After her mother's untimely death, finishing high-school was no longer an option for Christelle DeMelo.
A chance job offering led her into the cruel hands of Alexei Petrov. On the outside, the stoic Russian appeared to be a normal wealthy businessman who needed a maid to keep up with his particular demands. However, Christelle knows the real man, the monster in an expensive suit. Her and her infant brother's livelihood depend on the tall amber eyed criminal who wants nothing more than her complete obedience.
From the moment he laid eyes on her Alexei had every intention to possess his innocent maid. But when she arrived at his door one night carrying her brother and a black eye Alexei happily threw out his initial plans for a slow seduction. Seizing the opportunity Alexei presented her with a deal she had no choice to accept.
“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.
Side note- don’t sigh up for the author’s newsletter. This book doesn’t have an epilogue and there’s no bonus scene if you sigh up for the newsletter 😑.
Christelle’s (18) a maid for Alexei (24) and has been sneaking in her baby brother with her as she works. Her mother died giving birth and her stepfather isn’t any help. She works, watches the baby, and takes care of the house whenever she gets home. Because they need money, she doesn’t go to school and is doing her best to survive. What’s bad? Her stepfather is abusive.
Alexei works for the mafia. He’s an accountant. He starts to notice his maid more and more, especially once he figures out that the little quiet bundle she brings with her to work is a baby. Growing up in an orphanage, he’s no stranger to babies or kids with tough upbringings. When things get bad at home for Christelle and she’s forced to seek refuge with Alexei, he decides to proposition her 😉.
What I liked/loved: possible spoilers —how OTT Alexei is 💅. Oh my gosh. This man is a bulldozer 😅 which means
—he doesn’t take no for an answer💁🏻♀️. Ahem. No matter how many times he hears it 😈. Sure. It’s a little bit non Connie (but really I’d say it’s dub Connie 🤷🏻♀️), buuuut he makes sure Christelle feels… ahem… satisfaction 😉🙃
—the smexxy times 🔥. Good LAWD. They’re GOOD 🥵. Jeeezus. I’ll admit. I, um, reread a few (cough cough all) of them 😅. She tries to resist and tries to not *feel* anything because she feels like she’s being *f0rc€d*, but Alexei knows EXACTLY what he’s doing 😉
—how protective Alexei is 🥹. Oh my gosh. This man takes both Christelle and her baby brother under his wing and he PROTECTS them🥰 (but I’m gonna come back to this down below)
—how JP he is. Alexei’s poor teeth turn to dust whenever Christelle gets near another man. Plus. We get a good delicious OM fight 💅💁🏻♀️
—how swoony Alexei is. ERMAGOD. I was melting by the end 😫🥹❤️. He totally won me over 🥰🔥❤️❤️
What I didn’t like: —here I go with the thing that bothered me THE MOST. It dropped the rating for the book SOOOO much for me. I HATE THAT SMEXUAL SAFETY ISN’T ADDRESSED🤬. Christelle’s a v. She’s clean. But Alexei IS NOT. In fact, THE DAY BEFORE… yes you read that right… THE DAY BEFORE he takes her v (or maybe a day in a half… you get my drift) a tall blonde leaves his place, stomping away while carrying her shoes (we also see another woman earlier in the book leaving)😒. Now, I don’t know if Christelle *interrupted* when she arrived and that’s why the woman left, but either way, how do WE know, how does SHE know he isn’t dirty???? 😤
I HATE when authors make it seem like diseases don’t exist. Sure. Sure. I get it. It’s fiction. Let’s pretend. Let’s make believe 🙄. But. Personally, I find it smexy. I find it *realistic* to think about these things. It took me out of the story so much. Why? Well, he doesn’t use anything with Christelle. Considering she’s his maid, not one wrapper has ever been encountered in her cleaning.
He’s so protective, cares about her so much, what about her health? She’s a v. She’s young. While he’s VERY experienced. Maybe even a manhoooar (we don’t get insight on his history) and he DOESNT think about her safety? 😒.
Why does this upset me so much? Because I loved the rest of the book! But I can’t give this more stars KNOWING he was with another woman right before he takes her v and he doesn’t use anything with Christelle.
I wish a simple “I’ve always used one before” line was used somewhere. Or two words. Two SMALL words used right before it all happens- “I’m clean”. Sigh.
