Kept by the Kingpin: A spicy age gap mafia romance

London Mafia Bosses #12

by Evie Rose, Lucas Webley (Narrator), Zara Hampton-Brown (Narrator)

He reverse-kidnaps me. Instead of snatching me away, the mafia boss moves into my house. Now he’s renovating to his luxury standards and looking at me like he wants to eat me whole.

I nurse the kingpin’s gunshot wound in the hospital, and when I’m done, he asks me to quit, and work for him instead.

I refuse, and when he threatens to kidnap me, I point out that’s hardly likely to make me be careful when changing his dressings. I think that’s the end. A heart-pounding encounter with an older, powerful, dangerous man.

Until I get back to my house share, and discover he’s bought the entire building and moved in upstairs.

At first, I clean his wounds.

But it’s not long before the kingpin wants more.

Kept by the Kingpin is a sweet and spicy age gap romance with a mafia boss obsessed with spoiling his innocent girl.

Duet narrated by Lucas Webley and Zara Hampton-Brown.

Genres: Audiobook, Novella, Dark Romance, Forced Proximity, Romance, Mafia Romance, Contemporary

Audible Audio

Published August 14, 2026

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.

Reviews

[Aleksandra [semi hiatus] · Rating 4 out of 5]

this one has virgin fmc but I saw the artwork and the guy looks too hot to skip it 😩😭

[Sammy's Study · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 🌟

So this wasn't my first Evie Rose rodeo and I did know what I was getting myself into. But boy, this wasn't it for me. The instant love trope just doesn't work for me, unfortunately...

I did loooove the male narrator!! Lucas Webley has an incredible voice that made me giggle like a school girl 🫣

And why on earth are we calling this 'a reverse kidnapping'... like, do you mean a hostage situation?! Jeeeeez 😅

Thank you Netgalley and Victory Editing publishing for this ALC!!! 🫰🏼

[brittany:) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I ATE THIS UP 😭🖤

Is this a literary masterpiece? Absolutely not. You read this solely for the vibes, and the vibes were VIBING. 😂

A fun, chaotic mafia romance with grumpy/sunshine, forced proximity, hostage/captor vibes, and an age gap? I was SOLD. 😭🫡 And the FMC being a nurse was just a little extra bonus for me. 🩺😂

It is a novella, so yes, it’s insta-love and things move quickly, but I was here for the vibes anyway. 😂🖤 Super bingeable and entertaining.

🎧 The audiobook drops TODAY!

Thank you Victory Editing for the ALC 🎧🖤

[Van · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I realised pretty quickly that the things that defined me as man were my decisions. My integrity, my risks, and my judgement.”

Finally a real man
This is him talking about why he choose to be celibate since his early years as an adult
This book has the same formula of her other books but it works and only because of this sentence I was happy
He’s a little hesitant for five minutes but then it’s insta love
Safe book and good sex scenes
No violence

[❀ Tia ❀ · Rating 2 out of 5]

| ALC REVIEW | ★ 2 stars ★

Cheesy, cutesy, and very spicy, but too insta-lust for my liking (even for novella standards). It was an easy listen and I liked the narration, but the story itself was nothing special, with no particular standout moments for me.

Thank you to NetGalley, Evie Rose, and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for gifting this audiobook in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. All opinions are my own.

[Melany · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the audiobook of this novella. The narrators did an amazing job portraying the characters! I liked that it was instant love and immediately dived into it. It had a decent plot but the fast pace of it and everything happening is truly what kept me intrigued.

I received this audiobook from NetGalley to listen/review. All statements are my true opinions after fully listening to this audiobook.

[Nikii · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ig guilty pleasures were books, this wound be it.🥀

Safety
No Om/Ow
No cheating/Sharing
HEA

[Colleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dual pov
Age gap h23, H49
Novella 158 pages
Nurse/mafia boss
no owd/omd
HEA

[Lolina ⋆ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wait, this was so fun 😭

[Marie-eve · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5⭐

Thank you Netgalley and Victory Editing Netgalley Co-op.
This book wasn't quite what I expected. I previously read one of Evie rose's short novels and it was great! This one, not so much. Where the other story had some depth, here there was practically none. Near the end I thought it would give us some suspense but even that didn't work out. This book gives superficial spice and nothing more.
It also gave me an ick that (as a nurse myself) the FMC, who is a nurse, doesn't seem to understand male anatomy? I get the whole virgin card, but even then I expect you to know what to do when there are spicy scenes.

