Bought-nov7/Bksprout/ Savage Don's Forgotten Bride by Vira Black

  Bksprt    amazon

My mafia husband forgot he married me… and I haven’t told him I’m carrying his baby.

My father traded me to the enemy Don to end a war. I hated Raffaele Morello on sight.

His bed was our only ceasefire. Within a year, I couldn’t live without him.

I’m pregnant with his baby when an ambush erases our year from his mind. His consigliere convinces him I’m the spy who planned it.

Now I’m locked in his penthouse, sleeping down the hall from my own husband.

But his hands remember what his mind forgot. He shields me from a sniper’s bullet.

He pins me to the wall, then pulls away like I burned him. When he asks about us, I fall for the stranger wearing his face.

Then I find out my father funded the hit and framed me. He wants me and my baby buried.

In Raffaele’s world, traitors don’t get second chances. Not even if she’s carrying his child.

Explicit

228 pages

English

Contemporary RomanceRomantic SuspenseDark Romancearranged marriageenemies to loversforced proximityhe falls firstsurprised pregnancydominant alpha malebad boy with a good heartamnesiadamagedsmart & sassy female

Hosted by Vira Black Romance

Note from the Author

Please read and enjoy Savage Don's Forgotten Bride and leave your review on launch day Nov. 7th. :)

Must review on:

Amazon

 My 5 Star  Review TITLED: It grabbed me hard from the first chapter

Amelia was the best; so underestimated by everyone ! They really shouldn't have but they will all learn; some way too late !  But she's been raised under her father Aldo Vescovi's  controlling, evil house. SO she has listened, watched without expression showing on her face and learned a lot !!! Her father is a snake who forced her into the forced treaty marriage, I didn't trust him an inch to do good for or with his daughters. Her younger sister, Cora is in her corner as much as she can be and they developed their own coded language. I loved that a lot ! Now, I want to read her sister's story. I hope that there will be one !

I really liked Enzo;  Raffael's brother. He was charming, funny and I could see he also was underestimated but had a lot of depth too ! Amelia trusted him and I liked their sweet relationship.  Ruggiero is Faffael's consigliere and I didn't trust him right out the bat! He felt too calm, but sneaky with his own agenda.  

The more the story went on, the more I liked Raffael! This story was so emotional, and so well written that I adored it. The main characters feelings came through so strong and I loved them as a team, when they finally could  be on.

The Epilogue was the best and everything that I could  have hoped for !

 

11/10/26-NETGALLEY/ The Body in the Bath A Mystery by Ragnar Jónasson

   Netgalley   

Helgi Trilogy #3

Pub Date Nov 10 2026 | Archive Date Nov 24 2026

St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books  Mystery & Thrillers  amazon

As snow blankets Reykjavík and Christmas approaches, young detective Helgi is looking forward to a quiet holiday—until those plans are torn away in a flash. One month after his girlfriend Aníta is killed in a car accident, he returns to work in Reykjavík, haunted by loss and rage. The driver—Helgi's ex-girlfriend Bergþóra, a violent alcoholic whose abuse he kept secret—insists Aníta's death was an accident and walks free.

To escape his mounting despair, Helgi throws himself into the unsolved disappearance of his predecessor, Hulda, a retired officer long presumed dead. But as he follows the traces she left behind, the lines between her past and his present begin to blur . . .

When Bergþóra is later found lifeless in her bath, suspicion falls squarely on Helgi. With his own colleagues turning against him, can he uncover the truth in time?

Connect with Ragnar Jónasson:

Instagram: @Ragnarjo

Connect with Minotaur Books:

Instagram: @Minotaur_Books

Facebook: @MinotaurBooks

Tiktok: @StMartinsPress

--

Andrea Altamirano

(she/her/hers)

SMP Marketing Intern

120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271

My 4 Star Review Titled: I liked it but

People just keep dropping dead. Anita, there was no mystery about her death. She was murdered by being deliberately hit with a car !  Helgi's ex-girlfriend Bergþóra, a violent alcoholic whose abuse he kept secret—insists Anita's death was an accident and walks free. He is devastated !!! But is he a murder ? I didn't think so ! But there are a lot of assumptions going on. Even about another woman, who no one seems to care about. Just chalking it up to suicide. Something fishy there for sure. 

I have to admit that while it was well written, I often got lost in some of the many people and unfamiliar places.  Still, like I said there were a lot of assumptions going on and it seemed like people were rushing to judgement about Helgi.

 Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley  for an advance reviewer's copy in exchange for honest feedback

BKFUNNEL/ The Rake and his Blind Duchess BY TESSA BROOKMAN

  tessabrookman@grovechronicles.com

A scarred Duke. A blind Duchess. A love like no other.

After the tragic accident that left her parents dead, Lady Natalie Crawdon has been tormented by her blindness and the ton’s shameless mouth. She’s destined to never marry and she knows it. But once her brother strikes a deal with a crude Earl, the Duke of Pembroke comes around to ruin everything...by stealing her heart with one kiss. 

His Grace, Philip Pembroke is a rake; a proud one, that is. Scarred ever since his teens, he has given up on love, preferring the companionship of mistresses of the night. But when he comes across Natalie, the innocent bluestocking, he can no longer resist her. 

Falling in love was never part of their plans and they can no longer deny it. So once the bells of marriage ring closer for Natalie and the Earl, Philip knows he has to act fast. 

Will he be able to leave his past behind? Will their love prevail?

My 3 Star Review TITLED:  Who really cares for her?

Natalie has an over protective brother, Simon who does care for her but is determined to marry her off to an oaf. Titled yes. Well mannered? Seemingly. Really cares about her?Not really. He sees her as a useful vessel for his heirs but otherwise practically deaf and dumb. Her brother just doesn't see it. But the rake Philip does but has a hard road ahead trying to prove that he will be good to Natalie. Even blind, she is attracted to him and his kindness but her brother is stubborn. Not cruel; just stubborn. 

The story does have a good ending.

---Not on review is that I will not be reading it again.  

ARC Bkfunnel/ Freeing Sophia by Marlee Blake

  amazon  Book 5 of 5: The Solomon Security Series

For any other questions, please contact:
Marlee Blake <hello@marleeblakeromance.com>

SOPHIA

I spent my life becoming whoever the mission required.

Different names. Different faces. Different lives.

Until one mission shattered everything I thought I knew about myself.

Now all I want is silence.

I disappear into the Alaskan wilderness, hoping the mountains can bury the memories that haunt my dreams and the guilt that follows me into every waking hour.

The last thing I expect is Levi Hale.

Quiet. Stubborn. Infuriatingly observant.

A man with scars of his own and an unsettling ability to see through every wall I've spent years building.

He doesn't push for answers. Doesn't demand explanations. Somehow, that makes him even more dangerous to the fragile peace I'm trying to find.

Because every time he looks at me, I feel something I haven't felt in years.

Safe.

I came to Alaska to disappear.

I never expected to find someone who would make me want to stay.

LEVI

Five years in prison for a murder I didn't commit.

Five years of watching my life disappear while the rest of the world kept moving.

When the truth finally set me free, I wanted nothing more to do with the world that had condemned me.

Alaska offered everything I'd been denied.

Freedom. Solitude. Peace.

Now I spend my days guiding strangers through some of the most breathtaking wilderness on earth and my nights thanking God for the second chance I never thought I'd have.

Then Sophia La'Grange walks into my life.

Beautiful. Guarded. Carrying secrets she refuses to share.

She says she wants to be left alone.

But I recognize the haunted look in her eyes because I've seen it in my own reflection.

Behind her carefully guarded words is a woman who's forgotten what it feels like to trust. And behind those walls is a heart I'm beginning to care about far more than I should.

The more time we spend together, the harder it becomes to remember why I promised myself I'd never risk my heart again.

Because Sophia makes me want things I thought I'd lost forever.

A future. A family. Someone to come home to.

And for the first time in years, I'm beginning to believe God might have something more planned for my life than simply surviving it.

TOGETHER

Some wounds aren't visible.

Some prisons don't have bars.

And sometimes the hardest person to forgive is yourself.

Neither Sophia nor Levi came to Alaska looking for love. Both believed solitude was the only way to escape the pain of their pasts.

But beneath Alaska's snow-covered mountains, quiet conversations turn into unexpected friendship, and friendship blossoms into a love neither thought possible.

For Sophia, loving Levi means trusting someone with secrets she's spent a lifetime protecting.

For Levi, loving Sophia means risking the peace and freedom he fought so hard to reclaim.

As their carefully guarded hearts begin to open, they discover that God's greatest blessings sometimes arrive when hope seems lost.

But can two people who have spent years running from their pasts find the courage to face tomorrow together?

Or will the scars they carry cost them the one thing neither believed they deserved?

A second chance at love.

My 5 Star Review TITLED:  Emotionally Great !!!

