MINK

A fun and silly escape
4 stars

I tend to avoid books involving mafia tropes - just not my thing. I mean, how can I believe in an HEA when someone’s likely always going to be trying to kill our hero? I’m sure the life expectancy of a mob boss is fairly short. But I digress.

This audiobook was featured on the Read Me Romance podcast so I gave it a listen.

The book is about Luke who is presumably (although it’s only ever eluded to) some sort of mob boss. He owns mines, apparently. He’s show more ridiculously smitten with the daughter of another family, Cassandra, and pretty much purchases her as his bride.

But Cassandra isn’t the spoilt princess that we might expect. She doesn’t want to be married to Luke - she just wants to be free. So she decides to kill her new husband - if she could just stop kissing him!

So yes, this is a mafia-type trope - but with a huge dose of hilarious ridiculousness injected into it. I listened to this while out and about and found myself laughing out loud at the wit and clever silliness of this story.

Cassandra was slightly crazy and I loved that about her. Her internal monologues as she debates killing Luke just made me love her all the more. Luke is the archetypal alpha bad boy - well, he’s all man - who’s obsessed with his woman and wants to give her the world. The fact that she wants to kill him is just a cute quirk of her feisty personality, in his eyes!

The chemistry between Cassandra and Luke is borderline filthy. Not too over the top but definitely satisfying. I skipped the 1 anal sex scene but apart from that, was happy.

Mackenzie Cartwright is a great narrator for Cassandra. She’s concise and clear and conveys Cassandra’s personality without ever giving her a whiny edge. Lance Greenfield as Luke has the kind of voice that ears dream of. It’s so deep and gruff and manly. Perfect for Luke and, well, for reading anything and everything, ever.

This was a fun audiobook - a short little diversion into some humour, obsessions, killing and cats. Coming in a few minutes under 3 hours for the audiobook (158 pages for the book), definitely one you can fit in of an evening or afternoon. 4 stars.

Plus I have to add my voice to the ‘why the hell was Gordon Ramsey in this book?’ club. When I realised what was happening I rolled my eyes so hard I could see behind me. Horrible, horrible man. If I was to let Miss Kittles loose on anyone - it would be him! Anyway - I didn’t let it affect my rating. show less

This was an insta-love, mafia, marriage of convenience novella. I loved the first several chapters and then it got a little silly - even for me - BUT it was sweet and I really loved how much the mmc was into everything the fmc liked. Like he had some alpha tendencies but she love kittens so he decided to also love kittens, she had pink hair so he bought cute pink things for her. Idunno like he wasn't a dick about her being girly. Anyway, more guys that actually LIKE their love interests.

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Ariadne is an unusual character, and she is self conscious about it. She holds herself back and refuses to take risks. Brendon adores all of her eccentricities and supports her in trying new things without pushing her to be a show more different person.

Snow Angel is pretty silly, but it's also sweet and entertaining. I like that the author subtly connects a lot of her books, giving secondary and background characters their on story. show less

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Ruby hates her new job in the city and misses the small town life. She jumps at the chance to go home to help her grandma at the bakery, but she is nervous about running into Knox, her highschool crush.

Knox has been in love with Ruby since highschool, but didn't think he was good enough for her, so he spent the years that she was in college bettering himself. Finally, he decides to make his move, so he convinced her grandma to ask Ruby to show more come home for the holidays. show less