Fearless by Esme Devlin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
We’re your textbook gangster twins.
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He is smooth and charming. I’m as rough as dry toast.
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He’s ice cold and thinks with his head. I never look further than the end of my knuckle.
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He’s the brains. I’ve been wired incorrectly since the day he beat me into this world.
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He always gets the girl… until the one girl he didn’t want.
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I built her a prison. Pushed her. Pulled her. Owned every breath. Haunted every nightmare.
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And then I tore down an empire for her.
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I gave her one simple instruction.
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Don’t you dare fall in love with me.
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In the world we created, weakness gets you killed.
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Fearless
Slow ramp-up to super hot ending!
This was a pretty standard romance trope, the mafia/gangster captive romance. Though there are a few twists, one of which is that the gangsters are twins and polar opposites. No this is not a ménage book, but the twins are both broken in their own ways. One feels all the emotions and the other feels none. Cole is a coke addicted player and he is the idea man and Cillian is the emotionless twin who does most of the work at their club and takes care of the drug shipments.
The book takes place in Scotland and First Minister Ford is planning to pass a bill that would legalize drugs in Scotland. This is death to the business of drug dealers because it means drugs would be taxed by the government and have to go through legalized measures. People wouldn’t be going to drug dealers for their product if it is being manufactured and/or sold by factories and pharmaceutical companies.
The Hendry twins own a nightclub which does well, but is basically just used to clean the money from their drug business. So Cole comes up with a plan for Cillian to lure the First Minister’s daughter Meisie to the club and use her against her Mother to force the First Minister to vote against the bill. Cillian has been messaging Meisie through a dating app. Though since she passed on his profile, he had to set up one as a Justin Bieber lookalike and he has told her he is a bartender at the club he and his brother own.
“Now I just need to make a girl who came here looking for Justin Bieber want to go home with a six-foot-six, two-hundred and forty-pound reprobate, who’s at least ten years older than her.”
Cillian kidnaps Meisie and keeps her in the basement of his house which Cole turned into a sort of BDSM dungeon, though I wouldn’t not say the book should be considered BDSM. Cillian uses the cuffs that are attached to the bed to keep her in place but more from a kidnapping standpoint than anything else. Meisie has some issues of her own due to a past incident and has PTSD. So the interactions between the two are strange but I like them.
Remember that Cillian has no empathy and doesn’t feel emotions (while Cole feels too much). However, Cole is actually the darker of the two, he is an addict and he usually gets all the girls. Cole comes up with more ideas of how to use her against her mother. Cillian can’t figure Meisie out and he is attracted to her. He starts to feel a bit protective of her.
I don’t want to give anything more away, but to say that I really like Cillian. He is pretty awesome for a guy without empathy. Also just because he doesn’t feel emotions doesn’t mean he is a psychopath. He has his own code of ethics and I liked the way he treated Meisie.
As for Meisie, I liked her but she is a bit out there. She is young and has had some bad experiences so she thinks she wants to do one thing and changes her mind when things don’t go exactly as she expects. Also she hears the voice of her psychiatrist in her head all the time, which is pretty funny.
I wish the next book was out already because this one ended with quite a steamy cliffhanger. I loved that last scene and want more.
I voluntarily read & reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts & opinions are my own.
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