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The Wrong Made Men #1
Don't Say Mafia
Jagger Thatcher's book. Blurb to come. Release date will be moved up.* Jagger Thatcher is a morally grey antihero who is obsessed with his girl and will do anything to keep her.
Don't Say Mafia is a mafia romance standalone from USA Today and International Bestselling Author C.R. Jane.
Don't Say Mafia is a mafia romance standalone from USA Today and International Bestselling Author C.R. Jane.
521 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 18, 2026
About the author
C.R. Jane
124 books6,598 followersI'm a wife, mother, and author! Writing has always been a passion for me, and publishing my first series is a dream come true. I drink too much caffeine, never sleep, and my imagination is always churning out ideas. Eva and her men have been in my head for awhile, and I'm so glad to finally take you with me on this journey!
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,149 reviews
April 21, 2025
HE DID WHAT?! Can a morally grey MMC go too far? This one might be a psychopath in shining armour HIDING UNDER HER BED 🖤💦
Eden is sad-girling that married life working two jobs to support her loser husband. Until she catches the eye of a psycho Vegas man & hops on that MAFIA express! And this train goes FAST TO HELL…before going to heaven, I guess! Ridiculously exaggerated insta love obsession sprinkled with dark manipulation but it’s all for her own good so it’s okay…
Mr. Steal Your Girl aka Jagger is a morally DARK mmc so look away if you’re not okay with intense manipulation. At times his goofy banter was a bit cringe undermining his serious mafia persona 💪🏼🔫 Jagger is consumed by the obsession with Eden & not even HER MARRIAGE will stop him from keeping her. Not cheating (necessarily) but actually…something infinitely worse!
🖤 STALKING, ARSON, KILLING & DRUGGING…for her own good *hmmm*
🖤 cum plant *refuse to elaborate*
🖤 cocky mmc with infinite confidence to execute his unhinged plans
🖤 strip poker scene with pleasure
-dom coded smut!
SPOILER! SPOILER! As much as I love a morally grey mmc that is down for his girlie-pop I’m not sure if this was it. I can’t really get over him literally killing off her husband (it gets worse) & putting Eden through so much grief and trauma ❤️🩹 The husband wasn’t even that BAD! To justify such extreme measures I typically need the husband character to be much much worse and the way Jagger manipulated her grief just came across a little…predatory.
3.5 ⭐️
mafia romance
morally dark mmc
married fmc
insta love
cameras & stalking!
OM drama
found family
HEA
Eden is sad-girling that married life working two jobs to support her loser husband. Until she catches the eye of a psycho Vegas man & hops on that MAFIA express! And this train goes FAST TO HELL…before going to heaven, I guess! Ridiculously exaggerated insta love obsession sprinkled with dark manipulation but it’s all for her own good so it’s okay…
Mr. Steal Your Girl aka Jagger is a morally DARK mmc so look away if you’re not okay with intense manipulation. At times his goofy banter was a bit cringe undermining his serious mafia persona 💪🏼🔫 Jagger is consumed by the obsession with Eden & not even HER MARRIAGE will stop him from keeping her. Not cheating (necessarily) but actually…something infinitely worse!
🖤 STALKING, ARSON, KILLING & DRUGGING…for her own good *hmmm*
🖤 cum plant *refuse to elaborate*
🖤 cocky mmc with infinite confidence to execute his unhinged plans
🖤 strip poker scene with pleasure
-dom coded smut!
SPOILER! SPOILER! As much as I love a morally grey mmc that is down for his girlie-pop I’m not sure if this was it. I can’t really get over him literally killing off her husband (it gets worse) & putting Eden through so much grief and trauma ❤️🩹 The husband wasn’t even that BAD! To justify such extreme measures I typically need the husband character to be much much worse and the way Jagger manipulated her grief just came across a little…predatory.
3.5 ⭐️
mafia romance
morally dark mmc
married fmc
insta love
cameras & stalking!
OM drama
found family
HEA
August 8, 2026
I have such mixed feelings about this one.
Firstly, it took me a while to get into the story. I actually ended up putting it down and reading another book before coming back to it. Once I hit around the 50% mark, though, I found myself much more engaged with Jagger and Eden and their story started to pull me in a lot more.
I’m always a sucker for an obsessed man, and Jagger was certainly that. 👀 Once his obsession really started to show, I found myself much more invested in the two of them.
Going into this, I knew Eden was married and, of course, with this being a dark romance, I was intrigued to see what would happen with her husband. But honestly, I ended up feeling so bad for Ryan. What happened to him genuinely broke my heart. 🥺 I understand that he was emotionally draining Eden and clearly needed help, but I still felt like he didn’t deserve what happened to him. I think that actually soured the story for me a little because I struggled with some of what happened.
I also think the book was probably a little too long for me. There were parts that felt like they could have been shortened, especially considering how long it took me to really become invested in the story.
Overall, there were definitely things I enjoyed, and once I got past that halfway point I was much more invested in Jagger and Eden.
Thank you to the author for the ARC.
Firstly, it took me a while to get into the story. I actually ended up putting it down and reading another book before coming back to it. Once I hit around the 50% mark, though, I found myself much more engaged with Jagger and Eden and their story started to pull me in a lot more.
I’m always a sucker for an obsessed man, and Jagger was certainly that. 👀 Once his obsession really started to show, I found myself much more invested in the two of them.
Going into this, I knew Eden was married and, of course, with this being a dark romance, I was intrigued to see what would happen with her husband. But honestly, I ended up feeling so bad for Ryan. What happened to him genuinely broke my heart. 🥺 I understand that he was emotionally draining Eden and clearly needed help, but I still felt like he didn’t deserve what happened to him. I think that actually soured the story for me a little because I struggled with some of what happened.
I also think the book was probably a little too long for me. There were parts that felt like they could have been shortened, especially considering how long it took me to really become invested in the story.
Overall, there were definitely things I enjoyed, and once I got past that halfway point I was much more invested in Jagger and Eden.
Thank you to the author for the ARC.
August 3, 2026
Okay, so I’m honored to have received an ARC of this book. That’s the first thing I want to say followed by the statement that this is my honest unfiltered review.
I wanted to love this and yet I knew I’d have a hard time with it as soon as I saw in the summary that not even her husband would keep him from her. I hate when an MC is in a relationship but the author makes all these excuses as to why it’s perfectly fine for the MC to cheat on that person with the other MC. At least the FMC in this book only committed emotional infidelity (which is still wrong) and not full on cheating but still! Anyway, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, end your current relationship and then engage in a new one if you must.
There were several places where the author bolded text messages in their entirety or the name of who sent it without any explanation as to why. I found a couple of mistakes and highlighted them but am not sure how to make them known when we’re told that ARCs will have mistakes.
I will never be able to look at cheesecake the same again. I always get a major ick when an author uses food during sex. 🤢
I also had a literal out loud “Ow!” moment when the author had the MMC tell the FMC to rub her cl!t on the teeth of his zipper. Owwwwww!! 😬😖
Another thing I struggled with was the sheer amount of sex that did nothing for the development of their relationship or the characters themselves. The amount of time spent describing the fluids dripping from her v@g!n@ and from the tip of his p!erced d!ck gave me major 🤮 as well. Why do we need to know that?!
I also am saddened by how things went down with the FMC’s husband. He wasn’t physically abusive or verbally abusive. He never cheated on her. He was just draining her day by day and the MMC decided he needed to be dead if the FMC was ever going to belong to the MMC. The husband was human and made mistakes but he didn’t deserve to die for them.
Last (for now) but certainly not least, NEVER romanticize kissing someone to stop a panic attack. I absolutely canNOT stand that micro trope.
I wanted to love this and yet I knew I’d have a hard time with it as soon as I saw in the summary that not even her husband would keep him from her. I hate when an MC is in a relationship but the author makes all these excuses as to why it’s perfectly fine for the MC to cheat on that person with the other MC. At least the FMC in this book only committed emotional infidelity (which is still wrong) and not full on cheating but still! Anyway, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, end your current relationship and then engage in a new one if you must.
There were several places where the author bolded text messages in their entirety or the name of who sent it without any explanation as to why. I found a couple of mistakes and highlighted them but am not sure how to make them known when we’re told that ARCs will have mistakes.
I will never be able to look at cheesecake the same again. I always get a major ick when an author uses food during sex. 🤢
I also had a literal out loud “Ow!” moment when the author had the MMC tell the FMC to rub her cl!t on the teeth of his zipper. Owwwwww!! 😬😖
Another thing I struggled with was the sheer amount of sex that did nothing for the development of their relationship or the characters themselves. The amount of time spent describing the fluids dripping from her v@g!n@ and from the tip of his p!erced d!ck gave me major 🤮 as well. Why do we need to know that?!
I also am saddened by how things went down with the FMC’s husband. He wasn’t physically abusive or verbally abusive. He never cheated on her. He was just draining her day by day and the MMC decided he needed to be dead if the FMC was ever going to belong to the MMC. The husband was human and made mistakes but he didn’t deserve to die for them.
Last (for now) but certainly not least, NEVER romanticize kissing someone to stop a panic attack. I absolutely canNOT stand that micro trope.
August 18, 2026
DISSAPPOINTED
The book was sooo badd , I already hate the mmc and I am only 30% into the book .