Sophia & Levi, what great people as the main characters.  Sophia who is also Chameleon on the  Solomon Security team. Wow !  I was teary eyed from the first chapter !!! And that happened throughout the story!  Sophia is one fierce, leave me alone woman when she gets to Alaska ! I adored the conversations and sniping on her part between them ! Levi has also suffered so much! He's 6'4' mountain of a man with a very tender heart. It takes awhile for Sophia to see it.

Her 7 person team of men & women finally show up and they want to test Levi ! Actually I think it was 7 men on the team that did the testing ! They don't care how tall he is, how built like a mountain that he is. He better be worthy of their "sister".  

On a side note, I LOVED all the nicknames that Levi gave Sophia and the ones she gave right back to him !  The little girls in the story stole my heart as well !!!!

I received a copy of this eBook from the author and was so glad that I did !!! 

Bksprt/PAWN: A Forbidden Love, Hidden Heir, Enemies to Lovers Dark Mafia Romance by Hannah Rio

 

   Bksprout 

  

Every king falls. Every bishop bleeds. Every knight wages war. Every rook moves. Now the Pawn crosses — and the board will never be the same. The saga concludes.

*****************************************************

A Protective Hero. A Mafia Princess. A twisted Romeo and Juliet romance that detonates the moment our lips touch.

I'm Guido Rivas. The Pawn.
The illegitimate son no one claims.
And I just found the one thing my dead father hid deeper than everything else.

Liana Maritz.

The shielded daughter of my family's most lethal enemy.
Twenty. Brilliant. Furious.
Sealed inside a cage of lies her father calls love.

 A dead king planted her name inside a machine — and the countdown has started.
And the boy nobody watches is the only one standing between her and the grave his father dug.

 I show her what her father hid, what my father did.

We are two people forged by the damage of our fathers.
We possess matching frequencies.
The attraction is instant, visceral, and strictly forbidden. 

She should hate me.
Instead, she pulls me closer.

I worship her inch by inch and take her hard until she screams my name.
She is the ultimate forbidden fruit.

Her body fits against mine like the missing piece of a board I've mapped my whole life.

 If her father finds out I've claimed her, the streets will burn.
The clock is ticking.
Seventy-two hours. One girl. One board.
The Pawn crosses — or the game ends with her.
And what waits on the eighth square may shatter the Rivas dynasty forever.

---

PAWN is a dark, gritty, high-heat mafia romance featuring a forbidden Romeo and Juliet dynamic, a hidden bastard heir, a protected mafia princess, and a devastating enemies-to-lovers forbidden romance. It is the final installment in the Shattered Pieces series.

Explicit

393 pages

English

Action and AdventureContemporary RomanceDark RomanceENEMIES TO LOVERSDARK MAFIA ROMANCEMAFIA PRINCESSSUSPENSE THRILLERSTEAMYALPHA MALE HEROSPICY HOTACTION ADVENTUREMAFIA BOSSSECRET HEIR SUSPENSE THRILLER

Hosted by Hannah Rio Romance

Must review on:

Amazonhas  

My 4 Star Review TITLED:  The board is changing!

Guido is the invisible one; the quiet one; the watcher ! It surprised me how young these men really were. Dangerous, lethal but totally loving towards family and anyone that they adopt as family !  I adored that about them ! Zina remainded the quiet mystery for quite a while but the suffering she has endured for "her boys" is clear.   I loved the phrase that "the women hold the ground. They are the ground!"   I loved how Nova held the whole family together, as she raised her sister, Marisol and the younger brother Tomas.  Special times with Guido and Marisol as she is now 14 years old and when they play chess they have always had their own Chess Language that no one else understood.  It's been built by trust from day one til now. Marisol now has a boy she likes but now he has to run the gauntlet of the brothers ! It was amusing to watch both Marisol, the young man and the gauntlet. 

The dead King, their father was one manipulative man; trying to move everyone like puppets.  His arrogance was incredible! Liana Maritz's father, Emiliano was also a manipulative man of a different kind. He loves his daughter and she knows it but she's tired of being caged inside his box of protection.  

Guido's family begin to fight to build something new and it won't be easy.  One downside for me, was how some things were continually repeated. Longer than I enjoyed however; 

the ending was very interesting and the ending very satisfying to me. 

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

bkfunnel/ stolen by my mafia king by Sloane Blackwell

  amazon

  For any other questions, please contact:
Sloane Blackwell <Hello@sloanebalckwellromanceauthor.com>

I'm in love with my brother's killer, and tonight I'm going to murder my own father.

The man dragging me from my engagement party is Dante Moretti—the monster who put a bullet in my brother three years ago. At least, that's the lie I've been living.

