Review: Held by the Bratva (London Mafia Bosses #8) Evie Rose

       

Print Length: 131 pages

Publisher:  Evie Rose (July 1, 2024)

From Goodreads.com:  “Who hurt you?”

For three years, I’ve been daydreaming excuses to get my gorgeous, older, mysterious neighbor into my apartment. I was thinking of a burst pipe, small cooking fire, dress that I can't zip up, or a massive sign that said “I adore you, please take my V-card”.

I didn’t think he’d invite himself in to save me.

Mafia thugs came looking for my parents, and money. Hours later, I’m cowering in my wardrobe, still shaking, covered in bruises and dried unthinkable liquids, when soft footsteps echo through my apartment.

My neighbor opens the door and stares down at me, rage curling his lip.

“Who hurt you?”

Before I know it, he’s scooped me up into his arms and taken me to his penthouse.

He won’t let me go, and smiles cynically when I protest he shouldn’t put himself at risk from the mafia.

And I’m beginning to wonder… Who is the most dangerous predator here?

                                                         *******************

My Rating: 1 star out of 5

Even though this was apparently book 8 in a series, it can easily be read as a standalone. There was no crossover that I could see (though I’m assuming that would have come from the other mafia bosses and their wives that Caterina is later introduced to) that I needed in order to follow or understand the story. Unfortunately, that was pretty much all this book had going for it.

Let’s start with the characters. I get it: Caterina is a 22-year-old college student who has never even been kissed. I expected a certain level of naivety from her (even if that naivety became grating later on). What I didn’t buy was Brody. You mean to tell me that a 42-year-old mafia kingpin, a man who supposedly runs his domain with an iron fist, couldn’t work up the nerve to speak to her over the three years they routinely saw each other? Not even a polite hello in passing? Yet we’re told he’s been “in love” with her this entire time. We’re also told he’s been “stalking” her, but even that doesn’t really hold up. He’s the landlord of her apartment complex so he knows who she is, but we’re never actually shown any behavior that would qualify as stalking. In fact, when they do interact, he doesn’t even come across as particularly creepy. At least not until he "saves her".

Then we get to "the incident." 

The event that kicks off the entire story and lands Caterina in Brody’s penthouse to begin with. She’s attacked in her home. She’s injured. And if not for her quick thinking, she would have been killed. After whisking her away to his penthouse and tending to her wounds, Brody somehow decides it’s appropriate to take her innocent request for a kiss and turn it into “let me kiss you elsewhere.” The girl has just been traumatized, for crying out loud. But of course, in his mind, it’s justified because he’s been “in love with her” and he “can’t help himself.” He even wonders how long Stockholm Syndrome takes to kick in.... which, frankly, is exactly what this entire book felt like.

The next day (and in the name of “love"), he hands her his credit card and tells her to buy whatever she needs. When she says she needs things from her apartment, he flat-out tells her no, even though he was in a prime position to go get them himself or send one of his many underlings to do it for him. And somehow, this works. Within a week, Caterina admits to herself that she’s in love with him. Although, to be fair, if I had unlimited funds, a quiet place to study for my exams, and a private chef at my disposal, I might have come to a similar conclusion.

But I digress.

Another major issue for me was how the age gap was handled. I didn’t have a problem with the age difference itself, Caterina is 22, Brody is 42, meaning that they’re both consenting adults. What did bother me was Brody’s repeated fixation on Caterina’s “young” body. The way it was emphasized over and over again gave me the ick in a way I couldn’t shake.

Then there’s the handling of the men who attacked her. We’re told that every day for a week, Brody comes home and shows Caterina photos of men “with their eyes closed,” asking if they were the ones who hurt her. Somehow, it never occurs to her that these men are dead. Not until she directly asks him and he tells her not to ask questions she doesn’t want the answers to, forcing her to confront who he really is. What made this even more baffling is the fact that Brody keeps killing the wrong men, despite supposedly having immense power and connections. 

The motivation behind the attack also felt underdeveloped. We’re told at the beginning that Caterina’s mother supposedly stole money from a rival mafia family, but this is never revisited. Not even later, when Caterina is interacting with her parents. It’s heavily implied that her mother did steal the money, but why? Especially when the theft supposedly happened around the time Caterina was born. I kept expecting a twist, maybe that Caterina was actually the daughter of an Italian mafia boss and her mother stole the money to raise her outside that life; but nothing ever comes of it. Not even a hint that the stolen money maybe funded her mother’s charity for vulnerable children (a charity she started and was quite passionate about). 

That said, the book does end with a happily-ever-after glimpse into their future, and it’s a short read, so it has that going for it. Will I pick up another book in this series? Maybe. Maybe not. I guess we’ll see.