Corrupting Lily

by Eloise Benjamin

Lily
You know how the saying out of the frying pan and into the fire.
Just when I escaped one dangerous man, I catch the eye of another.
Except this one makes me feel more than fear.
With a bounty on my head for a secret someone is willing to kill me for, no one can keep me safe. No one but the angel of death himself. A nickname not bestowed lightly and one the Mafia Don who has taken an interest in me wears with the confidence of one who has earned it.
With each heated glance and words that heal me instead of tear me down, there is no escaping his corruption. And when the time comes, do I really want to?

Dominico
She is everything I am not. And everything I crave.
Her innocence begs me to corrupt it. When a bounty threatens to take her from me, the only way to keep her safe is by making her mine.
I set out to corrupt her, but who knew little flowers could bloom in the dark?
Now there is no way I am giving her up.
She is mine.

Corrupting Lily is a standalone dark mafia romance featuring a guaranteed HEA, no cheating, and some dark themes. If you enjoy touch-her-and-die, only-sweet-for-her, possessive alpha males, this book is for you.

Genres: Mafia Romance, Dark Romance

314 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 31, 2025

About the author

UK-based indie author writing emotionally intense romance across dark, mafia, shifter/paranormal, and sci-fi fantasy worlds.

Expect morally grey characters, high emotional stakes, fated connections, and stories that don’t shy away from obsession, power, or passion.

📚 Romance with depth, tension, and bite
🔗 Linktree: https://linktr.ee/eloisebenjamin

Reviews

[Violleta]

#părerea_Violetei
#recomandare_de_lectura

🌸Corrupting Lily, Eloise Benjamin
314 pagini

🌸Posibile spoilere!
🌸Lily Valentine este o fată care nu a primit nimic bun de la viața, care a suferit fizic și mai ales psihic, care nu a auzit o vorbă bună sau o apreciere, mai întâi de la cei cei care i-au fost părinți și apoi de la cel care ar fi trebuit să o protejeze dar care s-a dovedit a fi un monstru. După multă suferință, care a durat 4 ani, Lily reușește să scape din mâinile torționarului său și este salvată de două persoane - Basilio și Francesca - care o iau sub aripa lor.
🌸Lily ajunge să lucreze în clubul celor doi, iar vreme de 6 luni reușește să stea ascunsă și să își camufleze existența, dar totul se schimbă când în club apare cel mai puternic om al mafiei - Dominico Sante. Dominico este fascinat de Lily, este impresionat de puterea ei și de modul în care nu se teme de, mai ales de modul în care îi ține piept dar cel mai mult este uimit de faptul ca nu știe cine este el și ce putere deține.
🌸După prima întâlnire cu Lily, Dominico hotărăște ca o vrea în viața lui și sub pretextul unui loc de muncă o aduce să locuiască în casa lui. Aici Lily este tratată așa cum nu a fost vreodată, este ascultată, este apreciată, dar mai ales începe să simtă iubire pentru întunecatul bărbat care nu face decât să îi ofere locul pe care îl merită.
🌸Printr-un șiretlic Dominico o face pe Lily să accepte să îi fie soție, iar pe când credeau ca totul se va așeza în viața lor și în sfârșit vor fii fericiți - asta atât cat se poate pentru că în lumea condusă de Dominico acest lucru nu prea este posibil - o răpire și o tentativă de omor schimbă totul.
🌸Cine pe cine răpește și de ce? Cine îl vrea dat la o parte pe Dominico din funcția de Don și de ce? Ce ascunde trecutul lui Lily și ce informații importate deține ea despre cel care a torturat-o ani la rând? De unde vine trădarea? Dar ajutorul nesperat? Va reuși Lily să demonstreze ca este o adevărat regină, demnă de capul mafiei? Răspunsurile le veți afla voi.
🌸Sunt la prima întâlnire cu autoarea și am fost surprinsă tare plăcut de povestea scrisă, dar și mai surprinsă am fost să aflu ca este prima carte de genul acesta pe care a publicat-o, și sper să nu se oprească aici pentru ca o face foarte bine. Nu e ceva ce nu am mai citit, dar a avut acel ceva care mă trage, a avut personaje, a avut poveste, a avut acțiune și a știut să mă facă să dau pagină după pagină. Lily și Dominico sunt perfecți împreună, sunt exact cuplul care trebuie și nu ai cum să nu îi placi. Lily are o putere interioară cum rar întâlnești, nu se dă bătută și luptă indiferent de situație. Dominico vine și el cu multe traume, vine dintr-o lume întunecată pe care o conduce, este dus si nemilos, dupa cum ii spune și titulatura de Îngerul morții, așa cum este cunoscut în mafie. Dar este și un bărbat drept, care a știut să ii țină aproape pe cei care merită, iar apariția lui Lily în viața lui aduce lumină în sufletul său întunecat. Mi-a plăcut prietenia cu Dante și Nero, mi-a plăcut tot ce a făcut pentru “il mio fiorellino”.
Dacă recomand?
Sigur ca da, mai ales dacă adorați mafioții și personajele morally grey.

