DIRTY SECRETS (Valenti Crime Family ) by Kelsie Calloway -review

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / Amazon.uk / Amazon.au /

Don’t own a Kindle? Download the FREE Amazon Kindle App for your mobile device or pc

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date June 27, 2023

She thinks it’s a marriage of convenience, but I’ve been planning it for a decade.

Wrong place, wrong time—or so Francesca thought.
She doesn’t know that I’m the one that poisoned her husband.
She doesn’t realize that I’m the one that hired the men to attack her.
She just thinks it’s a coincidence that I was there to save her.
Then half a dozen threatening notes show up at her front door.
Someone knows her deepest darkest secret and they’re going to go to the cops.
But if she puts aside her pride and marries me , I can protect her.
Francesca thinks it’s the only solution.
And that’s because I’m hedging all my bets to ensure I get the woman I want.

Dirty Secrets is the fifth book in The Valenti Crime Family series, featuring an obsessed anti-hero that will do whatever it takes to wind up with the woman he loves—even if it hurts a few people. Each book is a standalone and the series can be read in any order.

This is a dark mafia romance containing themes some readers may find unsettling. Caution is advised; unless you’re throwing it to the wind. 😉

••••••••

REVIEW: DIRTY SECRETS is the fifth novella in Kelsie Calloway’s contemporary, adult VALENTI CRIME FAMILY dark, erotic, Mafia romance series. This is thirty-two year olds Francesca ‘Kessa’ Scot and Cesare Valenti’s story line. DIRTY SECRETS can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story lines is revealed where necessary.

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

Told from dual first person perspectives (Kessa and Cesare) DIRTY SECRETS follows the friends to lovers relationship between Francesca ‘Kessa’ Scot and Cesare Valenti. Cesare and Kessa have been best friends for close to eighteen years. Friends to boyfriend/girlfriend back to friends in the face of Cesare’s betrayal of the woman he loved . Kessa would eventually marry someone else, as Cesare watched from the sidelines, still pining after our story line heroine but Cesare would bide his time with a series of ‘incidents’ directed at Kessa and the man she would marry, eventually destroying the woman he loves. As Cesare continues to ‘arrange’ attacks against our story line heroine, Kessa makes plans for the future on her own.

The relationship between Kessa and Cesare is a best friends to ultimately lovers but a relationship predicated upon manipulation, secrets and lies. For eighteen years, Cesare would deceive the woman he loved including poisoning the man she would eventually marry. The $ex scenes are intimate and seductive.

The secondary and supporting characters include Cesare’s extended family including Raniero ‘Nero’ Valenti, and Calliope Jackson, as well as Mateo Valenti and Bambi; Luca Valenti and Sloane.

DIRTY SECRETS is a story of secrets and lies, manipulation and betrayal, obsession and love. The fast paced premise is heart breaking and emotional; the characters are deceitful and broken; the romance is predicated upon lies and deceit.

Reading Order and Previous Reviews
Possessive Captor
Deviant Desires
Filthy Sinner
Savage Prince

Copy supplied by Booksprout

Reviewed by Sandy