BOUND BY LIES
Series: Fatal Alliances #1
Genre: Dark Romance
Author: Lylah James
Release Date: May 13, 2026
From Amazon bestselling author Lylah James comes a new dark, arranged-marriage romance about a mafia princess and the cruel man who did everything to ruin her in an effort to make her…his.
For the longest time, I had been a pawn between two empires built on blood.
I had been promised to Matteo, who was supposed to be my future.
But it was his brother who ruined me.
Adrian Salvatore—reckless, merciless, carved from sin and evil. The brother no one dared to control. The one who looked at me like I was always meant to be…his.He stole my first kiss beneath the moonlight, right there at my engagement party.
And he never stopped.
Not when I begged.
Not when I threatened.Until one night…
One mistake. One unforgivable moment that shattered everything I was raised to protect. My modesty, my virtue, my family’s honor.
Somehow I found myself bound to Adrian in ways I never wanted.
But he didn’t believe in love.
Everything he had ever done was driven by vengeance.Adrian wasn’t going to protect me.
Instead, he had promised to break me.Somewhere between the hate and fear became a reckless obsession.
And with that obsession came more destruction.
We were both damned, but only one of us would survive the monster we’d become.BOUND BY LIES is book one in the dark and twisted FATAL ALLIANCES series. Please read the author’s note at the beginning of the book.
Inside, I burned and withered. Outside, I was the flawless pawn. Perfect wife. Perfect lie. Perfect illusion.
Did I finish this book or did it finish me? Because what do you MEAN with this cliffhanger? I AM NOT OK!!!
Dark mafia romance fans, gather round, because if this book isn’t on your radar, you are seriously missing out.
Now let me tell you something. I love and I mean LOVE this genre. But as of late, stories that truly stick with me are few and hard to come by. Everything sort of feels generic, repetitive and with glorified shock value. Like a whole lot of meh. So for a story to have this level of a chokehold on me? That deserves 4 stars for that alone. But I digress. Let’s talk about this book.
This is book one in the Fatal Alliances series and it is not a standalone. That cliffhanger will hit you with the force of a two by four and I’m still licking my wounds. But the pain is so worth it because I DEVOURED this story.
Do you like your MMCs mean, villainous, and absolutely pitch black? Meet Adrian Salvatore. This man will have you hating him when you’re not lusting after him. And yes, it’s absolutely toxic, but man did I love him as much as I loved to hate him.
Do you like your FMCs fierce, to give as good as they get, and with a spine of steel? Meet Serafina Morelli. She is the Morelli mafia princes and promised to a Salvatore brother to unite the two families. But unbeknownst to her, the brother she’s not engaged has bigger plans, and suddenly she finds herself in the crosshairs of his dangerous game of revenge. Her world turned upside down, she’s suddenly drowning in lies and deadly secrets.
To say that Serafina and Adrian were absolutely toxic together is an understatement. I absolutely hated Adrian for the way he treated her. But I also loved the way she fights against his binds. This is a woman who doesn’t just take her fate lying down.
There is so much to both of their stories that we just scratch the surface with this book. We get a small snippet of understanding of what is driving Adrian. And the more I read, the more I began to understand him. Did I still judge him? Absolutely. But I also loved peeling back all of his many layers.
This was dark and deliciously twisty. Full of secrets and an electric chemistry that is as toxic as it is all consuming.
I have been rocking myself in a corner since I finished and will remain there until I get my hands on book two.
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