Spoilers for The Godfather in this review.
Let me begin by saying I'm not a fan of Mafia stories. I am still traumatized by the horse head scene in The Godfather, which I saw in the 1980s (and which I will not post a link to, because traumatized). Savage Ruler by Kristen Luciani was the first Mafia romance I have read.
On the plus side, the sex scenes were very, very hot. Hero / antihero Mateo is a Mafia don who owns a BDSM club where consent is enforced. (I'm not sure why the Mafia would run a BDSM club. It's a legal enterprise, since no prostitution is involved, and Mateo's club is profitable which makes it no good for laundering money.) (Which reminds me that even though I don't like Mafia stories, my smutty sex-slave novel-in-progress, Damascus, is Mafia-adjacent in that it is set in a sex club owned by the mob. Oops. You can read the first seven chapters on this blog here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. New chapter coming soon(ish).) Heroine / not-really-anti-heroine Heaven is the co-heir-apparent to a rival family. They meet cute at Mateo's club. Okay, they meet hot at Mateo's club and have sex that sizzles off the page. My only complaint about the sex scenes in the book is that there were not enough of them.
As for the rest of the book, the plot was pretty dumb. I'm not sure if this is a result of the Mafia romance genre itself, as I'm not familiar with it, or a particular issue with this story. The main problem is that Heaven, who is supposed to be the person who is actually running her family's crime ring, is an idiot. The first time she's caught out without a gun or any protection, I gave her a pass. She did not know that she was in particular danger. (But isn't she always?) But she keeps doing that, even when she should absolutely be at red alert. When she goes to the lair of the enemy crimelord so she can kill him, she literally has to borrow a weapon just before she goes inside.
If you read this blog a lot you know my pet peeve about people having jobs that are important to them that are not fleshed out. In Savage Ruler we are constantly told that Heaven is the person who keeps her crime family running smoothly, but we never get any details beyond that she "negotiates with partners." For that matter, we never get any details about what crimes her family is involved with. We know its not trafficking, because Heaven is opposed to that. So what is it? Drugs? Gambling?
It's the same with Mateo. Yes, we know he owns some BDSM clubs. His club in New York is less than a year old, but we never get any details about the management of it. The book constantly tells us that Mateo has some overarching plan to do something, or take over something. That's all it tells us.
Both Mateo and Heaven are cold-hearted murderers, which makes them a bit hard to root for. In the climax Heaven kills the rival crime boss -- with a knife. She also also kills guards -- with a knife. She never feels any trauma or remorse from these actions.
If Luciani were to write pure erotica, I would be the first in line to buy her books. But her smut is too watered down by a plot I don't like, so I'll pass.
Note from Jasmine Gold: As the name of this blog indicates, I write erotica. Check out my dystopian novel about naked sex slaves, Mindgames. Your darkest fantasies, with a phenomenal plot and characters you will come to think of as beloved friends. Available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited and in paperback. Or read my book of short stories about hot, consensual sex, The Mature Woman's Guide to Desire, available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.
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