[Gosia · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5-3.75ish rounded up

This was not my first rodeo, I think it’s 4th novella by Evie I listened to so I knew the drill. I didn’t even read the blurb, just saw that there’s a new audio by Evie and I hit that “request” button so fast.
The age gap was too big for me so in order to really enjoy this story I just removed any info about their age from my head 😂 I know I’m in minority and most readers loooove age gaps. I don’t skip them but sue me, I usually just force myself into denial about characters age.

It was insta and fast pace and silly in the best way. That’s the theme for Evie’s novellas - they do offer some dark themes and the mafia things are a part of the plot, but it’s mainly a silly, goofy entertaining story with hot spice and always perfect for one sitting read/listen.

Audio duration: 3h40min
Duet narration by: Zara Hampton-Brown and Lucas Webley
The narration was okay. I preferred the female narrator, tbh I struggled a bit during male narrator’s long segments. I needed to really focus to keep my attention on the audiobook and understand what’s happening.
The British accent was very fitting considering the story takes place in London!

Read if you want something hot and a bit on the darker end of the scale but still light, funny and simply entertaining.
If you expect dark-dark romance, that’s not it. It’s what a call a dark-ISH romcom.

ALC provides by Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op

[Maddy Hookom · Rating 3 out of 5]

like what in the wattpad book!?!?
liek the way he was down bad after two mins and they both loved each other on like day 4??? oh welll it was fun and short
low key not spicy enough
also i liked the dual perspective, but I was annoyed how the main male character at first was like oh I cant like she’s too good for me… you’re a mafia boss where are your lack of moral??

[Christa Paige · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doing immersive reads with Evie Rose's short but spicy book-boyfriend series is the best way to experience the longing, the yearning, the spice and the fabulous duet narration. I was honored to be given this opportunity to listen from Netgalley while reading the book.
Of course, Evie Rose delivers again with the tropes packaging it into a insta-love, insta-attraction, insta-obsession from chapter one.
The story is simple but layered with all the mob things that make a mafia romance fun to read.
Callie is sweet. Caring. A nurse who wanted to make a difference. She's innocent and a whole lot unprepared for the force that is Kingpin Reid. She works hard to stay afloat and shows compassion even in the toughest situations. Reid is well yeah Evie gets it when she writes these mmcs. He is simply going to change the fmcs life one page at a time, spoiling her, gifting her things, altering her existence into the things she dreams of like a brand new kitchen done while she was away at work. All these things are such fairy tale moments that are layered in to the mafia background.
The age gap was not jarring. He was very aware of it for most of the book even if Callie didn't seem to care much that he was older than she was by many years. He became her rock. Her protector. Her champion. Who could resist that?
For the narration, all I can say is Lucas Webley and Zara Hampton Brown were a fantastic team. Their narration made the characters come to life on the page. I could feel Callie's breathless surprise, her awakening for sensuality, her care all in the little things that Zara did to craft Callie's personality. Zara handles the youthful Callie perfectly. Lucas nailed the Kingpin British Mafia leader who has had a long hard life with countless injuries and a need to keep emotional attachments far away from him and his criminal world. Lucas brings a rough timbre to Reid with a deep resonating tone that lowers the more the character yearns. It's brilliantly done. The chemistry between Zara and Lucas makes the story totally work.
I recommend this book- in audiobook especially- for those who want the fairy tale woven into a mafia world. The tropes are met wonderfully especially the age-gap aspect. The steam is steamy for sure. It's a fun listen with a plot that is not exactly simple but compact in order to bring in the romance.
Evie Rose knows how to write a book boyfriend and Reid fits all those aspects while Callie is learning all about who she is and who she wants to be-- with an epilogue that is a satisfying conclusion to their love story.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audiobook 4 stars!

I love a mafia romance and I love an age gap so I knew right off the bat that I was going to enjoy this one. This is nurse and mafioso romance with our nurse, being an innocent virgin female main character and our mafioso, a 49 year-old rugged grumpy, male main character.

While this was more of a novella length, I liked the slow burn of the relationship. Even though it had an insta lust feel, they did not immediately jump into each other's arms until further into the book. The spice was so spicy and such a steamy listen. The narrators did such a great job portraying each character. One thing that did kind of throw me out of the story was the Fae ball at the end, while that sounds fun in theory it just didn’t fit within the story. I also didn't like that the female main character didn’t know what a billionaire was and the male main character said to her “do you know what a billionaire is, that’s 1000 millions." It just made her sound really dumb.

Overall, this was a great fun time. I would definitely recommend it if you like a spicy mafia age, gap romance.

