Salvatore: a Steamy Mafia Romance (Benedetti Brothers)

This is by far the most refreshing mafia romance I’ve ever read. It’s not too dark, the eroticism is there, the romance is there, the family feud is there, the interactions among the characters are very good, and the structure of words and sentences that she crafted are just very good. I love the way the author develops its plot and how she brings us smoothly to understand what’s happening, what happened, and what’s about to happen. It’s very good foreshadowing and not just shoving the words to the readers. Readers are being asked to think and also guess the more we read. It’s what I think a product of an experienced and a very well educated author. They said, to be a good author, you have to be a good reader and read many books so you can write well. This is this level. Because many mafia romance books, I found that the writings are very basic and many times are not good at words craftsmanship. But why not 5 stars??? From the first word I read on this book, I’ve been hooked up. Can’t put it down at all. It gets intense and emotional. However, the last 2 chapter before the epilogue, things are too downgraded. I mean, it’s like the anti climax is not satisfying. I love the drama when the male character is almost dead, but I don’t think after that, I can still get the story hooked up to me as amazing as the previous chapters. I also think the way The main characters reveal their love as in saying “I love you” is too basic, too casual. I just don’t find the sacred of this “love”. I see that through their care and make love and etc... they do show the love. But I just don’t get the feeling, that moment that I’ve been waiting when they declare their love in words. It seems to me just like another conversation of the day. I also don’t feel like the solution to the story, this whole big mafia plot is adequate. Yes, I know the author wants to slip her own message about life as how she sees it. But, I don’t feel that amazing feeling when she ended the story that way. I mean, she made a very good plot of a mafia. Very serious situation. Then, suddenly providing such solution as if the male character is just another rich guy who can just let go everything and live in a country side. It just doesn’t touch me at all as a reader. It doesn’t satiate my thirst of a great HEA. Yes, it’s HEA but I just don’t get the feeling. It’s what I can call “mediocre ending but stunning beginning”. Which you see how downhill is that? It should be a stunning ending despite whatever the beginning is!

When I first started to see the reviews of friends popping up on my feed for 'Salvatore', I knew it would be right up my alley. A forced contractual relationship, Mafia families and bitter rivalries...What's not to love? I couldn't wait to dive right in! Lucia is sixteen years-old and innocent, when her life is changed forever. After suffering through a humiliating ordeal, she is forced to sign a contract to save the lives of her family members. In five years, she will become the property of Salvatore Benedetti, the son of a rival mob boss. Her imprisonment is meant to send a message and to quell any lingering resistance. Her life for theirs. When the time comes for Salvatore to claim Lucia, she is determined to rebel in any way possible. She knows that she cannot change her fate, but she doesn't plan to make it easy for them either. Lucia has no intention of playing the role of a submissive captive. Salvatore loathes his father, Franco, but repeatedly cowers before him. Franco rules with an iron fist and everyone who knows what's good for them falls in line. As his next-in-line, Salvatore is consistently tested. Lucia is one such trial. Salvatore is appalled by the barbaric agreement between the two families, but he must go along with it or risk appearing weak. To further complicate matters, he is torn between his attraction to Lucia and his opposition to what the contract signifies. As this story progresses, it becomes clear that there are many power plays going on. Salvatore's younger brother resents his station in life. Lucia's sister and cousin have plans to seek vengeance and rescue Lucia from her captivity. Salvatore must prove his ruthlessness to his father. Everyone seems to have an agenda. All in all, it was a great story with "darkish" themes. I enjoyed it quite a bit and found myself captivated by Lucia and Salvatore's relationship. My only complaint is that I felt like the author never really committed to the "darkness" of this story. It was like she was too scared to take the plunge. Instead, the story takes on a "nice" captivity vibe. You know, the type of story where the captives really end up wanting every act that is "forced" upon them. It had a softer, more mainstream, feel to it than the dark, captivity story I expected. For me, the story loses credibility when the "slave" is aroused by their captor and fighting their attraction right from the start. I just have a hard time buying it and also believing that they were as terrified as they'd have me believe. I can't reconcile the two. Despite my gripes, I still liked this story a lot. It is a great choice if you're looking for a "softer" captivity-themed romance. Aside from one or two very brief scenes, it isn't particularly dark. It is a standalone as well, but I am hopeful that the author will give some of the other characters their own books soon.

