Rating: 4
Steam: 3
PoV: dual, 1st person
Series: Mafia Bound #1
Genre: contemporary romance, MM
Main tropes: mafia, kink, size difference
“You’re a sweet little murder marshmallow, aren’t you?” I tease gently, and he lets out a sound that’s somewhere between a laugh and a choked sob. “Don’t worry, I’ve got you.”
I was super intrigued when I saw that K.M. Neuhold was writing a dark mafia romance, and I ended up really enjoying it!
I just adored this story with a murder marshmallow and his bloodthirsty twink! The plot was pretty straightforward, focusing on Sparrow getting revenge on the bikers that killed his brother and accidentally gaining Xaviaro’s attention while doing so. There was a bit of insta-lust between them, and I loved how drawn Xaviaro was to Sparrow and that he kept an eye on him.
I enjoyed the way their relationship developed, and it was fun to see them explore and find out what they were both into and worked for them. They were cute together and had some great banter going on, and I loved their little nicknames for each other. I also loved the D / s dynamic between them, it was hot and it made sense that Xaviaro found peace in submitting due to the many and heavy responsibilities he had in his life.
Despite the darker themes and plot, it was still low angst and written in K.M. Neuhold’s usual style, just with a little less humour. As it was the first book in a series, there were some character’s introduced that felt like they might get their own story, and I’m definitely curious about a certain mob boss and his Irish enemy… I really hope that we get more books in this style and series!
Waking up as the big spoon to a big, tough mobster who’s purring softly in his sleep is a kind of fucking heaven I probably don’t deserve.
Book links:
Amazon | Goodreads | BookBub | StoryGraph
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