Is it wrong to find these sexy mafia bad boys so hot and desirable ?Because, I gotta say that try as I might, I just can't seem to help myself. I have been in love with these bad boys ever since I first saw the cover of Nico and read it. Since then, Sarah Castille's Ruin & Revenge series has become one of my favourite and most anticipated romance series. Don't get me wrong, these bad boys aren't just for show. They defend, punish and kill for their family and for the woman that they love. Their road to happily ever after his filled with war, revenge, blood and a whole lot of steamy love scenes ;)

Rocco De Lucchi is a mafia enforcer and a member of the De Lucchi family. Adopted by Cesare De Lucchi when he was only ten he has been groomed to be the perfect killer. A man with no emotions or dreams. A man whose only goal is to deliver the kill. That is until he meets Grace Mantini. A girl that literally grew up right in front of his very own eyes. A girl who brought light and laughter into his life. No one has ever looked at him the way that Grace did. He was her first in every way. It seemed that nothing could pull them apart. That is until his father learned of his attachment to her. A De Lucchi can have no relationships or weaknesses. And so he leaves a reminder of the De Lucchi rules on Grace's cheek. A scar that not only separates Rocco and Grace, but also destroys Grace's self-confidence.

Grace Mantini never knew growing up what her father did. But all her illusions of a safe childhood are shattered when her mother is killed and she discovers who her father really is. The New York underboss of the Italian mafia. Finding out that the love of her life is also a part of the mafia is the last blow for her. So she leaves New York and starts a new life in Las Vegas. The only thing left from her former life is the scar on her face and a shattered heart. She thinks that she has lost Rocco forever until she sees him at a mafia funeral. She may want to stay far away from the family and its rules, but can she truly deny her heart and her feelings for the only man she has ever loved?

Ok, I have to admit that I found the 10 year age gap between the hero and heroine a little off putting at first, but the way the story progresses makes up for it and you are left with a beautiful love story filled with love, regret, loyalty and love scenes so steamy that it will leave you wishing that you too had your very own hot Italian mafioso to warm up your bed ;) I really hope that there will be many many more books in this delicious series!!

ARC provided by Netgalley for an honest review.

I have not read the previous books in the Ruin and Revenge series. I went into reading this one blind and was not disappointed at all. One thing that I will do is get the two previous books and start reading them asap.

Grace was set for an arrange marriage with Benito, who was killed before they could get married. She never wanted anything to do with the Mafia. She missed her farther and brother who was in the Mafia, but kept herself away from any Mafia business. Because of the Mafia she also had to leave her childhood love, Rocco and did not want anyrhing to do with him as he was the Enforcer for the Mafia.

When she sees Rocco again after six years, what will happen? Will she go back to him or just leave again even when he was protecting her from someone who want's to kill her?

I do not want to give too much spoilers, so I am just going to stop here. I would recommend you get this book as soon as it has been released, because I just could not put it down once I started reading and hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Rocco has been trained since he was 10 years old to be an enforcer for the mob. When he was 20, he was sent to protect and escort Grace and Tom,the kids of a mob boss, to school. And by the time he was 26 and Grace was 16, he was totally in love with her. Of course he could never show it to his adoptive father because enforcer's didn't have a life, never mind fall in love and get married. Two years later his father found out about his love for Grace and made him pay ... he commanded him to kill someone in front of Grace so she could see exactly what he was and his father made him do it by cutting Grace from ear to mouth and the promise of more if he didn't do what he was told. That was the day Grace fled from him ... that was the day he became a killer ... that was the day his heart became a block of ice. Six years later he is at a funeral in Vegas and who is there ... his Grace. All those feelings come rushing back and he knows he has to make her forgive him and get her to open her heart to him again.

There are lots of twist and turns that will keep you guessing throughout the book. There are times when your heart will break for the characters ... yes even Rocco, because he is just a lost little boy at heart. And there are times you will laugh out loud at the situations they get into. A great read that will keep you eagerly turning the pages.

I received an ARC copy courtesy of St. Martin's Press through NetGalley in exchange for a honest review.

It's almost sinful how much I enjoy returning to the Italian mafia world Sarah Castille has created. It amazes me how desirable she can make men who are criminals at best, murderers and more at worst. In the previous books Rocco had mostly been a background character, so I didn't have any real expectations about him or his story. While it took a while for him to grow on me, by the end I was sucked in like I've been with every other book by this author.

Rocco De Lucchi is a mafia enforcer. He's been trained from a very early age to do the jobs that nobody else wants to do. Enforcers have no real political power in the mafia world, but they are necessary to the men who wield that power. Men like Rocco are stone cold killers; men with no emotion, no regrets and no weaknesses. Unfortunately Rocco has a weakness and her name is Grace Mantini.

