She’s an innocent.

Caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

My Angel is the one who got away—the only person in the world I love. When she is caught in an unsanctioned bank robbery in my territory, only my reputation protects her.

She should have stayed away.

Instead, she charges back into my life like a shining beacon in my otherwise bleak existence. She has no place in my world where hardened criminals toy with the lives of the innocent.

A better man would let her go — again.

There’s no white picket fence in life with a Bellandi, and she deserves so much more. I pushed her away once, but now that she’s back I won’t let anything else come between us.

Not even Ivory herself.

Avery’s Thoughts About the Book

I know I shouldn’t like him…

This book takes romance tropes and grinds them into the dirt. Nothing is safe. lol Matteo and Ivory dated as teenagers until he dumped her in a humiliating way (there were reasons). Over a decade has passed and when he re-enters her life, A) it’s not an accident, and B) homie just walks in and takes over. He’s a complete alphahole type so over-the-top jealousy and possessive behaviors are on the menu.

CONTENT WARNING: Oh, this one is a veritable buffet of red flags. Matteo does all the bad things. All of them. This book taught me that I don’t like the whole forced pregnancy trope. Don’t love that at all. This is a good opportunity to remind everyone to check out the Trigger Warning page here on my website. This message applies to my books and pretty much everything you’re going to see on my blog, whether it’s dark romance or paranormal romance (which tends to be violent). I don’t include this message with every review but some antiheroes see red flags as a personal challenge and that’s Matteo all the way. This book has a little something to offend everyone. lol

The mafia story in this one is gripping. Matteo and his shenanigans were tippy toeing all over the line of being too much for me (fret not, it didn’t quite get there) but the mafia story kept things moving along as a pretty good clip and before I knew it, Mr. Bellandi was redeeming himself. I mean, a little. A tiny bit of redemption. lol Let’s not get carried away. lol

NOTES ABOUT THE AUDIOBOOK PERFORMANCE: While I loved the book itself, getting through the audio was a real struggle. The male narrator is straight fire. He’s an excellent performer. The female narrator, on the other hand, reads like a news anchor whining out the headlines on Quaaludes. It’s not good. I dislike her enough that it took me weeks to bother picking up the second audiobook, and I definitely won’t be picking up the third. If I continue this series, I will be reading the ebook myself, which, unfortunately, means it falls to the bottom of my TBR pile. Between my work/writing schedule and my ADD, the bulk of my reading has to be done via audiobook. Either reason requires that I be able to multitask so Audible is my best friend.

Heat Level
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Avery’s Rating
🖤🖤🖤🖤

Tropes Used
Dark Mafia Romance
Second Chance Romance
Forced Pregnancy
Alphahole Antihero
Stalker Romance
Captive/Abduction