Rating: 4.5 Stars

Publisher: Marian Black

Genre: Gay Mafia Romance

Tags: Contemporary, Age Gap (14 Years), Arranged/Forced Marriage, Dark, Mafia, Romance, Some Violence

Length: 222 (paperback) Pages

Reviewer: Cindi

Purchase At: Freebie From Author, Amazon Paperback

Blurb –

When a frame job threatens to ignite a mafia war, Dominic Andrades becomes the ultimate bargaining chip—but not in the way he expected.

Dominic was ready to watch his brilliant sister sacrifice herself in a marriage alliance to save their family. What he wasn’t ready for? The Carvellos demanding him instead.

Giovanni Carvello is ruthless, dangerous, and disturbingly obsessed. He’s also the man who orchestrated an elaborate fake assassination—all to force Dominic into his bed and his life. Now Dominic is trapped in a marriage built on manipulation, bound to a man whose dark intensity both terrifies and captivates him.

But Giovanni’s obsession runs deeper than politics or power. Behind the cold enforcer lies a man capable of devastating tenderness—and willing to burn the world down to protect what’s his.

As loyalty is tested, blood is spilled, and secrets unravel, Dominic must decide: is he a prisoner in this marriage, or has he found something worth fighting for?

A dark MM mafia romance featuring forced marriage, obsessive love, morally gray characters, and an HEA. Contains explicit content, violence, and mature themes.

Review –

“I’m just thinking about how lucky I am.”

Dominic snorted. “Luck had nothing to do with it. You orchestrated a fake assassination attempt and manipulated two families into a forced marriage.”

He grinned without repentance. “Best decision I ever made.”

Dominic’s laugh was genuine. “You’re impossible.”

“And you love me anyway.”

A year ago, you couldn’t have paid me to read a mafia book. I was just never able to get into them, so they were on my ‘don’t read’ list. I read Silencer by Cora Rose, and that changed. I’ve since read quite a few, with Blood and Bonds being the latest. I’d never heard of this author before, but an ad on Facebook had me clicking a link, signing up for her mailing list, and here I am. All that’s available on Amazon is the paperback. Goodreads doesn’t even have the blurb on the book page.

The Cavellos and Andrades families are two rival crime families. Giovanni Cavellos, 38, is the Cavellos second in command. Dominic Andrades, 24, is the son of Carlos, the Andrades family Don. Giovanni has just been shot, and whoever did it framed the Andrades family. This is basically a declaration of war. Giovanni is fine, but that doesn’t matter. There are too many things pointing to the other family, and Carlos knows something has to be done STAT to stop that from happening. The suggestion? Arrange a marriage between Carlos’ daughter Rafaela and Giovanni. This will bring the two families together and stop the war before it begins.

Only things don’t go quite as planned. Giovanni is all about the two families coming together in an arranged marriage, but he doesn’t want Rafaela. No, he wants Dominic.

Dominic is closeted, but Giovanni knows he’s gay. Homophobic Carlos goes absolutely ballistic over his son being asked to take Rafaela’s place. He’s always been an ass to Dom about his sexuality, and no way is he going to agree to him making a spectacle of the family (not my words) by being not just openly gay, but married to a man. It would all be public, from the engagement to the wedding, and everything after.

I despised Carlos, and that didn’t change at all as I kept reading.

Dominic, however, agrees, which makes his jerk dad even more angry. But, honestly, if he doesn’t do it, the family is at war, and they know they’ll lose everything, including their lives. That’s not the only reason Dom agrees.

For the first time in his life, he wouldn’t have to hide. Whatever else Giovanni Carvello represented – danger, violence, and the unknown – he also represented the possibility of being completely, honestly himself.

Even if it killed him.

The shooting that started it all is not as it appeared. It was a frame job for sure, but Giovanni himself is the one who staged it. Why, you ask? Because he’s had an obsession with Dominic Andrades since he saw him going head to head with a homophobe at a charity function months before. He wanted him, and he went to great lengths to make it happen.

Dom agrees, the families come together for an awkward engagement dinner, and they get married at a large church. They barely know each other but it doesn’t matter to Gio. He finally has his man, and he makes sure the marriage is consummated on their wedding night. It isn’t forced, as Dom is attracted to him, but Dom doesn’t want to be. It’s also made clear that it was going to happen whether Dom agreed to it or not, which leads me to my next point.

I admit to absolutely despising Giovanni throughout a lot of the book. He wanted Dominic because he was independent, intelligent, and worked with charities, yet he basically made him a prisoner. Their sex life at night was good, but it was what happened during the day that wasn’t. Dom literally had nothing to do other than read, work out, etc. while Gio was going about his business. He made it clear that Dom’s only job was to basically sit there and look pretty and be ready for sex anytime Gio wanted it.

It takes Dom overhearing a conversation where Gio orders the murder of somebody close to Dom that changes everything. Dom ends up getting punished severely for alerting the person. It should’ve been a death sentence, but Gio was able to convince his uncle, the Don, that there was another way.

It’s that ‘another way’ that almost had me DNFing the book.

I’m really glad I kept reading because the punishment was explained, and it was obvious that it had hurt Gio as much as it had Dom. Not physically. Emotionally.

There was no doubt that along with the crazy obsession, Gio did truly love Dom. It was a warped kind of love, but it was love. This is also when Dom started to feel things for him, and it was when I started liking Giovanni when I didn’t think I could.

At one point Dom is in danger, but he proves he’s not the pretty doormat Giovanni had believed him to be. He can take care of himself and make things happen. That was by far one of my favorite parts of the book.

They obviously get their happily ever after, and I can say that I was very happy when it finally happened. I loved Dominic from the very beginning. Watching him prove himself as being a capable bad ass, and watching him truly fall in love with Giovanni was amazing to watch. As for Giovanni, no matter how he acted, he really did love Dom, especially when Dom stood up to him even knowing it could cost him his life.

I loved Rafaela, Dom’s sister. I despised his father and his mother who never stood up to him or for her son. The author didn’t have Carlos suddenly accepting his gay son like a lot of books do. I love how Dom was able to fight for what he believed in with regard to his father, and that included Giovanni.

There’s a 14 year age gap between the two men, a major plus.

I did have one issue with the book, hence why it’s 4.5 instead of 5 stars. The overuse of the words ‘his husband’. It may sound silly for something like that to annoy me, but it was used way too much when a name could have been used instead.

Overall, a really good book. I’m glad I took a chance with this author. I’ll definitely be reading more.