Brutal Prince (Brutal Birthright, 1)

Spice: 3Tropes:Enemies to Loversmafia romancearranged marriageage gapTouch her and dieDual POVOkay! I'm hooked! I'm official obsessed with Sophie Lark! I couldn't put down Brutal Prince while reading, it was that good.What did I love about it? Well where do I start? I loved the characters, the story, the setting, all of it. Brutal Prince is a mafia romance, and I definitely think I'm entering my mafia romance era. However, I think I need to read up on mafia history lol- this is the 2nd book I've read pitting Irish against Italians. I did not know that was a mafia thing. I'm out of the loop!The FMC were Aida, the only daughter in a sea of brothers of an Italian mafia family. Her family has their toes in construction and while Aida may be the only girl, and her family doesn't like her getting involved in business, she's smart. She pays attention to not only to what her father's doing, but who he's doing business with as well. She's learned to read the characters at play, which is definitely going to come in handy when she's forced to marry the only son of the Irish mafia....Hello, Callum. Callum comes across as a posh politician, but don't let him fool you, he knows how/isn't afraid to get his hands dirty. You can't be, in the family business of running an empire. He's got his eyes set on an Alderman seat in Chicago politics and is just cocky enough that he doesn't question that he'll win. Thank goodness he was forced to marry Aida, who can read people better than he can and help this guy out. But what I love about Callum, even when he's like UGH AIDA, I don't want to marry her, he's very much "She's mine" and "you touch her, I'll kill you." and I couldn't help smirk at him every time. Yeah, Callum, you got it bad and don't even realize it yet.The dynamic between these two is HOT. Spicy! Sexy! I love that both Aida and Callum are trigger happy and Aida coming in hot at the warehouse scene, was everything. She's a badass and my new favorite heroine. She proves she can take care of herself but really, I think she and Callum need each other and that's more perfect for me. Callum may needed rescuing, but Aida does too, and Callum will move heaven and earth for her.Honestly, I loved all the characters in this book. I can't wait to read the rest of this series so we can get to know Aida's brothers more and even Callum's sisters!

This was modern day mafia rom com. It’s not what I expected when I picked up a mafia romance. But it was a pleasant surprise. It had me laughing and loving both the main characters! I felt it was a little slow in plot but romance it was great.

Sophie Lark is a new to me author, although she has been on my radar for some time. But as I have a bit of OCD it never felt right to review a book that is part of a series of which I haven’t read the previous installments. So when I discovered that Brutal Prince was the first in a series, I naturally jumped on it. Also, the blurb mentioned all my favorite tropes: marriage-of-convenience, enemies-to-lovers, forced consent.Despite its title and it being billed as dark romance I actually found the level of violence in this book rather mild, and the sex turned out to be consensual, as a matter of fact. If I remember correctly, it was the heroine who initiated it. There is some spanking involved, but that is like the extent of the kink.There is also an age gap between the couple, Aida is around twenty, Callum nearer to thirty. I mention this, because some of the «pranks» they play on each other come across as rather juvenile. Maybe understandable on her part, less so on his. And this leads to my major problem with the story: Callum comes across not as strong, lethal and cunning mafia prince, but more like a high school bully. At his age he is still living with his parents, so Aida almost sets fire to his parents’ house and not his house!Somehow I got the impression from the blurb that he wanted to tie Aida to him in order to get her under his control and exact revenge, but that is not at all what happened. It is their fathers who arrange the marriage to prevent a full blown-out conflict that would weaken both their organisations. So they both don’t have a choice, Aida, because she would be responsible for a war that would hurt her family and Callum, because he doesn’t want to lose his cozy position within his father’s organisation. And therein lies the rub: this just doesn’t project the image of strength and ruthlessness that I associate with a strong alpha male.The book was strongest in laying bare the entanglements between politics and organised crime, and I liked that Aida had a pretty good understanding of what motivated people in their decisions. Overall, the role of women appeared controversial: on the one hand Aida is very much the beloved daughter and sister who clearly has been allowed to be present when her father conducts business and has been afforded a lot of licence in general, on the other hand her father has no compunction to use her as collateral.I also liked some of the supporting characters, especially Aida’s brothers. So, despite my reservations I might pick up future books in the series, if only to find out how Dante, Nero and Sebastian fare…

I ate this book up! I literally read it in a day and I couldn’t get enough! It was such a fast and easy read, but still encompassed the kind of plot and relationship building I love to see in a book!Aida is such a little badass! I loved reading about a FMC who showed her never ending strength right from the start of the book! She was so intelligent and funny and witty. And her tension and banter with Callum…don’t even get me started!! And I absolutely ADORED her relationship with her brothers! I can’t get over how close they all were and how protective of each other they were. It’s the best when I can love a couple featured in a book. But it’s even better when I can love the side characters just as much! I can’t wait to read their stories!And Callum…man oh man…Callum Griffin was EVERYTHING I love in a MMC. He literally had me turning the page as fast as I could just to see what he would do or say next. He was cold and calculating, ambitious as hell and of course…brutal. BUT, when he falls for Aida, he falls HARD and possesses her in every way possible. She is his. And he is hers.Their relationship embodied enemies to lovers! I mean she burns down his favorite room in his house for gods sake! They both try relentlessly to insert their dominance on each other. Because neither of them are the types to back down. EVER. And I so so enjoyed watching them trying to find equal footing in their relationship!I will never stop recommending this book!