A review by jamsu
Beautiful Beast by Neva Altaj

funny tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Beautiful Beast is the first book of Mafia Legacy, spin off to Perfectly Imperfect series. I had no idea it was actually about one of the children from Perfectly Imperfect series until I saw a family tree in Neva Altaj's Instagram. 

Vasilisa liked hacking and would have wanted to help her father, the leader of Chicago mafia with anything really with his business but he was too protective of her and only wanted her to marry a nice man. She on other hand didn't really like nice men and despite her fathers protests hacked on different businesses and even NASA. One day she hacked the wrong person and gets kidnapped.

I absolutely loved our hero, Rafael Di Santi. He might not be a good person as he tortured and killed people but he wasn't a monster either. Rafael didn't want to hurt children and this fact even got him very hurt years ago. He made me want to swoon multiple times in the book. Rafael could be manipulative but he was caring and protective. I loved how he still never sugarcoated things.

I might not have loved Vasilisa but I did enjoy reading about her. She loved her family and I think part of the reason I liked her is because her stress cleaning reminded me of Caroline Forbes in The Vampire Diaries. It gave Vasilisa a sense of control.

Women couldn't stomach looking at Rafael's scarred face, so he tried to prevent Vasilisa ever looking at him for awhile but much to his surprise she didn't react to it the way he thought she would. Vasilisa on other hand was tired of men only caring about her looks but he was different with her. She was relieved and disappointed how he seemed to not be interest in her but unlike other men he was interested to her as a person. Rafael listened to her and didn't make her feel hollow.

All in all I had so much fun reading this book. I really liked how Vasilisa was different to Rafael since the beginning and this was such a great mafia retelling of Beauty and the Beast. I'm very exited to read more books about the second generation.