Genre/Tags: Gay Mafia Romance, MM, Humour, Violence, Series Books 1 & 2

Author: Leighton Greene

Story Rating: 4 Stars

Narrator: Michael Ferraiuolo

Narrator Rating: 5 Stars

Length: 8 hours and 27 minutes + 9 hours and 23 minutes 

Audiobook Buy Links: Audible, Author Page

Review: 

I’ve decided to review books 1 & 2 of the Morelli Family series together because they’re about the same couple, Luca and Finch. I’ll add book #6 to this review after I read it because it’s also about Luca and Finch. I wanted to know more about them because they make an appearance in the second Clemenza Family trilogy book, The Beast Who Broke Me. Finch, in particular, had my attention. His bright pink hair, sometimes very blond. Also sassy, bold, and gay. Definitely gay. What he told Caligula Clemenza. Yeah, I had to know about him and his husband, Luca, the Don of the Morelli Family. So here I am.

Howard Fincher Donovan III comes from real wealth. He lives and parties it up in NYC but his family is back in Boston. Irish Mafia with some legit businesses as well in their portfolio. It was interesting that Finch, as he likes to be called, is not just a party boy, although he is that, but he seems to have a very real death wish. After he spots a hot guy at the club, one that suits how hot he knows himself to be  – Finch is not backward in coming forward – he decides he’s going to go all out to have him.

“I know you,” I say, and I’m starting to see things swirling a little around the edges of my vision.
He smirks.
“You’re Lucifer fuckin’ Morningstar, cast out of heaven and landed here in the greatest city on earth.”

In the beginning, which starts 5 years before the majority of the book, Luca is just trying to find a (Mafia) Family he can join. Being gay doesn’t exactly help his cause. It’s not that he tells anyone he’s gay, but it’s known. However, Lucifer, aka Luca D’Amato, has some business to take care of before going back to Finch in the club. That business goes south and Finch finds ‘Lucifer’ in the back alley of the club beaten up. The guys are going to come back and finish it off. Luca warns Finch to leave but he won’t. He stays, mouths off at the Mafia goons, Luca takes a shot, then Finch helps Luca get out of there back to his hotel suite where he cleans him, including sewing his arm up.

A face. That’s the next thing I saw.
That chatty voice coming out of the face of an angel, like I’d prayed hard enough for intercession that Mother Mary sent an emissary to watch over me. Protect me. Help me out of the trash and take me to a fancy hotel room.

Then we fast forward 5 years and Luca is now part of the Morelli family. He hasn’t forgotten Finch nor has Finch forgotten him. Luca has been working his way through the Morelli ranks. Long story short,  Luca and Finch reconnect. Tino Morelli, the current Morelli Don, decides that he’ll be progressive. That Luca will marry Finch. It’s a political move to try to merge the Donovan Family with the Morelli Family. There are other reasons as well.

This books starts off so well, then it gets a bit rough because Luca doesn’t want anyone to know the marriage is something he wants. He can be unfeeling toward finch at times… for Finch’s sake. Not that Finch likes that. Luca worries if they look like a couple in love, others will target Finch to get to him. There are plenty in the Morelli Family, and others, who don’t like ‘queers.’ So Luca rebuffs Finch. Until he can’t. Once Luca is onboard, they make such a good team. Finch loves Luca. From their first interaction he put it on the table that he was always going to be Luca’s. It takes a while for Luca to fully let his guard down but just after the first meeting, where Finch did a basic job of stitching him up, Luca had gotten a tattoo of a finch centred around the scar. So Finch knows to hang in there. The reason as to why Finch has a death wish in the beginning is smoothly interspersed in amongst the overall story and character development. There’s a fair degree of politicking in this series. Different Families. Rules. Power. The world building is very good. 

In book #2, Beloved by the Boss, Luca is suddenly the newly crowned Don of the Morelli Family and he and Finch are happy. So long as Finch stays out of Family business. That’s a boundary. Finch forms a close relationship with Luca’s brother’s wife, Cece, and they join the other Mafia wives for lunch and gossip. Gossip which the men don’t realise is intel. But Finch does. He’s street smart for a wealthy young man, but he’s seen a lot – he was nineteen at the beginning of book #1.

Finch, for his part, still listens at doorways. But I’ve learned enough about him to know it’s pointless trying to get him to stop, and besides, his advice has been invaluable. I call him my informal consigliere, since the official one defected to our enemy’s side.

There is so much information that comes out in this book. The Commission has to approve anything that goes on within the 5 Families. Luca doesn’t have their backing. He’s finding his way as a new, young and gay Don of a wealthy, once powerful family that needs more numbers and trusted men. Men that aren’t blatantly homophobic. Stepping into Tino Morelli’s old role means a trip to Chicago for a blessing from the old guard.

Greene does a very good job of creating an interesting world within this Mafia series while also keeping the MCs and romance at the heart of it all. I mean, Friday night is date night for Luca and Finch. Nothing gets in the way of date night. It also seems very clear the author has a soft spot for Luca and Finch. Why not? They’re a power couple. Luca takes things seriously and his baby bird, as Luca has nicknamed Finch, has attitude for days.  

My husband, the hedonist, the pleasure-seeker, the prettiest fucking thing I’ve ever seen in my whole life. I push his thighs open and slide between between them, down on my knees. 

I’ve read the first 4 books and I’m currently on the fifth book right now. I’m hooked. Book 4, Seduced by a Sinner, will be the next review, loved that book, and I’ll combine books 3 and 7 which both cover the same couple – Angelo Messina and Baxter Flynn. I thoroughly recommend this series if you like a Mafia trope, which I didn’t until the Clemenza Trilogy came along. Michael Ferraiuolo is such a good narrator. I highly recommend the audiobooks.