When I saw that Ms. Knight came out with a dark romance book focusing around the Mafia, I was conflicted on whether or not I should buy it. I love Mafia stores, but I'm not a dark romance story lover. Dark romances are just too scary for me. After awhile, I decided to purchase the book because the worst thing that could happen would be I didn't finish reading it. Oh my gosh!! I am SOOOOOOOOOOO HAPPY that I bought this book. It was unbelievably hot. The story plot was really good with a couple of twists thrown in to keep readers on their toes. The story was also very believable. It seemed like Ms. Knight did plenty of research on the Mafia to make it 100% accurate, instead of just watching The Godfather and writing the story after that. My favorite part about this story was Salvatore. The way that Ms. Knight described him, he sounded like the sexiest man alive. But more importantly, he was so sweet! After being forced to take Lucia DeMarco as his property, instead of humiliating her or forcing her to be his sex slave, he treated her with gentleness and kindness. It almost made me wish that I was in her place...almost. ;-) Then whenever Slavatore was around Lucia's little niece, Effie, I thought my heart was going to melt at how cute the two were together. I was planning on reading this book slowly, but once I started, I couldn't put it down! It was that good! I REALLY hope that Ms. Knight comes out with a sequel about Dominic. I'm dying to know what's going to happen with him after everything that was revealed in this story. Great job, Ms. Knight!

Okay, I just want to clear something up right now. There is nothing dark about the story. The premise- girl being signed over to a rival mafia family as a slave- could have been very dark, but it just wasn't at all. Unless we're comparing it to the Little House on the Prairie. This was actually a pretty light read, compared to all of the other mafia stories I've read. The mafia seemed to be such a small part of the story and only used as a way to make Lucia a slave and add a little conflict. The story begins with Lucia signing herself over to a rival mafia family because her father was backed into a corner and had no other choice. The beginning was actually great and really drew me in. Lucia is a tough as nails heroine almost to the point where you're like 'don't do that. That's stupid. You're going to get yourself killed.' She's seriously pigheaded and doesn't bow down to her 'captors' or hosts? Cause they really weren't awful to her at all. They were supposed to be these mean, cruel mobsters, but you never saw that. The story was told in a lot of Salvatore's pov, so you get to see a lot of his feelings and thoughts as the story goes on. I didn't like being in his head so much. But I'm not a fan of dual pov, I usually prefer to only be in the heroine's head. He's sympathetic and a pretty decent guy from the moment he meets Lucia. He didn't want to be her 'owner' but his father's word is law and he doesn't disobey him. But while he has a softer side, he is still domineering and pushy and says, "mine." Salvatore and Lucia share a connection from the moment they meet. Salvatore tries to 'punish' Lucia for not obeying and it turns into erotic foreplay. Lucia gives into everything he does to her. As soon as he touches her, she forgets that she's a slave. It seemed too easy to me. She was so tough, but just couldn't resist Salvatore's magic hands. They seemed to form an amicable relationship so soon and the conflict was resolved too early on for me. So when sixty percent hit, the story began to slow way down for me. The conflict with Dominic and Isabella was so predictable. And the 'conflict' seemed to end on a lazy conclusion. It didn't feel finished, but maybe she is saving something for another book. The ending was wrapped up in a neat little bow and I wasn't buying it at all. While I seemed to have some problems with this dark mafia romance (light where's the mafia stuff? erotica) it was decently written. The hero was pretty decent, although he acted like a sweetheart sometimes and then a dom with a mission others. The heroine was pretty impressive, even when I thought she was stupid and gonna get herself killed. Overall, an erotic read with a controlling, yet gentle hero and a tough as nails heroine.

I will start by stating that I finished this book -almost- in one sitting and that says something. The story was very well written, with interesting plot, compelling and lovable main charactres. I liked the most that the book had many dialogues among the leading heroes, because that gives the chance to feel the connection between the couple. I loved their erotic scenes, they were scorching hot and dominant. There isn't nothing run of the mill about Salvatore and Lucia. They are somewhat like contemporary "Romeo and Juliet" in reverse. Those were the plus points of the story. Then again there are some minus in the plot. First, never was explained why the two families had a vendetta at the first place and second I would like the story to be more dark and rough around the edges. It seems that the author was unwilling to take risks with her novel. Most of the times the violence was described but not actually seen. Overall this is a great reading that I recommend for relax and "dark" joy.

Salvatore is now what I expected: enjoyable yes, expected, wanted even, not quite. I am glad to have read this story and I will be reading the other brother’s because there are things, I want to know about each of them and hopefully their stories will fill in some of the lesser explained things in this story. The writing is clean, easy and the story never lulls. I felt like this was an incredibly soft story or more like silk, I guess. Easy, clean and flows nicely. I liked the overall story but wanted a more. Just, more: The first then that comes to mind is this is not a dark romance. There was nothing in the romance, the action or the violence that made this a dark read. I kept expecting something dark, but it never came. Second, I do not like Lucia. She was immature at times, whiny, childish, and provoked with out thinking. I wanted her to be stronger, to be smart but she just wasn’t. Salvatore on the other hand bland and cold and abusive. I really do not like it when the ‘hero’ tries to negate the abuse/violence with “I didn’t want to spank you, or cause you pain but…” Also I never felt any attraction between the two and even in the steamy scenes never really cared. Third, there was mostly steamy scenes with a few under exciting moments. I counted and there were no less than 15, that is about a quarter of the story being scenes that did nothing for the plot. I would have much rather has some of these scenes be action or more mafia. Forth, from the very first page I felt like there was a story before this, like I had missed an entire book of past action, relationships and experiences because the explanations felt so short and subtle, like they has been explained before. And lastly this has a very non-traditional ending. It is not bad just not expected and I wanted one thing at the end to have been different. 3.5 stars.

