An Angel For Tsar: a dark mafia romance

by Lauren Kross

I was on my way to deal with some thugs harassing my client, still hungover from the night before, when I collided with a devastatingly handsome stranger and spilled coffee all over him. I thought nothing of the chance encounter until our paths crossed again under far worse conditions.

The stranger turned out to be Ilay Ivanovich, the Pakhan of the Russian Bratva.

I’m a lawyer fighting for a client being crushed by a corrupt senator. The deeper I dig, the more I uncover the mafia and the senator are working together. And lIay is at the center of it all.

But the case stops being my biggest problem. He does.

The deeper I get, the more intense his obsession with me grows.

Now I’m learning just how dangerous it is to catch the attention of the Bratva king.

And in the Bratva, what the Pakhan claims is his forever.

Full-length standalone mafia romance. No cliffhanger. HEA guaranteed.

Genres: Dark Romance, Mafia Romance, Enemies To Lovers, Romance, Dark, Forced Proximity, Kidnapping

543 pages, Paperback

Published February 27, 2026

Reviews

[Darlene I read WAY to many books]

I saw this video on reels and I was interested and at the start it was okay then it turned into a shit show.

Iris a lawyer who carry's around a baseball bat to help ppls around survive gangs and all that, finds herself in Ilya path and he's interested in her, but the way he acted was okay then he went a psycho I didn't enjoy. because of the mayor she wanted to expose and he worked with.

this man wanted to shot anyone didn't matter if it was cook if she didn't eat. Choked her at one point and almost tossed her off a balcony because she didn't wanna sleep in the same room as him. Got mad at her when she said she wanted a normal life marry a normal man.
Got mad and said he wish he shot her legs so she wouldn't have run away from him. That's pretty disturbing and a red flag man I do not want.

I like my man's less abusive then this man. and then Iris went from a strong woman to a weak one which was pretty sad.
The only thing I agree on was him wanting revenge against her family. Which she barley found. So idk why she was so ugh about them.

only likeable charas was the friend and the new brothers Iris found out. I can't tell if the next book shall be a 3some or a MF. with the best friend and the brothers.

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

Recommend-no
Cover-⭐️⭐️⭐️
Heat level-🌶🌶🌶



Slowinsta
Violence
Gore
Murder
Mass casualty events
Torture
Dun-con
Non-con
Death threats
Panic attacks
emotional distress
Emotional manipulation
Physical Assault
Trauma
No condom
Hea

[Hilary Petyko]

Wanted to like it, but wow! Such a hot mess!

To begin with, there is no way this was edited. Incorrect words, spelling, punctuation, etc. It was very difficult to read. I thought perhaps it was translated from a different language, but nope. The story was also plagued with so many plot holes, inconsistent character descriptions, and timing that did NOT make sense.

The worst part though, was when the scenes were meant to be spicy / domineering, but were written so poorly that the scenes were just blatant SA. Not much gets to me, but some of the scenes were infuriating.

I didn’t select this story looking for high literature, but this was just insulting.

[Emily]

I’m so disappointed. What lawyer acts like this? What made men are so… like this? The snippet I found on insta wasn’t even the same. The writing is off, punctuation and grammar nonexistent. This could have been hot. Too many plot holes, though.

[Mallory Logue]

what the hell did i just read

[Bri]

I genuinely do not mean this in a rude way, but I'm curious to know if this authors first language is English because this book read like a translated version. Like most other reviewers I saw an ad for this book and it made me curious enough to try. I think the story was there but for me it wasn't executed very well. I honestly didn't understand half of the plot and it felt like everything was a filler to get to some TikTok sensational scenes. The only ones that seemed to be focused on were those same ones that I saw in the ads and promos. Everything else wasn't explained well enough for me to even understand what these characters were doing. And the heroine came off as more of a unserious caricature of an attorney than an actual, take-no-prisoners one. We're supposed to believe she's out there kicking legal ass when really she's waving piles of papers around saying she's suing people while us, the readers, get no context on what led to all of this. And the hero...just no.

[Lenanena]

no cause wtf even was that

[Gelika]

I picked this book up after seeing some really great snippets online, but in the end I just didn't connect with it and it wasn't the wow read I was hoping for... 🥲

[nala]

Seen an ad for this book on Facebook and decided to give it a shot.

It was okay, the spice was good. But that’s about it.

If anyone has read -Roses and Champagne- on Lezhin, it’s a BL Manhwa. And this book is exactly like that, I mean to the point it straight up had an exact scenario that was in the Manhwa. It’s honestly considered plagiarism. There were exact scenarios in the book that was in the Manhwa.

- For instance in the Manhwa the ML asks the MC for help and the MC mocks and the ML grabs his fountain pen out of anger and stabs the pen inches from his head, in this books she ask for help and when he locks her and walks away, she grabs her pen and throws it inches from his head and it gets stuck in the door.

- Another copied scenario, in the Manhwa the MC ask the ML to help him get a building from someone who died, and he lives in his house for a few weeks gathering info. When they find a witness they go to visit him only for him to be murdered by an assassin the next day. And the assassin targets them when they find the body. This exact thing happens in the books as well.

