Hold You Against Me

by Skye Warren

[Melanie]

If you're new the Stripped series by Skye Warren, it is a dark, but passionate series. We actually meet Clara and Giovanni in Tough Love, a prequel to this series that came out last year with book one which is about Clara's sister. They were both raised as the daughters of a Vegas mafia capo. However, Honor, was the beloved daughter. Not only was she the older daughter, but she was also the only biological daughter of the evil capo. Clara was very obviously not related to her dark haired father with her strawberry blond hair. She was not treated as good as her sister, but neither were treated like the princesses of fairy tales.

In book one, we learn that they escape their father and the mafia life, only to still have a difficult life, but things are looking up. Clara is now in art school. She is hired to sculpt a statue for the front of The Grand (the former strip club, now burlesque club that this series is centered around). This has her way more public than she has been in years.

Giovanni is the son of a foot soldier in the mafia. He was raised that he would never rise higher than that in the family. He had a forbidden love for the daughter of the head of the family. When the two sisters decide to run, he sacrificed himself so that they could escape. He went through hell because he was loyal to the girls. Now that he has moved up quite a bit in position in the family, he needs to do things to hold that position. He also decides that now is the time to go after the girl that he has loved since he was just a boy.

This is a very dark story. It has a lot of things in it you would expect from a mafia book (though I haven't read a large number of mafia books, so I'm really not a good judge). I will admit that there is a scene early in the book that is actually told from Giovanni's POV, it was a very tough one to read. Most of the book was told from Clara's POV. If you've read Skye Warren and enjoyed her work, you will love this one. This is a darker story. They way these two come together is not all hearts and flowers, but I think it is still a very passionate story. This one is my favorite in this series so far.

While I love all the books in this series and highly recommend all of them, I do believe that you could read this story first or as a stand alone. You might miss a little bit about some of the side characters who have had their own books before, but not enough that you wouldn't enjoy this story.

**Book was provided to me by the author. This review is my opinion and was not requested or provoked in anyway by the author.