Title: Mafia King
Author:  CD Reiss
Publisher/Year:  Paige Press 6/15/21
Length:  250 Pages
Series: DiLustro Arrangement #2

Overview

Santino is my king. My lover. My husband.

He’s the head of the Cavallo crime family and the moment he choked my vows from me, my life was bound to his.

I’m done fighting my fate, until I hear two rumors, and I’m shaken to the core.

One rumor about the past—that I wasn’t the first bride Santino took.

Another about the future—a new bride is about to be taken.

Changing the old ways is like dousing the flames of hell with tears.

But I married the devil himself, and when I vowed to obey, I lied.

My Thoughts

We were left at the end of the first book with unsettling information being shared and as a result, all the emotions that Violetta was feeling were now unbalanced. She wants to love this man, her king, but she also doesn’t trust anything that he says since it turns out that he was engaged to her sister first and the ring she has was her sisters. So she’s not truly the chosen sister. or is she?

This second installment takes us on a rollercoaster of emotions, actions and passion. Violetta wants to hate him with everything that she is, yet she finds that her body and her heart won’t allow it. She fights him, but she then realizes that she can’t win that fight so she finally succumbs (after about 50% of the book).

There are several plot lines to follow in this one. The first is understand the story and the details behind Santino’s relationship with Rosetta and what that stemmed from and became. Once Violetta realized that there really wasn’t the same level of intimacy, the same connection, the same reason to be together and that sets that bit of the story right.

There’s also the plot that reveals who Violetta’s father really was – what his role was back ‘on the other side’ and what that means for her safety now. Santino has claim to many things, but his relationship with Violetta isn’t necessarily by the books, which leaves a few loose ends that will come to haunt us as the book goes on.

Then we have Gia, Santino’s cousin who’s being sold into another marriage, much like Violetta believed she was. Gia’s happy about the deal, but Violetta is so against the notion of these debt brides that she continues to fight Santino to change how things are, to make things different and that causes all sorts of ‘wars’ to happen in their territory.

Where we’re left at the end of this story is a gun fight, a scheme that goes awry and the unknowns of who’s going to live, who’s going to have the secrets saved or revealed and what that means for the future. There’s a treasure at stake here that Santino and Violetta are trying to claim as it’s her birth right and someone from Santi’s past is trying to take hold.

I”m bummed that we have to wait for October to get this final installment to see what happens since we’re really thrown by the last few scenes in this book. It’s insane, intense and full of lies. We’ve learned that people aren’t trustworthy and the one person who pulls the trigger is the LAST person that we ever thought would do it. I’ll have to be patient, but i’ll also tell you guys to enjoy this one!