—NO PROLOGUE 🤬. Maybe I’m spoiled but the book just ENDS. We don’t know what happens. We don’t see their future. Sigh. And I signed up for the author’s for no reason too 😑
—grammar mistakes
Overall, I liked/loved most of it, just wife safety had been addressed
⚠️ safety squad ⚠️ -no cheating/sharing -abusive stepfather -virgin h/very experienced H -spanking/throat/neck grabs/somnophilia -noncon ish/dubcon -violence/slight bloodshed -H was with OW the day before he takes h’s virginity 😑. It almost seems like he got interrupted when the h came in with bruises by her stepfather. We also see another random ow leaving the H’s place early in the book -there are a couple of men that try to flirt with the h. The H goes ballistic each time -we even get a nice OMD fighting scene 😈 -no condoms/she gets on the pill- this DOES NOT excuse any potential STDs the H could have 😤. Why? Well, in one scene he knows she’s about to take her placebo pills and isn’t “protected” so he stops them from continuing their sexy times. This means he doesn’t like using condoms 😑 -HEA/no epilogue 😒
Christelle DeMelo's life changed drastically a year ago when her mother died giving birth to her brother Lucien before that she was your happy average teenage girl enjoying life and school but the death of her mother completely changed everything, she had to give up school, start working full time on top of becoming a mother to her baby brother all at just eighteen years of age. As if this wasn't enough the only family she has is her step-father who, since the death of his wife has turned into a drunken mess. Christelle finds herself in the perfect job cleaning for Alexei Petrov a wealthy business man but Alexei turns out to be much more than just your average business man. I liked Alexei, I mean seriously what's not to like he's tall, dark, handsome and mysterious and I pictured him exactly as he is on the cover (I love that pic and that guy) Christelle, where do I start with Christelle? I liked her but...look I know her life is unbelievably impossible and it's difficult to explain exactly what I mean without come across as a complete bitch but she was just a little too subservient and when they struck the deal I just felt so utterly sorry for her, the balance was wrong and what should have been a hot scene just didn't work that way for me. I know the blurb says 'led her into the cruel hands of Alexei Petrov' and in that instance he was incredibly cruel which would have been fine if it fit in with his character but most the time he was actually quite sweet with her, gruff yes but still sweet and so I struggled a bit with that part. I also thought the Mafia would play a larger part. Roman intrigues me so I'm going to keep an eye out for his book. This was an enjoyable read, the ending seemed a little abrupt but that could just be me I do love my epilogues and always feel a bit cheated when I don't get one.
This is probably my 3rd time reading this book and I still really enjoyed it. There’s a reasonable age-gap of 6 years… he works for the mafia and she’s the maid at his apartment. He takes notice of her one day when his routine is interrupted. He becomes increasingly more possessive/protective of her as he gets to know her… I love how he rights all ills in her life but also isn’t shy about taking what he wants. 😈 I love how aggressively j/p he becomes. I thought the h was sweet and while she doesn’t have a lot of traditional power, she does stand her ground when she feels she needs to. She’s got way more influence than she knows, but she does eventually see it.
Bottom Line? This is a solid jealous/possessive read. The only thing missing for me was some OW drama/angst.
⚠️SAFETY SQUAD SPOILERS⚠️
- no cheating or sharing
- no OW drama - the h witnesses women leaving his apartment from time to time… when the MCs are getting to know each other, he is quick to kick them out to make the h comfortable and attend her needs - they disappear entirely once he acknowledges his interest and the h officially moved in with him
- OM drama - H head explodes when the h looks at any OM, even innocently
- dubcon/noncon - the H coerces the h into a sexual relationship and does not ask permission for anything - he isn’t cruel but there’s no enthusiastic consent at first
- domestic violence - the h’s step dad is abusive
- h is an 18 yr old virgin
- H is a 24 yr old experienced man
- no condoms - no discussion either - he puts her on BC, but his sexual health is never addressed.
Short, surprisingly satisfying mafia romance despite the many spelling and grammatical errors, and the implausibility of the Mafioso characters, who resembled more a bunch of frat boys than hardened criminals. Still, the sweetness of the knight-in-shining-armor-rescuing-damsel-in-distress plotline, the cuteness of the baby, and the possessive, mine-mine-mine, sexiness of the hero made up for the flaws of the story. A nice, short, entertaining read.