The mmc is a sick bastard , who the hell is he to kill the fmc husband I felt so bad for Ryan (he was a shit husband but did not deserve to die like that )
I skipped more pages than I read it is soo boringgg
Idk but feel that the mmc has more chemistry with
The book was sooo badd , I already hate the mmc and I am only 30% into the book .
The mmc is a sick bastard , who the hell is he to kill the fmc husband I felt so bad for Ryan (he was a shit husband but did not deserve to die like that )
I skipped more pages than I read it is soo boringgg
Idk but feel that the mmc has more chemistry with
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
no
July 1, 2026Manwhore MMC
August 19, 2026
this was one of my most anticipated books coming out this year, but just NO
I absolutely love a morally gray character. I could not wait to read Jagger’s book after reading the series beginning with his brother in The Wrong Catch. I loved the snippets of Jagger’s character we got in those books. 😍
I actually bought into the story until he killed Ryan, the FMC‘s husband. CR Jane gave us a tragic backstory for Ryan. Through her character development, Ryan came off as someone who had every intention of doing the right thing but just didn’t have the tools based on his upbringing to follow through. I don’t need a happy ending but that was a limit after reading hundreds of books that I didn’t know I couldn’t get past.
I usually love C R Jane’s books and I will absolutely read the next one but this one, personally, a huge disappointment. 😞
I absolutely love a morally gray character. I could not wait to read Jagger’s book after reading the series beginning with his brother in The Wrong Catch. I loved the snippets of Jagger’s character we got in those books. 😍
I actually bought into the story until he killed Ryan, the FMC‘s husband. CR Jane gave us a tragic backstory for Ryan. Through her character development, Ryan came off as someone who had every intention of doing the right thing but just didn’t have the tools based on his upbringing to follow through. I don’t need a happy ending but that was a limit after reading hundreds of books that I didn’t know I couldn’t get past.
I usually love C R Jane’s books and I will absolutely read the next one but this one, personally, a huge disappointment. 😞
June 30, 2026
Title: Don’t Say Mafia
Author: C. R. Jane
Series: The Wrong Made Men, 1
Format: Edelweiss ebook
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Overall score:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice level:🌶️🌶️🌶️
POV’s: Eden (FMC) & Jagger (MMC)
What to expect:
*Mafia dark romance
*Morally grey antihero
*Broken FMC
Safety:
One sex scene between MMC and OW, before he even knew the FMC existed. No other mentions of the MMC being with other women. One sex scene between FMC and OM. No other drama with OW/OM. No third act breakup. A lot of on page violence, kidnapping.
Review:
This author can never go wrong with her over the top MMC’s!! The minute that Jagger laid eyes on Eden he was done for, no one could ever separate him from his love after that moment. Is he over the top with his protective acts? Yes! Is it legal in any way? No! Do we love him anyway? Absolutely!!
Eden was broken and beat down from years of being taken advantage of by someone who claimed to love her. You will need to read the book to understand more of why she trusted and stayed with this person for so long. Eden truly deserved everything that Jagger was able to provide for her, I am so glad she didn’t fight him over his protectiveness.
The MMC of this book is the brother of the MMC from The Wrong Play, he is featured several times in this story. If you haven’t read The Wrong Player series I suggest starting there first.
The book is a lot darker than this author’s normal stories. This is a typical mafia romance with a lot of on page violence, kidnapping, murder, and more.
I cannot wait to read the rest of this series, the friend group was hilarious and so protective of each other. This series is going to be another amazing set of books from this author!!
Author: C. R. Jane
Series: The Wrong Made Men, 1
Format: Edelweiss ebook
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Overall score:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice level:🌶️🌶️🌶️
POV’s: Eden (FMC) & Jagger (MMC)
What to expect:
*Mafia dark romance
*Morally grey antihero
*Broken FMC
Safety:
One sex scene between MMC and OW, before he even knew the FMC existed. No other mentions of the MMC being with other women. One sex scene between FMC and OM. No other drama with OW/OM. No third act breakup. A lot of on page violence, kidnapping.
Review:
This author can never go wrong with her over the top MMC’s!! The minute that Jagger laid eyes on Eden he was done for, no one could ever separate him from his love after that moment. Is he over the top with his protective acts? Yes! Is it legal in any way? No! Do we love him anyway? Absolutely!!
Eden was broken and beat down from years of being taken advantage of by someone who claimed to love her. You will need to read the book to understand more of why she trusted and stayed with this person for so long. Eden truly deserved everything that Jagger was able to provide for her, I am so glad she didn’t fight him over his protectiveness.
The MMC of this book is the brother of the MMC from The Wrong Play, he is featured several times in this story. If you haven’t read The Wrong Player series I suggest starting there first.
The book is a lot darker than this author’s normal stories. This is a typical mafia romance with a lot of on page violence, kidnapping, murder, and more.
I cannot wait to read the rest of this series, the friend group was hilarious and so protective of each other. This series is going to be another amazing set of books from this author!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 24, 2026
3.25⭐️
Idk if it was my mood or the book but this took me forever to finish/ get into.
Safety
•no vs
•No others after meeting
•h: had only been with her husband.
•H: manwhore
•owd: his first chapter starts with him being woken up by a one night stand, he fell asleep mid hook up with her. He mentions an ex girlfriend Carlie who I think he cared for but never loved I think she’s only mentioned because carlies accident was the reason H murdered for the first time.
•omd: husband Ryan, she has on page sex with him once & she is thinking of the H during it.
Self note
Not sure about next one as it’s second chance
Idk if it was my mood or the book but this took me forever to finish/ get into.
Safety
•no vs
•No others after meeting
•h: had only been with her husband.
•H: manwhore
•owd: his first chapter starts with him being woken up by a one night stand, he fell asleep mid hook up with her. He mentions an ex girlfriend Carlie who I think he cared for but never loved I think she’s only mentioned because carlies accident was the reason H murdered for the first time.
•omd: husband Ryan, she has on page sex with him once & she is thinking of the H during it.
Self note
Not sure about next one as it’s second chance
August 22, 2026
I fear i truly have an affinity for crazy men who are in love🤭 Jagger and Eden love was so intensely good and I can’t wait for Cruz story🤭
P.S something tells me I will fall deeply in love with Gage and Lawson and I can’t wait for their stories!
P.S something tells me I will fall deeply in love with Gage and Lawson and I can’t wait for their stories!
September 26, 2026
DISGUSTING. Everything in this book is just so disgusting.
I usually write long reviews but this is just trash and it doesn’t deserve my time and words.
I usually write long reviews but this is just trash and it doesn’t deserve my time and words.
September 17, 2026
Queen C.R. Jane KNOWS how to write her men because OMG… JAGGER. THIS MAN!!!
He stops at absolutely nothing to feed his obsession, and somehow has you questioning everything you thought you knew about right and wrong. Like, Eden is MARRIED… you think that’s going to stop him?! Absolutely not. 😭
The possessiveness. The obsession. The “you are mine and I don’t care who or what stands in my way” energy. I am absolutely and completely feral for this man.
“I’ll chain you to me. I’ll burn the fucking world down. But you don’t get to walk away. Not from this. Not from me.”
ZERO. WORDS.
And then that scene where he basically tells her he’s going to erase every memory of anyone who came before him?! can I get a mic drop!
AND NOW I NEED BOOK TWO!!! Jace Jagger’s brother is next, and we’re going from mafia romance to SPORTS ROMANCE while staying in the same world?!
C.R. Jane, I’m ready. Give it to me NOW. ALSO patiently waiting for book two of Shadows of Sparta!
He stops at absolutely nothing to feed his obsession, and somehow has you questioning everything you thought you knew about right and wrong. Like, Eden is MARRIED… you think that’s going to stop him?! Absolutely not. 😭
The possessiveness. The obsession. The “you are mine and I don’t care who or what stands in my way” energy. I am absolutely and completely feral for this man.
“I’ll chain you to me. I’ll burn the fucking world down. But you don’t get to walk away. Not from this. Not from me.”
ZERO. WORDS.
And then that scene where he basically tells her he’s going to erase every memory of anyone who came before him?! can I get a mic drop!
AND NOW I NEED BOOK TWO!!! Jace Jagger’s brother is next, and we’re going from mafia romance to SPORTS ROMANCE while staying in the same world?!
C.R. Jane, I’m ready. Give it to me NOW. ALSO patiently waiting for book two of Shadows of Sparta!
August 2, 2026
This book was a good time all around, like all CR Jane books are. The men that CR writes are obsessive and possessive, just the way we like them and Jagger was no exception. This man tried not the be just like his brother but failed spectacularly and in a more unhinged way. Jagger takes one look at Eden and is like, she’s mine, even though she’s married when they first meet.
Eden has been in Vegas for years and is crumbling working two jobs and living in a run down apartment while her husband, Ryan, who isn’t doing much. One night, she works the high roller table at her casino job and locks eyes with none other than Jagger. The story unfolding afterwards is of a man possessed to make this woman his and Eden getting all the things she deserves.
I read this in a day because I could not stop laughing at how truly unhinged Jagger was and the vibes of the whole book just made me happy. The way CR writes, you’re like, yeah, makes total sense how he’s getting the girl because he’s obsessed and needs her to be happy. In order for her to be happy, she needs to be his.
The group of the Syndicate as whole is totally unhinged, and when you’re in the mafia, I feel like you have to be. This is not your typical mafia book though. This is a group of men who will make you laugh out loud from their utter nonsense and want to be friends with them. The way they just welcome Eden into the fold made me so happy because this girl literally had no one.
