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Be careful what you wish for…

I don’t just dream about possessive anti-heroes, I crave them. The dark, dangerous ones dripping with Bratva energy, the ones who claim you with a single look and make the world kneel just to keep you safe.

Touch her and I'll unalive you…”?

I live for it.

My wife…”?

My favorite .

It’s all a harmless fantasy, right?

Until it’s not.

Rodion Kopolev, the lethal masked hero thousands of social media followers fangirl over, doesn’t just embody the dark anti-heroes I love…he is one.

And when his obsessive focus lands on me, I feel like the heroine in one of my books.

His possessive words claim me.

His dominant touch brands me.

And when I try to run, he chases…

But when the threats of my past creep closer and I need protection from a dangerous stalker, Rodion is the devil willing to give it to me… for a price.

Turns out, when the fantasy becomes reality, it’s not so harmless after all…

Please Untamed is a standalone dark romance with a strong, fierce heroine and an unapologetically obsessive, jealous, and possessive alpha anti-hero. No OW drama, no cliffhanger, always a hard-won HEA.

404 pages, Paperback

Published January 16, 2025

1781 people are currently reading
1697 people want to read

About the author

Jane Henry

114 books2,715 followers
Fueled by dark chocolate and even darker coffee, USA Today bestselling author Jane Henry writes what she loves to read – character-driven, unputdownable romance featuring dominant alpha males and the powerful heroines who bring them to their knees. She’s believed in the power of love and romance since Belle won over the beast, and finally decided to write love stories of her own.

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5 stars
1,088 (42%)
4 stars
775 (30%)
3 stars
466 (18%)
2 stars
151 (5%)
1 star
71 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 311 reviews
Profile Image for Darlene I read WAY to many books.
3,684 reviews2,449 followers
January 24, 2025
3.5 ⭐️

Lordddddd Rodion 😈😈 he's everything you need in a book boyfriend when he spots Ember video about Mafia men or masked men, and he's curious about her. He makes a video on the app she's on, and we'll he taunts her. Ember is like every booktok/tube girly talking about book boyfriends and is bantering with Rodion when he taunts her back.
I loved their banter she really didn't believe he was in the Mafia, and she ignored a lot of his messages thinking he was a troll. But the things he said the videos he posted made her not wanna block.

Then she learns the truth and honest she was scared for about 2.5 seconds, and she was more afraid of her stepbrother who came back into her life. We get drama, more spicy scenes, and them being a good couple. I really didn't like the older brother kinda glad I skipped book 1.

No ow/om drama (stepbrother), no cheating, slight secondary character, drama, sexy times, no virgins


Recommend-yes
Cover-⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Heat level-🌶🌶🌶

Slowinsta
Pinning
Push away from h
Violence
Punishments
Spankings
Praise kink
Murder
Force marriage
No condom
Hea
Epilogue
Profile Image for Kiandra 🦋 .
273 reviews34 followers
February 21, 2025
I can’t even read any normal romance books at the moment. I did love this… but it was too insta love for me.
Profile Image for Glendy.
32 reviews
January 31, 2025
What did I just read? This has got to be one of the worst Mafia romance books I’ve read so far and that’s really saying something. First of all, the female lead is a walking contradiction. She doesn’t know what she wants and even when she decides, later on she now doesn’t want it. The male lead is okay, the usual obsessed possessive man. Am I the only one who was underwhelmed??? Like where is the yearning? Where is the passion? All I got was confusion and smut.
Profile Image for Heather.
84 reviews1 follower
February 24, 2025
Dnf’d at 38% - I loved the first book in this series. This book doesn’t even feel like it’s written by the same author. The premise of the story had me intrigued. The FMC is a book girlie who gets the mafia guy in real life. The writing just wasn’t doing it for me. I don’t feel like wasting my time reading something mediocre.
Profile Image for Sharon Slater.
311 reviews3 followers
February 26, 2025
Nope. This is why Kindle Unlimited is a game of russian roulette (pun not intended). What the hell did I just read (and why did I actually read through the whole thing and finish it?)

