Lost and Found

Mafia Romance #1

by Katerina Winters

"When everything seemed to be at its darkest, he came into her life and rescued her."

She was an ever smiling innocent. Rescued from sleeping on the streets, Misha stepped into the dangerous family of the Russian mafia. Her smiling bright nature was in violent contrast with the mob boss. Mikhail Kulakov was quiet, lethal, calculative, --and ten years her senior.

As she grew older gratitude turned into a secret desire towards her hardened criminal guardian.

Forbidden feelings...

At first, she was simply just a distraction to his routine life. Then the years passed taking the young girl with them, leaving behind a beautiful young woman under his roof. It took everything Mikhail had to ignore his ward's sweet and innocent allure. His little Misha did not deserve a hardened criminal.

But he would be damned before he let another man have her.

(This novel contains very mature erotic content)

Genres: Romance, Mafia Romance, Dark Romance, Forbidden Love, Slow Burn, Dark, Contemporary Romance

217 pages, ebook

Published January 1, 2016

About the author

“Her writing is a lot like chocolate, dark and very sweet.”

From contemporary to fantasy, Katerina Winters weaves dark tales of romance together with strong possessive men and sexy rendezvous.

Katerina lives in a tiny brick house surrounded by trees in Texas with her husband and their dog. When she isn’t writing, Katerina is usually catching brunch with friends or curled up on her window seat with a good book.

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Want to know more about Katerina?
Feel free to stalk her.

facebook.com/katerinawintersauthor
Instagram - @katerina_winters

Reviews

[Melluvsbooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a mafia age-gap book. The hero takes the abandoned h into his home when she’s 9 yrs old after she was attacked sleeping on the streets. She’s loved him since then and he finally gives in to temptation when she reaches 18. I liked this book overall. The H is jealous/possessive and suitably reluctant. There’s angst and some OW drama… the only downside is that it made no sense that he allowed Leo to be her bodyguard. It makes the hero seem kinda dumb… but he’s not. That choice and the choice to allow him to continue even when he wasn’t comfortable with how attached Leo had become…. It just didn’t fit with the hero’s character.


Bottom Line? This was entertaining, but not as good as the next book. The glaring plot hole got on my nerves. ⭐️⭐️⭐️





⚠️SAFETY SQUAD SPOILERS⚠️

- no cheating - the H has a sex life after he meets the h, but she’s only 9 when they meet

- no sharing

- dubcon-ish - once they are physically intimate, he’s calling the shots - she’s into it most of time but it’s clear that he’s gonna do what he wants regardless

- OW drama - there are bed buddies hanging about who are actively jealous of the h, and as the h gets older and her feelings deepen for the H, this causes angst - the H doesn’t have feelings for the women, they are used more as a shield to keep him from giving into his inappropriate feelings for the h

- h is an 18 yr old virgin

- The H is a 28 yr old experienced man

- no condoms or discussion or thoughts about bc or sexual health - this is concerning considering that H admits that most of the women the h saw him with were glorified prostitutes ….. also it’s odd that a man so OTT protective of the h wouldn’t have any concerns for her safety or future… 🤷🏼‍♀️

[readabookonce · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oof.

Misha was around eight years old when Mikhail took her under his care. Granted, another man adopted her and became her father-figure, but she still lived with Mikhail and saw & spoke to him regularly.

Nearly ten years later, Mikhail is struggling with her attraction to her (which he says just started, but through flashbacks we see it develop earlier). By the time they become “official,” Misha is still 17.

Mikhail did not have to be ten years older than her. The same story could’ve been written with a three-year age gap. Straight up, Misha was groomed, and Mikhail can say he was honorable and fought his attraction to her, but he literally acted on it.

The writing was engrossing, and had the novel taken a very different route (e.g. sending her away rather than having close contact with her all these years), it would’ve been a good read. I thought Krill’s fatherly relationship with Misha was really sweet, and I loved how the organization all took her in as their pseudo-niece. In the beginning, Mikhail’s protectiveness of the young homeless girl was endearing.

I’m hoping this scenario was a one-off because I really did like Katerina Winters’s writing style. Despite some grammatical errors and typos, it didn’t detract from the story.

★★

[mad4rombks · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF @ 30%. Way too many typos and they kept pulling me out of the story.