Thank you to CR Jane for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Tropes:
✨A possessive, obsessive antihero who only has eyes for one woman
✨Banter sharp enough to draw blood
✨The glittering, deadly world of the Vale Syndicate
✨Loyalty, family, and impossible choices
✨A red-flag love story with zero interest in playing it safe
✨Enough chemistry to burn Las Vegas to the ground
Eden has been in Vegas for years and is crumbling working two jobs and living in a run down apartment while her husband, Ryan, who isn’t doing much. One night, she works the high roller table at her casino job and locks eyes with none other than Jagger. The story unfolding afterwards is of a man possessed to make this woman his and Eden getting all the things she deserves.
I read this in a day because I could not stop laughing at how truly unhinged Jagger was and the vibes of the whole book just made me happy. The way CR writes, you’re like, yeah, makes total sense how he’s getting the girl because he’s obsessed and needs her to be happy. In order for her to be happy, she needs to be his.
The group of the Syndicate as whole is totally unhinged, and when you’re in the mafia, I feel like you have to be. This is not your typical mafia book though. This is a group of men who will make you laugh out loud from their utter nonsense and want to be friends with them. The way they just welcome Eden into the fold made me so happy because this girl literally had no one.
Thank you to CR Jane for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Tropes:
✨A possessive, obsessive antihero who only has eyes for one woman
✨Banter sharp enough to draw blood
✨The glittering, deadly world of the Vale Syndicate
✨Loyalty, family, and impossible choices
✨A red-flag love story with zero interest in playing it safe
✨Enough chemistry to burn Las Vegas to the ground
August 6, 2026
JAGGER. I love the unhinged men that we get from CR Jane and Jagger literally had me melting even with all of the red flags! He’s unhinged, obsessed, and will literally stop at nothing to make Eden his woman! And I love a man who knows exactly what he wants. The chemistry between these two is so obvious from the start…that attraction only keeps growing stronger and the banter between them was even more perfect!
The audio for this is performed in duet by Alexis Paige & Sean Masters - both of them were phenomenal!! If you’re on the fence about listening vs eyeball reading, I HIGHLY recommend the audio or doing an immersive read because I loved every single minute of this audiobook!
What to Expect:
🌹dark mafia rom com
🌹he falls first
🌹stalker
🌹found family
🌹mr. steal your girl
🌹obsessed mmc
🌹pierced mmc
🌹crawl to me
🌹mine
The audio for this is performed in duet by Alexis Paige & Sean Masters - both of them were phenomenal!! If you’re on the fence about listening vs eyeball reading, I HIGHLY recommend the audio or doing an immersive read because I loved every single minute of this audiobook!
What to Expect:
🌹dark mafia rom com
🌹he falls first
🌹stalker
🌹found family
🌹mr. steal your girl
🌹obsessed mmc
🌹pierced mmc
🌹crawl to me
🌹mine
August 20, 2026
🎧 Audiobook 🎧
Bu yazarın kitaplarında en sevdiğim şey adamlar ne kadar zengin ne kadar ünlü ve ne kadar güçlü olurlarsa olsunlar, ve kadınlar da ne kadar fakir ne kadar rezil ne kadar sefil olurlarsa olsunlar asla bi anlık bir laflık bile zorbalık yapmıyorlar...
Ilk saniyeden itibaren kadına hep çok saygılı adamlar.
Hatta şöyle söyliim bana insta love olayını sevdiren yazar budur 😌
Zaten yazarın herhangi bir kitabını okuduysanız aşağı yukarı bu kitaptan da ne bekleyeceğinizi biliyorsunuz.
Asla bir mafia romance degil, adamin mafyatik biri olmasi tamamen arka plandan gelen cılız bir ses gibi, ama serinin diğer kitaplarında biraz daha mafya görebiliriz belki.
1 yıldızı da adamın başta işlediği cinayet ortaya çıkmadığı için kırıyorum, kadının bunu bilmeye hakkı vardı. Tamam o adam ölmeyi hak etmişti etmemişti ye girmiyorum ama kadının ona bunları yaşatan adamı (ex kocasını yani) terk etmeye hakkı ve ihtiyaci vardı ve adam onu öldürerek kadının elinden bu hakkı aldı gibime geldi o yüzden sinir oldum.
Bu yazarın kitaplarında en sevdiğim şey adamlar ne kadar zengin ne kadar ünlü ve ne kadar güçlü olurlarsa olsunlar, ve kadınlar da ne kadar fakir ne kadar rezil ne kadar sefil olurlarsa olsunlar asla bi anlık bir laflık bile zorbalık yapmıyorlar...
Ilk saniyeden itibaren kadına hep çok saygılı adamlar.
Hatta şöyle söyliim bana insta love olayını sevdiren yazar budur 😌
Zaten yazarın herhangi bir kitabını okuduysanız aşağı yukarı bu kitaptan da ne bekleyeceğinizi biliyorsunuz.
Asla bir mafia romance degil, adamin mafyatik biri olmasi tamamen arka plandan gelen cılız bir ses gibi, ama serinin diğer kitaplarında biraz daha mafya görebiliriz belki.
1 yıldızı da adamın başta işlediği cinayet ortaya çıkmadığı için kırıyorum, kadının bunu bilmeye hakkı vardı. Tamam o adam ölmeyi hak etmişti etmemişti ye girmiyorum ama kadının ona bunları yaşatan adamı (ex kocasını yani) terk etmeye hakkı ve ihtiyaci vardı ve adam onu öldürerek kadının elinden bu hakkı aldı gibime geldi o yüzden sinir oldum.
October 7, 2026
Don’t say mafia 🔫
Така погана і крінжова книжка, що я навіть не знаю, з якого боку підступитися до відгуку😁
Іден - заміжня співробітниця казино, яка так невдало припала до душі небезпечному вегаському мафіозі Джаггеру. Тепер ніщо його не зупинить, навіть наявність чоловіка у обраної ним жінки.
Слоган цієї книги: «Раз, два, три, логіко, помри!». Головна героїня тупа, як пробка, і замість купи червоних прапорців бачить чисто розмиті вогники, які бачать люди з астигматизмом замість фар.
Хммм, згоріло моє попереднє місце роботи при загадкових обставинах? А потім згоріла моя квартира і стрьомний малознайомий чувак кличе мене жити до нього і сильно психує, коли чує що подруга готова мене прийняти у себе? Чоловік загинув при дивних обставинах? Ну і ладно.
Вона не задає ЖОДНИХ запитань, не показує і крихти персоналіті і сприймає все, як даність.
Джаггер….знаєте, іноді в дарк романах є схиблені, одержимі чоловіки, але від них не хочеться ригати. От Джаггер до таких не відноситься. Він стрьомний, по-справжньому страшний, і його рішення навіть в рамках любовного роману важко романтизувати. Він вживляє їй чіп для стеження. І потім - другий, контрольний. Підшиває такі чіпи у весь її одяг (до речі! Одяг, весь, вибирав особисто він, на думку Іден йому так би мовити начхати. Його лялька, то одягає її як хоче). Більшість його «власницьких» дій настільки гіперболізовані, що місцями стали дуже принизливими🫣
Єдина хороша деталь цієї книги - вона коротенька і страждала я не довго.
Така погана і крінжова книжка, що я навіть не знаю, з якого боку підступитися до відгуку😁
Іден - заміжня співробітниця казино, яка так невдало припала до душі небезпечному вегаському мафіозі Джаггеру. Тепер ніщо його не зупинить, навіть наявність чоловіка у обраної ним жінки.
Слоган цієї книги: «Раз, два, три, логіко, помри!». Головна героїня тупа, як пробка, і замість купи червоних прапорців бачить чисто розмиті вогники, які бачать люди з астигматизмом замість фар.
Хммм, згоріло моє попереднє місце роботи при загадкових обставинах? А потім згоріла моя квартира і стрьомний малознайомий чувак кличе мене жити до нього і сильно психує, коли чує що подруга готова мене прийняти у себе? Чоловік загинув при дивних обставинах? Ну і ладно.
Вона не задає ЖОДНИХ запитань, не показує і крихти персоналіті і сприймає все, як даність.
Джаггер….знаєте, іноді в дарк романах є схиблені, одержимі чоловіки, але від них не хочеться ригати. От Джаггер до таких не відноситься. Він стрьомний, по-справжньому страшний, і його рішення навіть в рамках любовного роману важко романтизувати. Він вживляє їй чіп для стеження. І потім - другий, контрольний. Підшиває такі чіпи у весь її одяг (до речі! Одяг, весь, вибирав особисто він, на думку Іден йому так би мовити начхати. Його лялька, то одягає її як хоче). Більшість його «власницьких» дій настільки гіперболізовані, що місцями стали дуже принизливими🫣
Єдина хороша деталь цієї книги - вона коротенька і страждала я не довго.
August 2, 2026
C.R. Jane once again proves why she’s one of my absolute must-read authors! Ever since I finished Jace’s book, I knew I needed his mysterious brother’s story ASAP. I have been impatiently counting down the days for this one, and let me tell you, it did not disappoint! C.R. Jane completely delivers with all the intense passion, obsessiveness, and dark drama we know and love from her previous books.