[Mandy Simpson]

Loved the relationship between Dom and Lily and how it developed. Can't wait for Holly's story!!!!
If you love dark mafia then highly recommend this read.

[Neapolitan670 📚🖤]

Seems I’m on a mafia mojo atm, suppose that’s the luck of the draw 🤭

Our FMC manages to escape an abusive relationship, I use that term loosely, it’s worse than you think. The MC a mafia Don is drawn to her, he explains it as they are kindred spirits, he sees the darkness lying dormant behind her eyes. She in turn feels the same way but is cautious of letting herself go for fear she will be in a similar situation to one she has escaped from. Eloise takes us through their building relationship, interspersed with his business and figuring out how they can seek her revenge. There is more…but spoilers ya know 🤣

It was one of those stories you don’t want to put down until you’ve reached the finale. It was well written and flowed brilliantly, I do need me a Dominico now though, any idea where I can purchase one? 🫦

[Emma Willis]

BookTok girlies, you NEED to get on this one! 👀📚

I genuinely hadn’t seen this book anywhere, so I just happened to stumble upon the Holly one by chance and thought, why not start with this one? My goodness, am I glad I did! 😂

I LOVED this story. Somehow it was both a slow burn and insta-love at the same time, which honestly shouldn’t work… but absolutely did. 🔥

And Dom? An absolute HUNK. 🥵 No further questions, your honour. I am officially a fan.

I cannot WAIT to dive into the next one, and I’m already keeping my fingers crossed that Dante gets his own book because, sir, I have questions. 👀

Needless to say… I’ve been successfully sucked into this series. 😂❤️

[Xandra]

Devored

I devoured this book. I absolutely love mafia dark romances and this book hit that spot. Lily had a rough childhood and it followed her. She was finally able to escape with the help of two friends that she made. She was saving to run and move on without having to look over her shoulder. She changed her name and appearance so she wouldn't get recognized. Until one night Dominico found interest in her. Lily's whole life changed when Dom came into her life. Lily is a strong FMC and she does take a lot. She fights with her trauma throughout the story. Dominico wow!!!! I absolutely love him. He is the perfect bad dangerous MMC. He is obsessive and loyal. He is a touch her 💀 kind of man. He is also the Don of the Mafia family where could you go wrong with him. If you love Mafia Romance this is a good book to read. It was written beautifully and the pot was amazing. Check triggers. The spice was of course a 5. I hope to see more especially with Nero and Dante.

[Steffi De Ceuster ♥]

I was actually really pleasantly surprised by this book and author.

I did enjoy it very much and the start was immediately very compelling so I bought it immediately.

I loved how sweet and I would say innocent Lily was, but she was so damn strong! What she went through and stayed so strong is admiring.

I was actually curious to see Holly and Nero, but for me this one made that a bit complete. That I don't really need their complete story.

I would love to see more of this author.

[Isobel Gray]

I really enjoyed this book, loved Lily and Dominico's relationship. I liked the supporting characters too and hope that one day we get Holly's and Violet's stories. Nice suspensful ending. All in all I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a morally grey Alpha mmc and strong fmc.

