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Moretti Family #1

The Price of Mercy

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Dr. Julian Carter never wanted to be part of the underworld. As a dedicated doctor drowning in medical debt, the last thing he expected was to be dragged into the orbit of Enzo Moretti, the ruthless and powerful mafia boss whose life he saved one fateful night. Forced into Enzo’s world under the guise of protection, Julian finds himself trapped in a dangerous game of power, loyalty, and secrets.

Enzo is everything Julian despises; cold, commanding, and relentless. But as the days pass in the lavish yet suffocating mansion, Julian begins to see cracks in the armor. Beneath Enzo’s ruthless exterior lies a man shaped by betrayal and violence, a man who watches him too closely, protects him too fiercely, and invades his thoughts in ways Julian can’t ignore.

When an attack shakes the fragile balance between them, the lines between captor and protector blur. As enemies close in, Julian must decide if the fire between them is worth the risk… or if loving a man like Enzo will be his ultimate downfall.

A story of power, passion, and undeniable tension - "The Price of Mercy" is a slow-burn, high-stakes mafia romance and the first instalment in the 'Moretti Family' trilogy.

192 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 22, 2025

57 people are currently reading
57 people want to read

About the author

Anna T. Pope

200 books50 followers
Anna T. Pope (Tijana Popov) was born in 1993. to a middle-class family.
She lives in a small town in the Republic of Serbia; a tiny little state located in Southeast Europe. Anna is a mother of two little boys, with a big love of literature and even bigger dreams of becoming a well-known author.
She started writing during her adolescent years but the first time she allowed anyone to read her work was in 2016 when she joined the Wattpad community and published her first story.
Her main genre is general romance, although she also dabbles in the fantasy genre.

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Community Reviews

5 stars
22 (15%)
4 stars
25 (17%)
3 stars
45 (31%)
2 stars
34 (23%)
1 star
18 (12%)
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
Profile Image for Ula'ndi Hart.
987 reviews15 followers
February 26, 2025
Overall book rating: 2
Audio Book: N/A
Book Cover: 4.5

You guys... I tried.
I really like the cover. It got my attention as
this is an unknown author to me.

But I really just don't think I'm gonna
finish it.

I've worked with and for doctors for a
loooong time and really? The medical
aspects here are eyebrow lifting, to keep
it light. (I can say more but I'd rather not)

Also, for a mafia boss, yes well I think
I might have been spoiled with other
things. This didn't work for me.

We get in dept descriptions of how Enzo
smells, and how his presence feels like
thunder storms / clouds / cosmic happenings.
How his desk gleams, and how many walls
of first edition books he has.

But Enzo doesn't have a personality. He just
smells nice. (I'm sorry! I really am, this is
a personal opinion)

Julian. Well, to be honest I also don't
think he has much of a personality either?

To me not one of them had depth. He just
goes along with things and then chooses
random times to "stand his ground"
and then nothing is settled because the
conversations are riddles / lyrical / poetry?

Nothing makes sense and they go round and
round for ages.

How do you just take a ER doc of the street
and let him stay in your house? Your not supposed
to be 'trusting' of strangers?

To many things that didn't make a lick of
sense to me. It felt shallow and repetitive,
and there's no real story so far.

Really sorry guys but it is what it is.

3 reviews
February 22, 2025
Mid, cringey dialogues even for a mafia romance. Additional -1 star for medical inaccuracy when your main character is a practicing doctor (putting a tourniquet above a chest wound? also it stretches from collarbone downwards, where are you putting it? on the neck?)
Profile Image for JɄ₦Ɇ.
61 reviews1 follower
June 23, 2025
There was a lack of development in everything. Development in the characters, in the romance, in the story in general. Everything was very fast-paced and also somewhat repetitive and cliché. I don't mind clichés when they're done well. But that wasn't the case with this book.
Profile Image for Ana Laura Coronel Blanes.
463 reviews15 followers
August 12, 2025
-Romance oscuro.
-Mafia.
-Doctor x jefe de la mafia.