Jagger Thatcher is an insanely possessive mobster of the Vale Syndicate in Vegas. His obsession? Eden Thorne is a cocktail waitress stuck in a toxic marriage, but as Jagger says marriages aren’t always permanent, especially when your husband mysteriously ends up dead. OOPS! Jagger is the ultimate morally grey hero who refuses to take no for an answer, and the instant tension and insanely hot chemistry between these two had me completely hooked from page one! C.R. Jane is epic at writing male characters so swoony, their red flags look green, and I’m totally here for it.
I did an immersive read with both the ebook and audio, and let me tell you - Sean Masters and Alexis Paige brought this book to LIFE! Sean Masters was born to play Jagger. His deep, gravelly tone made every dangerously possessive line hit so. much. harder. Alexis Paige captured Eden’s vulnerability and hidden strength perfectly, making her struggle and growing desire feel so real. Doing the audio/ebook combo made every single spicy, high-stakes moment hit twice as hard, and I honestly couldn't take my headphones off!
Don’t Say Mafia is such an addictive start to The Wrong Made Men series, and I am already desperate for whatever C.R. Jane writes next! If you love dark mafia romance, ruthless heroes who will burn the world down for their girl, and addictively delicious spice, you need this on your radar RIGHT FREAKING NOW! This book delivered everything I was hoping for and then some. Not afraid to admit, I’m obsessed with the Thatcher brothers!
Jagger Thatcher is an insanely possessive mobster of the Vale Syndicate in Vegas. His obsession? Eden Thorne is a cocktail waitress stuck in a toxic marriage, but as Jagger says marriages aren’t always permanent, especially when your husband mysteriously ends up dead. OOPS! Jagger is the ultimate morally grey hero who refuses to take no for an answer, and the instant tension and insanely hot chemistry between these two had me completely hooked from page one! C.R. Jane is epic at writing male characters so swoony, their red flags look green, and I’m totally here for it.
I did an immersive read with both the ebook and audio, and let me tell you - Sean Masters and Alexis Paige brought this book to LIFE! Sean Masters was born to play Jagger. His deep, gravelly tone made every dangerously possessive line hit so. much. harder. Alexis Paige captured Eden’s vulnerability and hidden strength perfectly, making her struggle and growing desire feel so real. Doing the audio/ebook combo made every single spicy, high-stakes moment hit twice as hard, and I honestly couldn't take my headphones off!
Don’t Say Mafia is such an addictive start to The Wrong Made Men series, and I am already desperate for whatever C.R. Jane writes next! If you love dark mafia romance, ruthless heroes who will burn the world down for their girl, and addictively delicious spice, you need this on your radar RIGHT FREAKING NOW! This book delivered everything I was hoping for and then some. Not afraid to admit, I’m obsessed with the Thatcher brothers!
August 11, 2026
Wow…I have so many feelings.
CR Jane writes tension you can cut with a knife.
Spice : 🌶️ 🌶️ 🌶️
Darkness : 🖤 🖤
Your MMC is….NUTS…but you will love him because…obviously.
I also underestimated how spicy this was going to be.
This book was so much fun…I forgot I was reading and wished it was longer.
The banter was top tier.
The energy of the book really nailed it with the theme and pace. If you like a dark mafia romance…just go ahead and order this now.
“His mouth curved in delight, as though I’d just given him exactly what he’d been hoping for. ‘I’m trying to decide,’ he said, ‘whether you look at every man like he’s a bad decision . . . or if I’m just getting special treatment.’ “
Mafia. Dark romance. Found family. Banter. Possessive mmc.
Thank you so much to CR Jane and Podium Entertainment for this eARC!
CR Jane writes tension you can cut with a knife.
Spice : 🌶️ 🌶️ 🌶️
Darkness : 🖤 🖤
Your MMC is….NUTS…but you will love him because…obviously.
I also underestimated how spicy this was going to be.
This book was so much fun…I forgot I was reading and wished it was longer.
The banter was top tier.
The energy of the book really nailed it with the theme and pace. If you like a dark mafia romance…just go ahead and order this now.
“His mouth curved in delight, as though I’d just given him exactly what he’d been hoping for. ‘I’m trying to decide,’ he said, ‘whether you look at every man like he’s a bad decision . . . or if I’m just getting special treatment.’ “
Mafia. Dark romance. Found family. Banter. Possessive mmc.
Thank you so much to CR Jane and Podium Entertainment for this eARC!
August 21, 2026
forbidden x forced proximity x mafia
You know how sometimes you’re just in the mood for a dark romance where the villain gets the girl because he’ll stop at absolutely nothing to get her? This is the book for you. He crosses all the lines and we love him for it.
Read this when you’re in the mood for…
- dark romance
- mafia
- forced proximity
- forbidden
- if he wanted to, he would but in a stalker kind of way
There are little cameos from previous series by CR Jane but you can start here with no problems!
ps - thank you Podium for sending me a copy!
You know how sometimes you’re just in the mood for a dark romance where the villain gets the girl because he’ll stop at absolutely nothing to get her? This is the book for you. He crosses all the lines and we love him for it.
Read this when you’re in the mood for…
- dark romance
- mafia
- forced proximity
- forbidden
- if he wanted to, he would but in a stalker kind of way
There are little cameos from previous series by CR Jane but you can start here with no problems!
ps - thank you Podium for sending me a copy!
August 18, 2026
DNF at 1% because Taylor Swift was in the books playlist.
Taylor Swift is not the vibe I want in my dark mafia romance.
Taylor Swift is not the vibe I want in my dark mafia romance.
August 22, 2026
⭐⭐⭐½ — 3.5 stars
This book had 5-star potential. I loved the romance, the humor, the absolute ridiculousness, the supporting cast, the football crossover, Lawson unexpectedly becoming Action Hero Tech Boy, the whole Don’t Say Mafia running joke, and even the absolutely deranged, blood-covered Elvis-chapel wedding.
But it loses 1.5 stars for the same fundamental flaw demonstrated twice: a disturbing lack of emotional weight around human life and human connection.
And before I get into that, I want to make something very clear:
I know I’m reading a mafia romance.
I do not expect everybody to survive. These are violent people living in a violent world, and death is part of the genre. I don’t need every character protected simply because they’ve appeared on the page.
But I do need death to mean something.
If you’re going to kill someone, there needs to be a reason for that death beyond convenience. And when you kill someone who is supposedly part of this tight-knit team—this chosen family whose loyalty to one another is one of the selling points of the story—I need that loss to carry emotional weight.
People can die without the story treating human life as disposable.
Unfortunately, this book crossed that line for me twice.
Ryan deserved to be treated like a person
Eden’s husband, Ryan, wasn’t just an obstacle standing between Jagger and Eden who needed to be conveniently removed from the board.
He was a human being.
And more importantly, he hadn’t done anything remotely bad enough to deserve being murdered.
The book actually did too good a job making Ryan sympathetic first—he was just a kid who had gotten himself into a bad situation—and then murdered him off like none of that mattered.
Again, this is a mafia romance. I’m not expecting Jagger to have a pristine moral compass. I expect violence. I expect morally questionable decisions. I expect people to die.
But Ryan wasn’t dangerous enough to warrant what happened to him. He hadn’t committed some terrible act that made his death feel justified within the morality of this world.
He was simply inconvenient.
The story treated him almost like a piece of furniture that could be removed at will because he was in the way.
Killing an inconvenient person isn’t automatically the same thing as creating a compelling morally gray hero. If the narrative wants me to accept a character’s death, it has to give that death a reason proportional to what happens to him.
Ryan didn’t get that.
That bothered me enough to cost the book a full star.
Then came Zachary.
And Zachary proved the problem went deeper.
Zachary was one of their people
Zachary wasn’t an outsider.
He wasn’t an enemy.
He wasn’t an inconvenient romantic obstacle.
He was part of the team.
We knew him.
He drove Eden around. He brought her breakfast. He brought her clothes. He brought her the phone. He talked to her about Jagger. He helped with their completely insane adventures. He was even part of the ridiculous run-Ryan-over-with-the-Escalade operation.
He was a recurring presence in their lives, not some nameless bodyguard standing in the background.
And when everything went wrong, Zachary died protecting Eden.
Jagger knew the Irish were coming and immediately told Zachary to protect her.
Zachary did exactly that.
He stayed with Eden. He warned her when they were coming. He told her to run. He tried to protect her, and the last time Eden saw him, he was crumpled on the floor.
She didn’t know whether he was alive or dead.
While Eden was being held hostage, she was still thinking about him. She remembered Zachary telling her to be brave for Jagger, and his words actively influenced the way she handled her captivity.
So his final moments mattered to her.
Then Eden was rescued…
And Zachary essentially ceased to exist.
Nobody seemed devastated that they’d lost one of their own. Nobody stopped to acknowledge what he’d done. Nobody talked about losing a member of their team. Nobody even gave us the simple emotional beat of:
“Zachary didn’t make it.”
And this is where my I know this is a mafia romance caveat becomes especially important.
I am not upset that Zachary died.
Would I have liked him to survive? Absolutely.
But that’s not my criticism.
Team members can die. In fact, losing someone important can raise the stakes and make this dangerous world feel real.
But if you’re going to tell me these people are family—if I’m supposed to believe they would fight, kill and die for one another—then when one of them actually does die for them, I need to feel his absence.
Death should leave a hole.
Zachary’s didn’t.
And it hurt the wedding for me
Instead of dealing with Zachary’s death, we went almost immediately into what should have been one of my favorite sequences in the entire book.