As the daughter of a mafioso, Grace has spent almost her whole life in the shadows of a violent criminal world. A pacifist by nature, Grace turned her back on her father and ran away when she learned what he really did for a living. Losing her mother as a child and enduring an attack by the evil man who heads up the enforcers convinced Grace to run again, far and fast. Starting a new life in Las Vegas, far away from New York, seems to work for a while. Until a chance encounter with Rocco forces her right back into the mafia world she despises.

Grace and Rocco have a past, beginning with a friendship between a ten year old girl and a man a decade older. As the years passed and they grew closer, their relationship turned more romantic. Despite the danger surrounding them, ,Grace and Rocco spent as much time together as they could, their illicit encounters the one bright spot in both of their lives. When Grace is exploited as Rocco's weakness and she suffers for his choices, Grace leaves and doesn't look back.

Their romantic past is resurrected the minute they lay eyes on each other. For Grace, Rocco is everything she despises and she has no desire to immerse herself in the life of a mobster. What she does desire is the man himself. The years have not been kind to Rocco and he is harsh, mean, ruthless.... and so utterly sexy she is helpless to resist him. Rocco knows that there is no room in his life for Grace. She was hurt once because of him and he is loathe to put her at risk again. Their bond is unbreakable, though, and neither can resist the pull of the other.

Their chemistry was electric. Rocco was so sexy and alpha and dominant, and he was just what Grace needed. I loved that he longed for a better life, a life that could somehow include Grace. Grace was alternately tough as nails and extremely vulnerable. She loved Rocco, though, and was willing to find a middle ground where they could share a future.

I give Rocco 4 stars.

I was kind of annoyed at both Rocco and Grace. I felt that their development over the course of the book was forced and not real.

OMG I have been waiting for this book forever. Rocco and Grace were like star crossed lovers who kept finding each other. Rocco is the hitman for the mafia, the one no will ever want to cross. Grace has been running from her mafia background since she was a teenager. Rocco was the one who she would turn to and then run from. Rocco wants his Grace to be his life and is willing to challenge anyone who thinks different.

Vegas Mafia done so well. I hope Castille will write more in this series. I am loving it!

Loved it! I loved "Nico" I loved "Luca" but Rocco is my favorite. This book was everything I was looking for, fast paced, great characters and their chemistry was so real that I could feel it. There are so many things that happen in this book and there was never any dull moments, simply perfection. Thank you Sarah for another fabulous story!
An ARC received from NetGalley for an honest review!

I LOVED book one in this series (NICO) but was disappointed in book two (LUCA) so this book was a make it or break it book for me. Well, let me just say this author not only made it, she blew it out of the water and ROCCO has now moved up to the top as my favorite book of this series. From beginning to end this was a total pleasure to read.

I found this one to be fantastically well written. It was a fairly long book, but It held my attention all the way through. The plot was engaging. Surprisingly, this wasn't very angsty. I thought for sure with Rocco's and Grace's history there would have been a lot more pushing away on both their parts, but nope, they pretty much get past their issues quite quickly. I wasn't in the mood for a book filled with the heroine being bitchy and pushing the hero away, so Eve was a happy camper. There wasn't any OW/OM drama. Both had been with other people in their six years apart. The sex scenes were both smokin' hot and plentiful. There was an excellent array of secondary characters. Nico and Mia and Luca and Gabrielle featured in this one quite a lot. Along with a bunch of other VERY intriguing people. I hope very much we will see Mike get a HEA along with Olivia and Tom. Maybe even Ethan. The cast of secondary characters in this one really added so much to the story.

Both main characters were awesome. I can't think of a single thing I didn't like about either of them. Rocco was sexy as f-ck. He was alpha. He was badass. He was protective. He was tormented. His history will make you cry and I am dying to find out who his real family is. Grace had the potential to be a very annoying heroine. I figured she would be this judgy, bitter and angry woman who couldn't get over having her heartbroken. She wasn't that AT ALL. Oh sure at the beginning she was a little prickly, but even then it was protrade in such a manner you couldn't help loving her feistiness. She was sassy. She was smart. She was strong. She was funny. She was sweet, and she embraced Rocco for everything that he was. She was actually one the best written heroines I have read this year. Last, it was all wrapped up in a sweet epilogue that ended things perfectly. I am not sure whose book is up next (I am hoping Mike's) but whoever it is I will stand in line anxiously awaiting its release. The one gets two HUGE thumbs up from yours truly.

As I was reading Rocco’s story, I wondered how would it end. Would he change his life, would Grace talk him into leaving, would he stay doing what he does best? I did not know. As with the other stories in this series, the mafia is not portrayed as glamorous. These men are not always good but they have heart and they care and feel and love. Grace is a non-violent person but she changes as the story goes on – she becomes more assertive and more passionate about the people she comes to know and love. Rocco and Grace’s second chance at love is wonderfully written and takes us through the ups and downs of possible betrayal and misunderstandings and love. Another fabulous story.