Not at all plausible and so much ick. In what world could this be romantic? Ew.
Profile Image for Courtney.
1,986 reviews210 followers
January 21, 2025
RODION & EMBER!! 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

This book had me all-in from the get-go. Hook. Line. Sinker.

Jane wrote this book flawlessly. From the characters, to the storyline, to the undeniable burning chemistry and how it played out and along with the plot. Jane merged all of it with impeccable plotting and it flowed beautifully.

Rodion and Amber were an absolute perfect match for one another in so many ways. The banter, push & pull, and hot-as-sin scenes (and not just those *ahem* scenes) it just added to the intensity of this book.

Let's not forget this is a MAFIA romance. There is no shortage of drama & action as Rodion is out to prove to his brothers that he's not the slacker they think he is.

I love this one so much more than the first & I'm excited to see what Jane delivers in the next books.

Highly recommended!!
990 reviews76 followers
January 19, 2025
4.5 ⭐️
This one is for all the dark romance girlies that wish they had a mafia book boyfriend IRL! 🖤
Thank you VPR for this ARC!

Ember is online constantly posting about her favorite dark romance book boyfriends. One day, Rodion comes upon her page and reads what she wants. He decides to start his own page without showing his face. He begins flirting with Ember and stalking her.

Although she should be afraid, Ember is definitely intrigued by the masked man online. After meeting Rodion, she gets to act out her fantasies online! He’s ready to make her his forever, but she has some baggage and won’t admit she wants him.

When the past and mafia interfere with their flirtationship, the two have to get married to protect Ember. Of course these two are in love and want to stay together forever, but they have to face the darkness first! I love that Ember is a romance reading girlie!

Definitely check this out if you liked Lights Out by Navessa.
Profile Image for Karen Mc .
1,107 reviews770 followers
February 1, 2025
“She doesn’t know it yet but I’ve already made her my target and I never, ever miss.”

This was my first book by Jane Henry and oh what a delicious delight it was! Untamed is an unconventional mafia romance that’s morally gray and all the dreamy. It’s a fantasy come true.

What do you do when your book boyfriend becomes your reality? You pretend you’re the heroine of course. Ember is a strong and sassy social media influencer in the romance book world. Rodion is the hot, possessive alpha who’s in the Bravka. And did I mention masked man? Sign me up.

This love story ignites with fire and desire while delivering the sweetness, swoon, and some scary moments too. Untamed cast a spell on me. I couldn’t help but immerse myself into this Cinderella tale while reading. I fell head-over-heels in love with the hero and heroine, and their heart-hitting romance.

4.5 untamed 💋 kisses

➡️ https://amzn.to/40ISr58

Reviewed on behalf of Bookalicious Babes Blog
Profile Image for MJ's Book Blog and Reviews.
3,054 reviews65 followers
January 31, 2025
Review by: Jennifer
(5 Stars)

Here is a direct quote "A book boyfriend come to life", this is exactly what this story is. Rodion is in California doing ... well whatever his brother has him doing. He ends up stumbling upon Ember, through social media, and from there he learns about OUR world. That's right ladies, the world of the book blogger, our world where there is talk about how hot it would be to have the perfect guy and the ways that he would .... you can fill in the blanks. This story was all of our fantasies brought to life, the Bratva guy that will do all the dirty things, and say all the dirty things, while doing Bratva things. This was an amazing addition to this series, and I give it 5 stars.
Profile Image for CJ.
306 reviews1 follower
February 15, 2025
3.5 stars

Brief synopsis: Rodion is a mafia enforcer who's been banished to California for screwing up one too many times (presumably for something that happened in book 1, but I haven't read it yet; will update if I do). He accidentally overhears some women gushing about mafia-themed thirst traps they watch on social media and he's both intrigued and baffled that his lifestyle is basically a fetish. He joins the social media platform to see what these girls are hyping about, and then he comes across the account of Ember, a book reviewer who talks about her favorite tropes (mafia romance, BDSM, various kinks). He becomes obsessed with her pretty much immediately. Unlike the accounts that seem "fake" to him, he thinks Ember genuinely craves the fantasies she posts about. So he decides to test the waters.

