Dominic: a Dark Mafia Romance (Benedetti Brothers Book 2)

When I first bought this book, I didn’t start reading it right away. Oh no, I knew I needed courage to read this book, and I didn’t have that at the moment. Thinking about the book on my kindle for a couple of days I finally couldn’t contain my inner fangirl anymore, and I started reading!The first thing that hit my eyes when I started, it was a note from the author, Natasha. It said that Dominic was one of the hardest characters for her ever to write and as a great Natasha Knight fan I then knew what to expect! All the heroes I know from Natasha Knight are dark, dark heroes and if Dominic was even darker, this was going to be a rough ride. And it was! It had me jumping around in my chair, as I read it and I could almost smell all the different smells and hear all the sounds. She led me into a universe so dark and yet so beautiful that it was impossible for me to put the book down.Dominic is the second book in the Benedetti Brothers series and perhaps it can be read as a Standalone, but I would not try to do it. If you haven’t read Salvatore you should do that, and as a side note, Salvatore is one of my favorite Natasha Knight heroes, and you’re in for a treat. Well, back to Dominic! Dominic is the brother of Salvatore, and he has been living underground for the last seven years. He lost his entire world in the previous book, and he’s doing everything he can to punish himself. Into his world, he suddenly finds light in his darkness, in the shape of Gia, a young woman, whose training he is responsible for.The plot has a lot of twists and turns, and it’s brilliant, but I don’t think I will talk more about it, that way I don’t reveal something I shouldn’t.Dominic is filled with amazing characters, and even though I had mixed feelings about Dominic as a hero, in the beginning, I knew Gia would love him, and he would find love in all his darkness. And with all the darkness in him, I knew he would love hard when he finally found love. He is a super sexy villain that I find impossible not to love.Natasha Knight is the queen of dark emotions, violence, and angry sex. She serves it to me on a plate of devastating handsome men, beautiful women who all have the heart to save the wounded men. She can give me a beating that leaves me wanting more; she can break me down, but I know that she’ll always build me back up again.Dominic is rough, and it’s tough, but there is a beautiful love story inside all the darkness, and I’m so glad that Natasha had the courage to let Dominic come out and show us his true color.

I love this author for her impeccable writing skills when it comes to engaging a reader in a dark romance. With the face of an angel, our anti-hero is not a good man. Failure to face his demons have led him to conduct some rather horrendous things that some readers may struggle with, but beneath it all is a man who cares deeply. Dominic, the younger son of a mafia boss, is commanding and exudes danger. This damaged bad boy completely falters when he feels this intense connection with Gia. Gia is the daughter of a foot soldier and is unfortunately pulled into a series of events related to the mafia. I loved her as a heroine as she is feisty, stubborn, resilient, and refuses to go down without fighting. These two start off on a very rocky path and I honestly wasn’t sure how a things between them would work. However, the author did a remarkable job with character development and with how their relationship evolved. Not to mention, these two had some kindle melting moments that left me fanning myself.The mafia undertones makes the book very interesting with all of its intrigue and suspense. This book is a fast paced novel full of twists & turns and heart stopping action that will leave you on the edge of your seat. This book is a part of her Benedetti series, but I truly believe it can be read as a standalone (although there is a bit of character and story overlap that may be a few spoilers if you haven’t read Salvatore). Overall, I really enjoyed this mafia dark romance and I look forward to reading the rest of this series.

I so love books told in first person...and I especially loved reading this story from two POV. The male/female POV. Superb! But not all stories are for all people....I mean after all, we're all so individually unique with our own tastes, right? And if you're not into edgy and dark stories, you probably should pass this one up (although it's not as "dark" as some I've read... just sayin'). This is a story of survival....of divide and conquer. It's an intense and sometimes frightening story of organized crime and human trafficking. Of power play and mind games. Dominic Benedetti is a mercenary for hire and currently deals in human trafficking...sex slavery. It's his job to break the girls down, intimidate and train them...get them ready for auction. He deals in fear and he loves the rush, but he doesn't like training the girls. He doesn't like the involvement of selling humans. Dominic is running from demons that make him feel hollow and empty. He lives in depravity. He's utterly empty. His life is nothing but hopelessness and darkness.Ms. Knight painstakingly takes us through the phases of darkness and depravity that Dominic experiences and the phases that begins his slow awakening. He's given Gia Castellano to break and train except her strength and purity begins to cause him to pause...to examine himself. To question himself. He begins to see her as a human rather than "a thing" or a job. The feeling is foreign and completely new and transfixes and confuses him to the point of being spellbound by her, and he doesn't like it. He doesn't like that he suddenly wants to protect her. Lines begin to blur and confuses him even more. Somewhere along the line, his power play and manipulation turns into desire. I loved Gia's strengths. Even though she's a prisoner, she begins to use her captivity to meticulously plot her escape. She begins to burrow under the skin of her captor. She can "read" him (and he knows it). She plots to kill him.I loved this story. I loved Gia. She's Dominic's match. She's tough, intelligent, strong and full of hate. She's on a mission of revenge for the assassination of her brother and she vows to not rest until she accomplishes her goal. This story is fabulous!! FABULOUS!!!...phenomenally so. It's riveting, raw and edgy and brilliantly told.

I liked the sound of this story and I loved the picture on the front of the book so I actually bought it for the full price - I just checked. Yes, I really did.The first half of the book is with Gia imprisoned and Dominic is meant to be training her to be meek and obedient. I am not sure that this part of the book was totally convincing unlike in The Found where the details of imprisonment sound very real. I also thought that he started doubting himself and liking her too soon for the story. However it was not tacky and took you along.The second part of the book was much better and the story and the characters became more interesting. In this part I found myself liking Dominic, which is helpful for me, and the story was convincing.I liked Gia all the time. She tried to resist but only enough to be believable so that she felt real and not just unbelievably stupid as so many women in these stories.The writing was in the first person and sounded like the gumshoe style of story telling (did you ever see Mike Hammer - Stacy Keach). Anyway I am not a fan of this type of writing but it did not spoil the story for me and I will go back and buy the first in this series.

What a second book of the series this was.I hated Dominic after the first book and could see how he could possible be redeemed.And true to form for the start of this book I continued to hate him with a passion. So did Gia!This is a dark dark mafia story. Great storyline with plenty twists and turns. Yup and by the end I did not hate Dominic.I can’t wait to read Sergio and am intrigued to find out how this will all end for the series.

This is the second book in the Benedetti family and is much darker than the first. The Hero Dominic is anything but and his life in the last seven years since the conclusion of the first book has led to him being a pretty horrific guy doing unthinkable things - not sure how I feel about that. Also not sure if he could be turned around but thankfully Ms Knight was able to do that fairly quickly.The romance between Dominic and Gia was not smooth sailing but bearing in mind how they met and the way Dominic treated her that was expected. But is was sweet and Dominic did redeem himself beautifully. You do need to read book 1 to understand how Dominic got to where he was in the beginning of this book.

I think I loved this book more than i did Salvatore’s! It was so much darker and grittier.My heart broke for Dominic with how much hate he had inside of him, when really I think deep down he just wanted to be loved and fit in.Gia was such a strong character, and with everything she went through I was just waiting for her to break but she never really did. She stayed strong and I love that in a leading lady!There were so many aspects to this book and I just loved it!!

This is quite dark in places - I like dark romance but not too dark. It has to be just right for me. This one was a little pushing the envelope in places for me personally but it’s a good read and Natasha is a good writer.