Dark Succession is a dark, mafia romance featuring the enemies to lovers and arranged marriage tropes. I would recommend it to fans of darker or suspenseful romances like Things We Never Got Over by Lucy Score, My Killer Vacation by Tessa Bailey, The Bridge Kingdom by Danielle L Jensen, Scandalized by Ivy Owens, A Shadow in the Ember by Jennifer L Armentrout, or Redeemed by Lauren Asher. Dark Succession deals with themes/ topics like quest for power, family, loneliness, desire to escape, death, love and sacrifice, manipulation, oppression, war, crime, and good versus evil. Trigger warnings include kidnapping, abuse, shootings, and mention of rape.

Overall, I didn’t feel like Dark Succession lived up to my high expectations; I was expecting big things after reading and enjoying Court of the Vampire Queen by Katee Robert last year. At the beginning of the novel, I often found myself confused as to which characters belonged to which crime family and where they ranked within the hierarchy. Similarly, since the book is told from a few different perspectives, it would have been helpful if Robert had included a heading letting readers know when the perspective was being switched to avoid confusion. Lastly, I wasn’t a fan of some of the darker elements that Robert’s included such as the physical abuse and mention of rape.

On the upside, even though the book was initially hard for me to get into, once the story got started, I found that the plot was interesting and fast-paced. Furthermore, I enjoyed the mystery and suspense elements as well as Teague and Callie’s spicy enemies to lovers romance (it almost gave me a bit of a Romeo and Juliet vibe). I’m hopeful that the rest of The O’Malleys series will be republished; I’m especially excited about book 2 (originally titled The Marriage Pact) as the main characters in this book, Carrigan and James, are introduced in book 1 and have a sizzling chemistry!

This book was fantastic and gets you hooked from the first page. You can’t help but root for all of the siblings who are at war when they didn’t want to be. Teegan has always wanted to keep his six siblings safe and marring Callie is one way to help with that or so he thought. Will he be able to save everyone he loves while making some hard decisions?

Thank you for the ARC Netgalley!

I’ve been on a dark romance kick lately so I was thrilled to pick this one up. With Katee Robert we can always count on morally gray characters, steam and drama. This book did not disappoint! I had fun with this one, it was sweeter than I thought it would be with it being set in the mafia world. Callie and Teague were little shining lights in their dark families. This was a quick and fun read, perfect to pick up when you can’t decide on what’s next! Great palate cleanser!

I loved Teague and Callie's story. I hadn't read any of the books in this series and I was thoroughly impressed. It had me swooning, laughing and crying throughout the book. I've read several mafia romance books and this is by far at the top. I think the cover and title change from the previous version match the author's overall aesthetic.

I unfortunately did not finish this book. I found it extremely hard to get through, which was a huge disappointment as I've read several of Katee Robert's books in the past and absolutely loved them.

The insta-love in this did not work for me, neither did the world building. It felt like we were thrown head first into this mafia family with absolutely no context, and then the context was given in such a weird way that I felt constantly behind and that new convenient details and characters were added just to get away from any sort of conflict. I didn't feel any sort of tension between our main characters and just didn't find myself caring about their relationship or what happens next in this story.

Unfortunately I wouldn't recommend this book, but will give Robert's new works a read, as it seems she has improved drastically since this novel was first published.

I did not enjoy this one. This is a me problem though. I just do not like this authors writing style and I struggle with every book I read. This author is loved on booktok though so if you like Katee Roberts, you will enjoy this one.

im in love with Roberts books! and this was just as good. the male mc is delicious! the darkness of this book makes it extremely difficult to put down. I highly recommend!

I realized I already read this book years ago and just forgot that they changed the title and cover. I enjoyed re-reading it though.

I just never really liked it in the first place like I liked the other books in the series.

Not a favourite but in the end, they all started somewhere and this actually makes me see how much she grow as a favourite author and how her writing become so much better over time.
The characters, the banter and suspenseful moments, all add up to a nice story overall.