So right off the bat, you may notice, this premise is a lot like Lights Out by Navessa Allen. So much so that I wonder if it's not coincidence. And there's nothing wrong with that; a lot of romance books are derivative, especially mafia ones, and there's enough original content in here that it doesn't feel like a rip-off. In fact, on paper, I might even like this better than the plot of Lights Out. Unfortunately, the execution is where the books really are not comparable.

First off, the editing leaves a lot to be desired. There aren't many obvious typos or anything like that, but the narrative is sometimes repetitive, sometimes vague, and sometimes contradictory. Scene changes are not always clear. That kind of thing.

Then there's the formatting. Text messages and social media DMs are a big part of the book's plot, and there are a LOT of mistakes here. Mostly the Kindle version shows messages in the little bubbles like you see on a phone, but sometimes the text is all bold, sometimes only the sender's name is bold, sometimes none of it is bold, and sometimes there is no bubble at all, only italicized text. One time the code is visible. I sincerely hope the paperback version turned out better than this because if I paid $16 for a book with this kind of formatting, I'd want my money back.

Then there's the more substantial problem with the book, which is the antagonist. I don't think we ever learn exactly what Shawn did to Ember; a lot is implied, and some things can be inferred, but we never get any specifics. And I guess that's fine in a sense - like, if this were real life, we wouldn't be entitled to know everything about Ember's past - but this is fiction and we're reading Ember's POV. I feel like we should know more about her past in order to understand her. Even worse, there's a point at which Rodion implies that Ember has confided in him about Shawn, but that apparently happened off-page. Why? Additionally, Shawn is just not characterized. I don't mean that he's not well-developed; he's not developed at all. We don't get any sense of him as a person beyond the fact that he's bad and dangerous and Ember is scared of him. He barely appears on the page so he's more of an antagonizing force than a character in his own right. More confusingly, SPOILERS FOR REST OF PARAGRAPH for most of the book it seems like he's fixated on Ember specifically, but after he's been dealth with, we randomly hear that he's harassed and assaulted a bunch of other women, so I guess he wasn't fixated on Ember? There were no indications that he was a serial abuser or predator or whatever it is that he is (again, we don't know; the book doesn't tell us) so this comes out of left field. END SPOILERS

Finally, I have some petty critiques. Perhaps the most important one is that I don't think the author has ever, um, recorded video before. Rodion's videos are described as involving camera movements, specifically panning and zooming, and it would be impossible for him to do that without a second person or editing, and we know that he is filming these videos by himself and uploading the raw footage online. Another camera oddity: Ember lives in a studio apartment, but at one point she starts developing a roll of film . . . in her apartment? The narrative doesn't talk about her going anywhere, but if she can't fit a full-sized fridge or a stove in her apartment she definitely doesn't have space to turn her studio into a dark room. That was weird and completely unnecessary. Lastly, everyone who has read Crime and Punishment (which is referenced directly in this book) knows that the diminutive for Rodion is Rodya, and the only time we ever see a nickname for Rodion is when one of his sisters calls him . . . Rodi. I'm just so disappointed by that.

A slightly less petty critique is that this book pokes fun at mafia romance novels for being unrealistic without actually subverting any of the tropes of the mafia romance genre. Lampooning your own genre is fantastic and hilarious, but ONLY IF you do something different with your own book, and Jane Henry does not. The only difference between the in-universe "real" mafia guys and the "fictional" ones is that the "real" guys don't wear suits all the time. And that's all. Pretty much every other trope is represented here. It would have been really great if this novel had subverted mafia romance stereotypes in some way, but alas, it did not.

