I’m Sterling Sparrow. You’ve no doubt heard my name or read it on the top of tall buildings. There’s more to my business—my realm—than what is seen aboveground.

Within the underbelly of one of America’s largest cities lives a world where a man’s word is either his most valuable tool or his most respected weapon. When my father ruled that world and that city, he promised me someone who would one day make my reign complete.

Since that day, long ago, Araneae McCrie has been mine.

She just didn’t know.

My father is now gone.

The city and the underbelly are now mine.

The time has come for me to collect who was promised to me, to shred her life of secrets and make her who she’s always been—mine.

Have you been Aleatha’d?

*Secrets is book one of the Web of Sin trilogy.

They say heavy is the head that wears the crown …

Andino Marcello’s world is turned upside down when he becomes the next heir apparent to the Marcello empire. He was comfortable in his place as a Capo, but comfort is for the weak in the world of mafioso. The boss’s seat is waiting. It takes meeting a tattooed beauty who has no idea who Andino is or the criminal legacy he now carries beneath his three-piece suits, and charming smile for him to finally bend the rules set out for him. That doesn’t mean he can keep her.

They say things that never challenge you won’t change you …

Haven Murphy is doing her own thing, and she does it well. The owner of a successful Brooklyn strip club, she makes it her only goal to never fail. She’s just trying to live her life when a morning jog puts her face to face with a man that will change the direction of her life with a single conversation. She knows there’s a dark side to him beyond his good looks, and three-piece suits, but it’s hard for her to care when she wants him. That doesn’t mean he can be hers.

He’s going to break her heart; she’s going to keep his.

Because duty waits on no one.

Goodreads | Amazon

USA Today bestselling author of the King Series, T.M. Frazier, brings you an all-new trilogy with a sexy anti-hero you're going to love to hate, and a ballsy heroine with more up her sleeve than just tricks.

Love is supposed to be a fairy tale.
Ours is a death wish.

I'm the executioner for the Bedlam Brotherhood.
She's a con artist working for my greatest enemy.

I use her.
She manipulates me.

We find ourselves on opposite sides of a bloody war.

My heart and head tell me I have to stay away.
My lust for her doesn't give a sh*t.

Nothings fair in love and gang war.

Goodreads | Amazon

Sex is his weapon.
Power is her drug.

Caesar Accardo is gasoline. Mostly harmless while stable, but Aria holds the match to set the dishonored Cosa Nostra prince on fire in more ways than one. And if he burns down everything in his path because of it—so be it.

The problem is … she just wasn’t prepared for all of him.

Aria De Rose is a hurricane. Amazing from afar, but destructive up close. Caesar keeps getting pulled into the Camorra queen’s plans in her effort to gain power, but he’s a better player than she knows.

The thing is … women like her are the reason why rules are meant to be broken.

Philadelphia isn’t ready for game these two are playing—the sacrifices they make might not be worth it in the end, and someone will always lose in a war.

They’re broken, so very vicious, and they are not the good guys. But for every villain in the world, there’s a monster at his back who made him that way.

And monsters like those hide in plain sight.

Note: This is a standalone romance with content that some might find triggering. Be warned, and read with caution.

Goodreads | Amazon

Standalone. Although part of the Chicago Syndicate world, The Man in Black is a standalone and can be enjoyed either with or without reading the rest of the series.

Brielle
He consumed my mind. I never even crossed his.

From the moment I met Michael, mysteriously brooding and dressed like a dark angel, there was something electric between us. Or so I thought.
What I believed was a seductive and undeniably raw attraction has ended up being something else entirely, something I never foresaw.
Because he’s a skilled liar and a master manipulator, and I downright misread his intentions.
And now I’m afraid that falling for the man in black might become my biggest regret.

Michael
An overwhelming remorse haunts me after losing my fiancée, but I’m not a man who can afford to lower my guard.
I’m a ruthless criminal, one of the top members of the merciless mafia, the Chicago Syndicate, and I moved back home to keep to myself and do a job.
But when a curvaceous pastry chef with a beautiful smile and a possible link to my former life catches me in a reckless moment, I’m forced to watch her and strategize a plan.
Because I’m not sure if she’s out to get me or if she’s just an innocent civilian who doesn’t know that the restaurant she works at is actually a front to launder Syndicate money.
And I intend to find out if she’s playing me while I’m playing her. But then the demons that haunt me force me to make a huge mistake…

Deceit has a price—I just have to make sure I don’t pay with her life.

Goodreads | Amazon

A shadow meets the light …

When someone needs to disappear, the Chicago mob calls on Joe Rossi. A man who can move without a sound, and kill without a word, they don’t call him the Shadow for nothing.

This time, it’s a New York crime family in need of his skills, but it takes one glimpse of her to make him agree to the job.

Liliana Marcello is every inch a principessa della mafia. Her life has taught her to be wary of strangers, yet her ballet career contradicts everything by putting her on display.

It’s a man with a dark smile and a constantly changing demeanor that makes her feel safe again, but it’s the unknown that holds her back.

It takes one look …
One dance …
One word …
One smile to captivate a man.

And one second to kill a woman because of it, too.

Not all monsters hide in the shadows.
How are you supposed to see them coming?

Goodreads

The Vetrov name comes with expectation.
My role in this world is simple: do as Father asks and live my life how he planned it.

My future is already written: run the empire.
Old Values. Old Rule. Old Money.
Until her.

Everything I do lacks purpose.
Everything I do is empty.
Women. Money. Power. It meant nothing.
Until her.

When the Volkov rose showed up at my home a disgraced package, hand-delivered by a Vasiliev prince, I began paving my own path.
I vowed to make her bloom once more.

She consumed me.
Her. Her. Her.

