Rating: 3 ‘ONLY Because of Viktor’ Stars

Publisher: Cora Rose

Genre: Gay Erotic Romance

Tags: Contemporary, Age Gap, Kink (S&M), Mob/Mafia, Recreational Drug Use, Romance, Series, Violence (On Page)

Length:  316 Pages

Reviewer: Cindi

Purchase At: Amazon

This review is pretty much full of spoilers. Keep that in mind before reading.

Blurb –

Working for a notorious mob boss like Anthony Costello for fifteen years has taught me a thing or two about dangerous men. I myself have been chiseled and beaten into someone to be reckoned with. And I’ve even come to relish in the pain, to crave it. But no one gets under my skin quite like Luca Rossi, Anthony’s right-hand man. I hate him more than words can express, I always have. He torments me and toys with me, just a plaything in his twisted and cruel game of control, until I’m feral with rage and barely able to contain myself.

But when a series of unidentified bodies begin showing up on our property and it becomes clear someone is trying to take the Costello family down, Luca and I are teamed up to solve the mystery. And working up close and personal with this man has me realizing that there’s no one in the world quite as dangerous to me as him. Because the real reason I hate Luca so much, and maybe even the reason why I hate myself, is because he’ll never really want me.

Review –

Viktor is the main bodyguard of crime boss Anthony Costello, though not so much these days since Tatum’s in the picture. Luca is Anthony’s underboss and best friend. Both men were introduced in The Silencer. Each has played a big part in the series as a whole, including in His Prince.

I always liked Viktor, though he was a little quiet, and he pretty much kept to himself. Luca, on the other hand, was a bastard from the minute he was introduced until almost the end of his own book. This one starts with a prologue that takes place three years prior. Viktor is at a sex club having sex with any man who wants him. All of this is on page, so if you’re weird about main characters having sex with others before they get with their love interest, you might not be a fan. I’m usually not, but it worked in this case. It was actually pretty hot.

I’m no longer Viktor, soldier for the Costello family, but a man taking it like a good boy.

This club has always been Victor’s safe place. It’s secure, not just anybody is allowed inside, and he can take as many men as he wants without thinking twice about it. Best of all, it keeps him away from Luca Rossi, his boss and sworn enemy. Unfortunately, he’s between two men getting down and dirty when he looks over and sees Luca watching him. What happens next is explained in the book, including the fact that the two men have sex with each other the first time when they get away from the club, but I feel like I needed more. I’m jumping ahead a little here, but I need to. Every single sexual encounter – including several with Anthony and Tatum – are on page for the reader to see. Luca and Vik’s first time? Skimmed over but no details given. That’s the sex scene I wanted to see because it’s the one that started it all.

After that night, nothing’s ever said about them having sex, but Luca uses what happened to his advantage by constantly holding it over Viktor’s head. I hated that, and I hated Luca. That was my fear after seeing him in the first two books, that I would continue to dislike him.

I also want to throw out that the night they had sex the first time, Luca had supposedly removed Viktor from the club because he was flying high on something the bartender gave him while hooking up with the two guys. So he had sex with Viktor when he was under the influence of something, so that should tell you about Luca’s character.

Luca was a big bully. There’s no other way to describe him. He’s hateful, and he’s cruel, but only to Viktor. He degrades Vik, teases him mercilessly but doesn’t follow through. He calls him names, literally forces him to do things his lazy ass he should be doing himself, and he seems totally incapable of being decent even for a few moments. He does this simply to show he has the power and is in complete control.

He fucking hates that he likes it. And I hate that I like making him obey.

We’re both equally fucked up.

The sexual stuff he made Viktor do was the worst, in my opinion, and I’m not referring to after they got together later. This was just Luca being Luca, humiliating Vik just to do it. Viktor has had a weird crush on Luca since he arrived at Anthony’s home, broken and beaten, fifteen years ago. He was fifteen at the time. I’m guessing Luca was around thirty then? No matter. He knew about the crush and he used it to his advantage every chance he could, especially after the incidents at and after the club.

Viktor gets off on pain and humiliation. He hates himself for it, but he can’t control it. When Luca is forcing him to do things sexually, he’s dying for it, even if he feels like crap after. Throughout all the sexual stuff Luca forces Viktor to do – hand jobs, blow jobs – he’s rudely making fun of him for getting erections, for ejaculating in his pants.

Yes, I know degradation and humiliation is a kink for some. I’m not kink shaming by any means. I just despise the way Luca made Viktor feel so small by taking advantage of the long-time crush, as I said. And we can’t forget that Luca is straight. You know, cuz that’s what he keeps telling Viktor and everybody else.

