New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Katee Robert begins a smoking hot new series about the O’Malley family-wealthy, powerful, dangerous and seething with scandal.
Teague O’Malley hates pretty much everything associated with his family’s name. And when his father orders him to marry Callista Sheridan to create a “business” alliance, Teague’s ready to tell his dad exactly where he can stuff his millions. But then Teague actually meets his new fiancée, sees the bruises on her neck and the fight still left in her big blue eyes, and vows he will do everything in his power to protect her.Everyone knows the O’Malleys have a dangerous reputation. But Callie wasn’t aware just what that meant until she saw Teague, the embodiment of lethal grace and coiled power. His slightest touch sizzles through her. But the closer they get, the more trouble they’re in. Because Callie’s keeping a dark secret-and what Teague doesn’t know could get him killed.
Whatever she’d expected from this kiss, it certainly hadn’t been desire. Though DESIRE was too tame a word. She’d felt desire before, and this wasn’t it. This was…need. All-consuming need that devoured everything in its path, leaving only destruction in its wake.
Having loved every Brazen book of Katee’s I’ve ever read, when i saw that she’s releasing this brand new series that’s grittier and has a mob story line? I was hooked. Line and sinker. Reading it was an absolute no brainer.
The set up was extremely intriguing. Callista “Callie” Sheridan is the daughter of one of the prominent Boston mafia families. In the hopes of uniting themselves with an even more powerful one, her father arranges her to marry the eldest son of the Halloran family. Unfortunately he’s also known as more ruthless with his women than he is with his business. When he also turns up dead a few days before the engagement announcement her father doesn’t spare a moment before promising her to Teague O’Malley.
Teague is the son of a powerful Irish Boston mafia family and he also wants absolutely nothing to do with the family business. But when his eldest brother comes to him with this “business alliance”, the last thing he expects is to be inexplicably drawn to the delicate beauty that’s now his “fiance”. As much as Teague longs to be away from this life, he can’t leave his siblings. Being incredibly attracted to Callie certainly doesn’t hurt things either. Unfortunately it’s not all smooth sailing when their engagement leads to a deadly mafia war started by the Halloran family.
There’s a lot that happens in this book aside from the central romance. There’s numerous POVs and several characters introduced, including all of Teague’s siblings and the Halloran brothers. Because of this it took me quite a bit to truly wrap my mind around everything and really get into the story. While each character added to the story, it was also a lot to keep track of at first. This may very well be a case of the “series firsts”. This book definitely had a much grittier feel to it than any of Katee’s previous books, which was great. So what didn’t work for me? The romance.
Now I’ll say this; considering both Teague and Callie’s personalities, their romance fit them. I just didn’t feel like it fit the story. It was just too saccharine sweet. I’m not a fan of insta-love and this was a very solid case of this. They basically fall for each other at first sight. Katee pulls it off because, again, she makes it fit the characters. But I just needed something…more. The amount of time Teague called her “angel” almost drove me up the wall crazy. 59 times to be exact and yes I counted because I was just that irritated by it.
Sadly I’m one of those reader that if I don’t connect to the main couple, it won’t matter how great the rest of the book and story is. And the story itself was great. The set up for the next book with James Holloran sounds like it will be right up my alley as a matter of fact. Unfortunately with this book, it just fell a bit flat. I wanted a more gritty feel to it considering the story line and I just didn’t get that. Readers that haven’t read much mafia romance will definitely enjoy this. I like my mafia books with a little more of an edge, so this one just fell a romance shy of that for me.
I’m definitely hooked on the series and absolutely cannot wait until the next book. ESPECIALLY after that preview that we got in this book. Can’t hurt that I had a mental visual of Charlie Hunnam after reading James Holloran’s description. Nope. Didn’t hurt one tiny bit.