This book was sent to me via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[Sonja Charters · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading Nabbed By The Bratva back in May - I was excited to dive back into another quick read spicy novella in this London Mafia Bosses series.

 

Each book focuses on a different couple so although I've only read books 11 & now 12 in Thai series, these really do work well as standalone reads and are perfect to devour on audio book whilst doing a bit of housework.

 

Once again, I devoured this in one sitting and absolutely had so much fun.

 

Our Kingpin Reid finds himself in the hospital being patched up for a gunshot wound and instantly falls for his nurse Callie.

Quite rightly, she doesn't trust his offer of a live-in nurseing job - so what can Reid do but move himself into her apartment and reverse kidnap her!

 

Oh, I loved this whole concept - not something I've seen before.

He buys the apartment, renovates and just sits there patiently for Callie to learn to want him as much as he wants her - and being a nice and easy, quick read, we don't have to wait long before we see some spice shining through.

 

I loved this couple.

I really connected with them both and loved that although we're dealing with mafia bosses, there's no unnecessary "behaviour" - we just get in and enjoy the ride.

 

This is an obvious storyline - but this is no bad thing.

I love that we know where we're heading and we can just relax into it and enjoy a great story which is packed with humour that just has me smiling the whole way though.

 

I devoured this in one sitting and.and really looking forward to working my way through the rest of the blacklist, whilst waiting for the next release soon.

 

 

 

 

[Stephanie Boling · Rating 4 out of 5]

🎧ALC Review🎧
⭐⭐⭐.75/5
Narrated by Lucas Webley and Zara Hampton-Brown

Kept by the Kingpin delivers exactly what it promises: a fast‑paced, high‑stakes romance built on obsession, proximity, and the thrill of danger, without losing its sweeter emotional core. Evie Rose leans into the fantasy of an older, powerful mafia boss who becomes fiercely protective of the heroine, turning a single hospital encounter into a full‑blown takeover of her living space and her routine. The “reverse‑kidnapping” premise is playful rather than dark, giving the story a heightened, dramatic tone that stays focused on emotional tension rather than explicit content.

In audio, Lucas Webley and Zara Hampton‑Brown elevate the material. Webley brings a controlled, authoritative warmth to the kingpin that makes his intensity feel grounded rather than abrasive, while Hampton‑Brown gives the heroine a sincerity and softness that fits the age‑gap dynamic. Their performances create a clear emotional contrast between characters, making the push‑and‑pull of proximity, caretaking, and reluctant attraction feel more vivid.

Overall, this is a story for listeners who enjoy protective‑hero fantasies, dramatic setups, and a blend of sweetness with danger. It’s not a gritty mafia tale, it’s a romance that uses the mafia backdrop to heighten devotion, tension, and the feeling of being cherished.

[Lexa K · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love these Mafia romances by Evie Rose. Yes, it's predictable. Yes, it's cheesy, but it does exactly what I've come to expect from this series and Lucas Webley could read me the dictionary and I'd still be drooling in the corner just listening to him.

Like the other books I've read in this series, there is an age gap, there is an inexperienced FMC and there is a possessive MMC who falls instantly. But I had a great time with Reed and Callie nonetheless.

The spice was expertly written as per usual, and the quirky sense of humour lingered on the pages. I loved the reverse kidnap angle of moving in instead of a hostage situation and the Fae Ball with the other 'maths club' members was particularly enjoyable.

I'd love to join the London Mafia wives monster smut club 🤣

The narration from Lucas Webley, as I've already mentioned is PERFECTION and Zara Hampton-brown brings Cassie to life with her narration style.

This audiobook is perfect for a quick couple of hours of escape and some spicy fun in the world of the London Mafia.

[Audiobooksgirlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a quick, spicy little palate cleanser 😂 Reid buying Callie’s entire building and moving in instead of actually kidnapping her was completely ridiculous and somehow exactly the kind of ridiculous I’m willing to accept in a mafia romance.

Reid is possessive, obsessed, older, powerful, and basically decides immediately that Callie is his. Callie being the nurse who patches him up after a gunshot wound made their whole setup even more fun. It’s definitely instalove, but with a novella this short, I wasn’t expecting a six month courtship 😂

The audiobook was duet narrated by Lucas Webley and Zara Hampton Brown, which automatically gets points from me. Quick, entertaining, very spicy, and easy to fly through between heavier reads.

Thank you to NetGalley and Victory Editing NetGalley Co op for the gifted ALC in exchange for my honest review.

[Khadija · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley for a chance to review this audiobook.

This was fun . It was fast paced,spicy novella .