[Han]

Age gap 39H 25-29h I’d guess
Seemed like a manwhore H, h not a V only slept with 2 people before H
Both celibate after meeting and H really only had eyes for h after so I wasn’t as bothered by the OWD. My biggest annoyance about it was the body betrayal type situation going on every time she asked him about it 🫠
His pov sometimes bothered me when talking about his past

OMD
h had abusive ex fiancé

OWD
•Lucille- considered an arranged marriage to her he was never intimate or anything with her but she’s rude to h and touches his arm and H shrugs her off before h can see he did. Then tells her a marriage will never happen while threatening to kill her for trash talking h. (when h confronts H about the possible marriage he gets her off while making her say she was jealous and she forgets all about the fact she was questioning him🙄)

•His ex elena shows up elena and h exchange words. h tells her off elena slaps her, she goes to slap her again and H breaks Elena’s wrist(he didn’t intentionally break it he said), then makes elena apologize to the h. His ex “that many claim was his first love”, he claims he thought he loved her. They were together for 5 years and good friends for longer, about to marry when *spoiler* she aborted his baby without his knowledge. When we learn that they’re talking privately and he’s thinking about killing her he says the only reason he hasn’t is because of his rules about not killing women and children. During this talk she grabs his hand and puts it on her heart then her breast (I highlighted all of this)

•To get her to marry him he uses her jealous streak as motivation and tell her he’s getting married to someone else right after she finds out though he drags her into his lap and they start making out and dry humping 🙄🙄🙄🙄 then actually just asks her to be his wife mid orgasm 🫠 then when Lilly is hurt and he wants her to open up about why she’s hurt he decided to try the jealousy angle again and announce he’ll marry Sam (a lesbian) who just walked into the room in the middle of their convo.


Child sa, domestic abuse, child abuse, & rape mentioned

[Annie Vance]

WHEW! I cannot believe this is Eloise Benjamin's first mafia romance. Girlypop, you're sitting on a gold mine.

The world-building was top tier. The storytelling was rich, layered, and unapologetically dark. This isn't mafia-adjacent, it IS Mafia with a capital M.

Lily...also known as Daisy or "Little Flower" (Dominico's nickname for her) is an absolute force. She's coming out of a horrific situation with abusive parents and then an abusive/fiance (who... I can't even. No words that won't get my review flagged). She's on the run, broken but not defeated, and ends up being taken in by two "kind" strangers who help her get back on her feet.

Enter Dominico. The Don. All alpha. All control. All hers. Once he sets his sights on Lily, he doesn't just want to possess her, he wants to tend to her. Nurture her. See her bloom under his protection and his touch. And let me tell you...the way he shows up has got "who hurt you, let me fix it" written all over it.

Their story is brutal, tender, raw, and intense. And the side characters...OH no, they're not in the background anymore, they've moved into my head rent-free, and I need their books. Immediately.

There are graphic and violent scenes that may not be for everyone, I'm honestly not sure where to start with this one, other than please check the CW/TW because this book is heavy. But whew but if you can handle it, read this book. It's dark romance done right. I was enthralled.

[I’m a Paula too… Thompson]

Lily is amazing…

I’m not going to talk about the plot, which I loved. No spoilers! But I do want to talk about the characters. I adore Lily’s character and how strong she turns out to be. We don’t see that strength in the beginning of the book, but as the story develops we learn a lot about her and what she’s endured. Dominico is just the right amount of arrogance and gentleness combined. He may be the Don, but he loves his little flower.

Lily and Dominico are a wonderful couple and I enjoyed their relationship journey. I hope that Holly and Violet get their own stories too. They had to discover their own strengths so they can deal with their own situations.

[Kristine]

Dark Mafia Romance

Book: Corrupting Lilly
Author: Eloise Benjamin
Series: Yes (Corrupting Series) Book 1
Pages: 314
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
[9, 15, 20, 21, 25, 26, 28, 34, 35, 36]

🖤 Age Gap
🖤 Burn the world for her
🖤 Marriage of Convenience
🖤 Mafia Romance
🖤 Jealous/Possessive/Obsessed
🖤 Literally touch her & die


Lily is attacked and found by Basilio and his sister, who then take her in and care for her. Lily starts to work for him at an upscale strip club where she meets Dominico, Don of the Cosa Nostra, head of the Three Families.”

