Enchant

Eagle Elite #4.7

by Rachel Van Dyken

Hate only breeds more hate.

In the mafia only the strong survive.
Joyce loves Luca.
Luca loves Joyce.
Frank only loves his family and will do anything to protect it, even if it means sacrificing his brother's happiness.
Go back to the beginning where the drama of the Elect starts.
Where true love tried to conquer all.
Where true love tried… and failed.

The prequel to the Eagle Elite series. Find out how it all began.

Genres: Romance, New Adult, Novella, Contemporary, Dark, Mafia Romance, Contemporary Romance

38 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 22, 2015

About the author

Rachel Van Dyken is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Bestselling author of mafia and contemporary romances.

Hey guys I'm rarely on Goodreads, if you need to reach me feel free to email!
EMAIL ME: rachelvandykenauthor@gmail.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rachel-...

Reviews

[Cristina]

This short novella is a must read for all you Eagle Elite fans out there!

This doesn't happen very often but this story left me in tears and reminded me that life isn't always fair.



This is the story of two brothers, Franck and Luca, and the woman they both love but only one of them gets to keep forever.



She wants one of them but life has another plan for him. The other one wants her but knows her heart is going to be hard to get.

In the end which one will get to keep her forever and save her life?

Luca?



Or Frank?



You can read this story FREE on Wattpad.

http://www.wattpad.com/story/26066060...

[Deborah]

I really enjoyed this short. A true story of lies, deceit, love and betrayal.

So it’s onto Elite for me now.

[Bj]

4.5 "Star-Crossed Patriarchs" Stars for the story and narration!

This title is presently available for free on Audible's Romance Channel! Having fallen in love with books 1 and 2 last year (which were published by Hachette Audio), I had been hoping that the rest of this series would be recorded on audio. Thankfully Blackstone Audio has answered my call with this prequel series novella and books 3, 4 and 7. Hopefully the rest will be shortly forthcoming!

For lovers of the Elite Eagle Series, a fantastic new-adult mafia romance series, this short (just a little over an hour long novella) provides an interesting perspective about the patriarchs of two of the present day mafia families. As history is doomed to repeat itself, understanding this little gem helps put books 1 & 2 in context (and helped refresh my mind about the suspense series arc, as it has been about a year since those were released) and now I'm ready to dive right in to book 3, Entice, containing Chase's story. Best of all, if you already listened to the first two books and already own the Kindle version (like I do), Entice is just $2.99 on Audible!

Source: Romance Channel Audible listen.

[Lauren ♡]

I am not sure why I skipped this book when I originally read the series but I am glad I finally picked it up as I do love reading about Grandma Alfero.

Enchant is the prequel for Eagle Elite and follows the turbulent love relationship of Luca and Joyce. Basically their story is a love and lost story and Frank Alfero was the one to break them apart in order to protect the family... all for blood.

STORY PLOT

Joyce has always been infatuated with Luca Alfero and the feeling has always been mutual, it is just Luca never acted on it. Finally, Luca shows his emotions for Joyce and claims for as his own and promises to always love her and be hers. The thing, there is always a time clock hanging over someone's head in the mafia and Luca's number is about to be called. Frank used Joyce as a pawn to get Luca to take the position as boss in the Nicolasi family. Frank's plan is successful but at a great cost. Both Luca and Joyce are lost souls that don't have space in their hearts to love another. There are many regrets and hatred Joyce has in her life but having her son, Trace (her granddaughter), and loving Luca was not one of them. Even though Joyce's story will shake Trace's world and how she perceived her grandparents relationship, it is an important story for her to tell that will ultimately save her life as well as her true love, Nixon Abandonato.

OVERALL

⤏ This 9 chapter + epilogue prequel is relatively short being ~40 pages. It gives readers an understanding on the dynamic between Joyce/Frank/Luca which I did like! Side note, if you are intrigued by their story, Hurt shows more about Luca/Joyce relationship. That story is also entries from Joyce's journal!

⤏ The telling of the story is unique as it is intended to read like a journal entry. This was Joyce's diary that she left Tracey with when she passed away. Joyce wanted her love story with Luca (who is Trace's great uncle) to be known to Trace in order to teach her about the rarity of true love and losing that as well as to know that no matter what happens Luca would be there for her.

