Publisher: self-pubbedRelease Date: March 19, 2019 (out today!)
Source of my copy: GiveMeBooks PR
Series: White Monarch #1
My Rating:
Synopsis
In the de la Rosa family, old grudges run deeper than loyalty, and betrayal is a three-letter word: war. But this feud isn’t between enemies. It’s between brothers. And I’m the prize.
I was born a princess among criminals. An untouchable among thieves. Heiress to a life others have killed for, and one I'm prepared to trade for my freedom. I vowed not to leave without Diego, my first love and best friend, but if his ruthless brother has his way, I won’t leave at all. Cristiano de la Rosa is a man as big and bold as his legend. Once upon a time, he was our cartel’s best soldier . . . until he became my family’s worst enemy.
A man like Cristiano will bend fate to his will to get what he wants. Even if it means dragging me to hell—and tearing me from his brother's arms.
“She is mine.” Three words from two different men.
A life, future, and love I don’t get to choose.
When I saw the cover for Violent Delights and read that it's a love triangle between two brothers and the cartel princess caught between them, I was sold!
And, holy cow, did this book deliver! It had danger, violence, drama, angst, betrayal, morally gray characters--everything I want in a mafia romance!
Violent Delights was told almost entirely in the perspective of our heroine, Natalia, but the brothers did get a chapter each in their perspective. The prologue was a flashback eleven years prior the the start of the story when Natalia literally tripped over her mom's dead body. In the scene of the crime is Cristiano, who had always been a trusted member of her father's cartel. To all appearances, Cristiano murdered Natalia's mom and when his brother Diego came into the scene, he immediately accused his brother. Cristiano was able to flee that day, but eleven years later he comes back with evidence that he wasn't a murderer and Natalia's father believed him to her horror and the story takes off from there...
Most of Violent Delights is setting up the story between Natalia, Diego, and Cristiano--and for most of the book Cristiano was more talked about rather than being physically present. The first half of the book was somewhat slow, and it was only when Cristiano was physically there that things became more interesting. Diego was Natalia's best friend and first love and all she wanted was for both of them to leave Mexico and start a life together in California when Cristiano came back into their lives and shook everything up.
I saw some readers saying that it was hard for them to pick which man their prefer for Natalia. For me, I didn't want her with neither brothers because I never fully trusted Diego (there was something oily about him despite all of Natalia's lovey dovey words about him--though, I don't doubt that he loves Natalia) and we didn't really got to personally know about Cristiano until much later. But, by the end of the book I was most definitely prefer one man over the other and after that cliffhanger of an ending, I NEED BOOK 2 RIGHT NOW!! I always say that I'm not a fan of love triangles, but when it's done well like it was in Violent Delights, I eat it right up.
Besides the love triangle, I also very much enjoyed the Mexican desert setting, the Spanish language peppered throughout, the morally gray characters like Natalia's family (like, you don't want to root for them because they're involved in highly illegal stuff but you do anyway, lol), the fact that Natalia and Diego actually went *there* before that final scene with Cristiano in the church (that was a twist not many authors would've taken with their heroines), and that ending was perfectly done even though stopping the story there killed me.
I can't help but compare Violent Delights to the one other mafia romance I read this year (**ahem** The Kiss Thief) because they have a lot of the same tropes but which left me disappointed and underwhelmed. Well, Violent Delights was EVERYTHING that book promised to be and more. If you found yourself feeling that same way about that book too, or if you enjoyed that book, you're going to love Violent Delights. Actually, I highly recommend Violent Delights to everyone who enjoys a really good mafia romance, love triangle, and a deliciously cliffhanger-y ending (but no worries because the rest of the books in the series will come out this year).
Diego rubbed his jaw, plotting his route through the costume party to get to me. He’d be blamed if we were caught together. That didn’t stop my craving to feel his lips on mine. He started toward me, but after only a few steps, my father appeared, slapped him on the back, and pulled him away to introduce him to a couple.
I moved through the crowd, catching and losing Diego’s gaze as people passed between us. He shook the hand of an Elvis impersonator as I ducked by a man in a toga. He kissed Catwoman’s cheek but winked at me. I touched my neck in mock-offense and stopped short of face-planting into a wall of a security guard.
“Perdón,” I said as I went to go around the man.
The guard moved to block me, and in an instant, the energy around me shifted. I tilted my head back until I was looking straight up at a monster of a man and into the face of a ghoulish black-and-white skull. The blackened eye sockets, rimmed in deep red, didn’t hide the menacing way his eyes focused on me. Nor did the drawn-on teeth, shaped in a sinister grin, disguise his frown—or the flawless bone structure beneath his veneer. Raven-black hair had been slicked back, as stark against the chalky face paint as his tie cutting down the center of a pressed white dress shirt.
Standing as still and straight-backed as a mannequin, and looking as polished as one too, he inclined his head toward me. “May I have this dance?”
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About the Author
She writes romance both at home in New York and around the world, a coffee shop traveler who bounces from café to café with just a laptop, headphones, and coffee cup. She loves to keep in close touch with her readers, mostly via Facebook, Instagram, and her mailing list.
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