When part of your bio says "I have mastered the formula that is 'romance novels'" but you don't know the difference between your & you're, we have a big problem.

[Leigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lost and Found was not for me. The number of typos was ridiculous and very distracting. While it had potential, the overall story was a mess with awkward transitions that half the time I had no idea who was talking. The relationship between the H/h was lukewarm with the only intimate times coming at the very end. Overall, if not for my major book slump I probably would have dropped this one very early on, so at this point I have no plans to read more books from this author.

[Rgreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome read. Want more stories from this author with main characters just like this hero and heroine.

[Angela James]

The typos in this one were pretty distracting for me.

[Coco.V]

🎁 FREE on Amazon today (4/29/2020)! 🎁

[Mindy Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.8 stars⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

One on my favorite couples that Katerina Winter has written.

Mikhail was pretty much the perfect jealous/possessive/protective/demanding/caring hero 😍😍😍 I loved seeing his interactions with Misha and watching him fight his feelings for her. Yes he does meet her and is involved in her life when she is about 8 yrs old but it never came off creepy to me. I think the age gap was only about 10 years. Seeing Misha as a child and growing up made for some of the cutest and tearful moments.

Misha was a heroine I absolutely love to read about. She would not be described as sassy or stubborn [Thank God!!!!!]. She was sweet, cheerful, honest and completely devoted to Mikhail. Any insecurities and doubts she had made complete sense given the situation and the hero was pretty quick to correct them once he came around.

I would consider this mafia light

Chemistry was awesome! A couple steamy sex scenes. Not the most erotic I have read but it was written beautifully and definitely brought the heat🥵🥵

Only reason this is not a solid 5 stars is …..it needed an epilogue so bad. Ending was pretty abrupt. Yes we do see them again in the next 2 books but this couple deserved their own epilogue a few years out.

OW drama incidents-the hero never stood for anyone talking bad to Misha and handled those situations the way a mafia man would🙂

Not really any OM drama. Mikhail is jealous of any guy around Misha but she only ever wanted him.

[Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Note to self and other other safety folks:

DON’T READ THE “EXTRA STUFF” ON THE AUTHOR’S NEWSLETTER!!! EXPLICIT OW SCENE.

The OW scene is before h and H get together. We know already H has been with other ow while h is growing up and h has scene OW leave his bedroom. But it’s never explicit so it didn’t bother me as much. But then I decided to checkout the author’s newsletter for the epilogue.

The actual epilogue is cute but the author added this extra scene of H having sex with OW while imaging h, which is the most disgusting trope ever. WHY WOULD THE AUTHOR RUIN A PERFECTLY GOOD STORY LIKE THAT??

That extra scene was completely UNNECESSARY!! We already knew that the H had feeling for h and was trying to control his “urges” so there was no need for such an explicit and creepy scene. It’s worse because he re-enacts the exact sexual scene with h in the actual book which is now tainted for me.

If I didn’t read the extra scene, It would have a re read shelf for me but nope! Not anymore!

The book is not ruined but I cannot read the reenactment because of the sex scene between h and H without having thinking about the OW scene. It’s gross!!

[Alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good storyline

The story was interesting but the unbelievable amount of grammatical errors were definitely distracting. This could be a very alluring read with just a little help from a proofreader. I loved the drama and the action of the story but the situation was a little weird. I kept trying to imagine the girl was in college or something and not in such a controversial role. It was nice to read something that was more about the action than the raunchy sex scenes that most romance novels have. It had great balance.

[Yugie Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first time reading a Katerina Winters book, and likewise my first time where the main characters are a mafia boss and his much younger female ward. I'd picked up the book precisely for the blurb promised, as I was very curious to see how their story was going to unfold. In a nutshell, it is about a young mafia boss encountering a young homeless girl who, after a horrific experience with another homeless man, is taken in by him and raised in a close-knit family of his mafia goons. I was so glad I'd chosen to read the book when I did. It surprised me in all the good ways, and I had enjoyed it tremendously.

This is an age-gap romance, but I don't think the 10 years between the MCs is that significant. What I'd been worried about was how the dynamic between the two main characters - Mikhail and Misha - was going to play out once the attraction between them was finally acknowledged. I could definitely imagine the struggle each of them was going through as they transitioned from a keeper-and-ward relationship to forbidden lovers. I was thus supremely thankful that this was handled quite beautifully by the author that, as a reader, I saw the transition as a natural and inevitable outcome of the MCs' long-standing close relationship with one another.

