ROCCO (Ruin and Revenge #3) by Sarah Castille-a review

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / Chapters Indigo /

About the book: January 2, 2018

Mafia enforcer, Rocco De Lucchi is the best in the business.

Cold, hard and utterly ruthless, Rocco is the most dangerous of men. Feelings are a luxury he cannot afford—until a chance encounter brings him face to face with the only woman who found her way into his heart and touched his soul.

Grace Mantini has spent her whole life running from the mob. Daughter of the boss’s right hand man, she is both a prize and a target. When Rocco walks back into her life, she wants nothing to do with the man who betrayed her and broke her heart. But only Rocco can protect her from the dangerous forces that seek to destroy her family. Can they escape the hands of fate closing around them? Or will love be the kiss of death for them both?

••••••••••

REVIEW: ROCCO is the third instalment in Sarah Castille’s contemporary adult RUIN AND REVENGE erotic, mafia romance series set in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is mafia enforcer Rocco De Lucchi, of the De Lucchi crew, and psychologist/jazz singer Grace Mantini’s story line. ROCCO can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story lines is revealed where necessary.

Told from dual third person perspectives (Grace and Rocco) ROCCO follows the second chance romance between mafia enforcer Rocco De Lucchi, and Grace Mantini, the daughter of the New York underboss, and a woman whose has spent most of her adult life running from the mob. A recent funeral for a mutual acquaintance finds Grace pulled back into the lifestyle she wants desperately to forget, but a lifestyle that has cruelly imbedded itself upon the man that she loves. A crime-family divided will pit blood against blood, and family against friends forcing Rocco to choose between his heart and the mob. What ensues is the rebuilding relationship between Rocco and Grace as Grace and her family are targeted by an unknown source, and the potential fall out when Grace discovers the truth behind Rocco’s re-appearance in her life.

Six years earlier Grace’s life was all but destroyed by retribution and retaliation against the man that she loves. Unable to fulfill his duty to the man that destroyed his life Rocco watched as Grace became the victim of his father’s cruelty and pain. Running from New York Grace thought she found the solace and freedom from the lifestyle she had grown to hate but Vegas was now home to the man who stole her heart.

All of her life Grace has been sheltered from her father’s lifestyle, a lifestyle that has caused so much pain including the death of her mother, and the physical and emotional scars our heroine hides from the world including the man that she loves. Rocco De Lucchi’s life has been harder than most as the adopted son of one of the most feared and reviled mafia families. Broken and battered, Rocco needs the physical pain to control the beast that formed by years of misery and abuse. An anti-hero at best, Rocco is a man feared for his cold, calculating ability to kill but a man whose softer side has only been seen by the woman he loves. A true apha with issues of control, Rocco is not the usual romantic hero. An order from his father forces Rocco to disobey- a decision that could affect the New York and Las Vegas crime families and their power to control.

The relationship between Grace and Rocco is one of second chances; a rekindling romance originally destroyed by power and greed, and a man who isn’t afraid to take what doesn’t belong. The $ex scenes are intimate, erotic and intense but I dislike the use of a certain four letter word that I find unacceptable in a romance storyline. There is a limited S/M scene involving our story line (anti) hero that may be troubling for more sensitive readers.

There is a large ensemble cast of secondary and supporting characters including several members of various mafia families. We are reintroduced to Nico and Mia (Nico #1), Luca and Gabrielle (Luca #2); Grace’s father Nunzio Mantini, and her brother Tom ; self-appointed crime boss Tony Toscani; Rocco’s most trusted soldier and former MMA fighter Mike; Rocco’s father Cesare De Lucchi, the head of a group of professional enforcers; and Tiffany, a woman with secrets of her own.

The world building continues to focus on the violent and murderous world of the Las Vegas Italian mob. No one is safe; everyone is suspect; retribution and murder are the price for disobedience and defiance. The violence is graphic although the author does limit the virtual visibility of the blood, guts and gore.

ROCCO is an emotional story line of one woman’s struggle to move on from the past, and one man’s battle between honor and heart. The premise is gritty and raw; the characters are colorful, charismatic and tragic; the romance is passionate, seductive and rebellious.

Reading Order and Previous reviews
Nico
Luca
Rocco

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy

Sarah Castille is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Redemption Series, Ruin & Revenge Series, Sinner’s Tribe Motorcycle Club series, Legal Heat series and the Club Excelsior series. A recovering lawyer with a fondness for dirty-talking alpha males, she now is a full-time writer, who lives on Vancouver Island. Sarah’s books have been listed as Publisher’s Weekly’s Top Ten Picks and Best Summer Reads, and Amazon’s Best Romance Books of the Year, and have won numerous reader’s choice awards including the Holt Medallion.

Connect with Sarah:

BOOKBUB | FACEBOOK | AMAZON AUTHOR | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | GOODREADS | PINTEREST | YOUTUBE | NEWSLETTER | WEBSITE