Well this was fun from the very beginning as when crashing a party Aida starts a fire which has huge consequences for her . You have to understand that her Italian family and Callum’s Irish family pretty much hate each other and to prevent all out war with fatalities on both sides their parents agree to a marriage which from the very start sends Callum to hospital ! Oh yes this is not a happy union but it sure is combustible.
I don’t read a lot of contemporary romance so was greatly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. Yes it’s a mafia type story with different factions trying to profit and there are gritty, violent moments but honestly it’s the romance that dominates. Callum is stiff, starchy and controlling and really needs someone like Aida around. Why ? Well Aida has always been free to be herself and does her own thing quite happily but she’s not a brat just confident and maybe just a little bit wild . This has numerous moments that are as shocking as they are funny and this couple sure do heat up the pages ! My favourite character was without a doubt Seb and I dearly hope the author gives him his own book but trust me the siblings are such fun to read about and as I finished this book I realised I would happily read more by this talented author.
This voluntary take is of a copy I requested from Netgalley and my thoughts and comments are honest and I believe fair

I absolutely ate this book up! I’ve never read a mafia romance before, and this might have ruined me for any others in the future.

I adored Callum and Aida, and their relationship dynamic was so compelling. The tension within the relationship and its outside forces kept me on the edge of my seat. While this is probably classified as a dark romance, I felt it was closer to romantic suspense.

I can’t wait to continue the series! Thank you Bloom Books, Netgalley, and Sophie Lark for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

"'Do you want me, Cal?'
'I don’t want you. I need you.'"

Now this is how contemporary enemies to lovers should be done. They are actually enemies before lovers! They try to kill each other multiple times! I was living for some of the more... creative attempts. Let's just say, strawberries on the cover is a perfect choice.

"Opposites have a kind of symmetry. Fire and ice. Stern and playful. Impulsive and restrained. In a way, they belong together."

Aida is opinionated, fiery, and a kick-butt main character. Callum is calculating, reserved, and powerful. You can really see how they would get along great, right? After Aida accidently lights Callum's family mansion on fire, their rivaling mafia fathers come to the agreement of an arranged marriage to act as a bridge between the two families and end the generational feud between the families. I'm sure you can imagine how opposed are soon to be couple are to this idea. So opposed they try to KILL each other on multiple occasions. Don't mind me swooning in the background. The angst and tension between these two was just *chef's kiss*.

"I want to hear what’s making her laugh so hard."

Most of the time romance book plots are either left to die or so minor you need a microscope to see it. Brutal Prince actually has a good plot that acted as the driving force for our character's arcs and the progression of the story, which I really appreciated.

"You’re mine, Aida. I'll kill anyone who tries to touch you."

This is a great, fast paced, mafia romance with all the tropes you know and love! I'll definitely be picking up another Sophie Lark book.

Unfortunately I'm dnfing at 33%. I'm struggling really hard with the style of writing in this book. I'm giving it 3 stars however because the story is good and I really think it'll find an audience. I really loved the artwork that Lark included in this book it was such a nice touch. I thought the play list in the beginning of the book really clever too.

I'm still very interested in checking out Anastasia from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloom books for this advance reader copy. My review is voluntarily my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sophie Lark for an ebook in exchange for an honest review!

Rating: 4/5 Stars

This was my first Sophie Lark book and I enjoyed it so much! I had so much fun reading this and honestly ate it up.

Brutal Prince

The Gallos and the Griffins are bitter rivals with a long history of hatred. Their battle reignites when Aida Gallo steals something precious from Callan Griffin.

All decisions have their consequences - how will Callan and Aida deal with theirs?

This book is fast paced, gritty and sexy. Aida is feisty and the perfect balance to Callan’s rigidity. I loved their dynamic and omg their chemistry is hot.

This book has all the best tropes - marriage of convenience, enemies to lovers and mafia romance.

100% recommend

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an arc copy of the illustrated edition of this book.