But you can’t love a rose and expect not to be damaged by her thorns.
She cut me too deep.
And I bled out.
My soul fled.
All that’s left is a cold, calculating monster.

I am Veniamin.
Volcanic. Victorious. Valiant. Vetrov.
When you enter my world to play games, prepare to lose.
In the end, I always find the thorn in my side, and I pluck it right out.

She’s a romantic at heart, living in the most unromantic of worlds . . .

Nicknamed Sweet Abelli for her docile nature, Elena smiles on cue and has a charming response for everything. She’s the favored daughter, the perfect mafia principessa . . . or was.

Now, all she can see in the mirror’s reflection is blood staining her hands like crimson paint.

They say first impressions are everything . . .

In the murky waters of New York’s underworld, Elena’s sister is arranged to marry Nicolas Russo. A Made Man, a boss, a cheat—even measured against mafia standards. His reputation stretches far and wide and is darker than his black suits and ties. After his and Elena’s first encounter ends with an accidental glare on her part, she realizes he’s just as rude as he is handsome.

She doesn’t like the man or anything he stands for, though that doesn’t stop her heart from pattering like rain against glass when he’s near, nor the shiver that ghosts down her spine at the sound of his voice.

And he’s always near. Telling her what to do. Making her feel hotter than any future brother-in-law should. Elena may be the Sweet Abelli on the outside, but she’s beginning to learn she has a taste for the darkness, for rough hands, cigarettes, and whiskey-colored eyes. Having already escaped one scandal, however, she can hardly afford to be swept up in another.

Besides, even if he were hers, everyone knows you don’t fall in love with a Made Man . . . right?

This is a standalone forbidden romance.

They met under summer showers ...

Vera Markovic only wanted a vacation away from New York where everyone knows her as a Russian Mafiya printsessa of the Markovic Bratva. She didn’t expect to find something worth remembering. And definitely not a man like Alfie Shelby.

They fell in love when the leaves changed colors ...

As New York City’s notorious fixer, Alfie Shelby always gets what he wants—and when he sets his eyes on Vera, he’ll do anything to keep her ... even if she’s not sure she wants to be kept.

And they nearly lost it all when the snow started to fall ...

She wants nothing to do with a gangster.
A life of crime is all he knows.
But neither can deny what they have, even when forces beyond their control try to keep them apart.

coz-en (kuz-uhn)
verb
1. trick or deceive.
• obtain by deception.

She was named most appropriately.

Cozen Taylor has more than earned her place as one of North America’s most successful thieves. Her name is whispered amongst criminal elite as the go-to thief when someone needs a heist.

She has never failed.

A call from the Miami-based Astor family could change all that with a job that seems almost impossible to complete. The mark should be simple—a stolen family heirloom, the man who has kept it hidden for over twenty years, and six months to return the piece to its rightful owners.

Nothing is ever that easy.

Three-hundred million for a successful heist. No smart thief would turn the offer down. Cozen didn’t expect a complication like him to put a kink in her plans, though. Sargon Makri—tall, dark, gorgeous, and entirely dangerous. For her life, her heart, and for the success of the heist.

The last thing Cozen needs to be thinking about is Sargon, and how she can get him into her bed … especially when he just happens to be her mark’s bodyguard. The thrill of the job has never been more addicting to Cozen, and she will risk everything to make the heist a success.

But at what cost?

***

From author Bethany-Kris comes a whole new world. A North American network full of criminals battling to stay on top, and painting the streets red in war as they dabble in the game of betrayal. Malicious, cunning, forbidden, and violent—welcome to The Empires and Badlands.

Amazon | Goodreads

My Review

I think this will be the simplest review I’ve ever written for a book I’ve read by Bethany-Kris. If you haven’t read anything of hers before, this is a perfect example of her exemplary prose and a wise choice to get your feet wet with. And if you’re a mega fan like me, you’ll love how seemingly flawless her segue from mafia romance to plain old romantic suspense is.

Cozen is a thief looking for her last job and it happens to land in her lap at just the right time. Her skills are highly sought after because she doesn’t just steal what you’re looking for. There’s no smash-and-grab. She has the unique ability to insert herself into her target’s life, identify the mark, take the mark, and exit without anyone being the wiser. Perfect. And her tactics should have worked just as effortlessly as ever before except for one snag - an irresistible man named Sargon. While trying to seduce her target, she was also seducing him, and from first sight, she was seduced by him. And it was sexy, incredibly hot, and absolutely beautiful.

I loved so much about this story and I wish it didn’t have to end. I loved Sargon’s frustration over Cozen’s pretense. I loved how Cozen couldn’t help herself when it came to Sargon. And I loved the twists and turns that this author fed me right up until the end. I admit that I was pleasantly surprised that I was intentionally left in the dark about so much and yet I felt that the surprises only validated how much I loved these characters.

San Francisco is going to burn if the coveted princess of California’s criminal underworld isn’t returned to her family in one piece…

Avery Capulet is missing.

Taken by a madman. Kept in the dark.

She might not survive.

He’ll use her body. Destroy her mind. All before he ever lays a hand on her.

******

Rome Montague is a drug dealer. A criminal. A thief.

And he needs the secrets Avery and her family are keeping – even if it means cutting them out of her pretty Capulet flesh.

Rome Montague is missing – but nobody will miss him.

Not that it matters; After the things he’s done to this girl, he doesn’t deserve to be found.

* * * * * * *

Prepare to step into the dark and bloody underworld of California, as Lili St. Germain brings you a modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet, in the same vein as her bestselling Gypsy brothers series.

The CALIFORNIA BLOOD series, set in the criminal underbelly of San Francisco, follows two warring families who are ruled by blood, power and twisted desire.

Verona Blood is the first book in the series.

Available NOW: https://amzn.to/2rAiCeC