Enthralling love story which was a little all over the place sometimes but pulled it together in the end. Recommend this love story.

*** 2.5 ⭐️ ***

This story…. SMH…. Where to begin?

Let’s start with the fact that character development was essentially nil and what there was of it was pretty flimsy. There was virtually no background information for Sarah, what her childhood was like and, in the first few chapters, how her mom died (which eventually was determined to be a major turning point in the story and also introduced another major character). Also, her relationship with her so-called best friend, Rose, felt empty of emotion when celebrating good news, recovering from a tragedy, or even when heavy secrets were divulged - there wasn’t any surprise, just a switch to some other banal topic of conversation to lighten the mood.

Moving on to Wilder, sure he’s described as being an Irish adonis with 8-pack abs and emerald eyes to die for, but the guy has got copious issues that were seriously glossed over. His upbringing wasn’t the greatest, and that too wasn’t very well explored when he was sharing his past with Sarah; it was merely words on a page, with no heart strings pulled at all. The only emotion he seemed to portray was anger and jealousy. His whole dominant persona may have worked in the mafia realm, but it sure didn’t do him any favours regarding his likability as a MC.

Plot wise, it was a good premise - girl leaves small hometown for the big city, gain life experience, and grow up a little. Too bad that’s where the idea ended. What happened instead was, the day she arrived in said big city, she became a target for a stalker. What soon came to light was that, while Wilder was staking his claim on Sarah, someone else was too. What the actual stalker was doing was tame compared to what Wilder was doing himself. I can’t even say it was a cat-and-mouse game that was being played, as Wilder just claimed everything as “his,” like a child not sharing his toys.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the copious amounts of trigger warnings in this book as well, namely physical and sexual abuse, rape, dominance, jealousy, and machismo…. And don’t even get me started on the female side of things with being a “kept” woman and portraying a weak nature; for someone who was supposedly a high achiever and a family lawyer, Sarah was ridiculously downgraded to having a disposition akin to someone with Stockholm syndrome or someone who is being gaslit on a constant basis by a commandeering and dangerous alpha male. It also made me cringe when, towards the end of the story, she was said to be doing work with domestic abuse individuals - which is ironic since she was a victim herself (which was never addressed).

While this book had elements of The Sopranos, The Godfather, and Power (TV show), it also wreaked of a poor man’s 50 Shades/365 Days. The sex scenes, while occasionally violent and unnecessary, were random and unjustified in most scenes. This trop has been done better by other authors previously, IMO.

Now that this book has been published (I had the ARC version), I seriously hope that all the tense, grammar, and punctuation issues were rectified, as it took away from the reading experience to try and determine if the scene was past or present and why there were so many comma splices in one sentence.

This ARC was provided by the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Mafia Romance - YES!
Touch her and Die - YES!
Irish - YES!

This book is smoking hot! It's the first in the Red Club series and I have fallen in love.

Sarah and Wilder are nothing alike in anyway. She's sheltered and sweet, and he's danger and demanding.

I love how these two compliment each other in their passion as well as in the bedroom ;)

This is a spicy mafia romance that you will NOT want to pass up... oh and did I mention -- someone has a stalker?

Read this, you won't be disappointed

I really enjoyed this book!!!! It was a debut and the blurb drew me in, but the book kept my attention. The characters had great chemistry and I loved the little but of mystery that was in there. I am looking forward to her next book!

Emerald Eyes by Aurelia Yates is the First book in The Red Club Series. This is the story of Wilder and Sarah. Sarah lost her mother in a car accident but when she goes to pack up the house after loosing her job she finds a mystery box with pictures. This leads her to talk to the family friend/neighbor who does disclose that her mother had ran from her father along with him being a dangerous man. Sarah is starting a new life in NY with her best friend but ends up meeting Wilder at the airport. Wilder is taken with Sarah from the start and wants to claim her as his. Enjoyed this book and I hope to read more from this author.

OHHH!!! Who doesn't love a good Mafia romance? Especially an Irish one with beautiful accents and language. I think I officially found my book husband. "wink wink"

Sarah is on break. After a horrible few days, she finally let her best friend talk her into visiting her in the big city. She doesn't realize how her life is about to change. Especially when her first encounter in the city is bumping into the most gorgeous man she has ever laid eyes on. And those eyes....those beautiful green eyes that shine like emeralds. Wow!! This is going to be the best trip ever.

Wilder O'Ddonnelll is head of the Irish Mafia. He is ruthless. What he wants, he gets and he wants the beautiful woman with the blue eyes. But fate will not make it easy on him, nor will she. Every time someone touches what is his, he sees red! Even if she doesn't realize it yet. She is his and no one will take her from him. Not even herself. Someone likes to play games. But the games are getting dangerous and someone is out to take what is his. They don't know who they are playing with.

This book was oh so dark and dirty. Wilder is an alpha male, unlike any you have read about before. He is bossy and stalkerish. He is demanding and will kill anyone who gets in his way. I loved his dominance throughout the book.

Sarah is sweet and kind, with a bit of sass. She really has had a tough road to travel and the alpha male in her life doesn't make it any easier. What has this poor girl gotten into? To top it all all she is getting death threats. I truly felt her pain in this book.

Overall this book is a well written alpha male, mafia romance. It is full of lies, deception, hard truths, hot sin and unbreakable love. The magmatism between these characters is unreal. But I must warn, it has some triggers in it and is not to be read lightly. As with any mafia romance the danger is high and the blood and gore is everywhere. But underneath it all is a beautiful love story.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to review this book.

DNF at chapter 4. I realize that putting your work out there is a big step, so congratulation to the author on that, however, this book needs a lot of work. I made it farther than I intended, as I nearly stopped reading when the author wrote "tidal wave in my panties." I found that what I read lacked structure, depth, or interesting characters. It felt like a lot of paragraphs were randomly strung together in sections before it jumped to something else. There were tons of grammatical errors as well, and it all made it hard to read. I also hated the whole mystery man sending gifts and always knowing where the MC was. That's not sweet, that's stalking and it's gross. Ultimately, it was the stalking that was the final straw and made me stop reading.

Probable Spoilers -


I need to be very honest, I did not finish this book. I made it to 33%,. The scene at the art showing really started to give me pause, then when Wilder loses his mind because she gets roofed, proceeded to spank her to show her she's his.
Nope, I was done.
There dubious consent but this was just gross.
The way the dialog reads is stilted and uncomfortable and difficult to follow. The additional "translation" every time Wilder says something in his language is ridiculous and throws off the cadence.

I have no idea what I thought I was going to get, but I can be assured that this isn't it. I'd like to know if there was any proof reading or alpha/beta readers involved in this book? Perhaps someone who's opinion the author trusts that can assure her that it's ok to write like people talk and everything doesn't have to be proper English.




I love a good mafia romance, dark or not. I also adore a strong alpha male paired with a strong female. But at 26% I didn't get that from either character. Wilder comes off as a bully and not the sexy kind who's just confident.