This was such a waste of time. I nearly DNFed it at 94% bc I was so annoyed that no real conflict had happened, so I skipped ahead and saw that there was in fact no conflict whatsoever for the rest of the book. I appreciated the book at first bc of the commitment to writing Kiara’s trauma & not just writing it off 30% in, but everything else was just a let down. Before I mention any spoilers, I’ll say that I usually enjoy mafia romances bc the conflict generally involves the FMC being in actual danger rather than a 3rd act breakup & trivial arguments. But you will not find a single ounce of mortal danger in this book, so save yourself the trouble if you like mafia romances for the same reason I do.

starting off with character development, there was definitely a change in Kiara & Nino from beginning to end, but it wasn’t well developed. Kiara learned to be comfortable with intimacy but she never learned how to defend herself beyond shooting a gun, & she never had to apply any self-defense skills in a real way. She was still being guarded by one of the Falcone brothers at the very end of the book. Nino learned to ~feel emotions~ but it was poorly represented & felt forced. As far as plot and conflict, there was ZERO. The “conflict” was Nino having a nightmare & then suddenly realizing that he was in fact capable of emotions, but there was no significant external event where this could have had any real significance. There was ample opportunity for it too, with Kiara being unable to defend herself and the war with the Outfit, but nope. Nothing.