The only different was this was a female and male MC, not MM. and he was a bit more unhinged than Caesar in Rose and Champagne.

This book is straight plagiarized from the BL Manhwa Roses and Champagne.

[Shannon M]

What in the actual hell was that ?! I don’t know how this got past, Arc readers, beta readers, editors. Cause HUH?!?!

[Mochi the Cat]

Feels like my twelve-year-old self writing my very first Wattpad fanfic during recess and hit publish immediately.

[GentleRabbit]

This was one of the worst books I have ever read.

The plot was either extremely weak or practically nonexistent. Nothing meaningful happens, and there’s no real direction or purpose to the story. I kept waiting for it to improve, but it never did.

There was no tension, no emotional pull, and nothing that made me care about the characters or the outcome. Even elements that could have added interest were completely absent.

Overall, it was an empty and disappointing read, offering nothing memorable or engaging.

[Sheridan Standen]

Saw a reel that got me interested. I enjoyed the first third, but the rest seemed to fall apart. I found it really choppy and started not making sense.

[The Blueberry Library]

I found this on Instagram Reels and I'm disappointed because the opening was intriguing but the execution wasn't, too many plot holes. The relationship between the main characters, in a word, is "TOXIC",🧪 like he is obsessed with her but not caring about her or that he manipulated her feelings and threatened to kill her family.
The FMC went from strong and independent to weak and compliant.

I don't like writing negative reviews and I try to enjoy a book until the end, but I can't find anything I like about this one (maybe near the end when she convinced him to go to therapy for his anger issues) 🥲

[Daniella Parks]

Yea I just can’t do it. I was going to force myself to finish until he literally choked her and not in the fun way. I mean this book was a 5/5 until the 50% mark where she discovered her family, lost her personality, and he somehow became overly manic where he wasn’t morally grey just sick in the head. Idk how all these things went south but I’m genuinely confused on how we got here.

[Rebeka]

The sad thing was that this could have been a good book. First of all for me the constant time skipping after chapters was really bothering, like seriously pleaase at least finish what was happening. I liked the story after all, the good lawyer with the head of maffia, but later when Iria found out about her dad and brothers who are a rival maffia that just made no point in the story, like this could have gone into several directions but instead it went all over the place. The story would have gone better if we skipped the family part or just already started with it and so enemies to lovers. Also for me it made no sense how fast they fell in love like…. Where? When? They didnt really connected anywhere, I get that they had some sexual power charging between them but that doesnt makes somene fall in love, especially not a normal lawyer who is supossed to be smart. For me if I would be 14 still in wattpad this would have been perfect…

[Kay]

My curiosity wanted me to finish, but I couldn't do that to myself. Grammatical errors, plot holes, and redundancies. I couldn't get a clear picture of what was going on at all! I have got to stop letting reels and TikTok choose my next reads.

[Kainat Ish]

Started out fun but then it became frustrating to the point it felt like rage baiting .

[Jiu]

This book was so so so awful
I saw a book page on reels and it seemed interesting but its js a shitty book.
The male lead is awful crazy and insane anyone that liked this book needs therapy

[lamija🪷📖]

I- what was this

[Mwewa Chilufya]

I managed to finish it and that was a struggle.
So many spellings errors it was annoying! It felt like the characters repeated the same phrases all the time.
It’s has a happy ending, no OW drama however has multiple breaks ups.

[thv]

3 ⭐️ / 🌶️🌶️

I would definitely classify this wtf did I just sign up for ? 💀

The start of the book definitely reminds me of the manga roses & champagne like from the way the met to the way he instantly falls in love with her after the first meet and down to like her being his rival’s daughter. This is almost the straight version of roses & champagne and definitely way more fucked up than the manga I gotta say.

The first half of this book was amazing!!🤩 like if i could rate the first half it would definitely be 4.5 ⭐️ just by itself and I was definitely team Ilay for that first half. The man was literally the man of my dreams the way he treated her and how relentless he was to like get her to go on a date with him!! The man literally bought her a fucking car cuz she mentioned it to him that she liked it and also gave her an extra 50K for maintenance!!!! LIKE WHO TF DOES THATTTT had me drooling 🤤. This man also started calling her as his wife after like the third interaction 💀💀. I just wanna say I’m no longer on this man’s side after what he put her through. Iris was giving this badass black cat man hater energy in the first half of the book which I LOVED!!! She had him eating from the palm of her hands and I was sat for itttt 🧎🏽‍♀️🧎🏽‍♀️. This book was dual POV but I feel like I didn’t get depth from iris like I didn’t even know she was in Russia for a reason until she was kidnapped the first time. Her having a man hating meditation is so iconic to me!! I love her and I wouldn’t have wished that ending on her and she genuinely deserves better.

I almost DNFed this book at like 84% , this book literally went downhill after he shot her friend ( btw who tf was he like he showed up out of nowhere and claimed that he was a friend was carrying a gun around wtf? ) I didn’t like it one bit like it wasn’t giving Stockholm syndrome one bit it made me concerned. He was willing to start a genocide to get back her which was not cute at all bitch. He kept threatening to kill her new family and not like listening her which infuriated me so much!! They kept fighting and had no solution and he legit manipulated her into ‘loving’ and ‘marrying’ him. And wtf happened to like her bestie she fought for her life she disappeared like wtf 💀💀. The spice also was so uncomfortable to read I just can’t.

