I approached this author at RARE last year having spotted a pretty cover, and when she started talking about her dark mafia romance Beauty and the Beast retelling, I was sold immediately! It's taken me a while to actually get to read it, but I'm very glad I stopped to talk to her!

I haven't read many mafia romances, and they're not the top of my 'go-to' list, but I really enjoyed this one as a 'proper' introduction to the genre. There's a good number of twists and turns to keep you engaged and it really draws you into the world of The Society, but it's not overwhelming or overly complex. Likewise, all of the mafia characters are well drawn, with their moral ambiguities being a real hook - I couldn't help but like them, while at the same time feeling really conflicted about it!

Rex, our Don Dom, is my favourite character. Everything about him just works incredibly well and the balance between his all-business, dangerous mafia boss side and his soft centre when he lets his guard down is gorgeous. I found his motivations and thought processes easy to follow for the majority of the book, and I also really enjoyed the fact that, while he's into rope play, he sees it as a separate 'thing' to his sexual gratification (for the most part 😉). It's the first time I've read a book where this is the case, and it's really effective! I will admit that I'm still not entirely sure I've got my head around it, but I think I just need to let those images marinate some more... 😁

On the other hand, as much as I could understand Catarina's reluctance to become involved and her protective instincts, her continual back and forth between being attracted to Rex and hating his guts did give me emotional whiplash throughout. I could never quite get a fix on what she actually wanted, who she trusted or didn't trust, or predict what her next move would be. I mean, obviously I know the genre and was easily able to guess the ultimate outcome (otherwise it wouldn't be a romance book!), but she just... didn't quite make sense to me. 

Despite that though, I was still invested enough have my usual strong reaction to the moments of perceived betrayal. You know, those parts of a story where the enemies have become lovers, but still haven't fully accepted they can trust each other? One sees the other do something that looks like a betrayal and reacts accordingly, causing pining and emotional pain on both sides until they actually get round to talking it out? I have a total love/hate relationship with that trope - it gets me every. Single. Time and I have to stop reading before I mentally throttle the characters. But it works so well in this book precisely because I couldn't get a read on Catarina; it felt like my anxiety might actually be justified for once! 

It wasn't the smoothest read; the pacing is a little bit all over the place and there were a couple of occasions where I felt like perhaps something had been cut in an edit, but a reference to it remained later on, so there were times where I just had to 'go with it'. But it was definitely an easy read, and the story itself was a great take on the source material. It was easy to visualise and, if you just let it wash over you, you'll have a great time!