Surprisingly I thoroughly enjoyed this story! It has almost everything I want in a book. :)
Hero is very alpha, OTT possessive, sometimes a jerk but most of the time sweet. Heroine was okay, a little doormat but not annoying kinda way. (make sense? lol.) Story line was good, nothing unique but it was engaging and I was really satisfied with everything I'm slapping this as 5 Stars!
This was sweet and cute! Katerina Winters tends to make such nice and sweet heroines, much like Alice Coldbreath. Usually hard working, selfless, and responsible. While I like heroines who can be willful when they are done well, I have a soft spot for kindhearted and hard working heroines who are nice but not doormats.
This story follows Christelle, a young girl who is forced into a mother role for her baby brother, after her mom dies during childbirth, and her stepdad spirals into a drunk depression and starts physically abusing her. She is in a really hard spot, and finally got a break by getting a well paying job as a maid for the wealthy Russian "accountant" Alexei. Seeing that Alexei is barely home, she tries to balance childcare of her baby brother by hiding him in the house, while working hard cleaning. Of course, Alexei finds himself attracted to her and finds out about her secret. Once he finds out her circumstances and how desperate she is, he has leverage to make her his...
For the most part, I did like Alexei a lot. He was all alpha caveman possessive "mine mine mine" towards Christelle. I liked how crazy jealous he was over her, even though at heart he knew Christelle was a nice girl who would not cheat or go with other men. He just couldn't help himself. The only real true risk was her leaving him due to how their relationship started with coercion and noncon. He was very doting towards her, and it was really quite sweet, as long as she stayed in his cage, hahaha! I was a bit put off that he put her on birth control. I know it's messed up, but I like it when the crazy jealous possessive "heroes" try to get the heroine pregnant so they won't ever leave them. Hey, this is all fantasy anyways! Besides, that would've been more in line with his character - it's not like he cared about doing terrible things like cornering her and coercing her into sleeping with him. Their relationship basically started out with the threat of her and the baby going homeless or she sleeps with him and becomes his.
There was a scene that put me off, where even after meeting the heroine and feeling great attraction and possessiveness towards her, the hero was shown to be sleeping with some other woman. Granted, this was before he really made the deal with her and made her his. But I was still uncomfortable with how he had been so into her, but was still sleeping with some other woman. At least the heroine at that point wasn't really even all that into him, and just thought of him as a trustworthy authority figure who could help her. But as the reader who sees how deeply he felt for her already, it was off-putting. The only things that made it a bit better was that for the longest time, the heroine obviously didn't feel as strongly for him as he did her, he really didn't have anything to do with other women after they started their relationship, and he definitely suffered more later because the heroine was so unsure of their relationship and kept almost leaving.
I know some people mentioning the heroine being a doormat, but I don't really think so. She was just young and very selfless. She was being a realist about her situation, and got taken advantage of by her older rich employer. Luckily, because this is a romance novel, he happened to be attractive. I think that she really was stuck in a hard place, and while there might have been solutions and options available to her that could have provided assistance, she was too young and inexperienced to know. I felt for her and thought she wasn't necessarily a doormat, but someone nice and naive.
Safety: * Heroine is a virgin * Hero is definitely not a virgin * Noncon / Coercion * Borderline case where hero sleeps with OW (act offscreen), but he isn't actually together with heroine yet and heroine doesn't even like him like that yet. * No real case of OM. There are many guys who flirt with heroine, but heroine tries to get away and nicely discourages it. Hero still gets crazy jealous. * Birth control, ends before showing if they managed to have kids. By the end, hero says he wants to have kids with heroine.
I am going to be honest here and say this book had the old alpha male and shy ,poor and innocent virgin girl formula but fuck it if i did'nt enjoyed the hell out of it... This kind of book are my guilty pleasure although the plot and set up are not unique but this book hit all the spots for me❤
Alexie was everything i love and look for in a hero...
Christelle was sure shy and timid but did'nt spoiled the book for me at all...
Over all this was the book i have been waiting for quite some time...
Their love and passion was so hot and innocent at the same time that i adore author's way of story telling..
How Lucian did'nt become a hurdle in their romance and how those mafia guys were dangerous and not so dangerous at the same time...
This rating is purely on my personal prefrence because this may be no master piece but i loved it 😍
I really enjoyed this one. Only thing is I felt the ending was rushed the heroines feelings (to me) kind of came out of nowhere, she never mentions them beforehand but with the Hero we could tell he was falling for the heroine.