And objectively?
The wedding is hilarious.
Jagger has just been held hostage.
Eden has just been kidnapped.
Jagger has stabbed Cormac an absolutely unreasonable number of times.
They’re covered in blood.
Everyone is exhausted and traumatized.
And Jagger’s brain apparently processes this situation and produces exactly one thought:
WIFE. NOW.
😂
They’re sitting in the car and Jagger announces they’re getting married.
Maddox and Lawson are basically asking whether perhaps the recently kidnapped, blood-covered couple should take five minutes before making lifelong decisions.
Jagger says no.
They’re going to the Little Elvis Chapel.
Immediately.
Eden finally realizes he’s serious and points out that they haven’t even discussed the fact that he’s in the mafia yet.
And because this book has committed to its title:
Don’t say mafia.
😂
Then Jagger gets handcuffs out of the glove compartment and cuffs Eden to himself.
Eden:
“This is kidnapping!”
Jagger, essentially:
“No. This is the next step in our relationship.”
Eden decides that the fact she’s actually considering marrying him probably means she needs therapy.
Jagger agrees.
They’ll get her therapy after the wedding.
THAT IS FUNNY.
That is exactly the kind of completely unhinged nonsense I want from this book.
Lawson is even trying to arrange a FaceTime so hospitalized Cruz and Gage can watch the ceremony, although neither of them answers.
But the entire time, instead of completely enjoying the insanity, I was thinking:
WHAT ABOUT ZACHARY?!
Because Lawson specifically tells us that he got Cruz and Gage to the hospital.
Great.
DID ANYBODY CHECK THE OTHER GUY?!
And that dragged down a wedding scene that otherwise would have been fantastic for me.
Then the epilogue somehow made it worse
A week later, we finally get what appears to be our only real confirmation that Zachary died.
Jagger and Eden have moved into a different penthouse because Eden couldn’t stand being in the old one and picturing Zachary’s body lying there.
And somehow that made the omission bother me even more.
Because clearly Eden is affected by his death.
She’s affected so deeply by what she saw that she can’t continue living in the same home.
So the book acknowledges the trauma of seeing Zachary die without ever really acknowledging the loss of Zachary himself.
That’s the distinction.
He becomes the upsetting image instead of the person they lost.
And I don’t believe that reaction from these characters.
I didn’t need the entire ending to become depressing. I didn’t need Jagger and Eden to postpone their wedding for six months out of respect.
I just needed one moment.
Acknowledge that they lost someone.
Acknowledge that this man died protecting Eden.
Acknowledge that somebody who had been driving them around, bringing breakfast, helping them, joking with them and existing as part of their everyday lives was suddenly gone.
They could have acknowledged Zachary and still gone straight to Elvis.
In fact, it could have made the impulsive wedding more meaningful:
We lost someone today.
We almost lost each other.
Life isn’t guaranteed.
I don’t want to waste another day without making you my wife.
NOW go get married.
That works for me.
Death has weight.
Zachary matters.
The wedding becomes a response to mortality rather than something that seemingly happens while everyone has forgotten that their friend, bodyguard and team member is lying dead somewhere.
And that’s why Ryan and Zachary belong together in my rating
These aren’t two unrelated complaints.
They’re two examples of the same problem.
Ryan showed that the narrative could treat someone outside their circle as though his life had no value.
Then Zachary proved the problem went deeper, because even someone inside their circle could die protecting them and essentially disappear from their emotional landscape.
And that second example may bother me even more because it undermines the found-family/team dynamic the book had been asking me to believe in.
If I’m going to buy into this mafia family where these people would kill for one another, then I also need to believe they would grieve for one another.
Otherwise, they’re not really family.
They’re just coworkers who occasionally murder people together.
And that’s frustrating because there was so much here that I loved.
The romance worked for me. The humor worked for me. The ridiculousness REALLY worked for me. The supporting cast was fantastic.
I loved the football crossover and getting little updates on those couples.
I loved Lawson spending most of the book as Computer Boy only to suddenly emerge as Action Hero Tech Boy and save everybody’s asses.
I loved Cruz apparently putting trackers on everyone—and Jagger taking that concept approximately seventeen steps too far with Eden.
I loved the helicopter date, the Tennessee trip, and watching Eden slowly realize that maybe the extremely suspicious billionaire casino owner surrounded by dangerous men isn’t exactly living a completely legitimate lifestyle.
I loved the ongoing Don’t Say Mafia joke.
And despite everything, I even loved the absolutely bananas idea of Jagger deciding that after kidnapping, hostage-taking, murder and approximately four gallons of blood, the obvious next stop is an Elvis chapel.
This genuinely could have been a five-star book for me.
But I need the people in my books to feel like people—even the inconvenient ones, even the side characters, and especially the ones who die protecting the people they care about.
A mafia romance doesn’t need to value human life by keeping everyone alive.
It values human life by making death mean something.
Ryan’s death didn’t feel earned.
Zachary’s death didn’t feel mourned.
And together, those choices cost an otherwise fantastic book a star and a half.
⭐⭐⭐½ 3.5 stars
Poor Zachary didn’t need twenty pages of mourning.
He just needed to matter after he stopped breathing.
This book had 5-star potential. I loved the romance, the humor, the absolute ridiculousness, the supporting cast, the football crossover, Lawson unexpectedly becoming Action Hero Tech Boy, the whole Don’t Say Mafia running joke, and even the absolutely deranged, blood-covered Elvis-chapel wedding.
But it loses 1.5 stars for the same fundamental flaw demonstrated twice: a disturbing lack of emotional weight around human life and human connection.
And before I get into that, I want to make something very clear:
I know I’m reading a mafia romance.
I do not expect everybody to survive. These are violent people living in a violent world, and death is part of the genre. I don’t need every character protected simply because they’ve appeared on the page.
But I do need death to mean something.
If you’re going to kill someone, there needs to be a reason for that death beyond convenience. And when you kill someone who is supposedly part of this tight-knit team—this chosen family whose loyalty to one another is one of the selling points of the story—I need that loss to carry emotional weight.
People can die without the story treating human life as disposable.
Unfortunately, this book crossed that line for me twice.
Ryan deserved to be treated like a person
Eden’s husband, Ryan, wasn’t just an obstacle standing between Jagger and Eden who needed to be conveniently removed from the board.
He was a human being.
And more importantly, he hadn’t done anything remotely bad enough to deserve being murdered.
The book actually did too good a job making Ryan sympathetic first—he was just a kid who had gotten himself into a bad situation—and then murdered him off like none of that mattered.
Again, this is a mafia romance. I’m not expecting Jagger to have a pristine moral compass. I expect violence. I expect morally questionable decisions. I expect people to die.
But Ryan wasn’t dangerous enough to warrant what happened to him. He hadn’t committed some terrible act that made his death feel justified within the morality of this world.
He was simply inconvenient.
The story treated him almost like a piece of furniture that could be removed at will because he was in the way.
Killing an inconvenient person isn’t automatically the same thing as creating a compelling morally gray hero. If the narrative wants me to accept a character’s death, it has to give that death a reason proportional to what happens to him.
Ryan didn’t get that.
That bothered me enough to cost the book a full star.
Then came Zachary.
And Zachary proved the problem went deeper.
Zachary was one of their people
Zachary wasn’t an outsider.
He wasn’t an enemy.
He wasn’t an inconvenient romantic obstacle.
He was part of the team.
We knew him.
He drove Eden around. He brought her breakfast. He brought her clothes. He brought her the phone. He talked to her about Jagger. He helped with their completely insane adventures. He was even part of the ridiculous run-Ryan-over-with-the-Escalade operation.
He was a recurring presence in their lives, not some nameless bodyguard standing in the background.
And when everything went wrong, Zachary died protecting Eden.
Jagger knew the Irish were coming and immediately told Zachary to protect her.
Zachary did exactly that.
He stayed with Eden. He warned her when they were coming. He told her to run. He tried to protect her, and the last time Eden saw him, he was crumpled on the floor.
She didn’t know whether he was alive or dead.
While Eden was being held hostage, she was still thinking about him. She remembered Zachary telling her to be brave for Jagger, and his words actively influenced the way she handled her captivity.
So his final moments mattered to her.
Then Eden was rescued…
And Zachary essentially ceased to exist.
Nobody seemed devastated that they’d lost one of their own. Nobody stopped to acknowledge what he’d done. Nobody talked about losing a member of their team. Nobody even gave us the simple emotional beat of:
“Zachary didn’t make it.”
And this is where my I know this is a mafia romance caveat becomes especially important.
I am not upset that Zachary died.
Would I have liked him to survive? Absolutely.
But that’s not my criticism.
Team members can die. In fact, losing someone important can raise the stakes and make this dangerous world feel real.
But if you’re going to tell me these people are family—if I’m supposed to believe they would fight, kill and die for one another—then when one of them actually does die for them, I need to feel his absence.
Death should leave a hole.
Zachary’s didn’t.
And it hurt the wedding for me
Instead of dealing with Zachary’s death, we went almost immediately into what should have been one of my favorite sequences in the entire book.
And objectively?
The wedding is hilarious.
Jagger has just been held hostage.
Eden has just been kidnapped.
Jagger has stabbed Cormac an absolutely unreasonable number of times.
They’re covered in blood.
Everyone is exhausted and traumatized.
And Jagger’s brain apparently processes this situation and produces exactly one thought:
WIFE. NOW.