⤏ It is told from MULTIPLE CHARACTER POVs (Luca, Joyce, Frank + Nixon's in the epilogue)

✨ Why did I rate it only 3 stars? ✨

This is the relationship development: infatuation/jealousy (chapter 1) ➵ i love you (chapter 3-7) ➵ lost love/ broken hearts (chapter 8-9). I feel that it could of been a little longer to develop the relationship instead of showing this great love go from infatuation to true soul crushing love, real quick.

Eagle Elite series
*Many of my ratings are old and I am due for a re-read for many of these books. Which hopefully I get to soon!

⊶✞⊷ Main Character Books ⊶✞⊷
#0.5 Enchant ⤑ 3 stars
#1 Elite ⤑ 5 stars
#1.5 Enforce ⤑ 5 stars
↳ (same story as Elite but told from the four boys POV)
#2 Elect ⤑ 5 stars
#3 Entice ⤑ 4 stars
#4 Elicit ⤑ 4 stars
#5 Ember ⤑ 5 stars
#6 Elude ⤑ DNF
#7 Empire ⤑ 3 stars
#8 Enrage ⤑ 5 stars
#9 Eulogy ⤑ 5 stars

⊶✞⊷ Characters set in EE World ⊶✞⊷
Bang Bang: Eagle Elite ⤑ 4 stars
Exposed ⤑ 4 stars
#9.5 Envy ⤑ 3 stars

⊶✞⊷ Novellas ⊶✞⊷
#1.6 Evoke ⤑ 3 stars
A Very Mafia Christmas ⤑ 5 stars
↳ It is for FREE via Prolific Works & I recommend reading before Enrage
#4.5 Enamor ⤑ 5 stars
Hurt ⤑ 5 stars
↳ This story is included in an anthology, it is called Enrapture. I recommend reading this after Elect

[Aleja]

Lo odio pero lo amo a la vez.

Este tipo de situaciones, que ocurren en este libro, me hacen sentir una desesperanza gigante. Se me hace un hueco en el pecho del dolor e impotencia.

[Alexandra]

Finally starting this series! And I'm still sobbing over my mp3 after reading this!

[Valentina "TinchyB"]

I love mobsters. Amen!

[Sarah]

Ehm. I didn't understand the point of it? I probably should've read the other books in the series before reading this? Doesn't really matter though I guess, it's a one-star rating or me.

[bookmarkbelles]

3.5 stars

[♡ Jeri's Book Attic ♡ Jeri the Romance Bibiliophile ♡]

[Cami]

This seems like it will be an exciting series from this prequel but I don't think it will be a series I like.

I'm not a huge fan of love triangles. I also don't like a lot of violence and gore and this seems like a series that will be full of it.

If that is your thing then you might want to look into this series. Seems like an exciting nail biter array of books.

[Kim Brewing]

Not really sure how to rate this...it said #0.5 but I think I should have read book 1 first. I think I'm going to go with 3 (which means I liked it) but I feel like I missed something.

[Gina *loves sunshine*]

Another little Novella to add to the Eagle Elite series. GR has this marked as book .05, the prequel to this series - but was obviously written after the author started the series - so really it's backstory. It's not really a book setting up the series in my opinion.

I am reading this about half way through the series, I think at the authors recommended reading spot, maybe at 4.5?? Which I don't think was the most beneficial. It would have been nice to have this backstory earlier on, before Luca and Frank became such major figures in the series. But really it's too short and not detailed enough to make it the prequel - you won't get the full effect. So I would probably recommend reading it after you read Elite and Elect.

[Elle Golden]

Really intriguing.

This was a short story, a prequel in the Eagle Elite series, and also my first book by this author.
I can say it won't be my last one.

In its few pages, the book had intrigue, betrayal, sexiness, love and it all made me even more curious about the whole story. This series sounds promising.

[Jackie Lane]

I had a hard time remembering who the case of characters was and I wish I could have read the books in the current order, but I started the series well before the novellas were added in.

For such a short novella, this one certainly packed a punch.

I was upset at how things played out, but as I looked back, I remembered how much I love Frank in future book and can see how this jaded Luca for future books.

4 stars

[Candy]

Wow! This was a short story but it really packed a punch. I'm sitting here with tears running down my face. I loved getting a peek into Luca, Joyce and Frank's past and reading about where it all began.

Then again, hate only breeds more hate, more anger, and in the end, I was gifted with a beautiful family, a beautiful life, would I take it all back?
Some days yes.
Some days no.

