*Look up trigger warnings as this story mentions some dark topics

Honestly anything written and created by C.K. Bennett is always a solid YES! For me. This story was different compared to Bennett’s other books of, “Skin of The Night” and “Into the Night”, but in the best way possible. This was a mafia dark romance story that involved violence, danger, some suspense, a morally gray male lead, and of course romance. From beginning to end, there was a great amount of detail that added to the overall plot line and it goes to show that Claire carefully crafted this story with the utmost precision. If you’re looking for more books to read by Claire, look no further because, “Heart of Stone” is the next story that’ll leave you excited and wanting more.

This story followed Adella and Leo. Each came from a powerful mafia family and in order to keep the alliance between their families, their parents arranged for them to be married (engaged for the most and plan to get married later on). For all of her life, Adella grew up alongside Leo and his family and always knew that it was her duty to one day marry Leo for the sake of her family. Coming from powerful families, both Leo and Adella were faced with expectations to live up to. Leo would one day become the Don of the Cifarelli family and alongside him Adella would be his wife. In the beginning, Adella thought she never had any romantic feelings for Leo throughout her years of knowing him. Obviously later on in the story, Adella realized her true feelings for Leo and the revelation of it was a significant moment for her. Before that moment though, Adella just thought of Leo as a very striking handsome man, but for all his cold, serious, standoff-ish behaviors towards her, Adella felt annoyed and irritated by him. 

Little by little as the story progressed, I got to see more of Adella and Leo’s personalities come across the pages and I absolutely loved it. Before this book was published, I got to read some of the chapters on Wattpad, so I was already a fan of this story, but with this published version, Claire was able to add more vivid details that enhanced both Adella and Leo’s characters as well as background information that was significant to the story. I’m a sucker for good banter and Adella and Leo delivered witty, smart, and hilarious banter. I loved seeing how even though Leo was usually the one in control, there were moments where Adella would catch Leo off guard and take over the reins. My girl Adella was a spit fire and while Leo would occasionally say she was “naive”, Adella proved him wrong on some occasions that she wasn’t someone to be trifled with. 

Another thing I loved about this story was that Adella was someone who was capable of protecting herself. For instance, some would assume that Adella couldn’t protect herself, but in actuality she was trained in Krav Maga. First off, YES! Second, can I learn Krav Maga with Adella? Because that’d be so cool! Anyways, my point being is that Adella was strong in her own right, in a life that most of her life has been decided for her, while being with Leo she was able to find out more about herself and really consider what she wanted. Overall, Adella was definitely a character I loved and admire for her strength while dealing with the aftermath of what occurred earlier on in the story. 

Now, as much as I love William Night from the SOTN series, wait til you read about Leo Cifarelli. Leo was a man in his own league, one who kept everything to himself, but was so dang mysterious I wanted to know more about him. Leo was a unique character, he had so many layers to him that once I thought I had him figured out, turns out there was more to him that met the eye. I absolutely loved how Leo could be an equal mixture of a strong leader and have those tender sweet moments with Adella such as, making sure she was alright after that incident with Maximo on the boat or simply calling Adella “teso” or “Cara”, (sigh) I was just swooning and wishing Leo were real and calling me that. 

Now Claire is a master in all things when it comes to her stories and let me just say that this book was fantastic and had an amazing balance of everything I could have wanted for this story. In addition, THE SPICE WAS IMMACULATE! WOO! I would say this story had a slow burn romance feel to it since majority of the story was about building up on the growing tension between Adella and Leo. You know the spice is phenomenal when it goes on for 4 consecutive chapters!!!! THOSE CHAPTERS AND ALL THE BUILD UP WAS CHEF’S KIDS! Adella and Leo’s chemistry was amazing and phew THAT STAMINA! Overall, Claire once again delivered on everything from the spice, the intricate plot, well developed characters, and more.

Just when I thought I was already in love with this story, towards the end I was shook! By getting the chance to read Leo’s perspective, I was truly astounded to learn things that were happening in the background of the story. Leo’s chapters really highlighted his point of view and revealed so many details that were connected to Adella, and so much more. That ending left me in suspense but also very excited to see what will happen next in Adella and Leo’s story. Highly recommend reading this book!