Oh where to start with this book.... I'm new with this genre of romance, but I may need to explore some more Mafia romances because oh my did I enjoy this. The bickering between Callum and Aida was priceless, and seemed very real. You could feel the hatred between them emanating off the pages. Speaking of hatred, this was the kind of enemies to lovers I love - actual want-to-kill-you enemies, knife to the throat, or I guess face in the pool kind of enemies to lovers. I will say that I would have loved more pining, more angst. Once they did... it... things started to happen very quickly. I wanted more "I shouldn't feel this way" and inner turmoil. The romance, once it hit, hit fast. Give me angst! Pining! Longing! I want to feel every feeling imaginable.

That being said, Sophie Lark really fed us with the "touch her and you die" vibes. Callum said all the right things (did he also say some really messed up things to her? Yes. But that's besides the point). Just look at some of these yummy moments.
" 'You're mine, Aida,' Callum growls in my ear. "I'll kill anyone who tries to touch you.'"
"'If you ever talk to my wife like that again, I'll empty that clip in your chest'".

Listen, I am aware that I need therapy. But to be fair, if a man said this to me in real life I would throw holy water at him and run away. But in a book.... that is a different story.

What happens when two sibling from two enemy mafia families are forced into an arranged marriage? A bit of destruction, humiliation, and a whole lot of passion!

This was a fun read, and I will definitely be reading the rest of the series!

🖤🍓 Brutal Prince Review 🍓🖤

Thank you so much to Sophie Lark, Bloom Books and netGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book!

Brutal Prince is a contemporary mafia romance and the first book in the Brutal Birthright series. When Aida and her older brothers decide to crash the party of their local rivals, she doesn’t expect to have to hide in the library when she’s almost caught snooping by Callum Griffin, the eldest son of the rival family. Desperate to escape without being caught, Aida does the only thing she can think of…she sets the curtains on fire and runs…

This was my first Sophie Lark book but it definitely won’t be the last! I really enjoyed it!!The illustrations in this book were absolutely beautiful and absolutely added to my enjoyment of this book!! I loved how Aida and Callum’s relationship evolved from a rivals to lovers - both characters are strong, intelligent and passionate, which makes their dynamic so much fun to read!

Overall this was a four star read for me! This book has some of my favorite tropes & I loved the characters, world building and dual PoV. I will absolutely pick up the rest of the series in the future!! This was a little Insta-love for me personally, but that’s a “me” issue and not a book issue. There’s some awesome spice scenes in this book and they occur pretty frequently, so four flames for spice

If you’re a fan of mafia romances with rivals to lovers, arranged marriage, & age gaps, then definitely check this one out!! Brutal Prince is available now and these beautiful new covers from Bloom Books comes out on July 25th!!

Do you enjoy mafia romance??

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Mafia romance - but make it spicy and hilarious. Also add pictures. What do you get? A MASTERPIECE!

🍓 TROPES & THEMES 🍓
✔️ mafia romance
✔️ enemies to lovers
✔️ marriage of convenience 😏
✔️ the feistiest, most enjoyable FMC omg
✔️ touch her and 💀 vibes
✔️ spicyyyy GIRL it’s spicy
✔️ dual POV 🤌🏽
✔️ MMC is in the Irish mafia ok omg 🫠

Firstly, thank you NetGalley for this arc! I’ve seen this book around a lot, and it’s been on my TBR since my friend Charlie hyped it up last year I think. 🤣 so when I saw it there I jumped on it - and got approved! WOO!! And I’m so glad I did. This book WAS SO FUN!!

I don’t read many mafia romance books. I honestly don’t branch away from romantacy period - but I’m glad I did for this story!

Aida our FMC is seriously so much fun, I adored her. She is strong, smart, optimistic and tbh I want her as my older sister. I LOVED HER.