Ultimately, what sealed my resounding approval of this book was the message conveyed in the end that, you must not deny entry into your heart the one person who is finally able to show you what real love is and what good it can do to a man, no matter how undeserving of love he believes he is.

[Siri_reads · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hu… yeah no. This story is about grooming and pedophilia, don’t care what other people think. And what the hell was that sentence near the end: “I used to watch you walk this fat ass right by me wearing only one of my shirts dozen of times. I nearly raped you then.” You nearly did what now…?!

And also: “We need to get a new place. I feel like a fucking pedophile reliving fantasies in this damn place.” Well my guy, for she just turned 18 that exact day, reliving fantasies from previous times does indeed make you a pedophile, no matter where you’re at, lol.

“And that’s why he was a pedophile. A sick bastard that would feel up a young woman while getting dressed, a young woman who trusted him implacably. A trust he no longer deserved”, At least he’s self aware, right??

For about 90% of this book the FMC was underage while the MMC was 28y… I’ll just leave it at that. I’m deeply concerned for the people who gave this book 3-5 ⭐️ I’m not for shaming, because you do you, but this is criminal people.

[RomanceBookLoverinSeattle · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I’m reading these out of order, but it doesn’t seem to matter or hurt the enjoyment of the story. This easily could have been a 5 star read with the help of an editor and a proofreader. The grammar issues drove me INSANE. Wrong tense, missing commas, or commas placed in the wrong place, and words missing or added in to change the meaning of a sentence and having to go back and reread to figure out what she was trying to say. The other issue, where editing would have been helpful, is the out of order sequence. You see flashes of the past but they way they are put in is sometimes confusing and it takes a minute to realize what has happened.

All that being said, this ticked a lot of boxes for me. I liked the writing aside from the grammar and I loved the plot and the characters. This really worked for me and I’ll be looking for more of her books!

[Whispers From · Rating 4 out of 5]

Misha was a young child when her mother left her at a diner. She lived on the streets and sold hand warmers. Mikhail is a Russian mob boss and he is one of two that runs Boston. When something happens to Misha, Mikhail takes her in. He has one of his men adopt her but she lives with him. She is a genius with the violin and takes lessons.
As she gets older, Mikhail has bodyguards to protect her. She has fallen for Mikhail but he stays away from her. But when he believes another is about to make a move, he then decides he’s the only man for her. When she’s kidnapped, Mikhail will tear the city down to find her.
Good story. And he really was only ten years older than her. Some sex. Mikhail doesn’t believe he’s good enough for her. Misha is afraid he will get tired of her. But the love between them is a love only few have had.

[Battleaxe Betty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worth every star

Rarely I give a book five stars. That's because I reserve the fifth star for those books I find to be exceptional. The story in this book kept me enthralled from start to finish. The grammar could use some polishing, and a few sentences didn't make sense. I don't know the nationality of the author, if maybe that was why or if it just wasn't checked over. It's a shame as they're the only things that let the book down. If you can manage to ignore that - I managed and it's my pet peev - then you're in for a great few hours of reading!

[Vintagebooklvr · Rating 3 out of 5]

The age difference may be a turn off for a lot of people, but nothing happens until Misha is of age (or a few days before she is 18) and the author stresses that neither character felt there was a father-daughter relationship. In spite of glossing over the mafia violence, which many mafia romances do, I found the characters engaging and I enjoyed the romance. There were some grammar mistakes but I have a feeling it may have been cleaned up somewhat from other readers reviews because I didn't see that many.

[Era · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMG OMG I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS BOOK! Idk why it's very low rated but I think people just don't prefer it BUT for me, I love the way you wrote this book. The sexual tension and the chemistry between them was so high it makes me crazy. Also at first I thought he was 40 but it's good to know he's not. You wrote them both so perfectly well. Mikhail being being cold and indifferent and our sweet lovely Misha. It's crazy how much I could feel their chemistry while reading this book and also their dialogue are so well written. I was kicking and rolling around, screaming lol

[Cait · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cute idea for a book....if only everyone had been a little older.
Ages given were vague at best, and throughout the book, I was hopeful for a leap forward in time so the main female character would have time to come into herself without being under his thumb.
While described as smart, independent, and charismatic, I found her to be codependent, unsure, and gullible. Which is understandable for a child, which is what she is in this book.
Aside from all that, the spelling and grammar leave a lot to be desired.