Unless someone convinces me otherwise, I will go with the idea that English is NOT this author’s first language and she used talk-to-text Google/Yandex translate to help her write this story. In all of my years of reading romance books, this is by far the worst case of putting absolutely zero effort into proofreading and/or editing material before publishing that I have seen.
And that really sucks for this author, because i loved the story! She had a really great storyline in her imagination, created decent characters…. yet it took me 5x as long to read this rather short’ish story, because I honestly had to stop and reread every paragraph a second time to mentally correct the grammar and punctuation in my head to make sense of what I had just read. There were a plethora of missing commas, has/as, there/their, men/meant, by/bye issues…. Tons of run-on sentences, missing words altogether… And what made me think that English might not be the primary language of the author, the articles A, An and The were either missing or used in places that they shouldn’t even be. English is not my husband’s first language and he has this issue with articles sometimes. So I’m used to it, but slogging thru 181 pages of constant errors is just too much. Halfway thru, I decided to takes notes (for the first time ever) of a few of the things I came across.
“The last job she had was cleaning office buildings at night every second of that job was monitored.”
“Smiling to herself, she pushed one of her loose curls back into her bun on top her head.”
“For the longest he just seemed to stare at her before eventually stretching out his hand.” - pages 1-2.
“Waiving by to Lushe and thanking the woman again she took the elevator to the garage level. A black SUV was parked in front of the elevator. The window rolled down just as she stepped off the elevator, it was Alexei, climbing into the smooth leather seat she buckled up.” - page 105. (waving* bye* - and run-on)
“Settling back into the SUV, they drove to it, Christelle could only assume was back home.” - page 110. (‘they drove to it’ was nonsensical in this context, what was trying to be said was basically that they started to drive)
"I didn't mean…" Christelle wanted to explain she only met she hated the way he made her feel and react to him, but he wouldn't let her finish.” - page 120. (meant*)
“Arriving at the building she unlatched Lushe's carrier from the car seat base. Waiving by to Marcus she pushed through the revolving glass door. Varlam was talking to what looked like a painter or handyman judging by his paint stained overalls and big brown tool belt. Varlam gave her a cool nod as she passed and waved” - page 128. (waving* bye*)
“With a satisfied a gleam in his eye, he stepped away from the railing and came closer. The biting wind was absolutely harsh but that it didn't seem to bother him.” - page 131. (Both the A and the It were not needed)
So I’m not trying to be a bitch, honestly. I loved this story that she was trying to tell. But I’m betting good money that I just devoted more time to writing this review than she did editing her book. It’s a shame that the author doesn’t have anyone to ask to test read her books, just another set of eyes, to catch so many of the obvious errors here. (What I included above is just a hint of what I saw, it was literally every page with several errors each page.)
As much as I would love to check out Book 1 and 3 of this series, I see others complaining about the grammar errors as well, so I will pass.
Positives: I loved the cover! I loved the hero and I loved how he bonded with the child. I liked the heroine ok enough, although I didn’t understand why she let Dmitry flirt with her, she had to have known it would cause a scandal.
Totally over the top hero that completely steam rolls the heroines life. Lots of eye rolling moments, but super entertaining. Great for a light read between heavier books!
~ Found this on a GR friend's bookshelf on jealous heroes and the hero's green eyed monster is soo good. Obvious but still understated, if that makes sense. Glass Cage hits the Cinderella sweet spot. Down on their luck heroine is the new maid for our hero, an accountant for the mafia. There isn't much to this story, it's quite domestic, but the beginning and the building up of the hero is perfect.
I enjoyed the heroine's little crush of the hero, and I was along for it too. She admires his physical body, and he doesn't overstep his boundaries. Living for the small moments: when she turns back and sees he is still looking at her, although his date is beside him; when he asks her if she will give him the goodbye wave (an inside joke, a nod to when she awkwardly waved bye to him in their first meeting).
And although she exudes crybaby energy, she is given a bit of fight, and a little more dimension to her character... When he sees an opportunity to have her agree to be in his bed, he takes it, and she resents him for it. It sort of sullies their relationship, the innocence of their connection, that he would want something from her, and although she is attracted to him, she doesn't want to.
Strong opening, angst sprinkled throughout, and as other reviewers have said, it's sweet.
