I grew up with a badge in the house and justice in my veins. My father was a cop. Now I’m in grad school studying forensic psychology, trying to understand what makes people cross the line. Then my best friend is murdered, and I’m not studying darkness from a distance. I’m in it. So what the hell am I doing in the lap of Rafaele Rosetti, the enforcer for the most feared mafia family in New York? He was sent to kill me. But instead of pulling the trigger, he shields me with his body and stares down the men who gave the order. Now I’m tangled in a world I was never meant to see, protected by a man with blood on his gloves and heat in his eyes. He’s everything I should run from. But I’m done running. Because the deeper I fall, the more I realize—Rafaele Rosetti doesn’t just protect what’s his. He claims it.
Rafaele
Sloane Carter is a problem I was sent to erase. A cop’s daughter. A grad student with too many questions and no idea how close she is to the truth. I should’ve ended it the second I saw her. Instead, I watched her. Got close. Touched. Now I’ve got her scent in my sheets and her name in my blood. She doesn’t belong here, surrounded by men like me. But the second she looks at me like I’m worth saving, it stops mattering what’s right. She’s mine. And I protect what’s mine—with blood.
My stop-start journey reading this book left me exhausted. I needed to put the book down frequently when reading it felt like a chore; just far too much emotional waffle, & self-pitying introspection. Rafe, aware of the effect of his actions on himself and others. starts out a strong, mature character in his mid-thirties. He gradually descends into a shadow of that original character, seeming a much younger man, led around by a child. Sloane is an immature pain in the neck. Warned by those who live the criminal-life, not to do something because it’s life-threateningly dangerous, like a child she does it anyway. Repeatedly. It’s all about her. The author wastes an inordinately large amount of precious time on both characters’ soul-searching that neither grow. Such a pity.
I am trying to read the series. This one was way better than the first but it still contained editing mistakes and typos. Characters being called a different name - c’mon! The story was on track. Rare and Sloan are a good mix and I think they balance each other. Spice was ok. Hoping future books get more character and story development