😂
They’re sitting in the car and Jagger announces they’re getting married.
Maddox and Lawson are basically asking whether perhaps the recently kidnapped, blood-covered couple should take five minutes before making lifelong decisions.
Jagger says no.
They’re going to the Little Elvis Chapel.
Immediately.
Eden finally realizes he’s serious and points out that they haven’t even discussed the fact that he’s in the mafia yet.
And because this book has committed to its title:
Don’t say mafia.
😂
Then Jagger gets handcuffs out of the glove compartment and cuffs Eden to himself.
Eden:
“This is kidnapping!”
Jagger, essentially:
“No. This is the next step in our relationship.”
Eden decides that the fact she’s actually considering marrying him probably means she needs therapy.
Jagger agrees.
They’ll get her therapy after the wedding.
THAT IS FUNNY.
That is exactly the kind of completely unhinged nonsense I want from this book.
Lawson is even trying to arrange a FaceTime so hospitalized Cruz and Gage can watch the ceremony, although neither of them answers.
But the entire time, instead of completely enjoying the insanity, I was thinking:
WHAT ABOUT ZACHARY?!
Because Lawson specifically tells us that he got Cruz and Gage to the hospital.
Great.
DID ANYBODY CHECK THE OTHER GUY?!
And that dragged down a wedding scene that otherwise would have been fantastic for me.
Then the epilogue somehow made it worse
A week later, we finally get what appears to be our only real confirmation that Zachary died.
Jagger and Eden have moved into a different penthouse because Eden couldn’t stand being in the old one and picturing Zachary’s body lying there.
And somehow that made the omission bother me even more.
Because clearly Eden is affected by his death.
She’s affected so deeply by what she saw that she can’t continue living in the same home.
So the book acknowledges the trauma of seeing Zachary die without ever really acknowledging the loss of Zachary himself.
That’s the distinction.
He becomes the upsetting image instead of the person they lost.
And I don’t believe that reaction from these characters.
I didn’t need the entire ending to become depressing. I didn’t need Jagger and Eden to postpone their wedding for six months out of respect.
I just needed one moment.
Acknowledge that they lost someone.
Acknowledge that this man died protecting Eden.
Acknowledge that somebody who had been driving them around, bringing breakfast, helping them, joking with them and existing as part of their everyday lives was suddenly gone.
They could have acknowledged Zachary and still gone straight to Elvis.
In fact, it could have made the impulsive wedding more meaningful:
We lost someone today.
We almost lost each other.
Life isn’t guaranteed.
I don’t want to waste another day without making you my wife.
NOW go get married.
That works for me.
Death has weight.
Zachary matters.
The wedding becomes a response to mortality rather than something that seemingly happens while everyone has forgotten that their friend, bodyguard and team member is lying dead somewhere.
And that’s why Ryan and Zachary belong together in my rating
These aren’t two unrelated complaints.
They’re two examples of the same problem.
Ryan showed that the narrative could treat someone outside their circle as though his life had no value.
Then Zachary proved the problem went deeper, because even someone inside their circle could die protecting them and essentially disappear from their emotional landscape.
And that second example may bother me even more because it undermines the found-family/team dynamic the book had been asking me to believe in.
If I’m going to buy into this mafia family where these people would kill for one another, then I also need to believe they would grieve for one another.
Otherwise, they’re not really family.
They’re just coworkers who occasionally murder people together.
And that’s frustrating because there was so much here that I loved.
The romance worked for me. The humor worked for me. The ridiculousness REALLY worked for me. The supporting cast was fantastic.
I loved the football crossover and getting little updates on those couples.
I loved Lawson spending most of the book as Computer Boy only to suddenly emerge as Action Hero Tech Boy and save everybody’s asses.
I loved Cruz apparently putting trackers on everyone—and Jagger taking that concept approximately seventeen steps too far with Eden.
I loved the helicopter date, the Tennessee trip, and watching Eden slowly realize that maybe the extremely suspicious billionaire casino owner surrounded by dangerous men isn’t exactly living a completely legitimate lifestyle.
I loved the ongoing Don’t Say Mafia joke.
And despite everything, I even loved the absolutely bananas idea of Jagger deciding that after kidnapping, hostage-taking, murder and approximately four gallons of blood, the obvious next stop is an Elvis chapel.
This genuinely could have been a five-star book for me.
But I need the people in my books to feel like people—even the inconvenient ones, even the side characters, and especially the ones who die protecting the people they care about.
A mafia romance doesn’t need to value human life by keeping everyone alive.
It values human life by making death mean something.
Ryan’s death didn’t feel earned.
Zachary’s death didn’t feel mourned.
And together, those choices cost an otherwise fantastic book a star and a half.
⭐⭐⭐½ 3.5 stars
Poor Zachary didn’t need twenty pages of mourning.
He just needed to matter after he stopped breathing.
August 20, 2026
Well, that was a disappointment.
I had such high expectations for Don’t Say Mafia. After how fun and completely insane the Pucking Wrong and Wrong Player books were, I really thought C.R. Jane was going to carry that same energy into this series. Especially with how often Jagger had been featured and mentioned before getting his own book. I was genuinely looking forward to finally getting his story.
Sean Masters and Alexis Paige did a great job bringing the characters to life. C.R. Jane has used them frequently for her audiobooks, and they always deliver. Their performances honestly helped me get through this. If it wasn’t for them, my rating would probably be even lower.
But seriously, what happened here?
Where was the fun? Where were the ridiculous, unhinged comedic elements that made the other books so entertaining? Part of the appeal of these books has always been how completely insane the characters are while the story somehow knows exactly how ridiculous everything is. That self-awareness is what makes it work.
Here, it felt like C.R. Jane decided to lean much harder into the darker side of these characters while removing a lot of the humour that normally balances it out. I would have been fine with a darker book if the story was strong enough to support it, but instead this was just so long and, for huge sections of it, boring.
This had absolutely no business being 520 pages long.
The audiobook is almost 16 hours. I listen at 2.5x speed and it still took me more than six hours to get through it. That would be completely fine if there was enough story to justify that length, but there really wasn’t.
The first 50% felt genuinely useless. Jagger and Eden barely interact with each other for such a huge portion of the book, which is kind of a problem when I’m supposed to be invested in their romance. It takes forever for anything meaningful to happen between them. The second half is definitely better and finally starts giving us more of what I expected, but by that point the first half had already dragged the entire experience down.
Then there is the whole situation with Eden being married.
I already wasn’t particularly interested in reading about Jagger chasing a married woman, but I could have dealt with it depending on how the story handled it. What I really didn’t like was what he eventually did to her husband.
Her husband was absolutely no saint. He was a deadbeat. He was selfish, unreliable and clearly wasn’t being the husband Eden needed. She was carrying basically everything while he kept making bad decisions.
But he also wasn’t physically or emotionally abusive. He wasn’t some secretly evil monster who needed to be removed from her life. He actually came across as a fairly nice guy who had gotten himself into a terrible situation and had repeatedly failed his wife. That doesn’t make him a good husband, but there is a pretty massive difference between being a shitty husband and deserving what happens to him.
If the marriage was that miserable, then have Eden leave him.
She gives him more chances. He actually tries. Whether he would have succeeded is another question entirely, but we never really get to find out because Jagger gets involved.
And yes, I’ve read C.R. Jane before. I knew Jagger was going to do something insane. I wasn’t expecting him to suddenly develop morals. These men have always manipulated situations, stalked women, destroyed relationships and done completely deranged things to get what they want. That’s part of the fun.
But this didn’t feel fun to me.
There was something about what Jagger did to a man who, while deeply flawed, wasn’t actually some horrible villain that just made me go, nope. It crossed the line where I stopped finding his obsession entertaining and just started disliking him.
What made it worse was how quickly everything seemed to move on afterward. Eden basically goes about her life like she isn’t married anymore. The emotional weight of what happened never felt proportional to what actually happened, and the whole thing left a really bad taste in my mouth.
Once that happened, the book pretty much lost me.
I kept going because I was still hoping something would pull me back in. There were moments where I thought maybe it would, especially once the story finally picked up in the second half, but it never completely recovered.
To be truthful, the best parts were whenever Jace or the characters from the Wrong Player series showed up. Those scenes reminded me of exactly what I had been missing for most of this book. The banter, the ridiculousness and that chaotic energy were immediately more entertaining than the actual central romance.
I think that is ultimately my biggest disappointment with Don’t Say Mafia. I didn’t want C.R. Jane to simply repeat the exact same book again, but I did want the personality that made these interconnected series stand out in the first place.
Instead, this felt darker, slower, far too long and nowhere near as fun.
I really hope the next book is edited down significantly and brings some of that insanity and humour back. There are more books planned for this series, but after this one, I honestly don’t have much interest in continuing right now.
I had such high expectations for Don’t Say Mafia. After how fun and completely insane the Pucking Wrong and Wrong Player books were, I really thought C.R. Jane was going to carry that same energy into this series. Especially with how often Jagger had been featured and mentioned before getting his own book. I was genuinely looking forward to finally getting his story.
Sean Masters and Alexis Paige did a great job bringing the characters to life. C.R. Jane has used them frequently for her audiobooks, and they always deliver. Their performances honestly helped me get through this. If it wasn’t for them, my rating would probably be even lower.
But seriously, what happened here?