✔️Virgin h ✔️ Manwhore (?) ✔️Mafia vibes ✔️ Touch her and you'll die ✔️ Boss x employee ✔️ Single mom ( she is the sister but treats him like her son) ✔️Age gap (18& 24(?))
I liked this story but I think the end was too rushed 👀 I did not like that there was a OW after he helped her and her Brother 😶 All in all it was really cute to see how they develope feelings for each other & how Alexei begins to be like a father to Lush 🙌🤍
3 1/2 STARS I was so excited when I read this blurb because I absolutely love Russian men who may or may not be a mobster. My biggest problem with the book was the grammar, there are so many mistakes and it’s very distracting. I guess I had high expectations when I started reading and it fell flat. I’m actually much more interested in hearing about Roman but only if someone else wrote it. Lol. Alexei Petrov is a rich, successful businessman in Boston who happens to be the accountant for Roman who is a mobster. His security/concierge, Varlam hires a new house cleaner who comes with a lot of baggage. Christelle is 18 years old, her mom died giving birth to her brother, Lucian and now she’s responsible for a six month old baby. Her stepfather is a POS who spends all his time and money drinking and doesn’t care about his son. She has no choice but to take Lucian with her when she cleans Mr. Petrov’s apartment. I expected Alexei to be a lot darker and Christelle was so timid and apologetic it was annoying.
This book was mentioned on a few Amazon discussion threads, so I decided to give it a try. The story had many things I usually like in romance and I enjoyed the novel more than I thought I would. Unfortunately there were too many typos, plot holes, and a very abrupt ending.
I think the author has a lot of potential, but she’s doing herself a disservice to release her books without proper editing. A few beta readers and a good editor would make a huge difference. This book read more like a rough draft, not a final copy.
This has worked for a lot of people so I guess it's worth a try? I was bored, the story didn't 'click' with me. The Russian mafia came across as inauthentic, and for whatever reason I didn't care for the romance. There's nothing new here. If you like obsessive heroes and shy, meek heroines then this book has them.
I didn't realize it was supposed to be a dark read when I delved in it. However I feel it's not that dark, even the faintest of hearts can appreciate it. There is dubious consent, but apart from that, it's just a short love story, with pretty much no angst or conflict.
She is 18 while he is 24, though he acts older. I guess she was kind of a doormat, but since she was depending on him, he didn't leave her much choice. Appart from the dubcon aspect, he treated her pretty well, but it's up to you to overlook that or not.
What I enjoyed most was Mr. Lucian a.k.a Lushe, the heroine's baby brother. Especially his scenes with the hero. I wish there were more of those
I wouldn't reread, but it's a nice story when you're just looking for escapism for a few hours.
Safety: Virgin h, nothing mentioned about Hero's sexual "frequence" Celibate after meeting h? It wasn't mentioned, but she saw him twice with a different woman. First one, ow was waiting for him as he was going out with her. Second one, when h goes to his home at night, he is shirtless and ow had to leave holding her shoes in her hands when h came. However, they were not together yet at the time, though there was some attraction going on betwe the two. Om drama : he gets jealous when a friend/colleague of his gets close to the h. Also, when a classmate of hers was interested. No cheating No dead ex
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Loved this story and the H. He was so obsessive and possessive of the h. And the sex scenes were super HOT. I loved that it was the H that really wanted the h and did all the work to get her. Can't wait to read the next book by this author.
Beyond boring. Heroine is extremely irrationally. Hero is super irrational. No romance more like abuse. The moral here is be careful who you work for? Oh and please don't bring babies with you to work. That's unsafe and pretty unprofessional
Katerina Winters is a new author to this reader and the Glass Cage, a KU freebie was good and interesting. When first reading, my perception of the hero was that he was much older than the heroine and then the heroine way too young for the hero. It was somewhat of a mix-match if you would call it until their true ages were revealed...she 18 and he 24. Her naitivity made her seem much younger and his hard life made him appear much older.
Although there are some dark moments in the story, I thought is was a nice read for a mafia romance. I thought the story also dragged a bit in some places but over, again a nice short read.
2.5 stars....it was all a bit strange and dubious...not dark but not very hot in my opinion...went on to understand what would happen but it never really took off. ok read but non much sense
Fmc gets a job as maid for mmc. Her Mom Died and left her to care for her 6 mo little brother and abusive stepdad. H finds out about her life and makes a sexy deal… this one was just missing something.