[Kim BookJunkie ~ Editor & Proofreader]

*** Review of audiobook ***

Holy wow! So much happens in this super quick introduction to what appears to be an exciting organized crime series! Because this audiobook was only 65 minutes long, it did feel rushed to me. A TON is jam-packed, so I was actually confused on several occasions, not knowing whether events were happening on the same day or whether time has sprung ahead. Regardless, everything I did understand was exciting, sexy, suspenseful and unpredictable. Also, unlike most romances, there weren’t just 2 main characters but 3! And best of all, each had their own narrator which I absolutely loved, especially since all the narrators were phenomenal! I most definitely will be reading on to see what happens next!!!

[Quinn's Quippy Quotes]

Daaaaaaaaang!!!!!

That was really good! While reading this I never really put too much thought about how Joyce played into the Eagle Elite crew, but once finally putting the pieces together, was very eye opening. But then for it to finish with Nixon, damn you Rachel! You are good, girl. You are good.

[Robin Powers]

I think I would have enjoyed this story more if I had read it after I read Elite. But it's interesting background to what I'm currently reading. I can tell already that I'm going to love this series. Mafia, mean rich kids and spunky farm girl...oh my!

[M Reads]

Short but sweet. Provided a great insight to this series, and I really enjoyed getting to know Luca and Frank. Poor Joyce :(

A sad ending but these things happen.

A great way to open up a surely brilliant series.

[Selipperydickdip]

Some how I think that I'm gonna regret reading this series ... but how could I not ...so far I'm too far gone not to read it.

[Jumping to Conclusions with ZellaBee]

🚨NOTE: This is the Prequel to the 1st Series-Eagle Elite from this universe. Its not necessary per say to understand either the 1st or 2nd set of books, its just interesting.

ZellaBee Rating: Sis, Save Your Monion (I HATED everything about this book, would have been a DNF.)

(Audible): Nicol Zanzarella, Jeremy York, Aiden Eiden, Keith Szarabajka ⭐️ ⭐️

Summary: When the Only Way to Get the Girl You Love is to Kill Your Brother

Luca A. (I’m not gonna try to spell his last name, I know better) is the 21 year old baby brother to Frank who is 15 years older at this point (he appears in RIP the first book of the 2nd series also). Frank is the heir to the mafia throne but Luca is destined to lead. His father makes him promise on his death bed to make sure that Luca will do just that and not fall victim to Frank’s formidable shadow. The only way he sees to make that happen is to use their relationship with the Nicolase (probably didn’t spell that right) family. Luca has worked for them a bit in the past and they adore him. He’s ruthless, deadly and efficient. But Frank and the family see him for who he is: emotional, hopeful and loving. All the things that will break him under the pressure to prove himself (late night drinking, nightmares). He needs to be at the top and that will take a rapid fire succession of events and a distraction. Enter Joyce (26).

Joyce has been trying to get her a piece of Luca pie for 15 years (she would have been 11 and he would have been 6…🤮)and getting no damn where. She’s beautiful, broke, desperate, and alone. All the makings of a sought after woman in every book ever. She has breast cancer and can’t afford the treatments that would have a wonderful chance of keeping her alive for a very long time if she can secure the money. Frank knows this.

And:
🫂Frank also knows Joyce in love with Luca.
🤦‍♂️And that Luca is in love with her.
😰But, Joyce knows Frank is in love with her.

Frank sees her at the casino watching Luca like a creep and hoping he acknowledges her. Luca instead goes on to beat someone’s ass while she watches and Frank approaches her. He basically tells her everyone knows she’s a mafia whore looking for her next meal ticket but she’ll never get Luca. So why not settle for him instead. She straight up says “I don’t want you” even though she’s attracted to him, she wants what she thinks is the unattainable. He tells her he’ll make her a deal.

💔If she can get Luca, Frank will pay for all her medical bills for the rest of her life
😔If she can’t, she will marry Frank.
🙂‍↔️She agrees.

Now for a woman that later says she would have gladly died without the treatment as long as she didnt have to live without Luca, she didn’t tell Frank to fuck off. She could have grew some balls, walked over to Luca and shot her shot. She could have died young and happy with the man she loved. Instead she made this wager somehow thinking Luca would never find out. EVER? Frank kisses her to seal that deal knowing Luca would see it, get jealous and act. He does. He comes over and tells Joyce to come with him or stay with Frank, but he will never ask again. They get back to his place and he explains that he knows that she didn’t come from money, but her family did have it and she deserves no less than that life again. She doesn’t care about anything as long as she can have him.