At first, I found Rocco to be the most cold and unlikable of the Ruin & Revenge guys. Then as I fell deeper into his world, I realized Rocco wasn't the most cold so much as he is the most intense of these Mafia alphas. After all, this is a guy who needs regular flogging by a sex club master just to cope with the remorse and loathing choking him.

Or maybe I should actually characterize Rocco's book as the most intense of the series, not just our broken mafia enforcer. There is so much happening in Rocco and Grace's story and all of it is heartbreaking: pain, betrayal, death, scarring, remorse, longing, family loyalty, lies, secrets, murder. That Rocco and Grace's love could endure or survive such insurmountable odds was truly incredible.

The problem for me was that although Rocco and Grace get their HEA, they can never leave their Mafia world and its constant threat of double-crossings and death. All Grace ever wanted was to flee her family's horrible secrets and wounds, but she has to accept them if she wants to be with Rocco. In many ways, Rocco and Grace belong together because no one else can possibly understand the pain that haunts them both.

3.5 stars

These books are like candy. You know you shouldn't love them but you can't stop the craving. This was probably my favorite in the series in the far even if it seem a bit overly long. The mystery kept me on my toes and I mostly liked the characters. These are fun escapism reads for when you want to turn your brain off and enjoy the ride without questioning everything.

I received a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I have followed the Ruin & Revenge series from the beginning and can't get enough of these men. I absolutely loved Nico and Luca and could not get enough of Rocco and Grace's chemistry in the third book.

I enjoyed this story and coming back to the Toscani family. Rocco and Grace have such a painful past that it was great seeing them ultimately reconnect with the underlying suspense/Casa Nostra drama. It was addicting and consuming and I did not want to put it down!

While I enjoyed Rocco, it wasn't my favorite book of the series as I had some issues with a couple of things. The timeline wasn't super clear which was a little frustrating at times. Furthermore it seemed like their separation was pretty acrimonious and then all of a sudden their reconnection was happening out of nowhere and very rapidly. What happened to Grace's strict abhorrence of the "Made Men" lifestyle? It just seemed like she flip flipflopped pretty rapidly.

This was a great addition to the series and I hope we get more from this author in the future! I would like to thank Netgalley and the SMP Romance Team for an advanced copy of this book for an honest review. Bravo! 4 stars! ~Ratula

Rough gritty Mafia romance between Grace, daughter of a Don, and Rocco, an enforcer who gets called in to torture people when they don't pay back their debts. They met when she was young and he was her first lover at age 16. Ten years older than her and trained to be a killer his one weakness is Grace. Brutal details, tortured pasts, love conquering all -- a great read!

I received an ARC from Netgalley. Rocco and Grace have a love lost and found again story. All thrown in with some dramatic mafia business. Action packed and heart wrenching at times but overall a transcending love story.

Rocco the third and most recent addition to the Ruin and Revenge series, comes up with a story that delves into depth of darkness and emotion, a couple torn apart by circumstances and now they have a way to be together if they don’t get killed first

Rocco was a story I was very eagerly looking forward to especially since I have enjoyed the way that this author has explored this series. I never know what to expect with her stories and Rocco is not different. I will say that Rocco is a bit darker than the previous two books. So if dark romance or intense romances appeal to you, then pick up Rocco because I guarantee that it will take you on a thrilling adventure but a scary one. I am not sure if I could compare this one to Nico and Luca because of the major fact that this one did contain a bit of a darker theme. Now I wouldn’t exactly call it a “dark romance” because it doesn’t get super dark, but it does have some edges that not everyone will like or will want to read in a romance.

Our key players for this full of thrills romance are:

Rocco, our sexy and dangerous hero, he has had to sacrifice many good parts of himself just to survive, and he doesn’t believe there is any good in him except for his inner love with Grace.
Grace, our emotionally troubled heroine, she is completely devoted to her family, and even though she is strong she still struggles with some inner turmoil.

Rocco and Grace grew up together as kids, and Rocco although a few years older than Grace, was her protector, her best friend and then her lover. They thought they had the world at their feet until one fateful night that tore them apart forever. A night that made Rocco the man he is, without thought or feeling, only obeying orders. And Grace, who spent her entire life always on the run, trying to keep the “mob” out of her life. She is driven and wants to help those with emotional problems, especially children. But while attending a funeral, at the request of her father, she runs into the man she thought she would never see again….Rocco. He is still the same man that loved her and then broke her and now she keeps running into him. Rocco is ordered to kill Grace’s father and brother. Now that he has Grace back in his life again…will he fight to protect her and a chance to be together?