I genuinely would not recommend reading this.

[India]

No plot. No grammar. No sentence structuring. Spelling mistakes. Incorrect words.

One of the worst books I’ve read; the story made no sense. scenes and conversations repeated themselves over and over with no progression. Characters jumped from one emotion to another without any rhyme or reason.

There was clearly no actual research done into law or how a lawyer practices. Characters were introduced and then vanished without a proper conclusion. Story lines were introduced half way through the book. The characters were introduced as one thing and then did a 180 and became something else without any proper character development or logic.

Could go on and on about how terribly structured and written this book is.

500+ pages and not an ounce of sense was found.

Whoever edited or read this for approval needs to find a new job.

[platypus]

I wasn’t won over in the first few chapters, like what lawyer acts like this, then even though I was reading the updated version, I couldn’t get past the typos. I’m sorry but I just cannot get past using your instead of you’re correctly

[allygator]

Awful, probably written by AI, and if it wasn’t that’s even more concerning.

[Jillian Bland]

Okay, there is no way this book was edited. This felt like such a rough draft copy that immediately went to publishing. It reads almost like it was translated from a different language and I don’t know if it was or not and I don’t care enough to look it up. It’s so very jumpy and I feel like a lot of the chapters don’t line up and it just has so many holes. I feel like done right this book had sooooo much potential, with that being said I did still like it? I don’t know something about Ilay just being so obsessed and the yearning and pining and BEGGING got me good. I genuinely think that’s the only reason I rate it a 2. Literally so many holes, I feel like we bring in Tessa her best friend whenever it benefits the story but we would talk about her in one chapter and then forget her in the next chapter. She meets her family which she says she kind of already knew that she would find him but also it didn’t seem like she was actively looking for him. I feel like they jumped to her calling him Dad so quickly but what do I know it could be a trauma thing. I feel like even the romance is all over the place and one chapter she’s in love with him in the next she’s not and I feel like they were saying that she said I love you when she hadn’t said I love you I truly just feel like this book was not edited in the slightest and I feel like if someone actually read it through it before publishing it it would have made a world of difference. I also don’t understand how the book is 500+ pages long and it has as many holes as it does. With all that being said though I do really want to read the short novella attached to this book so obviously I liked something. It did also have me laughing out loud a few times.

[Hannah Avendaño]

Absolutely devoured this. The plot is great, there’s awesome humor at the start that I wish continued throughout but it drops off when Iris becomes an indecisive little bitch. The dude is morally pitch black- threatens to kill her if she leaves him, shoots himself to get her to turn around and come back, and legit kills and threatens to kill anyone he wants. Many times this is the world burning protectiveness we love in a strong MMC, but most of the book I was asking myself where the love story was cuz it felt more like a mafia documentary. Too real in the psycho murderer bits. But I can appreciate his level of unhinged because he was fully devoted to her- she was the moron who didn’t realize the power she had for too long. She could have had him eating out of the palm of her hand the whole time, and the first impression we get of her indicates that’s the kinda personality she has. Except she acted like she was scared but then not scared but then not committing- just playing this cat and mouse game and it annoyed me. Also, the dialogue was very weird a lot of the time. We’re told too often instead of shown, which I can look past. But I get very hung up on unnatural conversations and this had so many. Aside from that, I think this author had a great story and will write absolute bangers when she gets the dialogue and inconsistencies in the details ironed out.

[Anahi Gaeta]

The spice? 🔥 Absolutely top-tier. Those scenes were easily the strongest part of the book. But everything else… felt weird.

This was my first dark romance mafia book, so maybe the genre just isn’t for me, but the level of violence from Ilay and the constant threats became too much at times. Instead of adding tension, they started to feel repetitive.

The pacing also threw me off. The story would suddenly jump a month, then two months, then three years with almost no transition. At some points, it felt like I was reading disconnected chapters rather than one continuous story, and the plot became pretty flat because of it.

Overall, I can see why people enjoy it, and I definitely understand the hype around the smut, but the rest of the story just didn’t fully work for me

[Kate]

DNF- I really tried my best to get through it as the story had potential but it just got messy. A new plot was added in the middle of the already confusing romance and it just got repetitive, she escaped, he found her, threatened her and everyone, REPEAT.

“This is not love, this is obsession.” Is repeated so many times throughout the book also yet the same thing happens.

And after making her literally 💀 someone, she goes back with him and says “I love you” ….??? Wishing you the best of luck for future books!

[Fluent in Romance]

I wanted to love this dark anti-hero story, but the hero was just a pointless arsehole. Even for a "falls first" trope, he was unnecessarily mean to a heroine who started strong but eventually let him walk all over her. By the end, I was just left thinking, "Really, dude?"

[Lauren Boutros]

hello???

Did this book even cross an editors desk? It’s like something I would read on wattpad as a kid, jesus christ.