Tenía ganas de leer algo ligero y corto y este libro apareció ante mi. La sinopsis me atrapó completamente y en el segundo siguiente lo descargué.

¿Qué me pareció?

Esta escritora sabe escribir buenas sinopsis. Eso es todo.

Los protagonistas sin personalidad, diálogos mediocres y de repente aparece la tensión sexual sin resolver. Y eso no es lo peor de todo, no, es la falta de consistencia. En los primeros capítulos, Enzo resulta herido y Julian es quien lo cura, pero no es claro donde le dispararon (¿el costado? ¿O su pecho? Espera, ¿es su hombro, su clavícula?). En otra escena más adelante nos presentan a Enzo en medio del caos de su oficina destrozada, pero a medida que avancé en el capítulo me encuentro con que la está destrozando (¿de nuevo? O está rompiendo las pocas cosas que no rompió, ¿cierto? ¿Todavía siquiera le quedó algo sin destrozar?). Son pequeños detalles, pero es como si la autora no pudiera seguir el hilo de lo que ella misma está escribiendo. Es decepcionante.
Profile Image for JuJu.
196 reviews1 follower
March 2, 2025
🔫☠️The Price Of Mercy☠️🔫

I won't go over the blurb as you can read in the description. 🧐🤔

Moreton Family Series
1. The Price Of Mercy
2. The Price Of Honor

* MM * Slow Burn
* Dark Romance * All Feels
* Mafia * Angst
* Doctor

First time reading Anna.T Popes book🙂The cover made me choose this book....
This story had sooo much potential. There was action, which was great, but not once did Enzo unalive or shake up anyone & he is a Mafia boss, he just had temper issues. 🤔😡😠
Julian was head strong, stubborn & annoying & just seemed to complain all the way through story. 😤😠😡
The love scenes were rushed & it was mostly kissing action if that started at 72% into the story and they never exchanged i love yous, so there was no gritty spice💔😔😞.
I have mixed thoughts. 🤔💭 The story is read as third party which I find hard to get attached to the characters. 😔 The chapters are not titled, so I got confused about whose chapter it was about and the future jumping in the story how are we meant to get character or story building if story consistently says 2 weeks later or month later... 🤯😕

Thank you, Anna.T Pope💐
Story 📚📚
Characters ⭐️⭐️
Spice 🌶.5
Profile Image for Lyn.
94 reviews1 follower
August 24, 2025
So this read was a little interesting, but didn't really have much to do with the plot or the characters. I have a pretty lengthy drive time to work and so I wanted to listen to this to and from work. The plot interested me, the cover looks amazing, but the reason I had so much trouble trying to figure out where to place this in the star rankings is because of the narrator. It falls more under the 3.5 star rating.

It was a very good slow burn and picked up at the end, but trying to stay focused was hard due to the audiobook. I could have gone with this book being a little longer and spending a little more time with our two main guys. I do plan to continue the series, but I'm going to physically read this instead of trying to listen to another.

I believe I would have enjoyed it a little more if I hadn't listening to it due to the monotone of the narrator. It was very easy to get lost in who was talking if you weren't paying attention and there wasn't any change in his voice from soft scenes to more intense.
Profile Image for BookGeek1987.
120 reviews5 followers
February 27, 2025
I’ve not read this author before and I enjoy a mafia book. The blurb sounded interesting so I thought why not? I wish I hadn’t bothered….

I think pretentious is the best way to describe how this was written. It was so unnecessarily wordy, kinda felt like the author was testing out their thesaurus by adding in extra descriptors left right and centre.

I also did not like Enzo, our head of the mafia. Until the epilogue he had zero redeeming features. Oh, and he only developed said features because he got Julian kidnapped and beaten within an inch of his life, so he admitted to feeling guilty. No shit Sherlock.