Yeah, no.

Unfortunately, they’re forced together more than before because somebody is dumping dead bodies at businesses owned by the Costello crime family. Each one has died of an overdose of a new drug that Anthony and his people are not distributing. They do deal in drugs, but not this stuff. Even so, it’s being found in a lot of different clubs with the owners being told it’s from Anthony and his people. He’s basically being framed by an unknown person. Well, not so unknown. It’s pretty easy to figure out that it’s Henry from the first book who was responsible for hurting Tatum and who ultimately got away.

Little by little through it all, Luca and Viktor kind of get together as a couple. I say kind of because it wasn’t a real relationship. It was a major power imbalance between a boss and his employee. Granted, most of what these guys do is illegal – hello! crime family – but you’d think a boss working under Anthony would be a bit more careful with the things he forced Vik to do, especially considering how much Vik means to Anthony. Again, Viktor loved it, he got off on it, but still.

After some major stuff happens that has Luca facing some fears from his childhood, they finally start looking like a couple. As much as I hate to admit it, Luca was even sweet and loving a few times. They both had horrific childhoods, and I did find myself feeling bad for the children they were who were forced to endure such horrible things. That’s the only time I felt bad for Luca in any way.

Anthony and Tatum are obviously in this quite a bit. I was really happy to also see Angel and Mikhail briefly. I even admit to being happy to see Diablo, who I wasn’t a fan of in his own book. Lex, Diablo’s friend, is also in this, but I haven’t read his book yet. I may do that soon.

There’s one character who was in this book WAY too much. Hell, he was in all three books WAY too much.

That would be Bane. Bane is warped, he’s mentally disturbed, and he’s a bit of a dumb-ass when it comes to doing things the right way. Wherever Bane goes, something bad happens. If he’s not starting it, he’s somehow right in the middle of it. He can be told over and over to stay away by Anthony, but he always finds a way to show up anyway. He was the comic relief in The Silencer, though still annoying. Same in His Prince.

“Someone is in a bad mood. Oh hello, Tatum. Love the tight pants. I can see your penis perfectly.”

He was all over this one. I’m guessing it’s to prep the reader for his and Georgiy’s story. I still don’t understand why Anthony allows him to get away with so much. Maybe I’ll find that out in his book. He even got his own chapter in his POV at the end of His Enforcer.

Dear God, I don’t know if I can handle a full book of Bane. Just thinking about being inside his head… geez. He’d give my ADHD brain a serious work-out. Even so, I know I’ll read it because I’m heavily invested in this world now.

There are some questions that weren’t answered that are bugging me as I type this review.

Viktor gets pulled away from Luca at a club. Luca finds him later dancing and as high as a kite. I’m not sure how long later because Luca was having flashbacks of his childhood trauma. Nowhere does it explain how he got pulled away, or how and why he was able to get the drugs that he admitted taking – even knowing they were trying to find whoever was distributing the drugs that are killing people! Viktor is smart. The author did him a disservice by allowing all that to happen, in my opinion. He was at the club with Luca, and with Anthony and the others. No way would the Viktor that I’ve seen up to now be that naive and careless, especially under his big boss’s nose.

The entire book is going back and forth about Luca being scared of fire and spiders, mainly fire. This was also mentioned in other books. Yet he smokes like a chimney – with an electric lighter, not flame – and he’s careless with his cigarettes.

I want to say I really enjoyed this, but I can’t. Probably 75% of the book was Luca being an ass. Sure, he made good later, and was even a sweet hero a couple of times, but the constant cruelty and pure hatefulness needed much more than a few nice words and gestures for me to overcome. The fact that Viktor got off on being degraded and humiliated doesn’t really change my opinion that much. I felt sorry for Vik more than anything else. Had the author shown that Luca’s words and actions were simply sexual, I’d have been okay with it. What I saw instead was a man using his power to humiliate Viktor. Every time Vik would try to say no to something, he was reminded rather rudely that Luca was his boss. I couldn’t come back from that.

I’ve noticed that the author borrows characters from other authors. This time it was Declan, Blake, and Tony the Tiger from Eliot Grayson’s books. My blog partner is a fan of Eliot Grayson, so I thought that was cool.

I’m giving this 3 stars instead of less for a couple of reasons. Hell, I only finished it for those reasons.

One, I’m heavily invested in this series, as I said. If I were to stop reading now, I’d miss out on a lot with others who will have their own books.

Two, I love the Costello family and Mikhail. I also still love Viktor even if he does have really bad taste in men.

No doubt I’ll read the next one when it’s published, even if it’s the dreaded Bane’s. I may need a stiff drink or twelve, but I’ll get through it. 😉