King of Ruin: A Dark Mafia Romance (Soulless Empire)

Excellent spicey scenes and good story telling! Def recommend. It's got Beauty and the Beast vibes in the best way.

I devoured this book. It jumped right into the spice with a bit of cat and mouse going on. They didn’t shy away from the violence of the bratva and really gave a “you touch her and die” vibe. Loved it. Recommend it.

4.5 stars Andrei is a Bratva boss of bosses, the King. He’s found himself a bit bored lately but finds a welcome challenge in Natalya. She’s barely scraping by in life and doesn’t need a distraction but Andrei will not take no for an answer. Another new challenge in his life has appeared, so he’s tucked her safely away in his mansion (though it feels like a prison to her). His focus is split between her and the war that’s on his doorstep. Someone has been wiping out his bratvas one by one. He has no idea who’s behind the killing, but suddenly, Natalya is in the middle of it all. Can he save them both? This book was so well-written and l couldn’t read it fast enough! It was action-packed and sooo steamy (that shibari scene! 🔥🥵). I loved Natalya and Andrei. It was so easy to empathize with both and rewarding to watch their relationship grow. Andrei is as sweet on the inside as he is dangerous on the outside and falls hard for Natalya. She’s more reserved at first but discovers she can’t keep her heart to herself when it comes to Andrei. I liked the epilogue for its sneak peek into their future and its segue into the next book with Valentin and Yelena. I took off half a star only because the hot stuff slowed to almost nothing in the second half of the book. The first half had such scorching scenes that I was left disappointed when the second half didn’t. I received a free copy of this book and have chosen to leave a review.

This is the 1st book in the Soulless Empire series featuring the deliciously dark age-gap, enemies to lovers, forced marriage, forced proximity, mafia, stalker romance between Andrei and Natalya. Natalya dreams of going to school so that she can be an architect but since she has no family and grew up in foster care she struggles to get by like everyone else to find her way. When her friends ask her to go out with them for the night she winds up in a nightclub. At the club Natalya meets Andrei the owner of the club who is captivated by the russian beauty. They're having a terrific time until Natalya witnesses his viciousness which scares her so she promptly leaves. Then when she gets home Natalya notices a brutal man that she's never seen before burning her apartment to the ground. When Andrei manages to track Natalya down he invites her to come stay with him given her circumstances. While Natalya is staying with Andrei all hell is breaking loose on the streets as a lot of the Bratvas that Andrei rules are deliberately taken out. It seems that someone is looking to take over Chicago so Andrei has to protect his territory and his role as Pakhan while trying to manage his obsession with russian beauty in his bedroom. Natalya has to come to terms with how she feels about Andrei and determine if she can trust him. I don't want to say anymore and ruin it for anyone else with spoilers. You really need to read this deliciously dark age-gap, enemies to lovers, forced marriage, forced proximity, mafia, stalker romance to see what happens. I would recommend reading this book. I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.