthless Creatures sets up quite a few of the moving parts of that story arc. As I write this, I’ve listened to all four books twice through so I have a big picture view. Trust me when I say you need to keep up on the details. They’re not insignificant. The cast of this world grows with each book in the series so pay attention. Everyone mentioned plays an key part at some point.

Overall, RUTHLESS CREATURES was a satisfying read. Nat and Kage’s story was a great introduction to this world. They are both sweet and jaw-droppingly fucking hot together. I loved their story soooooo much and they are, hands down, my least favorite couple in the series. Their story concludes in a way that makes sense while also leaving off on a tense cliffhanger that trips the events of the second book. Thankfully, you don’t have to wait for any release dates to continue the story, which is the best part of discovering back list titles.

Heat Level
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Avery’s Rating
🖤🖤🖤🖤

Tropes Used
Dark Mafia Romance
Billionaire Romance
Instalove
Opposites Attract
Witty Heroine
Alphahole Antihero