Thank you Netgalley, bloom books and Sophie Lark for the copy of this book!

Aida and her brothers decide to go pay a visit to the Griffin's during their party for their daughter Nessa. The problem? They're rival mafia families and hate each other. Aida decides to give herself a tour of the mansion and accidentally ends up trapped in the library with none other than Callum Griffin. In an effort to sneak out undetected, she burns the drapes and makes a run for it. When Callum catches up to her later that night the ramifications of their fight lead their fathers to strike a deal. Form an alliance by marrying Callum and Aida.

• marriage of convenience
• enemies to lovers
• touch her and die

This book was fun! I love a good mafia romance and this was a more lighthearted spin on the darker themes usually found in mafia books. The characters are entertaining but a little juvenile.

The writing could use some work. Writing in present tense first person point of view requires a strong writer and I kept getting tripped up while reading it. I also didn't feel like the same scenes needed to be in both perspectives. Callum and Aida go from hating each other to being in love really quickly and it felt rushed. The spice was good! Overall, I enjoyed the story but I think it could be improved.

I really enjoy all of Sophie Lark's work and this is absolutely no exception. The tension, the build up, the hatred all crescendoing into a wild peak - will always be reading more!

This is book one of the Brutal Birthright series and it starts out hot. Seriously, our FMC sets his house on fire. While I will say the mafia part is mild the spice is spicy. I love a give no f**ks, sassy FMC and Aida delivers. True enemies to lovers and it was just plain hot. Great story, plenty of action and a quick, easy read.

🩷

actual rating; 4,5

I didn’t expect to love this book as much as I did. It did lack some dialogue on how they fell in love. It was pretty much getting married and doing some stuff together and oh we are in love.

But, I did really like it. Both Aida and Callum where fun characters and I liked all the side characters too.

Caught myself while reading at work more then once!

Let me start up by saying this is such an incredible series and it's so addicting that once you start the first book you won't be able to stop until you go through the series. I read until my kindle ran out of juice. Love, love, loved it!

3.5 stars

Thank you Netgalley, bloom books and Sophie Lark for the copy of this book!

Aida and her brothers decide to go pay a visit to the Griffin's during their party for their daughter Nessa. The problem? They're rival mafia families and hate each other. Aida decides to give herself a tour of the mansion and accidentally ends up trapped in the library with none other than Callum Griffin. In an effort to sneak out undetected, she burns the drapes and makes a run for it. When Callum catches up to her later that night the ramifications of their fight lead their fathers to strike a deal. Form an alliance by marrying Callum and Aida.

• marriage of convenience
• enemies to lovers
• touch her and die

This book was fun! I love a good mafia romance and this was a more lighthearted spin on the darker themes usually found in mafia books. The characters are entertaining but a little juvenile.

The writing could use some work. Writing in present tense first person point of view requires a strong writer and I kept getting tripped up while reading it. I also didn't feel like the same scenes needed to be in both perspectives. Callum and Aida go from hating each other to being in love really quickly and it felt rushed. The spice was good! Overall, I enjoyed the story but I think it could be improved.

This was my first Sophie lark book and it was everything I didn’t know I was missing. Arrange Marriage -Enemies to lover - Mafia Romance -Touch her and die. It’s also dual POV which is my favorite. I need the whole series and all her other books ASAP.

I absolutely adored this book! I could not put it down, I loved the relationship between Cal and Aida. This was everything I could have asked from an enemies to lovers trope. I can’t wait to read the rest of the series!

Thank you to Sophie Lark, NetGalley and Bloom Books for this eARC of the rerelease of Brutal Prince.

This was an incredibly fast, easy read. Smutty mafia romances are generally for me, but I think I may have gone off the deep end a few too many times. Unfortunately this wasn’t as steamy or brutal as I normally like my mafia stories. The two main characters were from rival families, forced into an arranged marriage. The story moved so fast that I felt they fell in love a bit too quickly, and even though Aida poisoned Callum on their wedding day, they didn’t feel like real enemies to lovers. Again, it’s probably just because I’ve read some crazy stories, but it was a bit lacking. Decent 3 star read overall.