Whilst Julian pretty much ended up with Stockholm Syndrome. He in effect was kidnapped, forced to live in a mafia mansion using his hard earned medical degree to patch up criminals. All because he kindly saved Enzo’s life, and Enzo repaid him by upending his world. But it’s all OK because Enzo really cares for him - he brings him food and coffee, and gives him a coat when he’s cold (yes these were actual reasons given…)

I’ve read loads of mafia books and this somehow managed to make a mob war boring.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
56 reviews
May 14, 2025
Going round in circles

I really wanted to like this book. The characters were good, the story line o.k. and the angst was building. But, omg, it just kept going around and around over stuff already covered. Yes, I got Jillian did not want to be held against his will. That Enzo wore a cologne everywhere as was constantly mentioned by the author. I lost count of the car chases, bullets being fired, all without mention of how these acts is were cleaned up and what was collateral damage with civilians or repercussions with the police. At 60% in i gave up. Still no romance between the two MC's. They had bearly got past Jullian's contempt and Enzo constantly walking away from any given situation. No plot progress into who was trying to kill them and what plans were happening to stop this. I regret buying this series and have read far superior books than this. 👎
Profile Image for AnjiRae17.
117 reviews
July 11, 2025
im dropping it for now
7 chapters in and guess how many "he stepped into this world/myworld and theres no going back" lines i have read....

IN.THOSE.7.CHAPTERS????

i love the plot i swear that i tried to give this a chance but omg im not fan of the writing... like, is this this author's first book? seems like this is not write?

whys the writing like this?

i dont notice things like this when i read but then , its soooo very noticeable in this book.

not only that like i think theres multiple "Julian is a puzze/Enzo is a puzzle" thing also

theres also a smirked a cold humorless smile...

i swear i feel like the vocabulary here is so limited....

i hate dropping books i swear.

but then books like these came so i have no choice. i dont want to waste time when im already experiencing a slump too and i just want a book that will make me enjoy reading back!

*sighs*
Profile Image for Hannah.
199 reviews3 followers
April 14, 2025
Too many cliches and telling instead of showing, wayyy too fast paced for the plot, I didn't get attached to the characters at all before their mafia doctor arrangement began. And little things that niggled at me, for example Enzo asked his brothers to put surveillance on Julian, and then later, randomly tells a very low level ranking guy to make sure the surveillance is discreet? Why would he not say that in the first place? The surveillance is already happening, he received a report about it, why does he have to now make sure the surveillance is being discreet? Is that not normally the go-to for surveillance? Just...really bothered me. Also in mafia romances, why is everyone and their mother named Enzo Moretti? There is nothing new here, don't waste your time.
Profile Image for Tris.
143 reviews
February 27, 2025
The first few pages were very promising. The doctor seemed like a strong character.

How wrong was I.

He immediately turned into a big whiny baby. Never give me whingey big babies as characters.
Profile Image for Mariah Flores.
163 reviews14 followers
June 29, 2025
I enjoyed the book, but i felt as if we were going around an around in circles. I loved both of the MMC an there banter an love was presented so well! I think there were a few grammatical errors, but overall enjoyed the story!
Profile Image for Mary.
228 reviews
March 7, 2025
I’m sorry I tried really hard to complete this but it looked like a teenage girl wrote this on wattpad. I usually give 4-5 ⭐️ but this just wasn’t it
Profile Image for A.U. Parrish.
12 reviews1 follower
April 5, 2025
Dnf 15%

This books pacing was very strange and the writing style of this book was strange to read. The characters didnt feel real and the conversation felt forced and rushed.
Profile Image for I.
16 reviews3 followers
March 3, 2025
A fast read. Not bad, not good. Mediocre at best. I didn’t feel the love between them, the chemistry maybe it was there, but the love not. Maybe it’s a good thing that I did manage tot finish the book, so the writing is not bad.
Maybe I will read the others brothers stories tho
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews

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