Where was the fun? Where were the ridiculous, unhinged comedic elements that made the other books so entertaining? Part of the appeal of these books has always been how completely insane the characters are while the story somehow knows exactly how ridiculous everything is. That self-awareness is what makes it work.
Here, it felt like C.R. Jane decided to lean much harder into the darker side of these characters while removing a lot of the humour that normally balances it out. I would have been fine with a darker book if the story was strong enough to support it, but instead this was just so long and, for huge sections of it, boring.
This had absolutely no business being 520 pages long.
The audiobook is almost 16 hours. I listen at 2.5x speed and it still took me more than six hours to get through it. That would be completely fine if there was enough story to justify that length, but there really wasn’t.
The first 50% felt genuinely useless. Jagger and Eden barely interact with each other for such a huge portion of the book, which is kind of a problem when I’m supposed to be invested in their romance. It takes forever for anything meaningful to happen between them. The second half is definitely better and finally starts giving us more of what I expected, but by that point the first half had already dragged the entire experience down.
Then there is the whole situation with Eden being married.
I already wasn’t particularly interested in reading about Jagger chasing a married woman, but I could have dealt with it depending on how the story handled it. What I really didn’t like was what he eventually did to her husband.
Her husband was absolutely no saint. He was a deadbeat. He was selfish, unreliable and clearly wasn’t being the husband Eden needed. She was carrying basically everything while he kept making bad decisions.
But he also wasn’t physically or emotionally abusive. He wasn’t some secretly evil monster who needed to be removed from her life. He actually came across as a fairly nice guy who had gotten himself into a terrible situation and had repeatedly failed his wife. That doesn’t make him a good husband, but there is a pretty massive difference between being a shitty husband and deserving what happens to him.
If the marriage was that miserable, then have Eden leave him.
She gives him more chances. He actually tries. Whether he would have succeeded is another question entirely, but we never really get to find out because Jagger gets involved.
And yes, I’ve read C.R. Jane before. I knew Jagger was going to do something insane. I wasn’t expecting him to suddenly develop morals. These men have always manipulated situations, stalked women, destroyed relationships and done completely deranged things to get what they want. That’s part of the fun.
But this didn’t feel fun to me.
There was something about what Jagger did to a man who, while deeply flawed, wasn’t actually some horrible villain that just made me go, nope. It crossed the line where I stopped finding his obsession entertaining and just started disliking him.
What made it worse was how quickly everything seemed to move on afterward. Eden basically goes about her life like she isn’t married anymore. The emotional weight of what happened never felt proportional to what actually happened, and the whole thing left a really bad taste in my mouth.
Once that happened, the book pretty much lost me.
I kept going because I was still hoping something would pull me back in. There were moments where I thought maybe it would, especially once the story finally picked up in the second half, but it never completely recovered.
To be truthful, the best parts were whenever Jace or the characters from the Wrong Player series showed up. Those scenes reminded me of exactly what I had been missing for most of this book. The banter, the ridiculousness and that chaotic energy were immediately more entertaining than the actual central romance.
I think that is ultimately my biggest disappointment with Don’t Say Mafia. I didn’t want C.R. Jane to simply repeat the exact same book again, but I did want the personality that made these interconnected series stand out in the first place.
Instead, this felt darker, slower, far too long and nowhere near as fun.
I really hope the next book is edited down significantly and brings some of that insanity and humour back. There are more books planned for this series, but after this one, I honestly don’t have much interest in continuing right now.
September 7, 2026
DON’T SAY MAFIA — C.R. Jane
The Wrong Made Men, Book 1
★★★★★ 5 Stars
🌶️🌶️½ 2.5 Chili Peppers
Audiobook: 15h 3m
Narrators: Sean Masters & Alexis Paige
This was an automatic five stars for me. Don’t Say Mafia was everything I want from a C.R. Jane obsessed-man romance, except she took the unhinged meter, broke it, and then threw the whole thing into the mafia world. If you’ve read The Pucking Wrong series and you’re a Lincoln Daniels girly, I’m telling you right now: you need to meet Jagger Thatcher. Same kind of obsessive blueprint, but somehow ten times more possessive, more calculated, more questionable, and more unhinged. I ATE IT UP.
Eden is barely keeping her head above water. She’s working two jobs, struggling financially, carrying a difficult past, and trapped in a toxic marriage she doesn’t really see a way out of. Then she meets Jagger the second-in-command of the Vale Syndicate, the criminal organization running Las Vegas and this man basically takes one look at her and decides, Yep. That’s mine. The only little problem? She’s married.
Does that stop Jagger?
Absolutely freaking not.
The things this man does to maneuver Eden into his life are SEVERELY UNHINGED and morally questionable, and apparently that is exactly what I needed. His obsession starts almost immediately, and there is nothing subtle about the way he wants her. The chemistry between Jagger and Eden was instant, but I also thought C.R. Jane did a great job actually developing their romance beyond that initial attraction. I believed their connection, I loved their chemistry, and Jagger’s particular brand of “I’ll handle everything whether you asked me to or not” was perfection for this type of book.
But THE FRIEND GROUP.
One of my favorite things about C.R. Jane is how freaking well she writes groups of men. The four guys in the syndicate absolutely made this book for me. Their group chats, banter, ridiculous interactions, playfulness, and the way they give each other shit were hilarious. You have these dangerous mafia men doing very dangerous mafia things, and then together they’re basically a bunch of idiots. I already want more of every single one of them.
The pacing was fantastic, the character development worked for me, the romance ROMANCED, and there was enough mafia and suspense woven throughout to give this familiar C.R. Jane obsessive-romance formula an entirely different energy. Yes, there are elements here that will feel familiar if you’ve read her other books, but this felt like that blueprint was cranked up several levels and I was completely here for it.
Audiobook-wise, Sean Masters was FANTASTIC as Jagger. He captured that obsessive, dangerous, possessive energy so freaking well and was exactly what I wanted for this character. Alexis Paige also gave a strong performance as Eden, but I did have one narration issue: the sighing and heavy breathing. There is a noticeable intake of breath or sigh after a LOT of her lines. I don’t know whether it was a performance choice or something emphasized in production to convey how exhausted and overwhelmed Eden is, but once I noticed it, I couldn’t unhear it. It became distracting for me. That was genuinely my only complaint about the audiobook, though, and clearly it wasn’t enough to knock this down from five stars.
One important note: check the content/trigger warnings before going in. There are some heavier themes here, including spousal death, alongside the toxic marriage and darker mafia elements.
Overall, this was EXACTLY the kind of obsessive, possessive, completely unhinged mafia romance I wanted. Jagger Thatcher has officially joined my C.R. Jane obsessed-man hall of fame.
★★★★★ 5/5
🌶️🌶️½ 2.5/5
If Lincoln Daniels worked for you, Jagger Thatcher is coming for your TBR.
The Wrong Made Men, Book 1
★★★★★ 5 Stars
🌶️🌶️½ 2.5 Chili Peppers
Audiobook: 15h 3m
Narrators: Sean Masters & Alexis Paige
This was an automatic five stars for me. Don’t Say Mafia was everything I want from a C.R. Jane obsessed-man romance, except she took the unhinged meter, broke it, and then threw the whole thing into the mafia world. If you’ve read The Pucking Wrong series and you’re a Lincoln Daniels girly, I’m telling you right now: you need to meet Jagger Thatcher. Same kind of obsessive blueprint, but somehow ten times more possessive, more calculated, more questionable, and more unhinged. I ATE IT UP.
Eden is barely keeping her head above water. She’s working two jobs, struggling financially, carrying a difficult past, and trapped in a toxic marriage she doesn’t really see a way out of. Then she meets Jagger the second-in-command of the Vale Syndicate, the criminal organization running Las Vegas and this man basically takes one look at her and decides, Yep. That’s mine. The only little problem? She’s married.
Does that stop Jagger?
Absolutely freaking not.
The things this man does to maneuver Eden into his life are SEVERELY UNHINGED and morally questionable, and apparently that is exactly what I needed. His obsession starts almost immediately, and there is nothing subtle about the way he wants her. The chemistry between Jagger and Eden was instant, but I also thought C.R. Jane did a great job actually developing their romance beyond that initial attraction. I believed their connection, I loved their chemistry, and Jagger’s particular brand of “I’ll handle everything whether you asked me to or not” was perfection for this type of book.
But THE FRIEND GROUP.
One of my favorite things about C.R. Jane is how freaking well she writes groups of men. The four guys in the syndicate absolutely made this book for me. Their group chats, banter, ridiculous interactions, playfulness, and the way they give each other shit were hilarious. You have these dangerous mafia men doing very dangerous mafia things, and then together they’re basically a bunch of idiots. I already want more of every single one of them.
The pacing was fantastic, the character development worked for me, the romance ROMANCED, and there was enough mafia and suspense woven throughout to give this familiar C.R. Jane obsessive-romance formula an entirely different energy. Yes, there are elements here that will feel familiar if you’ve read her other books, but this felt like that blueprint was cranked up several levels and I was completely here for it.
Audiobook-wise, Sean Masters was FANTASTIC as Jagger. He captured that obsessive, dangerous, possessive energy so freaking well and was exactly what I wanted for this character. Alexis Paige also gave a strong performance as Eden, but I did have one narration issue: the sighing and heavy breathing. There is a noticeable intake of breath or sigh after a LOT of her lines. I don’t know whether it was a performance choice or something emphasized in production to convey how exhausted and overwhelmed Eden is, but once I noticed it, I couldn’t unhear it. It became distracting for me. That was genuinely my only complaint about the audiobook, though, and clearly it wasn’t enough to knock this down from five stars.
