Brutal Prince by Sophie Lark - A Book Review
Synopsis:
The Griffins and the Gallos have been battling for control of Chicago’s underworld for generations.
Their bitter rivalry reignites when Aida, the youngest and wildest Gallo sibling, crashes a party at the Griffin mansion, accidentally setting fire to the library.
To stave off all-out war, her father arranges a marriage with Callum Griffin, eldest son and heir.
Cold, ambitious, and brutal, Callum is determined to tame his headstrong bride. Aida is more than capable of giving as good as she gets – starting with poisoning Callum on their wedding night. In their struggle for dominance, who will break first?
Genre: Dark Mafia Contemporary Romance
Tropes:
- Arranged Marriage
- Enemies to Lovers
- Age Gap
- Mafia
Brutal Prince is the first book in the Brutal Birthright Series by Sophie Lark and my first introduction to the author. I’d seen a snippet of it on TikTok and instantly added it to my TBR. A mafia romance is questionable by some, but is right up my alley.
I knew when planning out my A-Z Reading Challenge that Brutal Prince was going to be my choice for the letter B. This was a book I was extremely excited about and was anticipating when I’d be able to read it. However, as I came closer to reading it, I saw on TikTok that a lot of people had negative thoughts on it and the whole Brutal Birthright series – not something you want to see when you’re excited about a book you’re finally getting round to read. I didn’t let this sway me because obviously, here I am with a review having read it for myself.
Brutal Prince follows two rival mafia families who have been at war for generations. The Gallos are the Italian mafia and the Griffins form the Irish mafia.
The rivalry begins again following a visit from the Gallo children to the Griffins daughter’s birthday party, Nessa, where Aida, the youngest of the Gallos accidentally sets fire to the Griffin library.
Callum, oldest and only Griffin son is furious and tracks down the Gallos to seek revenge and to find the pocket watch that was stolen from him. When finding one Gallo son and Aida, he sets his bodyguard to attack the brother. To prevent Callum from having the watch she stole, Aida throws Callum’s grandfather’s watch into the lake, before helping her and her brother escape.
Upon hearing of the events that happened at the lake and at the library, the Gallo and Griffin fathers meet to come to a mutual agreement that would benefit them both and end their rivalry. The fathers decide to arrange a marriage between Callum, the oldest and only Griffin son and Aida, the youngest and only Gallo daughter, leaving everyone in the family confused and furious.
Within two weeks of the agreement, Aida and Callum are married, and Aida has began living in the Griffin family home. At first the pair can’t stand each other and are forced to spend time together to navigate their new marriage to make it appear real to other people in their community. During their period of hatred, their pair embark on various tricks and pranks on each other, one being that Aida eats strawberries on their wedding day, after learning Callum is deathly allergic.
After consummating their marriage, their angry feelings towards each other slowly develop into something more and as they spend more time with one another, working together on family related business, they develop unexpected feelings.
They attend a range of events with one another, where they meet with a familiar Russian mafia, the butcher. Not long after this event, the butcher attempts to burn down part of the Gallo family business, following a conversation with Callum that ended with an unwanted result. Callum, Aida and the Gallo brothers gather together to hit back on the Russian butcher, but when attending the strip-club the butcher’s mistress works at, Aida and Callum are drugged and kidnapped in retaliation. Aida is able to break free and save Callum, before both escaping.
Just when things were beginning to settle, Aida is kidnapped by her obsessive ex boyfriend, who can’t move past their breakup. Callum comes to the rescue after discovering she’s gone missing and finding one of her shoes in a car park. After tracking her down, Callum finds Aida and attempts to save her – only for the house to be set on fire, resulting in their escape being harder to navigate.
After a physical fight with Aida’s ex boyfriend, Callum is left hanging on the edge of the falling building, loosing hope he’ll survive, only Aida is able to save him. The pair return home and when home, Aida gives Callum the pocket watch that she had thrown into the lake, after having a diver go in and retrieve it, upon learning of the sentimental value. This closes to the story to an end, where Aida and Callum have gone from hating to each other, to falling in love.
Oh my god! Wow! I’m so glad I ignored the opinions that I had read of this book before I got round to reading it myself.
I throughly enjoyed this book and it was just what I had been craving. It’s been ages since I’ve read a spicy mafia book and this one definitely hit the spot. Also, the illustrations inside of the book? 😳 Wow, I wasn’t expecting to see certain scenes actually visualised in the book 🥵. That was something I wasn’t aware of when starting to read this book 😂. I had seen the ones of Aida and Callum, but I just thought they were to help readers visualise what the characters looked like, not what they also looked like in specific scenes 😂. I really wanted to read a possessive and dark romance book and this fully gave “touch her and die” vibes. Especially when Callum’s bodyguard made negative and degrading comments about Aida, resulting in Aida attempting to shoot the bodyguard in retaliation for him ending her brother’s sports career. This prompting the “touch her and die” comments from Callum.
I started this at 10pm on Saturday and read it all the way through till Sunday, finishing at 3am. I couldn’t put it down!
I enjoyed the plot line and characters a lot. I liked how Aida wasn’t a shy and innocent character, she held her own and was sarcastic and provoking.
I liked that we had an introduction to Nessa, who I assume will be the main female character for book 2 and also how Nico hinted at his attraction for Nessa – gives a sense of what book 2 will be about.
I do think that the book was quite short and felt a bit rushed. I was hoping and expecting it to be more of a slow-burn romance where they were enemies for a lot longer. I think with how short the book was, I wasn’t able to become emotionally invested in the characters as much or as giddy as I was expecting. I think if the book had of been longer, where Aida and Callum despised each other for a lot longer, I would’ve been very giddy and excited for when they eventually got together. I also think consummating their marriage early on prevented the slow-burn from developing tension, where you were like “finally” when they eventually got together.
I feel like they didn’t hate each other for as long as I hoped and with it being the first book in the series, I would’ve liked it to be more prolonged and slow-burn because it’s something I don’t think we’ll see in the next books of the series – since their family rivalry has ended.
I also think because it was rushed, we didn’t get to see a development of the other characters. I feel like Aida barely had interactions with her own family, so when they met for her mother’s anniversary, it felt pointless and lacked any emotional connection or empathy. It just felt like a filler, if anything. Along with the spice that was included, I think it could’ve been a lot spicer. The few spicy scenes that were included, were spicy, but I think there was room for more chapters containing spice.
For these reasons, that’s why I gave it the rating I did. If the story had’ve had more of a slow burn, where tension could build, I would’ve gave the book 5 ⭐️’s, so that’s the only reason why it didn’t.
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Georgia
♥
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