Rating: 5 Stars

Publisher: Self-Published

Genre: Gay Romance/MM 

Tags: Mafia/Mob, Dark, Rough Sex, Twisted MC Dynamic, Morally Grey, Hurt-Hurt. TW: Death, Gore, Obsessive/Possessive Love

Length: 497 Kindle Pages

Reviewer: Karen 

Purchase At: author’s page, amazon 

Blurb:

For twenty-one years he hated my Family. Vengeance was what kept him breathing. I was the debt he came to collect.

He bought me to avenge his father.
Kept me in the dark.
Broke me down to pieces.

Now he’d slaughter anyone who touches me.

There’s a bounty on my bloodline—and now there’s a price on his head, too.
He turned his back on his Family to put himself between me and the grave.
My enemy became my protector.
The only man I trust.

But even if we survive what’s coming, I’m not sure we’ll survive what comes after.
When we’re left alone with the truth…and each other.

Nothing on this earth gets to take him from me.
Not our enemies. Not the truth. Not even the beast himself.

He’s never begged for anything.
He’ll beg for me.

The Beast Who Begged Me is the final book of the Clemenza Family series, an ongoing-couple dark MM mafia romance trilogy. It must be read in order. Expect dark dealings, obsession, possessiveness, toxic dynamics, and all the red flags. These antiheroes will earn their happily ever after, but they’ll have to fight hard to get there.

Series Reading Order:
1. The Beast Who Bought Me
2. The Beast Who Broke Me
3. The Beast Who Begged Me

Review: 

“I’m not ordering you,” I say at last. “I can’t.” I have to force myself to finish. “So I’m begging you, Caligula. Come back to me.”

I was eagerly awaiting this book after finishing the second book, The Beast Who Broke Me. This whole trilogy is so good. I loved the Morelli’s and the Castellani’s but the Clemenza Family trilogy is grittier, hotter, full of obsession. I also loved that the Morelli family were a part of this book as well. I thought it apt. Luca D’Amato is a young, gay Don. Caligula is gay, and younger still at twenty-one, but the emperor is rising to the role he was always born to be – The Clemenza Don. This book may be 497 pages, but it flew by. Even though it ends well, I wasn’t ready to finish it. I wasn’t ready to leave Caligula and Damiano behind.

The Arcs:

There is so much going on here, you honestly need to start at the beginning with The Beast Who Bought Me to really get the most out of this series. Because of the overarching dark romance. Because there’s the moving pieces in this New York Mafia world, like the rebuilding of the Clemenza Family and how the Morelli Family fit into it. Like who’s still trying to kill off Caligula – the Clemenza name is not especially the most loved. The Bratva are still out there, and the Gulliano’s have aligned themselves with them for a war against the Commission and the other Families.   

Who really killed Damiano Orsini’s father? What’s the real deal?

How are Caligula and Damiano going to get back and stay together? So much guilt and hurt is in their way. The ongoing obsession is real, and the possession? More intense than before. It’s simultaneously diabolical and delicious. 

What happened to Seb Conti looms large. Damiano worked under him at the Gee’s. He has a piece of Seb that’s been carved off him and Damiano won’t let go of it until he finds him alive… or dead. 

The sex is gritty and rough and off the charts hot. This pair are hot tamales. They’re messy and the push-pull, the hurt/hurt, is intense. The eventual comfort well won. Through the entirety of the self and other hate/guilt, they still can’t let each other go. Fucked through a wall. A desk. A mattress. A door. Near dead people. With others able to see them fuck each others brains out. They do it all and they love it while having big emotion afterwards. 

He sags to his knees, taking me with him to the floor. He wants me to fuck him where his grandfather drew his last breath? It’s sacrilege. And it’s the dirtiest, most exciting invitation I’ve ever received.

Damiano gives the best gifts. Like getting tradies to complete a reno in record time – I mean, that is truly miraculous. A heartfelt declaration of I. Love. You. Even if they are at loggerheads, even if it is messy, Damiano has Caligula’s back-

My beast is here. He’s here, and he will stand between me and death, like he always does. 

And, my god, Caligula. He can be cold as ice, and while he can’t forgive his enemies, and he didn’t like what Damiano did to him for a while – his behaviour – he wars within himself as to what he does about his Dami. However, he learns he can forgive this man, Damiano, because their love is explosive and visceral. It’s real. They keep coming back to one another time and again. Even when things look dark, Damiano proves himself more than ever in this book. Caligula leans into what it is he wants. No matter what that looks like. 

But Dami isn’t my enemy. He hasn’t been for a long time. Somewhere between his basement and this bloodied floor, I fell in love with him. A terrible love, so dark and consuming that it frightens me. A love born out of obsession and rage and loss. But love, nonetheless.

They’ve also accrued a family. It’s heartening to see Caligula and Damiano, Rosa and Vito, Sammy and Ricky all together, on top of taking care of the business of rebuilding the Clemenza Family brand, meaning the Clemenza ring is an ongoing arc. Caligula needs to find it to be fully accepted as the Clemenza Family Don. For the Commission to accept him. What’s inscribed on it is also significant. In the meantime, Luca sees the determination in Caligula, knows he’s sharp as a tack, and that he’s also managed to secure the unwavering loyalty of Damiano Orsini, no easy feat. How much can Luca and Finch D’Amato, the Morelli’s overall, be trusted? I love Luca D’Amato. He’s menacing in his own right, he all but runs New York City, because he has a very strategic brain and a husband who balances him out. Most of all, he understands alliances.   

“Your grandfather was a force to be reckoned with, Cal. He clung to old ways and older grudges. And he had pride. More than that—arrogance. You have it too.” I lift my chin, but I keep my mouth shut. “But you have other qualities,” D’Amato allows. “A clever mind. A will to survive. And you have the Giuliano Enforcer’s undivided attention, which is a very, very interesting thing indeed.”

Then there are other things like-

A lot of on your knees in this book, and not all of that is sex… but still kinda is. It’s a way Caligula and Damiano understand to keep one another in their unmistakable orbit when things get even more emotionally complex. It’s also about power and dominance.

What is Caligula’s cousin Tiberius’ role in a l l of this situation, including his quirky AF off-sider, Marcello? 

Revenge looms large again as it has throughout this trilogy. No one writes (romance) Mafia revenge and politicking like Leighton Green, she balances it really well amongst the general plot, action, and the primary couple. In the beginning the revenge was misplaced, as we discover, as Damiano discovers, but now it burns bright, shining in the right direction.

“I want Daniel King for myself,” Dami says into the quiet. He’s staring at his bandaged hand where it rests on the table. “No one else kills him unless I’m dead myself. And I want first shot at Big Gee, too.” He lifts his head, looking around the table. “For Seb Conti.”
Rossi raises his hands. “No arguments here.” Alessi shrugs his agreement.

I only discovered Leighton Greene this year but I think I’ve read over a dozen of her books now. With good reason. She writes highly addictive characters. Love them. She knows her characters inside out, upside down, and backwards. No missteps. On point characterisations are a staple. She also develops the world so damn well. This trilogy started me on the Morelli Family series then West Coast Mobsters: The Castellani Family. They are all fantastic reading. The Castellani Family is the darker, grittier series of the three. It had me hooked from the get-go. I can’t believe this trilogy is over but knowing what’s coming next year, **sobs**such a long time away, has me pre-ordering her next book. For The Beast Who Begged Me, it’s 5 Stars!