A Monster's Devotion

by A.F. Montoya

I’m a damn mobster. Hero work isn’t in the job description.

They call me Beast for a reason. I’m the enforcer. I break people for a living. But when an angel falls from heaven straight into my arms, I’m stuck picking up the pieces. I want her gone, she’s scratching at memories long since buried. But as it turns out, I’ll go to hell and back to protect her. Even against my own crew. I’ll do what I have to do to bring her back to life but when it comes time for her to move on, I’m not sure I’ll be able to let her go. Choosing me might’ve been her biggest mistake because she earned the devotion of a monster.

Genres: Found Family

380 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 1, 2022

About the author

A.F. Montoya is a daydreamer turned writer who writes contemporary mafia romances. She’s been reading romance novels since her mother bought her one as a joke when she was a teen and now writes them and shares them with her mother, much to her chagrin. She enjoys reading in her spare time and supporting other authors. When she isn’t writing or thinking about new book ideas she is supporting her husband and kids.

Reviews

[Luvtoread · Rating 5 out of 5]

oh my

Wow freaking amazing! I couldn’t put it down, it was so good and addictive. Dark, sad, violent drama with angst twist and turns. Would give it more stars if I could, I highly recommended this book and author

[Hannah Reads a lot of Smut · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to love Angel and Logan’s story so much more than I actually did. 😬 Although the first half was compelling the story just kind of stalled out and it was difficult to feel invested in the characters when there wasn’t an underlying plot outside of Angel’s recovery from trauma.🙃

Our book opens with Logan working with his gang to pick up women who’d been sold into human trafficking. 👀 Carly, one of the rescued women, sends him back in the house to get Angel. She’s in a cage, badly beaten and broken. 😩 Despite being a grump Logan, only being called Beast at this point, feels a magnetism towards her. What ensues is a story with not much plot.

Logan has to rescue Angel (and 2 other women accidentally) who have no family because his boss, Mitch, is going to get into the skin trade otherwise 😳. One of those women was Carly who the author never explores a friendship with, despite her seemingly having integrity, humor and lots of kindness 😅 the other woman is portrayed as a villain and eventually tries to kidnap Angel, but I digress. Logan ends up going to what is implied as the Irish mob to work as an enforcer, and the 3 other men in the house also feel drawn to Angel. Reid, the boss, allows Carly and the other OW to stay as well.

This situation would’ve been okay if it was a reverse harem, but it mostly just ended with Logan being hella jealous of everyone and fist fighting Kace regularly. Wes is mostly forgettable. And the other two women are treated far differently than Angel. I hated that a traumatized woman was made into the villain, that side quest lacked depth 😬

What I liked:
Dark romance 🖤
Gritty and emotional
Touch her and die literally 💅
He falls first
Beefcake hero whose all about his woman

What I didn’t like:
The cause of Angel’s trauma is rarely seen on page. There are implied flashbacks but we don’t get taken into the moment so there’s an inherent disconnect with the heroine.😬😬😬
Angel is not even the heroines real name. We never learn it. 😅😐
Pretty sure Logan/Beast never says I love you back to Carly
The spicy scenes were random, there was very little build up for them. So when they happened the reader is left kind of confused 😐😳
All the men were obsessed with Angel but the author didn’t make it a reverse harem. The author could’ve made the possessiveness less so that portion would make more sense 😅
Angel is attacked multiple times at the high rise the crime syndicate is based out of. But never by the same person, so it felt extremely forced. It was often random with no build up. Also how bad is Logan at his head of security job that his woman keeps getting attacked 😬😤🙄
Angela progress is slow and the book is basically just her being traumatized with very little progress forward.
Carly should’ve been explored. Like cut out all the stupid fight scenes between Kace and Logan, and give Angel a strong female friendship. Carly literally gets a job and we never hear from her again 😅😐🙃

TLDR;
This review is mostly just rants because what could’ve been a great story ended up falling flat. The characters needed so much more depth, and the men all being obsessed with Angel ended up just feeling weird in the end.

[CJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really love this book. It’s part MF romance with a morally dark MC who rescues a broken woman from captivity and helps her heal, and part …. I don’t know, platonic reverse harem?

Our boy Logan, aka The Beast, is an enforcer for some kind of criminal organization. The only thing we know about it is that they don’t traffic people. But then, during a job, the gang finds the house they’ve targeted is full of women who are being kept to be sold as sex slaves. One woman is held apart from the rest, caged and tortured in every way imaginable. The gang’s boss decides to ransom the women back to their families, but the caged woman is so dirty and broken that the other women feel uncomfortable around her, so Logan reluctantly takes responsibility for her. Since she’s too traumatized to even speak, he starts calling her Angel because of her innocent blue eyes.

Eventually, Logan takes Angel with him to join a new crew where she will be better protected. One by one the men of this new group’s inner circle become enamored of Angel, but not romantically or sexually. They just all become completely devoted to her and invested in her healing process. Meanwhile, Logan himself falls deeply in love with her, and he becomes her safe place as she slowly begins to come back from her trauma.

And those two threads - Angel’s healing and developing relationships with Logan and the guys - are pretty much the whole story. This is mafia-lite with the emphasis on lite - we don’t have any idea what either Mitch or Reid’s crews do or where they do it or what’s going on in the criminal underworld, except for occasional references to people who need to be taken care of for trying to screw with them or whatever.

Narratively, this is a pretty slow burn, as Angel is unable to deal with any kind of romantic relationship for a long time, and Logan at first feels only protective toward her. His feelings grow gradually, although faster than hers do, and he feels possessive of her pretty much as soon as Kace shows interest in her.

I don’t know why but I have a weakness for “scary criminal saves broken woman” stories, and the addition of four men who care for her almost as deeply as Logan does is just adorable. Cameron, the last character to join this crew, makes a few unintentionally (to him) funny comments about this relationship dynamic because he assumes they’re some kind of polycule and no one corrects him.

A. F. Montoya is not the greatest writer, and her frequent tense shifting is something I’ve complained about elsewhere, but as far as I’m concerned this is her best work. Definitely recommend.