I wanna start this off by saying that I’m a big Katee Robert fan. I absolutely love her newer books but her early writing does not measure up. The best way I could describe this book is just that it was bland. The characters, writing, plot, sex scenes. Nothing really stood out to me to make this a worthwhile read.

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me a copy for review!

3.5 stars

Although this may not be the best Katee Robert book I’ve ever read, I always enjoy her stories. This was a short and entertaining read which I finished in just a few hours. Callie and Teague are part of rival mafia families and agree to an arranged marriage, and lots of violence, family drama, and romance ensues. There was a lot of chemistry between Callie and Teague, so although the romance happened quickly, it was mostly believable. Some of the other characters were interesting, but I’m not sure I would make finishing the series a priority.

Thank you to Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for the review copy!

Unfortunately I DNF this one. Love the cover and the new name, but the story fell flat for me. Very slow to start and I wasn’t connecting with the characters or the story line. I did not like that POVs would switch in the middle of the chapter. It was very confusing whose POV it was since there are more than just Teague and Callista.

Thank you NetGalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

4⭐️/2🌶️
This was my first book from this author and it won’t be the last.
I wish this was done in a 1st person dual POV for the main characters, but that’s really more personal preference. I do have to say it threw me for a loop when we got some James and Carrigan’s POV lol. I’m definitely intrigued by what their story will be.
I absolutely loved Teague. He is the ultimate protector of everyone he loves and he definitely will take drastic measure to keep them safe.
Callie was a little up and down for me, it didn’t really feel authentic with her need to be involved in the family business at her age of 25, think we just needed a little more history on how she’s already been involved.
The chemistry from Teague and Callie definitely kept me intrigued and made me finish this book in one afternoon.

New cover, who dis? I like it.

I hadn't read this series of Robert's before. I liked it a lot. Steamy Irish Mafia....sign me up! I like that instead of just two main characters POV that we also get family members as well. This is quite some foreshadowing and I am here for it.

Thank you Forever team and Netgalley for the advanced readers copy. I read it in a sitting.

I have so much fun reading this reissue! I love the new look and name, I feel like it fits so well.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever for the ARC!

*3.5 rounding to 4*

It’s no secret I’m a fan of Katee Robert and anything she puts out is automatically on my TBR. I’ve mainly stuck to the villains, mythical retellings, and the occasional novella so this one caught my eye.

While not new and simply a republish under a new name, mafia is my jam. In true Katee Robert fashion we’ve got a kicka** heroine and a charming leading lad. It’s messy, chaotic, and filled with twists. I was a bit surprised at how tame this read in comparison to others but being an intro read, I’m very curious where it’ll go. There’s something for almost everyone and if you’re itching to try a new series, I’d give it a shot.

I expected better from Katee since she’s a pretty well known writer. I DNF’ed after 15% perfect. The characters were flat. The storyline would’ve been much more interesting if they’d had some depth to them.

I’m not really sure what I thought when I picked this book up on NetGalley.

I love all of Katee’s books but this was just such a hard miss for me.

- it’s sllooooowwww on its story build.
- the POVs are confusing as hell and all over the place
- I DNF’d about 15% in because I just couldn’t keep up.

The book had me right away with the immediate murder or the FMCS original betrothed but even that story line was patchy filled with holes.

Maybe I’ll try it again in the future, but this just wasn’t for me.

This was such a entertaining read — never thought I’d be a sucker for mob romance, but here I am. It was dark, gritty, and smutty. 😏
The insta love connection between Callie and Teague was top notch 👏🏻👏🏻 we love a tender hearted monster 😝

Well written, easy to get sucked into, and a total page turner.

Highly recommend if you like: arranged marriage, mob romance, insta love.

⭐️⭐️⭐️.75
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Really enjoyed this reissue!! The plot is amazingly written, the spicy scenes are hot as always with Katee Robert and the character development was executed so great!! Loved that it was a mafia romance too that was a huge plus!!