She later learns she has a bounty on her head. Dominico tells her to be hers for 2 months and then he will let her go… although he has no intentions of letting her go. The man has become obsessed!! Truly unhinged.

Lily has been through so much and Dominico just wants to give her the world 🖤

[Lauren Curley]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 5 Stars
🌶🌶 - Spice Level

Lily was found bleeding out as she was on the run from her violent fiancée. She's found, kept hidden, and working for cash under table at a local strip club. This is where Dominico, Head Don of Cosa Nostra, finds her. He notices enough with only a handful of interactions to note that he wants her and to help rid her of her demons. Almost a like meets like for similar traumas they've experienced and he senses this.

The story moves along at a steady pace, and it's everything you want in a dark mafia romance. As the leader of Cosa Nostra, Dominico is a hard man, but for Lily, he's got a soft touch. He's even letting her set the pace of intimacy, but he does have to protect her. He's the angel of death, and he absolutely slays her demons as they go along. I'm not typically a lover of slow burn, but there's just enough touches, caresses, temptation moments, and hot moments to make it worth it. Dominico shows Lily how to embrace life again, including getting her own power back, like his Mafia Queen should.

Elosie, you did it again! Dark romance looks good on you. I can't wait for the other books for this series. Totally underhyped author, in my opinion.

⚠️ As always, check the trigger and content warnings ⚠️

[Denise Fooks]

Excellent Read

This book was fantastic. Twist turns in the book. A wonderful love story. Once I started reading the book I didn’t put it down until I fished it. You need to read this book.

[Allison King]

Absolutely loved this book. The heat between Lily & Dominico, not to mention the spice! There was nothing slow about this storyline and I devoured it!
I absolutely loved that all of the characters felt like a part of the story, not just mentioned and then forgotten.
Seeing Dominico bring out Lily’s self confidence & fiery side, while she brought out his soft (only for her) side was great.

[Off Reading Somewhere]

Alright… so torn on leaving 4 or 5 stars for this one. It was a 4.5 ⭐️ read but I had a couple of complaints which made me dock a star.

But man does Benjamin write a damn good story. I love her Alpha series, and when I got into mafia romance, I knew I had to check out Corrupting Lily. It didn’t disappoint. Benjamin is the type of author that her writing feels effortless. Effortless to read, it ebbs and flows naturally, and I never get pulled from the story with choppy sentences, unnatural dialogue, or poor editing. You’re simply immersed in the world she creates, and I’ve lost serious time to her complex characters and deeply romantic tales.

Corrupting Lily is everything we love in a mafia romance with very little we don’t. Lily is, as usual with Benjamin, an intriguing and genuine FMC. Traumatized, damaged, enough of a damsel to scratch the savior itch, but with a heart of gold and spine of steel. She’s clever and kind, while also embodying what you’d expect from someone who’s suffered the horrific trauma she has: major trust issues and dangerously low self worth. She makes you want to hug her, and then slowly torture everyone who’s harmed her.

Her growth throughout the book was exceptional. Not flashy or overdone, Lily slowly and naturally comes into her own through time and careful trust earned through action. She doesn’t fawn all over Dom, or let him get away with any disrespect, but also watches and learns, hardly ever lashing out needlessly. I really enjoyed her journey. Plus, she accomplished my dream of a planty bookshop that serves coffee, so while I’m wildly jealous I also feel like I’ve met a kindred spirit.

Dom was an extremely complicated character with a morally gray compass and a hard on for control. I’ll admit, I was conflicted in my feelings about him for the first half. More on that in a bit. He definitely decides Lily is his from first sight, but Dom wasn’t Benjamin’s typical green flag MMC. He takes what he wants without much care for the consequences or others’ feelings.

The relationship progression for Lily and Dom was also complicated. The sexual chemistry was there from the start, and it progressed rather quickly. But the emotional connection is a slow burn. There is some miscommunication and manipulation in this, so be warned. Both have walls up. Dom is a tad emotionally constipated, and can’t quite see the forest for the trees. He assumes Lily should know things without explicitly telling her, forgetting not only is she not from his world, but also all she is healing from.

This brings me to my dropped star, and it was difficult to drop it let me tell you. The second half of this book almost pushed me back to 5⭐️, but I just couldn’t let go of the way Dom emotionally manipulated Lily for his own ends. It happens over and over, and by the final time right before the wedding, I was seething a tiny bit.