They fuck all day and the next day she goes for treatment. Frank shows up and taunts her about Luca, their wager, and she plays right into his hands while he records it to show Luca. She spends that night in Luca’s bed until there is a knock on the door. When Luca opens it he’s shot in the chest, she has a bag thrown over her head and is knocked out. They had 2 days together before everything went to shit. The people that hold her captive are the Nicholase’s and they want info. Frank shows up and kills all but one after they taunt him about Joyce being in his dead brother’s bed. Why? Because he told them she was his wife (thank god she wasn’t stupid enough to refute this). He tells him that since he just killed their boss they need to pick a successor immediately or all of them will die. He gets Joyce out of there and They choose Luca, who is in the hospital very much alive. Franks men were able to save him in time but they let Joyce think he really is dead. No funeral because after they shot him they beat him to death so he’s unrecognizable.

What really happens is Frank tells Luca about the position and he refuses to go without Joyce. He shows him the tape which of course he doesn’t wait to hear all the way through so all he heard was her being defensive about Frank calling Luca her toy and about the wager. He is hurt and angry. He told her he loved her. He thinks she was laughing at him, that she made him weak so he takes the job and leaves as soon as he can. Meanwhile, she cries for days before Frank asked her to marry him. Promises to make her happy take care of her, knowing he can’t replace Luca in her heart, he’ll settle for just being the one that’s with her. It turns out she is writing all of this to her granddaughter telling her their story. She says she knew she didn’t love Frank like that but she also wasn’t stupid enough to let the opportunity to be comfortable go so she agrees. Why is that? She supposedly had nothing left to live for without him, why bother marrying Frank. Likewise, he probably still would have paid for the treatments any damn way. Nah. She’s exactly who he thought she was. All he asks is that she will find a way to forgive him someday. She doesn’t know what he means and he doesn’t explain but she agrees to that too.

Years later after she and Frank have their first son (so this bitch has more than one kid with someone she doesn’t love even AFTER THIS) and they are at an event when she sees Luca. He’s older, stronger, richer and completely uninterested in her. He doesn’t face her when she calls out to him. When she runs up to him he reuses to speak to her even as she beats her fists into his back. He ignores her. Frank comes by to collect his wife showing her pathetic in front of a room full of people and gets a hard slap across the face for his troubles. He tells her why she did all this and she doesn’t forgive him, admits he did give her a great life with multiple children and now a granddaughter, Tracey aka Trace (she will end up being Nixon’s wife). This is her deathbed letter, now that her cancer is back. She tells her she wrote Luca a letter that she hopes he will read, that Frank turned him into a monster, that she loved him more than her own life and not to blame her grandfather, Frank for what he did. Even though she clearly does, giving all the love she had for Luca to her children and Trace. At the end, Nixon takes this journal after leaving Trace in his bed to confront Luca. History has repeated itself but he wants the ending to be different even if he dies ( I already spoiled this for you lol).

Here’s What Survives the Jump💚
🙌🏽It was short.
👌🏾 It gave some context to the first series.
📝Honestly…I hated everything about this. From beginning to end. Even if it was free I wouldn’t read it again. It can take a unhappy or bittersweet ending, I’m no ❄️. But this…no. Life is too short, and THEIR lives in their lifestyles is too short to be settling, pining after, or bitching about all these years later. To write all of this to your granddaughter at that is deep seeded trash. Leave it in a journal and shut up.