Bottom line: this is an okay book that is fun to read, but it's not nearly as good as Lights Out so maybe read that instead, or at least in addition.
Profile Image for Debs.
1,196 reviews4 followers
April 23, 2025
Loved this spicy story

I loved this spicy, book boyfriend story. We all like to read stories about hot, alpha, dominant Mafia men but what happens if you accidentally catch a real life one?
Profile Image for Kia.
153 reviews1 follower
April 26, 2025
For Bratva romance lovers


This is part of TBE Brat a Kings series.
It was a fast, enjoyable read. Good characters, good story. Wish it would have gone into more of the past of both characters, but worth the read.
Profile Image for Anna Volk.
Author 12 books56 followers
February 4, 2025
good read

I enjoyed this book. No breakups with the h/h. Their struggles come from 3rd parties. They stay strong together throughout the story. I love books like this. There is enough drama in the world, I read to escape that and don’t want to read about it so this book was perfect.
Profile Image for BJ Mendo.
67 reviews
October 1, 2025
Struggling to finish. I have a hard time connecting with the characters.
Profile Image for Lyn R.
204 reviews
February 4, 2025
This was such a cute story! I know, I know - but it's about Russian Mafia Men - yes but they are extra loyal to their women and in this one a book social media influencer got courted (trapped) by her book boyfriend come to life. Best believe that man brought all her fantasies she put out on the web to life. He was quiet thorough with his research to say the least. I enjoyed Rodion and Embers story a bunch, it was just what I was looking for. This was such a fun, easy read! If you're looking for a big burly man with golden lab energy this is the book for you!

Rating: 4.5 ⭐️
Profile Image for bluejay :3.
94 reviews1 follower
December 31, 2025
From the moment Rodion was mentioned, I knew he was gonna be my fave. Like, I just love that man so much. And Ember?? I was literally praying mafia men never find out about me 😭 I was giggling the whole damn time.
Yeah, it was a bit darker than what I usually go for, but it was SO GOOD. I had so much fun reading it. I swear, if the stuff in my head actually happened in the book, it would’ve been even better—but it’s fine, I’m not mad.
One thing’s for sure: I’m not gonna stop loving Rodion for the next few decades.
But now? Now I can’t stop thinking about Semyon and it’s ruining my life. I NEED his book ASAP.
Did I mention how obsessed I am with Rodion???
13 reviews
February 6, 2025
Honestly I couldn't connect with this book. It started out strong representing every girl's dream that reads mafia darks romance... However once the FL and the ML meet the story only go down with it. It's very dreamy but not in a good way, more like cringing with their interactions and the story as a overall.
It was so hard finishing up the book and I did had to skip over some of their hot scenes so the story could move along quickly but still it didn't get any better.
I'm hopeful that the next book will be more entertaining.
Profile Image for Ali.
565 reviews
March 24, 2025
Ummm... this had the potential to be decent or even good, but unfortunately, it fell flat. The premise was unique and different from what I’m used to, but the execution just didn’t quite land for me. Rodion and Ember had all the qualities of great characters, but their connection never fully took off. A lot of the dialogue relied on common book tropes, and it became repetitive after a while.

Overall, it was just an ehh read for me.
Profile Image for Chelsea (2_girls_bookin_it).
690 reviews27 followers
January 30, 2025
DNFed around 35%. I wanted the spice right away, but the plot was moving too slow for me. I also just didn’t connect with this story or believed (as much as you can with these types of books) why she didn’t just block him.
Profile Image for Lynette.
784 reviews105 followers
January 31, 2025
Started out interesting but the FMC was super annoying to me. She wanted this fantasy book boyfriend life but then fought against it at every turn. Just couldn’t stand her resistance and it became too frustrating for me to truly enjoy.
157 reviews
January 27, 2025
I’m sorry but I really hate this book. First book is %100 better than this one. I am literally shocked about it.
Profile Image for iyawnna.
4 reviews
February 5, 2025
i don’t know…. this was more like a short story i would have read on wattpad at age 15.
Profile Image for Courtney.
117 reviews4 followers
February 10, 2025
I hated that so much, if I could give it 0 stars I would. The only reason I didn’t dnf was because at the point I absolutely just couldn’t do it anymore, I was at 66%. I just skimmed the rest.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 311 reviews

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