Callum? Please. Dark hair? Blue eyes? Irish? An arsehole? ✔️✔️✔️✔️✔️ I knew I would love him before I even met him. 🤣

The opening scene had me going OMG 😱 and 🤣🤣🤣. The pocketwatch? PLEASE. 💀🤣

The story opens with Aida accidentally setting fire to a rival mafia’s family library. How does she have to pay it back? Why, by marrying their oldest son OF COURSE. And they HATE each other. It was hysterical.

But the hate turned to 🔥 turned to 💗. 🥹 the pacing was perfect and I thoroughly enjoyed this book all the way through. I was never bored.

Also… and tbh this may be my favorite part… this book?? It. Has. PICTURES!! It’s ILLUSTRATED!! And there’s some 🌶️ PICS TOO!!! 😱😱😱

This book is popular - and now I see why!! If you’ve been wanting to read something fun, wild, and spicy - pick this gem up right and thank me later. 😏 💅

This was so foolish but I actually enjoyed it. I don’t typically do the mafia romances but this one wasn’t super violent and it was entertaining! Thanks to NetGalley for the arc.

This is the first kind of mafia romance that I have ever really read and I was hooked. I need to read more of her books. Banter was next level.

⭐⭐⭐💫
3.5/5 stars

My favorite part of this book was Aida’s quips and sass. It was technically a mafia romance, but I’d hardly call this dark. This was the first adult romance book I’ve read that had illustrations and breaks to listen to relevant songs from the soundtrack – which I thought was a fun addition. I read this quickly and it was easy to jump into, but I gave this only 3.5 stars because it wasn’t as memorable as I was hoping and the MMC fell a little flat for me. I’ll still give the other books in this series a shot though - An interesting world being developed.

This book was incredible! I was hooked from the beginning. Starting this series was so fun! I also love these covers! Overall, this book was great and I was hooked. My rating is a 4.75 stars!

So I finally got to read this one and I gotta say it was okay it could have been maybe a higher rating if the h wasn't such a brat and not in a good way. Spicy without it taking over the plot. Love the badassery but the hero is not as badass.

This was okay. This book was lighter from any other mafia books I’ve read. Well, my motto is ‘the darker the better’. Lol.

I really loved this book! I would recommend it for your bookshelf for sure. Why? I loved the rivalry- the enemies to lovers was like fine wine but with fun twists. So creative it had my jaw dropping at what these characters would put one another through! Then add the hot sex….Let’s just says I couldn’t get enough of Aida and Callum :)

This ARC was provided by NetGalley in exchange for a honest review. For sure 5 out of 5!!! Just stop reading reviews and buy it! It’s worth it!

I really liked the premise of the book and how it started. The whole fire and arranged marriage was written so well. However as the book went on, I just did not really see the chemistry between Aida and Callum. Even by the end of the book, I still did not really see any connection between them. Overall I'm giving it three stars. Thank you for this ARC!

I definitely picked this up because I love Sophie Lark, but I don't think this book was exactly my norm. I do love a dark romance, but I feel like the characters fell flat and honestly kind of annoyed me. It also feels like everything happened super fast with not a lot of resolution. That being said I did still give this 3 stars because i did enjoy the book overall and it was a nice read from some heavier tomes I read normally. I likely won't finish the series, but I may pick it up again if I need a fast dark read.

It was good, but I was waiting for it to be great.

I think the problem was this book just wasn’t for me. I loved the smut, but smut without substance just isn’t my thing.

I recommend it for those who love mafia romance with loads of hot smutty goodness, this is for you!

What a great series intro!! A mafia romance that trends towards the lighter side of mafia - a good intro to that type of story with great families and characters I can’t wait to see more of. But Aida and Callum - wooooaaah what a start. Aida really is the star - we love a strong, confident woman who doesn’t need a man but is only enhanced by having the right one. A true enemies to lovers with the main characters actively against each other at the start of the book but when they fall, get ready because it’s hottttt! Can’t wait to read the rest of the series and get to know these siblings a little better too!