Review- Mafia Mistress by Mila Finelli

Pre pandemic me: I will never read Mafia romance and I most definitely don’t care for daddy kink. Ew.

Pandemic me: PUT IT IN MY VEINS!

My old snooty dismissive self can take a hike because a mafia book with daddy kink is now one of my favorite books of the year.

Fausto “Il Diavolo” is THE mafia king and no one dares double-cross him unless they want to sleep with the fishes, har har. So when a fellow but less powerful Canadian mobster owes him a  debt he repays it by giving Fausto his eldest daughter Frankie as a bride for his son, thus uniting the two families. Frankie has dreams of going away to college and finally living a normal life away from the suffocating constraints of being the daughter of a notorious mobster. So when she finds out she has to marry some dude she never met, she nopes on out of there and escapes.

Experienced romance readers know that escaping heroines, no matter how plucky, never make it very far. They also know the captor will inevitably become enthralled by his captive and they both will want to rage bang each other out of their system. So begins this steamy story about two people with vastly different values playing a game of cat and mouse. This is also a tale about two different types of prisons, of archaic, misogynistic traditions, and a lonely powerful man who lives to uphold them.

First, a warning: this is the equivalent of book crack. I began reading before bed and didn’t go to sleep until I finished in the wee hours. Even as I wax poetic I realize that It’s not a perfect book and I would have totally given this a pass had I not seen a tweet about it that made my ears perk up. It's an age gap romance. Frankie is only eighteen which normally squeaks me out but this author has a gift. That gift is making me believe that these two people belonged together and also not making her eighteen-year-old heroine sound like a sophisticated thirty-year-old. She actually sounds and acts her age which gives the book an edgier taboo feel that I totally dug. Fausto is a total Alphahole until he’s not. I am trash for a good character arc and Fausto’s is a slow and glorious one. Little by little the author peels away a little itty bit of his many layers and we see a man who is as much a prisoner of the mobster life as Frankie. And did I mention this book is insanely HOT? Like a five-alarm fire hot. It's gloriously filthy and still swooningly romantic. This combo is my kryptonite.

All of this gushing to say that this book has a delicious silver fox Alphahole hero with a slightly mushy center who is totally gone for the heroine and despite all his ranting and stomping he gives in to her every wish. There’s the aforementioned daddy kink, hot Italian dirty talk. The side characters are all fleshed out, the author’s voice is fresh and modern and it’s dual POV which I prefer. There is also graphic violence as is expected of a mafia romance which isn’t my jam. It’s not a huge part of the plot although it’s always simmering in the background. Also, it bears repeating that there’s dirty banging in every way you can imagine but not at the expense of the plot or the romantic tension.

If you’re curious about dark-ish mafia romance that’s not completely over the top bananas then I’d recommend this book for a start. I’m pretty new to the mafia/MC/dark-ish romance game and have a low tolerance for blood and gore. While there was blood and gore I found it easy to skim over it. My only quibble is that this addictive book ends in a huge cliffhanger and book 2 won’t be out until maybe December. Other than that this is a solid five-star read.

TW: homophobia, kidnapping, graphic depictions, and descriptions of violence. Triggers abound due to the subject matter. Proceed with caution.