4.5 STARS Wow, I read this book in record time. This was an addicting book and if you aren't sure if you like a dark read then this is the book for you. It's only really "dark" in the beginning of the book, in my opinion. The DeMarco and Benedetti Family hated each other and during a mafia war the Benedetti's won and claimed their prize - Lucia DeMarco. When she turned 21 she was handed over to Salvatore Benedetti - the next in line to run the family business. So many emotions for me in this book. I HATED Salvatore's father. He's such a bastard. But call me crazy I wanted Lucia and Salvatore to work out. They had incredible chemistry - even though there were two scenes that I thought wasn't entirely believable but still overall the book was awesome. If you love mafia books then you'll love this. Lucia isn't a weak character and gets herself into a lot of trouble because of it but for me that really hooked me to the story. I hate weak women in books and I loved how she stood up for herself and defended her family. Salvatore wasn't meant to be next in line to rule the family but after his brother was killed he was next in line. He had his moments in this book where he wasn't very likable but overall he wants so badly to be good, to be kind to Lucia and getting his side of things really helped in making him likable to me. Worth the read for sure!

Violent men in violent worlds, breaking laws and laundering money and killing rivals. What's to love about those men? But the author of this book is Natasha Knight, and I very much like her, so I took a chance and doled out the $11.99 for it. And I'm happy to say I have no regrets. The premise is a little horrifying. Two heads of rival mob families signing a contract for peace between the families, with one man giving his teen-aged daughter to the other man's son. Lucia is forced to sign a contract that effectively gives ownership of her to Salvatore. Would it hold up in a court of law? Of course not. Lucia is a minor and slavery is outlawed. But the mob doesn't follow our laws, and both Lucia's and Salvatore's fates are sealed that day. Fortunately, Lucia is sent away to a boarding school for the first five years of the contract, so she's of legal age before she is actually physically handed over to Salvatore. She hates him of course, and his father and brother, not to mention her own father for putting her in this position. But she's strong and feisty, and refuses to cower down. The story is told in first person POV, alternating between Lucia and Salvatore, and I don't think the story could have worked as well otherwise. Hearing Salvatore's side of the story, his thoughts and feelings about a contract that he, too, was forced into, helped make his character sympathetic. He wasn't just a mobster, he was a man who lived under the thumb of his overbearing father, who still mourned the loss of his older brother, and who was determined to protect Lucia and make the situation as easy on her as he could, albeit while still maintaining control of her. Definitely a relationship with a rocky start. And then a war is brewing, and with Salvatore's brother and Lucia's sister and cousin involved, it's hard to imagine our hero and heroine ever coexisting peacefully. When you're born into a mob family, it seems your life is never just your own, but you can't just walk away. For Salvatore, there is some soul searching, a yearning for a different kind of life. Men who seek redemption – what's not to love about them?

Well, again I found myself incapable to believe what I was reading. If the story was set in the past, maybe it could have made more sense. Then there were quite a number of inaccuracies. There is no mafia in Calabria. The organized crime there is called Andragheda The Andrangheda would never try to take over Sicily because it is a poor region. The Andrangeda is doing bisuness in the north of Italy, where the money is, and it mingles with business men a politicians. Last, you cannot find a Calabrese girl with auburn hair, unless it’s dyed. No way. Aside this, the story was just an okay one, the H not one of my favorite.

A great read mesmerising characters and a great storyline that hooks you from the start, would definitely recommend this book and will be reading more from this author.

This book is a fantastic read. And it has some unexpected turns and twists. Lucia and Salvatore have a hard time falling in love with each other, but luckily in the HEA they make it. I highly recommend this book.

My first by this author and I seriously cannot wait to read more.Salvatore Benedetti is perfection in all the wrong ways and the good and is impossible to put down this addicting book where these characters just draw every emotion and I loved the interaction between the two and the strength Lucia had to defend herself in the most horrid situation anyone can face alone. The chemistry that they draw out of each other is electrifying and in a way they can save each other from their fate that they are forced to face,with the secondary characters taking on a huge role in the story that try to define them and tell them what they should be and how to do it,and had me cheering in their corner hoping for the best.I loved every page.

Nice ending no cliff hanger. Some twists and turns. Overall a good read,recommend if you want a light erotic romance