Brutal Prince: An Enemies To Lovers Mafia Romance (Brutal Birthright Book 1)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars | 40,240 ratings
Price: 4.99
Last update: 09-03-2024
About this item
#1 Best Seller Romantic Suspense
#18 in the Kindle Store
A Match Made in Hell
The Griffins and the Gallos have been battling for control of Chicago’s underworld for generations.
Their bitter rivalry reignites when Aida, the youngest and wildest Gallo sibling, crashes a party at the Griffin mansion, accidentally setting fire to the library.
To stave off all-out war, her father arranges a marriage with Callum Griffin, eldest son and heir.
Cold, ambitious, and brutal, Callum is determined to tame his headstrong bride. Aida is more than capable of giving as good as she gets – starting with poisoning Callum on their wedding night.
In their struggle for dominance, who will break first?
The Lark Notes:
Aida is my spirit animal. She’s wild, passionate, and outrageous. Callum is the only man who can tame her. These two start out trying to rip each other apart. Soon they can only rip each other’s clothes off. I love this story because it launches the saga of the Griffins and the Gallos, and because it has so much humor and heart mixed in with the danger and adventure. – Sophie
“Brutal Prince” is the explosive first act in the epic “Brutal Birthright” series. It’s a stand-alone Dark Mafia Romance, complete with HEA and no cliffhangers. It contains blazing hot bedroom scenes for mature readers only!!!
Top reviews from the United States
Their relationship is arranged because of Aida's impulsiveness and the optics that Callum takes on a wife to win a political race. Aida shows how cunning and smart she is when she causes Callum to have an allergic reaction early on in their relationship, and Callum shows her just how she is to get *punished* as a result. Once they were both in the relationship though, they were committed out of loyalty to their families but grew to depend on one another during high stress situations.
I liked Aida's brothers a lot and might continue the series ... the WIDE age gaps are a tad much for me though.
Callum and Aida are from rival mafia families. They both live in Chicago, he’s from an Irish family and she’s from an Italian family. Griffin is the oldest sibling, and only son of the Griffin family, at 30 he’s ready to get into politics to help out the family business. Aida lives with her father and 3 brothers: Dante, Nero, and Sebastian, and wishes they’d let her join in. At the beginning of the story, Aida and her brothers end up crashing Nessa Griffin’s birthday party and Aida sneaks into the family’s house. She ends up looking around in the library, starting a fire to escape when Callum enters, and sealing a family heirloom. This of course starts some drama between the two feuding families. Sick of the fighting, losing members of their families to one another, and just all the drama, Aida’s father and Callum’s father decide to sit down and meet and come to an agreement. They decide Callum and Aida will marry to form an alliance between the families to end the feuding once and for all.
I loved this book from the start! This is a legit enemies to lovers with both constantly messing with one another, she even almost kills him on their wedding day! ???? I loved seeing their hate for one another and just all their shenanigans: he forces her hand with a pre-wedding spa day, she swaps out his wedding tux, the wedding kiss (strawberries). I loved how much family was a part of the story: after the wedding, Aida moves into his family’s home, she understands their family loyalty, her relationship with her brothers, and her being friends with his sister Nessa. Aida is badass and amazing! She has wanted to be a part of the family business and I loved seeing Callum listen to her and all she knows. So many amazing action moments in this book and the chemistry was just fantastic! I can’t wait to binge this series now and totally regret not starting sooner!
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…
Although this was labeled as dark due to premise of the story - mafia & violence, it was a pretty easy and light read. There were instances of violence but nothing Aida couldn't handle. I loved that this was a true enemies to lovers and that Aida got to show Callum that he shouldn't judge a book by the cover.