Poison your own fiancé? Check. Touch her and I’ll end you. Check. Arranged marriage ? Check. This book has so many of my favorite tropes. No one does mafia like Sophie Lark. If you have never read a mafia romance book, this is a perfect one to start. It’s got some darker moments to dip your toes in, but isn’t super dark. Aida and Callum come from rival families, so the tension is top tier. I loved Aida’s personality, and how she isn’t afraid to speak her mind. Callum is our favorite possessive MMC, but always puts Aida first, which we love. There were some surprises in this story, and overall couldn’t put it down!

*For those of us kindle readers, I LOVED that the illustrations were included in the kindle format.

I love Sophie Lark’s writing so much and these new covers are so pretty. While Callum and Ada are not my two favorites in the brutal birthright series I think they are a great kick off point for it.

Callum Griffin is our Brutal Prince, he is the future leader of the Irish mob/mafia run currently by his father. He is in the midst of running a campaign to start off his political career. He's controlling, cold, and particular about every aspect of his life. Then enters Aida Gallo, an Italian mafia princess who is wild, rebellious and could be considered his exact opposite. She is very much act first and ask questions later, when her brothers and her crash Callum's sister birthday and turns his world upside down. They hate each other, but with that hate passion begins to burn between them and realize that sometimes your opposite is the best sort of attraction.

This is my first Sophie Lark book and can see why this has become Tik-Tok famous. This is definitely mafia light for a mafia romance, I didn't see much of this classification past a couple scenes, light on the violence. The first person writing style was a new one for me and took a little to get into but I can appreciate the writing style especially for creating a "voice" for the characters own POVS. The dual pov was a great choice, I really like being able to see the thought process for the main characters and Sophie delivers on giving them their own motives and depth. This was a quick easy read that delivered a good time.

Thank you Sourcebooks & Bloom books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was the first ever book I’ve ever read by Sophie Lark when it was self published and I absolutely loved it. It is such a good introduction to the world. I usually don’t like Mafia books as they tend to be repetitive, but I really enjoyed this as it was unique. Aida was such a badass and I loved her character.

“𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐬, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐥 𝐡𝐞𝐫. 𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥. 𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐨 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐈 𝐬𝐚𝐲, 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐲 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞…”

Brutal Prince is an arranged marriage Mafia romance and the first book in The Brutal Birthright Series. This is the first book I’ve read by Sophie Lark and I completely ate this up! The tension and banter between Aida and Callum was fantastic and I couldn’t get enough of these two. But the real star of this book was Aida who is by far one my favorite FMCS I’ve read so far this year! I loved each one of the Gallo and Griffin siblings and wait to see how their stories play out in the rest of the series. 4.5⭐️

𝕎𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕋𝕠 𝔼𝕩𝕡𝕖𝕔𝕥:
💋Enemies to lovers
💋Rival families
💋Arranged marriage
💋Mafia
💋Age gap

“𝐈𝐟 𝐀𝐢𝐝𝐚 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐤, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐈’𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐚𝐧. 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐈’𝐦 𝐠𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐫, 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫, 𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐛𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐭 𝐚 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞. 𝐔𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐥 𝐈’𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐞𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐮𝐩 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐰𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐝 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐞.“

“𝐘𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐞, 𝐀𝐢𝐝𝐚,” 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐮𝐦 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐥𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐞𝐚𝐫. “𝐈’𝐥𝐥 𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐨𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮.”

“𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐫𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞.“

“𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧, 𝐈’𝐥𝐥 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐩 𝐢𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐭.”

I read this originally when Sophia self published via KU and omg did I love it then just the same as I love it now! Aida is an absolute queen and set the standard for what I need in a strong woman MC. The spice is phenomenal.

The first story in the Brutal Birthright series did NOT disappoint. We're introduced to the Griffins and the Gallos via Callum and Aida. Callum is the overly serious businessman while Aida is the spunky, sassy, free spirit.

The two quickly go from pure hatred and trying to kill each other to protective love. In addition to these two, the side characters also bring their own form of entertainment, whether it be Aida's gentle giant brother or Callum's sweet as can be sister.

This story has everything you'd want in an enemies-to-lovers plot, including plenty of "my wife" moments.

Easily a 4.5 star read and I can't wait to pick up the next one.

I grabbed this re-release from Netgalley, and dove back into the dangerous world of the Gallos and Griffins.

