On Jan 3, 2023, I read my first mafia romance and I was hooked! Since then I have read hundreds and have a whole list of autobuy authors. What about these books is so intriguing, I keep looking for more like the first ones I read?
Jayne Ann Krentz asked that question during the Writerspace Beach Party author chat and I may have startled her just a tiny bit with the enthusiasm of my answer. But I’ve been thinking about it a lot because I don’t just read mafia romance, I am writing it now too.
In fact, so many story ideas kept coming to me along with scenes and character backstories, that I had to keep an idea journal with me wherever I was in the house so I could jot them down. But I digress…
What about mafia romance keeps readers coming back for more? They’re steamy, though they run the gamut from books with a single love scene to stories that are at least fifty percent erotic. If you’ve read my work, you know I fall somewhere in between.
The MMCs are morally grey. (Sometimes the FMCs are too.) What is a morally grey hero? It’s a bad guy who isn’t all bad, yeah? He might run a crime syndicate, but he has a code of honor and there is always one person who he will protect at all costs. The heroine.
But for me the biggest piece of catnip is the sense of justice in the stories. In real life, I’m against the death penalty. In my books, when the really bad baddie gets it, I cheer. Mafia romance is graphic romantic suspense where the MMCs are anti-heroes rather than fighting on the side of law and order. They have their own laws and their own sense of justice and that justice often protects the innocent.
If this sounds like something you would enjoy reading, give the third book in my steamy mafia romance series, Syndicate Rules, a try.
Anna
The world is too loud, too bright, too everything. Until I meet him. His touch sends me to a place I’ve never been. I want more of him, bloodstained hands and all. What happens when the one person I need is the utterly ruthless boss of the Irish mob?
Cian
Some call me a psychopath. I don’t feel. Until I meet her. I need to know she is safe. Every minute of every day. I hire her to work for my legitimate business. I watch her. I crave her. I will never let her go. But I am a monster. What happens when the one person who makes me feel is pure, sweet innocence?
This is a stand alone steamy mafia romance with a guaranteed HEA. No cliffhangers. No cheating for either of the main characters.
CW: explicit intimacy, graphic violence, implied assault of secondary character, death of parents, foul language, stalking behavior.
Visit the book page on my website to read the first two chapters.
