Review by Ronny
Series name: Alliance, # 2
King is a fun and filthy dark mafia read and another great installment in the Alliance series.
Favourite Quote:
“This is our bedroom.”
She whips around, her blond hair flying out with the movement. “Our? No, no, no.” She shakes her head. “I’m not sleeping with you.”
I keep my hand on the doorframe. “I’ll let you stay in here by yourself tonight, but tomorrow, you will be sleeping at my side.”
Savannah slowly crosses her arms, putting a barrier between us. “Why? What’s happening tomorrow?”
I grin. “We’re getting married.”
Her mouth drops open.
But before she can respond I slam and lock the door.
Book Synopsis:
Okay, so, my bad for assuming the guy I was going on a date with wasn’t married. And my bad for taking him to a friend’s house for dinner, only to find out my friend is also friends with his wife. Because, in fact, he is married. And she happens to be at my friend’s house because her husband was busy working.
Confused? So am I.
Unsurprisingly, my date’s wife is super angry about finding out that her husband is a cheating asshole.
Girl, I get it.
Then, to make matters more convoluted, there is the man sitting next to my date’s wife. A man named King, who is apparently her brother, and who lives up to his name.
And since my date is a two-timing prick, I’m not going to feel bad about drooling over King, especially since I’ll never see him again.
Or at least I don’t plan to.
I plan to take an Uber to the cheater’s apartment to get my car keys.
I plan for it to be quick.
And if I had to list a thousand possible outcomes… witnessing my date’s murder, being kidnapped by his killer, and then being forced to marry the super attractive but clearly deranged crime lord, would not have been on my Bingo card.
But alas, here I am.
Review:
Before diving into this book, be warned that this book (and Dom’s book) is set firmly in that dark, taboo romance subgenre. Check your content warnings, and remember this is a dark mafia romance, so the main couple’s relationship is not particularly healthy for the majority of the book, and there is some graphic violence on the pages. So, if that stuff makes you uncomfortable, maybe skip this book and jump over to Odette Stone’s mafia books (they are a lot less dark and taboo). I enjoyed this book; it’s not my favourite, and Savannah and King aren’t my favourite couple, but it was a quick and dirty read.
One thing S.J. Tilly does really well is create a hook that is sure to capture bookworms’ attention. This book opens with Savannah on a date with a guy she has been seeing; they are going to her friend’s house for dinner and low and behold, when they arrive, the guy she is dating’s wife (Savannah had no idea he was married) is also at her friend’s house. If that wasn’t enough drama, the wife is the sister to King, a member of the Alliance mafia family, who doesn’t take too kindly to his sister’s husband’s cheating and decides to kill him, which Savannah accidentally witnesses. King then kidnaps Savannah, and of course, the only logical thing for him to do is to marry her so that he can make sure that she doesn’t tell anyone about the murder she has witnessed. All of this happens within the first couple of chapters of the book, and all I could think is holy crap, this is fabulous. I like my romances banana pants crazy, and S.J. Tilly delivers every single time. Once King and Savannah are at his house, the plot slows down a bit; shenanigans are still happening because, of course, Savannah will try to escape, like any respectable heroine would do. The only thing that came out of nowhere was the end-of-the-story danger typical of an S.J. Tilly book. The enemy was not mentioned until right before Savannah was in danger, so there was no build-up between the hero and this “villain.” The “villain” just popped up on the pages near the end of the story, so it was a bit jarring.
The romance between Savannah and King may not be everyone’s cup of tea. Remember to check your content warnings. King forces Savannah to marry him, and she is under his control for the majority of the book. What is interesting about this story is that King regrets his actions near the end of the book. King believes that because he kidnapped and forced Savannah to marry him, she will never love him, and they will never be able to have a “normal” relationship. He believes his actions are unforgivable and is willing to give Savannah up in order to be that noble hero. But of course, Savannah thinks he is a big dummy because she is in love with him by that point in the book. I like a good kidnapping romance; this one was well done. The sex between King and Savannah, especially the last big sex scene, is very, very kinky and taboo. The chemistry between these two is fun, spicy, and enjoyable to read. Their love story is that typical mafia romance where you get that morally grey alpha hero who will tear the world apart and kill anyone who hurts or threatens the woman he loves.
King is another hot and dark romance by the talented S.J. Tilly.
