Look, I only read this book in order to finish a reading challenge. Huge waste of my time. This mafia genre isn’t for me. Do you like reading about superficial white men with no character depth? I couldn’t take anything they said or did seriously. I mean, we start off with

Finch sewing up Luca’s wound with a hotel sewing kit. Luca takes it like a big strong man. They both fall blazingly and instantaneously in love when Finch sucks Luca’s dick afterwards. That dick must have been magical. 

The rest of the book goes downhill from there.

There’s a 5 year time skip, beef with the Irish (aka white-on-white crime), a forced marriage, blah blah blah.

Don’t read unless you like mafia books I guess?

Does exactly what it says on the tin. 

Soapy, spicy mob romance. Not bad but also not amazing, it you need it is there.

Stuff your kindle book.

Finch, spoiled son, spending his days spending his super rich dad's money, and Luca, upcoming member of the mafia, meet the first time at a nightclub. The night ends with Finch saving Luca's life and they spend a hot night together. The next morning Finch begs Luca to stay as he has fallen head over heels, but Luca walks away. 
They meet again five years later, when Luca is ordered to kill a rich dude's son. That son turns out to be Finch and Luca just can't do it. He has to come up with a different solution to his boss' problem though, otherwise not only Finch's but also Luca's life will come to an abrupt end. 

This one had me hooked from the first minute. We have the mob trope, insta-attraction, forced proximity, and one grumpy and one sunshine MMC. The world building is great for a mafia story. Understanding the different factions and the mob politics was interesting, even though the plot of course is a bit predictable. I also liked (and disliked when warranted) the side characters but Finch, this troubled young man, stole my heart. His sarcastic comments, both in his head and spoken out loud, add a fun layer to this otherwise rather dark story. Luca, also struggling but with different issues, is likable, too, but he not on the same level as Finch. I can't really see the top dog mafioso he wants to become in him. As Finch and Tino point out, he is lacking some important characteristics. But maybe he steps up his came in the second book. As a couple they start out on wobbly ground and Luca trying to maintain some illusion of distance gets a bit frustrating but towards the end the dynamic feels healthier and more established. 

The side plot around the assassination of Finch's mother when he was a child didn't go where I thought it would go at all. 

Finch's and Luca's story continue in the next book.

Really loved the writing style and characterisation, definitely felt like a journey. Not big on the violence itself but as a love story it’s great.

This book was a real roller coaster. I had a hard time getting into it, partially because I wasn't a huge fan of the thick accent the narrator did in the beginning but also because Finch was kind of annoying. Then after the 5-year gap I was more interested because Finch had grown up a little bit and I actually really liked him as a character. But I fucking hated Luca. All he did for the majority of the book was run hot and cold on Finch and then have long internal monologues about how he's doing it to keep Finch safe and it's temporary and blah blah blah. Finch showed him that he was wrong and other people told him he was being stupid but it wasn't until the last 7% of the book that he got his shit together and there just wasn't any grovel.

The plot twist wasn't really surprising, and the ending is really abrupt (in the recording anyway). The narrator did grow on me after the first few chapters, he did a good job with all the accents and voices for different characters. 

i hate the characters and i only got 50 pages through