[Kiran Rao · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF. I am actually a big fan of Katerina Winters. I love that a lot of her heroines are not white. She just doesn't exactly tell you but she hints at it in the writing. I don't hate the hero in the book, but I find the whole relationship very uncomfortable. The heroine was an early teen when she met the hero and she stayed with him in the apartment. Had the heroine lived with her guardian or even Veera, it would have made sense. Could not finish. Have read most of her books and will continue to do so, despite not finishing this one.

[cara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do wish the H hadn’t gotten the women he slept with in his home that he shared with the h. I didn’t expect him to stay celibate while he sees her just as a child( though some Hs have done that in the books I’ve read) but the least he could do was not bring the women in his home where the h could seee them come and go. We also don’t get any clarity on if he really slept with the ow he was using to keep the h away.
Wish there was an Epilogue

[Shirley · Rating 4 out of 5]

was a very interesting read, good amount of age gap... not the 20 something that always bugs me :)
interesting concept of how misha and mikail meet and the love that develops over time.. ending was a bit hairy but good ... enjoyable read

now on the negative needs proofing/ better editing lots of simple words were missing to complete a sentence.. did not make a huge disrupt with reading but was for me noticible...

[PseudoMe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Did not want this book to end!

This story was written very well. It's slowly but surely developed characters without boring me to death. I love how she seamlessly transitioned the love from innocent friendship and loneliness to passionate your name. I need a book two and three of this couple. I want to see how she grows and transforms. This is my first book from this author and I can't wait to read the next.

[GreyTheLonewolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this. I read a book that was about a guy falling for a girl he raised. Not this one a different one and i couldn't help but think of that one. Was this one as good not exactly. I didn't like a scene close to the end and how it felt like the end was a last ditch effort at conflict. Other than that it's aye ok in my book. Probably a 3.89

[Sarah Winters · Rating 2 out of 5]

I slogged through this

I feel like this book had a lot of promise and I generally like the author but this one hurt to get through. Missing words, bad editing, and constant time jumps were bad but the hero was pretty bland. I wanted to love this book and I’m disappointed I didn’t.

[Manahil · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did enjoy this book, but I feel that Misha focused too much on Mikhail and that he was being too indecisive about being with her, kind of leading her on and then changing his mind that he wanted her so fast.

[Jeri L. Moseley · Rating 5 out of 5]

1st in a trilogy

So I read Roman first so I knew Mikhail would get his Happily Ever After. Still, it was nice to read about the journey Misha and Mikhail took. They had some drama, that's for sure.

[Bookfetish · Rating 4 out of 5]

🌟🌟🌟🌟
🌶🌶🌶
Age gap
Mafia romance
When Mikhail Kulakov first meets Misha she is a street urchin who sells him gloves. Despite her circumstances, Misha is spunky, tenacious and Mikhail cannot help but notice her large innocent brown eyes which are full of hopeful happiness, despite her current situation. Seeing her on the road and buying gloves from her becomes part of his standard routine, so Mikhail cannot help but be bothered and concerned when this routine is broken and Misha is no longer on the streets. His gut tells him something is wrong. He is determined to find her and so begins their story.
This is a slow burn, age gap mafia romance. Although I enjoyed it, the book had several grammatical errors and at times read as if google translate had been used, which I really don’t think is the case, but it became a bit distracting and annoying due to the frequency of this.

[Kalli · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love a good age gap mafia romance and this one was so good! The build of tension between Misha and Mikhail throughout the years was so well written and I loved the dynamic of the relationship! There were a few grammar or word choices that were weird, but it has an amazing story and romance!!

[Allena · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first I thought I had stumbled into a really cringe worthy read.

Although the age gap is perfectly fine it just felt…off somehow. I love Bratva reads and really enjoyed the characters.

Overall good read.

[Carla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Personal Preference Rating 4/5 🌶️🌶️ Audiobook (Audible)
A very slow burn (for obvious reasons). I don’t read many age gap books, but I thought this one was decent. The AI narration was a bit distracting at times, but I liked the story overall.