This is a spoiler-free review! Please read trigger warnings - reader discretion is advised.
Once again, I have let my TikTok feed from 2020 influence my reading, and I am not going to lie, the first half of this book had me doubting everything I had ever done to lead to that moment. Dante Moretti rivals Rowan Kane from The Fine Print in levels of delusion that I did not think were possible. Sure, Dante kills people and Rowan simply was a major idiot, but boy was I about to lose my mind at nearly everything that came out of this man's mouth. His logic is completely out the window, and yet he somehow manages to be the head of a major mafia family.
When Kat is taken as payment for her brother's unpaid debts, she is essentially strong-armed into working for Dante because he thinks she is hot and hiding some major secret about her past. She gets Stockholm Syndrome in approximately four chapters, and proceeds to be the secret girl that Dante keeps to himself and pretends to not have feelings for - you can imagine where that leads us in the end. She is changing her mind on how she feels about Dante nearly every other chapter, and after certain past events come to light, she somehow just forgets about the trauma until it becomes relevant to the plot again.
Dante is constantly shocked that Kat is always on high alert and scared that she is going to end up dead or in a horrible situation that she will not be able to escape - and yet no matter how many times she explains her reasoning, Dante somehow ends up mad in the end. In between the constant hookups even after Kat made it explicitly clear she did not want to be used as someone's "entertainment," they are being secretive towards one another. In Dante's case, it is the information he is seeking out and in Kat's case, it is what was done to her in the past.
Kat loses her backbone so quickly, you would have thought it never existed. She was looking to be a pretty strong female lead from the first few chapters, but that went away after she was lost in Dante's eyes. She experienced a lot of internal conflict throughout the book, and coming to terms with the fact that she was now deep in the throws of a powerful mafia leader did not help her adjust to her new living situation. Throughout the book, it felt as though Kat was constantly getting knocked down and being thrown into situations that were targeted to make her uncomfortable or even put her at risk. Dante even plays a part in this at one point, and I genuinely felt like I was going insane during those chapters - I did not understand how he could redeem himself after what he put her through.
Sure, Dante is a complex character with a complicated backstory riddled with familial issues, but I found it hard to support him when he was being shady nearly the entire book. He tried to solve every single little argument with sex, and Kat basically folded every single time. They would fight, then hook up, fight again, and hook up two minutes later. It felt repetitive and very much was used as chapter fillers in an attempt to spice up the book, but the plot suffered for it. Lorenzo, Maximo, and Joey had to work their way into my support, and even when Joey was acting horribly to Kat, I still liked her more than I liked Dante.
Regarding the actual mafia aspect of this book, the author did a pretty good job at making Dante morally grey and actually involved in the family business. He definitely knew how to play dirty and it is explicitly shown in this book. The action points of the plot certainly had me drawn in, and I have to say that I was really invested in the actual mafia plot points compared to Kat and Dante's relationship, only because Dante was constantly screwing things up with Kat and Kat was just accepting it.
I have some mixed feelings about this book, but overall I did have a decent time reading this installment - it does end on a cliffhanger, but if you are only interested in Kat and Dante's story, then you can count this as an interconnected standalone. If you are looking for a quick, spicy read, this book is definitely up your alley.
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