Scandalous Prince by Rachel Van Dyken
My rating: 4 of 5 stars.
The Woods are Lovely, dark, and deep, but I have promises to keep and miles to go, before I sleep —Robert Frost
I was born under fire and swore to protect her until my dying day, I just never knew that one day, I’d be the very monster I was protecting her from.
🧟♂️
She didn’t know it was me.
🤷🏻♀️
She didn’t know that I had no choice and would do it again and again to save her.
🤨
I may as well have given her the mark on her finger.
🖐
The one that shows where her loyalty must lie.
🥂
Because we don’t sin in silence.
🦻
And eventually, you have to pay up what you owe.
💰
My need to protect her turned into a lie to save her.
🌚
And when she found out—I turned in to the very monster I was trying to protect her from.
🧟
Watching Violet Abandonato walk out of my life was like a knife to the chest, a wound that refused to heal.
🚶🏻♀️
The bosses sent me to protect her, to watch over her even though I was the demon she fled.
👹
We both carry scars.
🤕
But if all I can have is her hate for as long as I breathe.
😤
I’ll take it.
😉
Because at the end of the day, I should burn in Hell forever thinking Chase Abandonato’s perfect angel would pick me—over her perfect life.
😇
“I broke you,” I confessed.
💔
“The worst part… is that you liked it,” she snapped right back.
🤬
Welcome to the second generation of the mafia, may the best man or woman, be left standing.
👫
May God bless our tainted souls.
🙏
Scandalous Prince
“Most enemies hide in plain sight, waiting for the day to step out and fight!”
The following ratings are out of 5:
Audio/Narration: 🎧🎧🎧🎧
Romance: ❤️💙💜💛💚
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📘📙
World building: 🌎🌏🌍🌎
Character development: 👤👤👤👤
The setting: New York & Seattle
The Hero(s): Breaker Campisi – the adopted son of the Campisi famiglia. Breaker has been in love with Violet as long as he can remember. They are under the same rules as the other children of the five families and face death if they fall in love with each other and act on that love. Breaker has sworn to protect Violet with his life. He is in a crazy situation and though he loves Violet, he knows he can never really end up with her.
Valerian Petrov – wanted Violet more than anything since the moment he first saw her. Valerian is the true heir to the Petrov crime family and will become the boss of that famiglia. He is forced into Violets’ life in a way that he has no control over.
The heroine: Violet Abandonado – daddy’s girl to mob boss and Senator Chase Abandonato. Ash Abandonado is her brother. She is the virginal mafia princess and apple of her father’s eye. She has been in love with Breaker as long as she can remember. Violet’s was forced into a marriage against her will, but shouldn’t couldn’t refuse for the sake of her family.
The Love Story: Both Breaker and Valerian wanted Violet more than anything. Though Breaker & Violet’s love seems doomed even after the bosses become OK with Junior and Serena being in love. Valerian is being used by the Petrov’s because of some internal strife in the Russian mafia and though he loves Violet, he forces her to marry him knowing she has feelings for Breaker. So they will become King and Queen of the Petrov famiglia.
I listened to the Audiobook and I loved the narrator’s, both the male and the female. This is only the second Audiobook I have listened to, so I don’t know the process when there are two narrators. However, I was looking forward to having two, since my first book had just a woman and I found it odd for a woman to do a man’s voice. I expected it to be more like a play, with the man reading all the man parts and the woman the woman parts.
What it was though, was the man reading the chapters that are the male POV (including doing a woman’s voice for Violet and other woman’s statements) and the woman reading the chapters that are female POV (including doing a man’s voice when Valerian, Breaker and other men speak). I’m not sure if that is always how they do it, but I found it strange. Though I did love the fact that both narrators did great Russian Accents. Especially the man, I work with a man from the Ukraine and the accent sounded so much like my co-worker I was amazed.
One thing I didn’t like was the plot twist in the first half of this one. I knew what was going on from the get-go, so the surprise was only a surprise to the characters and not to me. Which was fine, but I wish there were no hints so I wouldn’t have known. I kind of like secrets to be revealed to me at the same time as the characters find out without hints beforehand. This one seemed like it was supposed to be a big surprise but I knew right away. Though the story was a good one and goes beyond the strife between Valerian, Breaker and Violet. The second half is definitely the standout in this one.
“It’s the mafia.” His simple clipped answer as if it made everything better like a Band-Aid you put on a mortal wound and wonder why the person’s still bleeding out.
The romance was sizzling hot, but the intimate scenes were hard to see like that since they are always from one POV or another, usually the girl’s. So like I said, it was the woman narrator talking through them and her reading both what the girl was thinking and saying and what the guy was saying, in her most (but not really) manly voice. I guess I like hearing the voices in my head better than that or wish the actual man narrator would have read those lines.
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