I’m all for a push/pull and a little forcing people beyond their boundaries, especially when they have walls up; but Lily suffered horrific abuse of every kind. For her entire life. At the hands of people who should have cared about and protected her. Of course she has major trust issues. Especially towards powerful men. Of course she’s reserved, closed off emotionally until she knows for absolute certain she won’t get hurt.

And while Dom does help Lily through her trauma with thoughtful words and some tender moments, he’s also incredibly closed off himself. He never divulged his true feelings for her (until after the wedding). Anytime she comes close to direct communication and real honesty, he deflects, says something that could have multiple interpretations, and then uses either their sexual chemistry or her jealousy and insecurities to distract and destabilize her.

Other women from his life are near constantly tossed in her face, and he uses them to get a reaction from Lily. He never crosses lines with these women, and we know from his POV that he only has eyes for Lily. He justifies his actions by trying to draw out her feelings because she’s so guarded. But it’s not innocently pushing someone outside her comfort zone. He’s emotionally manipulating someone with severe trauma and extremely low self worth. He’s keeping her in a state of confusion and limbo, the ground constantly shifting under her feet.

The final straw for me, after he manipulates her into accepting his proposal, was the fake fiancée-switcharoo when Lily dared to question his motives. She’s confused by his response, and instead of offering her honesty and openness to his true feelings, he simply says he’ll marry someone else instead, and proceeds with a pretty thorough ruse to incite Lily’s jealousy.

This bothered me big time. Your girl, who has been systematically broken down through abuse, with very little self worth, and no real concept of trust in skewed power dynamics; was looking for a heartfelt truth about your feelings towards her. A reason why you want to marry her. He says “because you’re mine” which Lily takes to mean as a possession, something to own. And instead of clarifying with openness, you tell her she’s replaceable, reinforcing her beliefs that she’s a pawn in your game and is only there to be of use to you. Not gunna lie, my heart broke a little for Lily in that moment, and I was so angry with my boy. I know he has his own trauma, and again, emotional constipation, but still.

Lily’s hurt but her revenge was pretty sweet. Still, at this point, I was hoping she’d walk right up to “new fiancée” and calmly hand her the ring, saying “Then I guess this is yours now.” Make eye contact with Dom and calmly walk out. I wanted her to take back the power he had over her so freakin badly y’all. I wanted Dom to be hit between the eyes (and heart) with the true weight of how his actions impact a girl just starting to rebuild who she is after a lifetime of trauma.

But… the second half (post wedding) made up for it. And I mean that. Dom and Lily were disgustingly sweet, I loved every minute of it. Benjamin doesn’t shy away from the spice 👌🏼😏 or the action in the last third. It was harrowing and my kids had to eat lukewarm chicken nuggets for dinner because there was no way I was putting the book down. I devoured to the last page and already purchased for my bank of rereads.

Thanks Benjamin for another stellar read!! Can’t wait for Holly and Nero’s book! And maybe a novella for Dante and Violet?!?! Something about their story make me want to read it 😏

[Ana]

This author is new to me in my currently favorite reading genre dark mafia romance.

It’s not perfect but I loved the story of the H and h how they fell both at first sight and grow together in their relationship.
There’s no way giving less then five stars 🤩 because for once we have a Hero who is a mafia don older and dangerous BUT so so cute to our heroine never mean or abusive and he fells for her so hard.
The heroine is not a kid but a 29 year old grown woman who’s gone through a lot of trauma and I am glad this author gives her a life and love and happiness and not like some other writers would put their heroines through more abuse by the hands of the supposed Hero’s.

So thanks for this beautiful book

[BookADayKindOfGirl]

loved every bit of this book! I wonder is there doing to be books for Dante and Nero! I sure hope there will be

[Susie Adair]

This is the third book I’ve read by this author. It’s also the third time I’ve rated her books with 5 stars. These books have made me laugh and cry. All three have made me tell other people about them. My favorite things about books are that they take you away from everything going on in life. A wonderful little vacation in your brain. The best books make you forget about what’s worrying you in that very minute because you are so engrossed in the storyline from the author’s imagination. I’m a little jealous of people who not only have such imaginations, but also have the ability to translate said imagination to paper. I believe there are only 2 more of her books that I haven’t read. I’m trying to pace myself so I can both anticipate and enjoy those last 2. I have so many authors that I enjoy, but there are only 3 modern writers that I can honestly say I have enjoyed every single book that they’ve written. Those writers are Nora Roberts, KF Breene and Charlaine Harris. It looks like Eloise Benjamin will be the 4th, but I’ll report back after I read the last 2 stories.