What will you find in this fast-paced novella?

Steamy mafia,Age gap,Billionaire,Nurse,Virgin, obsession, passion and spice.

The narrators were wonderful and did an amazing job in bringing this novella to life.

[Fiatgal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sad to see this series ending.

[Han]

Safe
Virgin h

[Coline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sympa. Callie et Reid sont mims.

[mary ♡⋆ ࣪₊ꫂ᭪݁⋆˙ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh wow the best part about this book was the artwork

[Jahda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ehh might read

[Diana Chinchilla (dianasbookhaven) · Rating 4 out of 5]

𝘼𝙇𝘾 𝙉𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙤𝙧 𝙍𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜: 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧
𝙎𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙮 𝙍𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜: ♥️♥️♥️♥️
𝙎𝙥𝙞𝙘𝙚: 🌶️🌶️
𝙏𝙧𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙨: Novella
Grumpy/Sunshine
Mafia Romance
Age Gap

🎧🄰🄻🄲 🅁🄴🅅🄸🄴🅆: eohhwee! Good lawd, I love hate/novellas sometimes because they leave me wishing there was more. This was super short and sweet, just enough teasing to leave me needing more. A must add to all those smutty lovers, because both the narrators brought the heat.

📖🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 🆁🅴🆅🅸🅴🆆: if you can get over the fact that you don't have all the information, this is super entertaining. Selfishly, I wanted more of the story but knowing it was a novella before helded me not keep my hopes up. Super fun story



🎧𝙶𝚒𝚏𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚊𝚗 𝙰𝙻𝙲 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝙰𝚞𝚍𝚒𝚘𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔 & 𝚕𝚎𝚏𝚝 𝚖𝚢 𝚑𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚝, 𝚗𝚘𝚗-𝚒𝚗𝚏𝚕𝚞𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚍 𝚛𝚎𝚟𝚒𝚎𝚠. 𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚔 𝚢𝚘𝚞 netgalley 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚘𝚙𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝𝚞𝚗𝚒𝚝𝚢.

[kymagirl · Rating 5 out of 5]

He moved into her life like a threat and stayed like a vow.

Callie is used to caring for people who need her. She’s sweet, stubborn, overworked, and safer when love stays theoretical. Then Reid arrives in her hospital with a gunshot wound, a dangerous reputation, and the kind of attention that makes her feel seen before she’s ready to be wanted.

Reid is older, powerful, and used to getting what he wants. When Callie refuses to leave her life behind, he doesn’t drag her into his world. He moves into hers, turning her house share into something sharper, safer, and impossible to ignore.

At first, she tells herself she’s only tending his wound. But forced proximity strips people down. Between quiet meals, careful hands, bruised histories, and Reid’s need to protect and spoil her, Callie sees the lonely man beneath the violence.

Their connection is fast, intense, and uneven in all the ways that matter. He’s possessive and morally gray. She’s inexperienced but not weak. What starts as a power imbalance turns intimate, dangerous, and hard to walk away from.

Callie grows from guarded caretaker into someone brave enough to want, trust, and choose a dangerous love without losing her softness. Reid shifts from controlling kingpin to devoted partner, letting Callie become his weakness, comfort, and future. Their relationship begins in coercive forced proximity, then deepens into a high-heat bond where control gives way to trust, vulnerability, and devotion.

An ultra-steamy, age gap, instalove, grumpy sunshine mafia romance with forced proximity, reverse kidnapping, praise kink, hurt comfort, caretaker intimacy, possessive devotion, and a morally gray silver fox who falls first and hardest. It’s about control, trust, loneliness, protection, power, sexual awakening, and the strange tenderness that grows in dangerous places.

The Elevator Pitch: A gentle young nurse patches up a wounded mafia kingpin and finds herself pulled into the gravity of a man who mistakes control for care until she becomes the one person he can’t command himself to leave. As danger closes in around them, their forced proximity turns intimate, volatile, and deeply revealing, exposing old wounds neither of them expected the other to touch. What begins as a threat becomes a devotion neither of them knows how to survive without.

Heat Level: 🔥🔥🔥 Ultra-Steamy / Erotic Romance

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐⭐⭐✨ 3.5/5
🎧 Format: Audiobook ARC
🌶️ Spice: 4/5
💘 Tropes: Age Gap • Mafia Romance

Kept by the Kingpin was a fun, spicy novella that absolutely flew by! The story is fast-paced and entertaining, and it was honestly over before I realized it.

The romance follows an older, experienced mafia boss who falls for the younger, inexperienced nurse caring for him. Their chemistry was definitely there, and the differences in their ages and experience played well into the relationship and age-gap trope.