One second I'm wrapped in diamonds and lies, smiling pretty for my father's charade. The next I'm thrown into a blacked-out SUV, and Dante's steel gray eyes are daring me to scream.

He shoves a tablet in my hands—security footage of my own father and fiancé negotiating exactly how they'll kill me tonight to start a war.

 I was never Salvatore Vitale's daughter. I was his sacrificial lamb.

Dante locks me in his Tribeca penthouse, but he doesn't leave me to rot. He sits across from me at dinner, answering each sharp question about my brother with brutal honesty: my father pulled the trigger and made Dante the scapegoat.

He rules his empire with blood and fear, but with me he's patient. Careful. The man who orders executions without blinking won't touch me until I ask.

He's my kidnapper, the monster I swore I'd destroy for spilling my brother's blood.

Then my father's men breach the building.

Now the only way I survive is if I'm the one pulling the trigger.

My 4 Star Review TITLED: Great Main People

 Dante and Gianna Vitale were really great main characters in this shorter story. Gianna's father was beyond evil and I could hardly wait to see him over come from his position. It happened a bit differently than I expected but I loved the ending ! amazon

ARC Oct 15Bksprout/KNEEL an Arai Clan standalone by MIKA AVERY

  Bksprt 

 hello@mikaavery.com

 

Nobody in Japan has ever seen the idol KURO's real face.
I saw it in three seconds. In the wrong room, on the worst night of my year.
I am forty. I dress other people's stars and never stand in the light myself, because twenty years ago a man with a contract and a smile took everything I was and taught me that being seen is how a woman gets destroyed. Then a blond boy in tinted glasses walked six men out of a locked room without raising his voice, sang my own stolen song back to me from a stage, and refused to let me disappear.
Jin Arai is twenty-six. The overlooked youngest son of a yakuza empire. A secret billionaire, and the most famous voice in the country, hidden under a wig, because no one alive has ever seen the real him.
Only me.
Which makes me the one person who can burn him to the ground. One photograph tying the idol to the heir ends his family, his empire, everything. And the man hunting that photograph is the man who owned me once, and never stopped believing I belong to him.
Loving me is the most dangerous thing Jin has ever done. He is going to do it anyway.
*Reverse age gap. A secret billionaire idol with two faces. He falls first, and harder. A heroine who is nobody's victim. Obsessive, possessive, and hers. KNEEL is a standalone dark romance.

Explicit

205 pages

English

Contemporary RomanceDark Romancedark yakuza romanceJapanese mafia romancereverse age gap mafia romancepossessive yakuza romancereverse age gap romanceolder woman younger manpossessive mafia romancesecret identity romancebillionaire mafia romanceTokyo mafia romance

Hosted by Mika Avery's Team

Note from the Author

Thank you so much for applying to join my ARC team! 🖤 I’m excited to share my Japanese Yakuza romance with you. When your ARC copy is ready, I’d love for you to read the story and leave a thoughtful, honest review by the requested review date. Your support means so much and helps me continue writing dark romance filled with Yakuza, Japanese culture, and unforgettable love stories. I can’t wait to hear what you think! — Mika Avery

Must review on:

Amazon

 

My 5 Star Review TITLED:   They never saw each other coming!  

This was such a great unusual story  with a unique couple and I loved it !  To begin with I loved the eBook cover for this book. It got my attention quickly along with the title of the book. Jin is this 26 year old man  who was so intriguing. A man with two faces for sure ! I loved that Naomi thought of him and called him a lovely, beautiful boy ! Especially because in the beginning even kind of raised in the Japanese Yakuza, he was a boy in so many ways.  His father and the elders had basically ignored him, they put him on the shelf. He was the spare but he kept their money clean. He had his uses.  Naomi is going to help him grow up quickly. She set terms, boundaries and if they aren't met then she's gone ! I loved their conversations about that !  Jin's older brother seemed just as cold as their father but I loved that there was a fondness on his part for his brother and it showed more and more.

Naomi was a 40 year old woman who also had 2 faces.  She is a brilliant song writer, singer and now dresses celebrities and the famous.  She lives life on her own terms and ruthlessly protects her identity.  I love how direct she is with everyone especially those that think that they can oppose her.  But someone from years ago wants to control her again. For her own good of course. And he's working to box her in. That's not going to be as easy as he thinks. It brings danger and intensity into the main characters lives though. The tension is kept tight and the romance scenes hot!

 I kept wondering who was Gabba? What does he want?  Who is the MAN behind him pulling the strings.  

The ending was fantastic as was the romantic ending.  I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.