What a really wonderfully penned romance and I had such a blast with this one. What really intrigued me was seeing these two come together again. It was pretty heartbreaking, I will admit. The way that they get torn apart is not easy to see, but the author does include some flashbacks, where you can understand what they have suffered through in the past but also some fun moments of what made them work so well together. What I really thought was a strong focus in this story, was the character development. Especially in the way that we see these two overcome some crazy obstacles, and explore their relationship. There is so much depth into the “intimacy” between them that I found riveting and I honestly couldn’t get enough of seeing them together and fighting for each other. Now, of course, there are some great conflicts, and drama that comes with this type of relationship, but seeing them work hard to overcome everything that is against them, makes the ending all that much sweeter!! A romance you can count on to give you the satisfying feels that leaves you sated!

4.25 STARS!

This book is gritty, intense and violent. I loved every second of it! Next! More!! It makes me feel a whole gamut of feelings; dread, loss, sympathy, compassion and love.. The story is well written and paced.

Rocco is tortured with guilt and remorse but he is unable to feel it or express it due to his brutal upbringing. He believes there is no redemption for him because of past and current transgressions. Rocco, is a man hanging on to his humanity by a thread. That thread is Grace. She is the light at the end of his very dark tunnel. He is protective and sweet, as an Enforcer for the mob can be,with her. I love the way Grace blossoms into everything name implies to heal Rocco. I also liked the fact that Grace learns that life and people cannot be judged in black and white terms but rather in shades of grey.

Would I recommend this book? With a tormented, over-protective alpha in need of absolution, a woman that stands strong beside him and for him, and the mob run amok, it should go without saying. 😀

I was conflicted over this read as there were elements I liked and others I did not. What I liked was the mystery of who was behind the mob hits. Once Grace and Ricco reunited, I liked their steamy romance. I like the protective, alpha type of hero. What I didn't like, and what really bothered me, was the age Grace was when their romance started. To read about a sixteen year old Grace being intimate with a twenty-six year old Rocco was disturbing for me. I really wish the author would have made Grace older when their romance started. Had this been a story of two adults, I'd gave given it 5 stars.

Rocco was a well-written and interesting romance. Thanks!

Sarah Castille's third addition to her Ruin & Revenge series and I must say my favourite out of the three to date.

Generally mafia romance stories are not my favourite. There hard for me to like and it takes a special kind of author to have my interest peeked in one let alone genuinely love it. What I freaking love about this series is that it isn't your typical mafia romance. Not only does this author put unique spins, twists and hella huge surprises in here that would never normally happen in these stories.. she also lets the heroine have a mind of her own. While the mafia is typically a male dominated world.. the heroines in here are strong with a backbone and opinions they aren't afraid to share. They are respected, and pretty much rule from the bottom. They may submit in the bedroom but they are an equal in the relationship and this author does a fantastic job of making sure we as readers get that.

Rocco and Grace are my favourite couple yet. Rocco with all his damage ... man am I a sucker for broken hero. He had everything I want in a hero and more. Grace ... also pretty broken was sweet and warm but under that innocence was the Witt and feistiness that I love and had me rooting for her to kick ass!. I love me a secret badass.

I don't want to give much away about them but what I will say is that they didn't have it easy by any means. They had to fight for them.. fight everything they believed including themselves to find their happiness. They grew as characters and the more I read the harder I fell in love with them. Their chemistry was palpable, the connection instantaneously clicked into place the second they were together so seamlessly it was like they had never spend time apart. Their journey was a harsh up hill battle of constant fighting but it was worth it for that ending.

The story was seamlessly written. The plot perfectly executed with a great balance of romance, suspense, angst and action with a little inappropriate humour to keep things interesting. The side characters all playing key parts in the story adding so much life to an already lit story. I was on a rollercoaster of emotions leaving me feel emotionally exhausted and happily stated by the end. I laughed, cried ..got fuming angry and sighed endlessly in utter satisfaction at all the alpha manly yumness that had my kindle burning hot in pleasure.

Sarah out did herself with this one and its personally my favourite so far!. Everything just felt right in this story. I adore both Rocco and Grace... they're two broken halfs to one crazy hole. She soothed his damage soul and he gave her the courage to believe in herself.
Quite frankly I could gush all day about this book however I don't want to slip up and spoil it for others. Seriously though... just get the book. It fucking rocks,

I want to read more about Mike!! I loved him. He had me in stitches multiple times and his antics and his shitty luck.

I kindly received this ARC from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.


xo

Once I was able to realize that Rocco was being manipulated into doing the Mafia's bidding. I was able to enjoy the book. Because truthfully at first I was thinking, how can he be this cold hearted. Then Grace shows Rocco and his men her "take no bull shit" side. I was a goner then.