Reviewed by EBookObsessed on
When I was offered an ARC of Salvatore, my first reaction is that I don't read mob stories. While I watched every episode of The Soprano, I never saw Tony Soprano as a romantic hero. Truly I don't need my heroes to be saintly, I just can't look forward to a HEA for someone involved in prostitution and murder, even if the murder is other mob guys. Yet Cecy Robson has written some of my favorite characters, so I had to give Salvatore a try.
In this story we find a man who suffered an abusive childhood and after his father murdered his mother, he fought desperately to save his two young brothers from being lost in the system. But Salvatore was barely more than a child himself and the system was too busy judging him to be concerned that the boys would be better off raised by a brother who loved them. If not for his childhood friend, the young son of the local mobster, coming to his rescue, Salvatore would have lost custody of his brothers. Salvatore knows that he owes a great debt to Vincent and accepts that he will live his life among the dregs of the city as his payment to keep his brothers safe, but he still fights each day not to lose his soul completely.
Salvatore has spent the last few years guarding Vinny's gumad, a position which offers him some protection from the seedier world of the Mob. Sal isn't looking to rise through the ranks. He is doing everything he can not to take that final step and kill for the Family. The problem is that with Vincent's father dying and Vincent about to step up as boss, the only one he truly trusts is Salvatore and now he wants Sal stepping up to guard his back. It is a position that Sal knows will leave him with no option but to kill since Vin hasn't earned the respect that his father has, and all the other bosses are literally gunning for Vincent's territory. Sal is still doing his best to avoid the promotion until Vinny finds the one pressure point that will force Sal's obedience -- Aedry.
Adrianna Daniels is the guidance counselor for Salvator's brothers and everything would have been fine if she has just stayed in that role. But Adrianna has become more than professionally attached to the Romero boys--all of them. Aedry has shown them a depth of love and kindness that they haven't experience since their mother's death and more than just Apollo and Gianno have lost their hearts to her. Salvatore knows that he has no business going near a woman as kind and sweet and good as Aedry and although he tries very hard to keep a distance between them, he can't seem to stop himself from being drawn to her. And when a chance meeting puts Aedry in the path of Vincent, Vin realizes that he finally has what he needs to push Sal over the line because he knows that Salvatore would kill to keep her safe.
Salvatore wants very badly to be a man worthy of Adrianna but he sold his soul long ago to keep his family together. So now what he needs to do is be a better man and let her go, but does he have the strength to walk away from the woman who showed him he still has a heart?
I expected to have a hard time rooting for the mobster to have a happily ever after, but I found myself crying over the tortured soul of a man who sacrificed everything yet still thinks himself too unworthy to love a good and kind woman.
Received an ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review.
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Reading updates
- Started reading
- 10 February, 2019: Finished reading
- 10 February, 2019: Reviewed