Here’s What Doesn’t Make It: i.e Shit I Never Want to See/Hear Again💩
😵The female narrator…home girl was overDOING it. Acting her little heart out and it was painful.
😣 The love of it was way too heavy handed between Luca and Joyce.
🛑Can we stop the whole “men who have only had sex once or worse are virgins being somehow masters of their domain on the first or second try”?! Men who have made a living out of being whores can still be shit in bed. Please. Give me something to work with here.
🥺Look I’m not saying what Frank did wasn’t trash obviously he had choices to make I couldn’t understand fully and he wanted both of them alive whether they were happy or not, really he’s the only one who didn’t really get to be happy. He lost his brother and he never really had his wife. He made a lot of sacrifices just to keep a promise to his father and watch Luca and Joyce have a future.
😢I actually feel sorry for Frank for real. I’m sick to death of books like this BTW. If you’re being settled for you’re stealing from yourself. He loved her enough to keep her alive and safe, but not himself enough to let the girl go and find someone who would love him? Sigh. This shit was tragic.
🥶Joyce was living under sex worker/ long game spy rules. She didn’t fall in love with Frank at all or at least have love FOR HIM? He saved her life. Even before she found out Luca was still alive! You were married to him for what…40 years?! I get it he fucked up what could have been your true love story, but if you forgave him and still didn’t love him, who really won here? You popped out children. Have grandkids and still…nothing? Jesus that’s cold blooded as hell.
🤢The accents were AWFUL except maybe Frank’s narrator. Everyone else was shit.
😡How you have nearly a full cast and still do this story in dual narration!? I shouldn’t have heard anyone try to be another gender in this shit ever!
🫩Joyce is a jaded, gold digging bitch, Frank is a mafia martyr who was settled for, and Luca becomes a heartless bastard. She was not wrong, this was not a happy ending at all. I wonder if this was worth it for Frank. Really? Yeah his brother’s life but her. Was she worth all of this?
😕Now look, I’m never one to stick up for a man EVER but Joyce didn’t have to marry Frank. He was already paying for the treatments, she was living which is all she wanted. No she wanted to be taken care of, well off financially. Enough to marry and bear the children of someone she didn’t really give a damn about. She could have said thank you and found someone else to fall in love with. She’s trash.
🙄Words: Forever, soul-mate, love

[Becca]

4.5 Stars - Enchant is a quick novella that serves as a prequel to the Eagle Elite series. This story was all consuming, making reading the series an absolute must. Rachel Van Dyken has me so intrigued by her thrilling mafia world that I didn’t hesitate to dive into the story and connect with the characters. While short, Enchant is straight to the point, examining the beginning of the mafia war to follow. The names Alfero, Nicolasi, and Abandantos are thrown around for the first time, as we learn about the birth of rivalry and revenge amongst the families. Rachel Van Dyken gives just enough insight into the inner workings of the mafia to leave me wanting to be swallowed into this world of hers.

If there is one thing Rachel Van Dyken excels at, it’s infusing emotion into her stories. It doesn’t matter the nature of the scene, if there is an emotional undercurrent driving the characters’ actions, Rachel will expose it and deliver it to the reader to experience. I felt the passion and heartache of Joyce and Luca’s connection right alongside the gut-wrenching guilt of Frank’s lies. Joyce’s eternal sadness and Luca’s thirst for revenge filled me with a sense of foreboding as to the nature of this series. With Enchant, Rachel Van Dyken provides just the smallest hint of the tangled web of lies, surprising relationships, unimaginable betrayal, and absolute loyalty awaiting readers in the Eagle Elite Series.

[Angela Charles]

So when I started this novella I was all in. I love a good mob story. Luca and Frank are two brothers who love the same woman. I do not normally love a love triangle story but I forgave it because MOB Story.

I loved the way this novella was written. I love when an author has the story as a diary. When it is written that way it makes me feel as though I am living the life of the one writing the diary. This entire was heartbreaking not only for Joyce, the MC, but also for both Frank and Luca. Both brothers lost something they care about. For Frank it was his brother and for Luca it was Joyce.

Even though this was a quick listen I got a lot of information. What threw me off was the fact the series is about a college. I have never listened or read anything from Rachel Van Dyken so I did not know this series was about a college. I was expecting some more mob life but I was wrong. I think I am going to listen to the first book just to see what this series is about because I loved the prequel.

[Heather]

For those of you that want to know more of the love between Joyce and Luca, then grab this novella. You will see how Luca and Joyce's love effected her marriage to Frank and what Frank did knowing that his wife was in love with his brother. Sometimes LOVE makes us do crazy things... It always allows us to look the other way sometimes. This is a great novella to show us a different side of Frank that we never see. Could he have a heart after all???

[Darcy]

I liked this one, but I had a hard time remembering who was who. I felt sorry for Janet and Luca, both were played. I was a bit surprised that Janet was able to forgive Frank and make a life with him. I'm not sure that I could have.

[Jodie Lauren]

How it began with Traces grandparents Joyce and frank. Joyce loved franks brother Luca but was told he was killed, to be safe she reluctantly agreed to marry Frank.

But secrets come out and frank was not as innocent as he seemed. Even if he thought he was doing it for the right reasons

Xx

[Jaime]

Read previously forgot to rate...smh

[Lindsay]

Eeeee! I know this was a short teaser into the series but I'm so glad I read it. I really think the info will be good to have as I get deeper into it. Loved it!

[valeria]

no puedo creer que Frank traicionara de esa forma a Luca y Joyce