PROTECTIVE VOWS (Valverde Mafia 1) by BB Hamel -a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date October 25, 2022

I crave freedom and his marriage bed.
But I can’t have both.

I’m all that’s left of the powerful Greek Florakis mafia. My father and my older brothers were murdered in a yacht explosion off the coast of Crete, and now my family is in tatters.

That’s when Luca Valverde comes for me. He’s six-foot-four, covered in scars and muscles, a hardened killer, and my sworn enemy.

But instead of finishing the job, he takes me home and gives me a choice: a bullet or his wedding ring.

I accept marriage and decide to bide my time until I can put a knife in his back.

When we return to New York, things get complicated. He needs to prove himself to his family after taking a Greek bride, and I’m stuck trying to help my hated husband while also waiting to escape.

Every second I spend in his marriage bed is another second I spend forgetting about my freedom.

His touch is a poison flower and his lips are like honey.

But I’m playing the long game, and in the end, I’m going to win.

•••••••

REVIEW: PROTECTIVE VOWS is the first instalment in BB Hamel’s contemporary, adult VALVERDE MAFIA dark, erotic, Mafia series. This is heir to the Valverde Mafia throne Luca Valverde, and twenty-three year old, Greek Mafia princess Kacia Florakis’ story line.

WARNING: Due to the nature of the story line premise, there may be triggers for more sensitive readers

Told from dual first person perspectives (Kacia and Luca) PROTECTIVE VOWS follows in the aftermath of the murder of Kacia Florakis’ entire family. Three months earlier, Kacia’s father, and two brothers were murdered in a yacht explosion blamed on the Italian mob. Hiding in Greece, with her father’s one-time guardian, Kacia quickly discovers not all is at it appears to be when she becomes the prisoner of the heir to the Italian mob. Sentenced to death for the sins of her father, Kacia has a choice to make- a bullet or marriage- and our heroine is quickly leaning to one side more than the other. Marriage may protect her from immediate harm, but there are others waiting in the wings, to destroy what’s left of the Florakis family, in an effort to take control of everything left behind. What ensues is the building but forbidden romance and relationship between Kacia and Luca, and the fall-out as the fight for control leads to a potential war with the Russian Bratva.

Luca Valverde has his orders, and his order are to kill Kacia Florakis but something about Kacia begins to melt the ice around Luca’s heart, a heart that has been frozen since the murder of his younger brother. Wanting revenge against the Greeks for destroying his family, Luca takes aim at our story line heroine only to discover she is an innocent in a war between Mafia families. Kacia has no idea as to the extent of her family’s sins, and our heroine is about to pay the price for the darkness that has followed wherever she goes. Choosing to live, Kacia is forced into a marriage of convenience, a marriage that is seen as both good and evil within the families fighting for control.

The relationship between Kacia and Luca is predicated upon duty; a forced marriage that will hopefully save Kacia’s life but a marriage based on blood and death. Luca knows that to force Kacia could mean a life without love, without the support of his family, and the possibility of facing his own mortality at the hands of his father but Luca sees an opportunity to take back control, and gain the power the Valverde family needs. The $ex scenes are limited but passionate and seductive.

We are introduced to Kacia’s guardian Perico, and her best friend Adrienne; the Valverde capos Tony, Nicolla and Fio,Mafia security forces; Luca’s father, Don Roberto Valverde; as well as head of the Greek Mafia in America Yiannis Calimeris: Russian Damir Novalov.

PROTECTIVE VOWS is a story of power and control, betrayal and vengeance, obsession and retaliation, secrets and lies, acceptance and love. The fast paced premise is gritty and intriguing; the romance is captivating; the characters are determined, desperate and dynamic.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy