This was cute. Kind of between my 4.5 star read and my uh...1 star read of this author.

I liked Remington and Henri together, and the sex between them was really hot, the chemistry fairly well done.

I liked how possessive Remington became over Henri, I loved how he'd fuck up anyone who hurt or touched him, I loved how obsessed they became with each other and so quickly.

I just...I guess, for a mafia book it felt a little bit...light? A little bit of a fluffy version of it? It didn't feel that dark.

Remington was like...a model example of a mafia don. By that I mean he would kill if he had to, would kill men who deserved it, but he didn't otherwise.

And the more dark, gruesome parts of being in the mafia were just...never really shown? Remington kills one guy on page that we see and it's super quick.

And like sure, he doesn't hesitate to do it, and he does it to save Henri and it's wonderful because of that, but just...the violence and gore and darkness you expect from the Mafia world was largely absent from this.

Even Remington's father is largely a good guy, and is mostly retired now and living life with his wife and he never feels scary or demanding at all. Even the few times he does get a little more "hard." Like Remington tells us he can be cold and hard when he needs to be, but we never get to see it.

Remington himself, while we get to see the most with him, doesn't ever go too far, really. Even when Henri disobeys him, his punishment to Henri is sexual in nature and more pleasurable than not. Which is fine, and I don't want him abusing Henri or anything. But he could like...put him in a cock cage or made sure he couldn't leave the house for a number of days or so, something a little more *actual* punishment you'd expect from a mob boss, ya know?

Although, yes, what came of the 'punishment' was hot and sexy and it does get points for that. It just wasn't very punishment-y.

This felt, at times, almost fluffy and for a mafia book that just is...odd haha.

We didn't get to see Remington really be a 'bad guy who only softens for this one person' kind of thing. Yeah, overall, he's not a good guy, but he wasn't a bad guy either, I'd say. He's a criminal who can do what's necessary, but isn't actually all that fucked in the head.

It just feels like a guy like that wouldn't last long as the boss of the mafia, ya know? But Remington might do more off page to assert his place as the top dog, but we, the reader, don't really get to see it.

It was more like this was a sweet romance with a fun possessive element that just happened to have some mafia stuff in it. Not a Mafia Romance, if that makes sense?

So, I couldn't give this 4 stars, which I would have given it for a lot of the romance and sexy times between these two alone, but it just really fell short on the actual mafia part. It felt like a light hearted version of the mafia, if that can compute in your mind, because it shouldn't haha.

But like, Remington's brother's are quirky, fun guys - one has a monkey he's very attached to lol - and aren't remotely scary, no one is. Like, they're all doing illegal stuff but they don't feel bad ass and scary and like they could fuck you up.

Even though we literally get Remington snapping a guy's neck to save Henri...I didn't feel the menace or badass-ery.

It also was a little rushed. The climax was super rushed, imo, and it was all handled super easily and quickly.

And also Remington and Henri were rushed. Not even a full 2 weeks goes by, they're saying 'I love you.' Then a super contrived event happens to break them apart for 2 more weeks - although we don't have to go through any of that separation except for like a chapter or so, really - and then they're together again and 2 more weeks go by and then they get engaged. So, this all happens within 6 weeks.

Super quick, and they're even talking about starting the process for adoption soon too and it's like woah wait, I'm just reading this and it's too fast for me lol.

So this had elements to enjoy, but it was like a pale imitation of a Mafia Romance more than an actual Mafia Romance.

For the romance and chemistry and characters alone, I give this 3 stars, which is an improvement on the 1 star I gave another read from this author. But also, not as good as the 4.5 star read I gave another book of hers.

So, I feel like I'll give this author a chance in the future just because this did better than the 1 star read and kept my interest and had me enjoying our MC. But there could have been definite improvements added to make this a 5 star read, for sure.

So, in the end, it's a middle of the road rating for me. Had potential, but didn't 100% follow through.

Ah, well, onto the next!