[Emily]

A must read!

Here we go again another addicting book by one of my favorite authors ! If you want a story that has a strong FMC with a touch her and die mafia boss this one is for you! This book is so satisfying with a HEA and no cliffhanger you will not be able to put this book down once you start reading it.

[Debby The Writer]

Scorching Sienna brought me here, and I must say, as a Mafia romance buff and ghostwriter, that I'm even more impressed with the author's storytelling and how the plot was woven perfectly with just enough suspense, intrigue, heat, betrayal, information, power, drama, and love, to portray the perfect Mafia romance.

[Felicia Fuentes]

So good!!! Just can’t put it down!🙌🏽

Truly an amazing author it’s amazing to read a book and not feel like I’m reading the same book over and over again just with different names, but different author’s.

[Tina]

A nice surprise

This was quite the nice little surprise. There was the
right amount of romance to not make it to mushy. More very detailed sex than needed and, just the right a ount of action to keep it from being boring. It was a very good read.

[Brandy Hicks]

Spicy romance

Didn't think I was a mafia romance reader but this book makes me think I am. Erotic scenes interesting not normally into these types of books but held my interest would definitely give this author more reads

[Barbi Davis]

Yes!

I am truly enjoying Eloise Benjamin's books. Life isn't always sweet. And it makes it that much sweeter when you find love. I highly recommend this book

[Mannel Rkd]

I loved this book. The story was amazing. You had a nice plot, but my only regret for this book and why I took one star is the fact that Lily someone who was abused her whole life seemed to normal. I mean she should be traumatised, but she wasn’t, and then she went through something similar again in the book, but it’s still overlooked and I just don’t see how that’s any sort of realistic. I know it’s a book but still she went through so much for her to be completely normal not even PTSD or anything.

[Bam]

Loved this read, a dark spicy mafia always works for me 🤭 👻

[Lynda]

This was my first Mafia book. I've always shied away from them because I thought they would be too much.

That couldn't have been further from the truth. OMG, this book was incredible. I started it and couldn't put it down until I finished it at 7 am. YES, I read it straight through the night. You can't finish one chapter and not have the need to start the next. AMAZING. Then amount of strength Lily had was extraordinary. Dominico was strong and tender all at the same time when it came to Lily. He seemed to know what she needed. He gave her time to figure things out on her own with a small amount of nudging. The characters were introduced and described in such a way that I could see them visually. I can't wait to see if Nero and Holly, Violet and Dante, and the Mancuso brothers get their own books.

[Sammi-Jo]

Really enjoyed!!!

[Sami Dunkerley]

4.2⭐️

Really enjoyed this book! Loved the characters, the storyline and how it was such a good read that I couldn’t put it down!
First mafia genre I’ve read, and it surprised me!

The books main plot is the romantic connection between the two characters and how it develops, but the running sub plot is a total thriller leaving you questioning what is going to happen next! It was extremely well written!

I’ve already started Hollys story! 🫶🏽

[Katie]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

As a huge fan of dark mafia romance, I had a feeling I'd enjoy Corrupting Lily, but it still managed to exceed my expectations.

I was completely hooked from the first few chapters. The tension between the characters was incredible, and I loved how their relationship evolved throughout the story. There was a great balance of suspense, emotion, and spice, and I found myself constantly wanting to know what would happen next.

The mafia world felt immersive without taking away from the characters, and I really appreciated that there was emotional depth alongside all the action and darker moments. The twists kept me engaged, and I flew through this book much faster than I expected because I just didn't want to put it down.

If you love dark romance with morally grey characters, plenty of tension, and a gripping mafia storyline, I'd definitely recommend picking this one up. Another one of Eloise Benjamin's books I have absolutely loved!!