One important note: check the content/trigger warnings before going in. There are some heavier themes here, including spousal death, alongside the toxic marriage and darker mafia elements.
Overall, this was EXACTLY the kind of obsessive, possessive, completely unhinged mafia romance I wanted. Jagger Thatcher has officially joined my C.R. Jane obsessed-man hall of fame.
★★★★★ 5/5
🌶️🌶️½ 2.5/5
If Lincoln Daniels worked for you, Jagger Thatcher is coming for your TBR.
August 10, 2026
I feel so bad y’all have to wait til the 18th because this is just SO GOOD.
As if I would expect anything less from a CR Jane book, I am utterly obsessed. Not even just with the couple in this book, the new setting, the new players, I AM SO READY FOR MORE IN THIS SERIES.
Jagger is absolutely the most insane MMC she has written but red flags where 🎶iiii can’t see I’m bliiiiiind🎶. He literally embodies that sound “there’s not a line in the world I wouldn’t cross for you” and I’m sorry (I’m not sorry) but I love him for it.
Eden girl, she did not know what hit her when she caught Jagger’s attention but I for one am glad she did. My girl was barely hanging on by a thread and deserved so much better. My favorite thing when reading a CR Jane book is getting to see a woman get the love and support and life she deserves.. however unhinged and insane the road there might be 😏
Found family but make them mafia, the boys in this book had me cackling and also slightly afraid 🤭 I cannot wait to read their stories.
Thank you to CR Jane and team for letting me get my hands on Jagger early ♥️
As if I would expect anything less from a CR Jane book, I am utterly obsessed. Not even just with the couple in this book, the new setting, the new players, I AM SO READY FOR MORE IN THIS SERIES.
Jagger is absolutely the most insane MMC she has written but red flags where 🎶iiii can’t see I’m bliiiiiind🎶. He literally embodies that sound “there’s not a line in the world I wouldn’t cross for you” and I’m sorry (I’m not sorry) but I love him for it.
Eden girl, she did not know what hit her when she caught Jagger’s attention but I for one am glad she did. My girl was barely hanging on by a thread and deserved so much better. My favorite thing when reading a CR Jane book is getting to see a woman get the love and support and life she deserves.. however unhinged and insane the road there might be 😏
Found family but make them mafia, the boys in this book had me cackling and also slightly afraid 🤭 I cannot wait to read their stories.
Thank you to CR Jane and team for letting me get my hands on Jagger early ♥️
August 11, 2026
♥️ Don’t Say Mafia ♥️
ARC 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰
Jagger Thatcher is elite. Hands down. He is broody, he is possessive, his entire penthouse is full of 🚩 and I ignored every single one of them for this man. And well, so did Eden. You go girl, I don’t even blame you one bit.
Jagger truly gives some dark mafia men a run for their money in the way of OTTP men. I couldn’t get enough. He was cuckoo for coco puffs for Eden, and can you even blame him? He saw something he wanted and he took it - quite literally. He made sure everything in his pathway to Eden was removed - and wouldn’t you know it - everything.
Eden was fantastic in this book. She was cunning, she was fun, she was so damn real it made my heart hurt for her. She was clinging to a life with her husband that was “safe” for the most part - but more because it was what she felt was the right thing to do. An obligation. But who knew the moment she stepped foot into a room with a Thatcher man that she’d be lost to him, and for him? Oh wait, I did.
I was giggling and kicking my feet the entire time. My heart was in my stomach, my throat hurt from screaming of happiness - it was just one heck of a ride.
CR even brings the side characters to life in a way that has you rooting for them, and wanting more of them and even crying for them. Which I did on more than one occasion. But I loved the banter between Jace and Jagger and I truly loved Cruz, Maddox, Gage and Lawson. Honestly - Gage has me super intrigued with his from of cray-cray so I cannot wait for more from this series!
📖
ARC 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰
Jagger Thatcher is elite. Hands down. He is broody, he is possessive, his entire penthouse is full of 🚩 and I ignored every single one of them for this man. And well, so did Eden. You go girl, I don’t even blame you one bit.
Jagger truly gives some dark mafia men a run for their money in the way of OTTP men. I couldn’t get enough. He was cuckoo for coco puffs for Eden, and can you even blame him? He saw something he wanted and he took it - quite literally. He made sure everything in his pathway to Eden was removed - and wouldn’t you know it - everything.
Eden was fantastic in this book. She was cunning, she was fun, she was so damn real it made my heart hurt for her. She was clinging to a life with her husband that was “safe” for the most part - but more because it was what she felt was the right thing to do. An obligation. But who knew the moment she stepped foot into a room with a Thatcher man that she’d be lost to him, and for him? Oh wait, I did.
I was giggling and kicking my feet the entire time. My heart was in my stomach, my throat hurt from screaming of happiness - it was just one heck of a ride.
CR even brings the side characters to life in a way that has you rooting for them, and wanting more of them and even crying for them. Which I did on more than one occasion. But I loved the banter between Jace and Jagger and I truly loved Cruz, Maddox, Gage and Lawson. Honestly - Gage has me super intrigued with his from of cray-cray so I cannot wait for more from this series!
📖
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 29, 2026
I think I always feel the same about her books: awkward, but I like them. 🫠🤣 this one made me feel a little sad about her and her previous life.
August 6, 2026
Loved it! This man gave Lincoln a run for his money. The amount of times I caught myself thinking, “No… he’s not. 😳” only for him to do something even more unhinged in the next chapter.
He saw our girl and immediately decided, MINE. Didn’t care that she had a husband. The definition of “if he wanted to, he would.” 😂
I will say… there was one thing he did that actually got me a little emotional.
Just be prepared to rethink what you consider “too far,” because Jagger doesn’t just cross the line… he launches himself past it.
I was gifted this ALC and it was in duet narration with Alexis Paige and Sean Masters…absolutely incredible.
He saw our girl and immediately decided, MINE. Didn’t care that she had a husband. The definition of “if he wanted to, he would.” 😂
I will say… there was one thing he did that actually got me a little emotional.
Just be prepared to rethink what you consider “too far,” because Jagger doesn’t just cross the line… he launches himself past it.
I was gifted this ALC and it was in duet narration with Alexis Paige and Sean Masters…absolutely incredible.
Want to Read
April 21, 2025HOLD MY PEARLS! MAFIA? I'M ON BOARD
August 31, 2026
Author is not for me apparently
August 19, 2026
1 stars
This was such a disappointment.
I’ve been excited for Jagger’s book ever since he was introduced in his brother’s story from the Wrong Player series. I went in expecting him to be darker than anything C.R. Jane has written before especially after seeing how he helped the others and the way his role was built up. Too bad he ended up being a letdown. People keep calling him more unhinged and darker than Lincoln, and I just can’t agree. He’s not. He felt plain and robotic most of the time. I expected real intensity and a much sharper edge given the mafia setting and the “this is my darkest book” claims, but the darkness stayed surface level. There wasn’t nearly enough detailed manipulation or tension between him and Eden. The moments that should have hit hardest felt lightly sketched and boring instead of heart-racing. Eden never clicked for me the way previous heroines have. Her trauma didn’t feel deep enough, she barely fought back or showed any real backbone, and there was almost no character development. She just went along with everything. The lack of resistance and the weak reaction when things came to light completely killed any tension or mystery for me. I also thought the Easter eggs and connections from the earlier books were going to pay off in a big way especially around how he helped the others get into the society. We got basically nothing. All that potential just sat there unused. His backstory felt plain too. I wanted something heavier and more intense, and it never arrived.I finished it, but I walked away feeling sad and heartbroken that I’d waited so long for something this underwhelming. I’ll probably still continue the series eventually just to see if any of the later books work better for me, but I’m not going in with any real excitement this time.Huge wasted potential.
This was such a disappointment.
I’ve been excited for Jagger’s book ever since he was introduced in his brother’s story from the Wrong Player series. I went in expecting him to be darker than anything C.R. Jane has written before especially after seeing how he helped the others and the way his role was built up. Too bad he ended up being a letdown. People keep calling him more unhinged and darker than Lincoln, and I just can’t agree. He’s not. He felt plain and robotic most of the time. I expected real intensity and a much sharper edge given the mafia setting and the “this is my darkest book” claims, but the darkness stayed surface level. There wasn’t nearly enough detailed manipulation or tension between him and Eden. The moments that should have hit hardest felt lightly sketched and boring instead of heart-racing. Eden never clicked for me the way previous heroines have. Her trauma didn’t feel deep enough, she barely fought back or showed any real backbone, and there was almost no character development. She just went along with everything. The lack of resistance and the weak reaction when things came to light completely killed any tension or mystery for me. I also thought the Easter eggs and connections from the earlier books were going to pay off in a big way especially around how he helped the others get into the society. We got basically nothing. All that potential just sat there unused. His backstory felt plain too. I wanted something heavier and more intense, and it never arrived.I finished it, but I walked away feeling sad and heartbroken that I’d waited so long for something this underwhelming. I’ll probably still continue the series eventually just to see if any of the later books work better for me, but I’m not going in with any real excitement this time.Huge wasted potential.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Want to Read
November 13, 2025YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
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