TITLE: Nero
AUTHOR: SJ Tilly
SERIES: Alliance
SERIES ORDER: 1 of 4
PUBLISHED DATE: 3/16/2023
GENRE: Mafia Romance
RATING: ❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥
TW/CW: Dubcon, Stalking, Violence, Death, Kidnapping, Past Emotional Trauma and Physical Abuse
BLURB:
Payton
Running away from home at 17 wasn’t easy. Let’s face it though, nothing before, or in the ten years since, has ever been easy for me.
And I’m doing okay. Sorta. I just need to keep scraping by, living under the radar. Staying out of people’s way, off people’s minds.
So when a man walks through my open patio door, stepping boldly into my home, and my life, I should be scared. Frightened. Terrified.
But I must be more broken than I realized, because I’m none of those things.
I’m intrigued.
And I’m wondering if the way to take control of my life is by giving in to him.
Nero
The first time I took a man’s life, I knew there’d be no going back. No normal existence in the cards for me.
So instead of walking away, I climbed a mountain of bodies, and created my own destiny. By forming The Alliance.
And I was fine with that. Content enough to carry on.
Until I stepped through those open doors, and into her life.
I should’ve walked away. Should’ve gone right back out the door I came through. But I didn’t.
And now her life is in danger.
But that’s the thing about being a bad man. I’ll happily paint the streets red to protect what’s mine.
And Payton is mine. Whether she knows it or not.
“I can only offer her danger and heartache. There’s nothing safe about knowing me. No matter how much I wish it were different.”
MY REVIEW:
Don’t you just love it when books surprise you? I hardly, if ever, read dark romance. I just don’t like how the women are treated, and the excessive violence and gore can give me nightmares. Then an author friend recommended this book/series to me and I became intrigued when she mentioned how funny it was! So this past weekend for my birthday, I spent time with Nero and Payton, and boy was I glad!
There was one scene where I became uncomfortable reading (Nero’s first on page ☠️), but SJ Tilly lessened the grotesqueness a little by adding humor into the scene.
Nero is definitely a little unhinged when it comes to Payton but their chemistry just jumped out at me from the very first page! I love how obsessed they became with each other! Yeah, it might be a little stalkerish but I thought it was kind of sweet how Nero couldn’t stop checking in on her, and I loved that they both kept wondering what the other person was doing. After one meeting! I just adored Nero and Payton throughout this whole book!
Aside from Nero and Payton I was LOVING the scenes with Nero and King! They were so dang funny!! I just loved how they were constantly messing around with each other, but the first one they’d call if the fit hit the shan.
I am really going to try and continue on with this series because I am invested, at least in King’s story (which is #2 in the series!)
If you have not read dark romance or mafia romance before, but you want to step your toes in these genres, I’d recommend checking out this series!