One of my favorite scenes actually involved the other mafia bosses and their women. These intimidating men are complete suckers for the women they love, and I was here for it. 😂 I also appreciated that their relationships weren’t portrayed in a derogatory way. And then I found out the women are book lovers with their own book club?! LOVE. 📚❤️ It was such a fun little addition to the story.

🎧 Audiobook Verdict: I really enjoyed the duet narration. Both narrators had beautiful British accents, and the male narrator’s low, gravelly voice fit the character particularly well. The female narrator had a breathier delivery that wasn’t entirely my preference and reminded me somewhat of the narration in Den of Vipers, but it never took away from my enjoyment of the story.

📚 Final Verdict: Fast-paced, spicy, entertaining, and easy to devour in one sitting. The chemistry worked, I loved getting glimpses of the other couples, and the book-club-loving mafia women were an unexpected bonus. A solid 3.5 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for providing the audiobook ARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Betty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mafia lite novella w an obsessed mafia boss and his kind-hearted nurse.

Reid 🔫 Callie

Reid and Callie meet one night when he comes to the hospital where she works with a bullet wound. She treats him and he immediately tries to convince her to quit her job and work for him. She refuses, but when she goes home he’s bought her entire building, found housing for her other roommates, and moved in.

It starts w him genuinely only wanting her as his nurse but grows from there. He’s touch averse and she’s the only one who’s been able to touch him without him flinching in at least 10 yrs.

Anyway, they both are drawn to each other. Sexy times, a kidnapping, a dead dad follow. You know, the usual mafia hijinks.

- No third act breakup
- No miscommunication
- Age gap - he’s 40 something and she’s 24. He thinks it s a bigger deal than she does.
- Opposites attract - morally grey mafia boss who’s actually a good guy and gentle kind nurse
- Spice - She’s a virgin bc she can’t stand the thought of a man controlling her; she watched her mom be physically abused by her dad. It’s implied that he hasn’t been w someone for 10 yrs.
- Forced proximity - he’s moves in w her and basically never leaves.
- No OM/OW
- Cute banter
- HEA; married w kids 10 yrs later

The is the safest mafia story I’ve read. It’s sweet to the point of cavity inducing.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for the ALC of Kept by the Kingpin

“Callie is a bright, shining star in the middle of blood and death and darkness and loss.”

“I’m impatient for my little nurse to come home.”

So this book is follows Callie (nurse) and Reid (Mafia Boss). Callie helps fix Reid up and after not being able to be touched by anyone he is able to be touched by Callie and now wants her to work for him as his nurse. Callie eventually agrees and the love story starts.

“I love this girl because she’s the sweetest thread of hope I’ve ever hung onto, and she won’t break. Callie is far stronger than she looks. And whatever the price, whatever I need to do… I need her forever. I want her as my wife.”

“We can be friends, Callie.” The way he says it, friendship sounds like a dark temptation. A forbidden, silky thing that would take my breath away and steal my soul.”

So I want to say this is a SHORT book 156 pages only 3 hours of listening. But it was a good Duet narration! Duet narration always makes the audiobooks better for me.

“Her face is a picture. The little nurse who had such a soft touch, but a spine of steel. I like her. More than that, I’m curious about her.”

This book is very spicy and an age gap romance. It is instalust/love but I feel the author portrays this well for the type of book and how short it is!

Because it’s so short I always feel like I’m missing so much of the story but overall this is one of the better novellas that I have read. And the spicy scenes were good 🥵

“And then he winks. The infuriating, beautiful, arrogant bastard, winks at me, and leaves.”

[Rachel Santillan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good little mafia-esque read! There is some mafia in it, but since it’s under 200 pages, it’s definitely more of a background element. Still, it was entertaining and an easy, quick read.

He falls first and HARD. When she doesn’t agree to be his full-time nurse, he reverse kidnaps her…He buys her rental house, pays her roommates to move out, moves himself in, and starts renovating everything to meet his standards.

The more time they spend together, the more they start catching feelings. She’s the first person he’s let touch him in years because he doesn’t do well with physical touch, but apparently hers is the exception because he cannot get enough of it.

She’s a 23 year old virgin who grew up thinking all men were like her dad, charming on the outside but abusive behind closed doors, so she’s never really let herself get close to anyone.

23F / 49M age gap
Mafia-esque
Possessive MMC
Virgin FMC
Reverse kidnapping
He falls first
Touch averse MMC
He wants kids with her
10 year epilogue

For a book under 200 pages, it was a fun little read!