These two families have been fighting for dominance and control of Chicago's Underworld for what seems like forever. Certainly generations. Things were calm until an unfortunate accident literally sparks this feud again. Aida Gallo and Callum Griffin have no love between them, but find themselves tied to each other in the most permanent/legally binding way, in hopes of bringing a truce. I love the steamy chemistry and emotions swirling around this unlikely couple.
Of course, we all know how THAT'S gonna go!! Callum will find that Aida is a force to be dealt with, one that he's unprepared for.

All the delicious dangers and passions of a warring Mafia read are delivered in this one, and I couldn't put it down - again. This series is really addictive!

I strongly recommend this read, and thank Netgalley and Sourcebooks for my free ARC.
I voluntarily leave my review.

4.75 stars
This was the first Sophie Lark book I've read - I've seen so much hype around her books and this series in particular, so I was really interested in picking this book up and I'm so glad I did! I get now, the hype makes complete sense. I'm fully obsessed with Aida and Callum - from the way they started, as enemies with the absolute perfect banter and so much freaking sexual tension, I thought I would snap to their ending when they realize the full depth of their feelings for each other. Plus, being introduced to all the siblings and side characters that I imagine will be main characters in future books. And all the spice in this book! I loved so many different aspects of this book.
The only thing that I wish was included was just more of this book in general. It's a really fast read, and I was completely rivetted and I wish there were a few extra chapters to further explore Aida and Cal's relationship even more!

"The Brutal Prince" by Sophie Lark is a captivating and sizzling tale that immerses readers in the dangerous underworld of Chicago, where two notorious crime families, the Griffins and the Gallos, collide with explosive consequences. This thrilling romance novel is filled with an intense rivalry, unbridled passion, and a battle for dominance that will leave you breathless.

The story centers around Aida Gallo, the youngest and most untamed member of the Gallo clan, who accidentally sparks a cataclysmic event at the Griffin mansion. In order to prevent an all-out war, Aida's father arranges a marriage between her and Callum Griffin, the formidable and ambitious heir to the Irish mafia. The chemistry between Aida and Callum is as volatile as their families' feud, setting the stage for a battle of wills and desires that neither can resist.

Sophie Lark expertly crafts her characters, particularly Aida and Callum, as complex individuals with their own agendas and vulnerabilities. Aida's fiery spirit and determination to assert her independence make her a force to be reckoned with, while Callum's cold exterior hides a burning desire to prove himself worthy of his family's legacy. Their dynamic is electric, as they clash and challenge each other at every turn, leading to a tempestuous and passionate relationship.

The author's writing style is engaging and evocative, capturing the gritty atmosphere of Chicago's underworld and bringing it to life on the pages. The pacing is relentless, with tension escalating as the power struggle intensifies between the Gallos and the Griffins. Lark skillfully weaves together intricate plot twists and unexpected turns, keeping readers on the edge of their seats and craving more.

One of the highlights of "The Brutal Prince" is the palpable sexual tension between the main characters. Their love-hate relationship fuels the narrative, adding a layer of forbidden desire and emotional depth to the story. Lark explores their vulnerabilities and showcases their personal growth, making the romance all the more satisfying.

However, the overall story arc follows a familiar pattern, adhering to many tropes commonly found in the romance genre. While the chemistry between Aida and Callum is undeniably captivating, some readers may find themselves wishing for more surprises and a slightly more original plot.

In conclusion, "The Brutal Prince" is a scorching romance novel that will enthrall fans of steamy tales set against a backdrop of organized crime. Sophie Lark's talent for crafting complex characters and her ability to infuse every page with intensity and passion make this book a captivating read. Although it adheres to certain genre conventions, the gripping storyline and explosive chemistry between the protagonists more than make up for it. Prepare yourself for a journey into a dangerous and seductive world where love and power collide in spectacular fashion.

Brutal Prince is an enemies to lovers/arranged marriage trope and the first book in the Brutal Birthright series.
I thought this was a really fun, easy reading romance told from dual POV's with two strongheaded MC's. I thought this was a great start to the series it has good humour, a bit of spice and a nice romance. I would recommend to anyone who loves mafia romances.