Wow this was my first book by this particular author and I was stunned speechless! This one wasn’t just hot, it was awesome and addicting.

I didn't know that I needed mafia romance in my life, but apparently I did, because I really liked this book! It was a super quick read and very fun due to the mix of romance and action. The plot was fun and helped the book keep a fast pace. The arranged marriage trope is slowly becoming a favorite, especially when it is arranged between two mortal enemies. Aida and Callum genuinely hate each other when they get married and seeing their chemistry develop along with the relationship made the book very interesting. Aida's personality stole the show for me in this book. She's feisty, knows what she deserves, and can hold her own during her family's dealings. I love that she doesn't let people talk down to her despite being the only girl in her mafia family and being married into a rival family. Overall, this is such a fun read and I will definitely be reading more mafia romance in the future. I know I'll also be reading more from Lark soon! I would definitely recommend this romance fans.

~~3 Stars~~ 30th May 2023

Reading this book has made me realise that my interests are in darker material. Although this romance had all the mafia tropes you could want, it fell flat. I needed darker writing and spicier themes to match the tone of a mafia romance. Everything felt too instantaneous and easygoing for the type of story it was trying to tell. It's a perfect easy read for an afternoon, and the spice was spicy for the book's tone. 

I did really like Aida and her strong-headedness. She was ballsy and courageous. Callum was a bit too generic, I wish we saw more of his personality, something to make him unique from all the other mafia men.

Ultimately, I wanted something more substantial from the plot, a reason for me to get lost in the story entirely, but I just couldn't find it. There's nothing that I couldn't find in another mafia book. If you're looking for an easy read and want to dip into the mafia pond, this book would be perfect!

Thank you to NetGalley, Bloom Books and Sophie Lark for this e-ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley! This is my first Sophia Lark book and I can see what everyone is raving about! Callum is a dark and broody man while Aida is a wild impulsive woman. This book was fast passed and steamy in all the right places. I will most definitely be ready the rest of the series!!

There was something so addicting about this book! I really was hooked and read it in like two days because I just couldn't stop. It’s one of those quick, salacious reads that lets you escape into your baser desires. The tension and passion is to die for and I’m just a sucker for a broody, overprotective male. This was my first experience reading a mafia romance and I have to say… I’m definitely sold. I completely understand the appeal now. I really enjoyed this story and am totally on board with the hype. I’m definitely interested in continuing this series! I actually really liked all the characters and I want to learn more about them. And I will definitely have to check out more series by this author too.

The only book I previously read by Sophie Lark was Anastasia and it is quite impressive how she can write such different characters and books and have them be so good!
I truly enjoyed reading about Aida and Callum’s journey together. As a recap, they come from opposing mafia families who have been feuding for generations. When Aida starts a fire at Callum’s house, she’s forced into an arranged marriage with him to help his politics career as well as their their family’s mutual mafia interests. But we all know it’s never just a marriage of convenience for long. Throw in creepy stalker exes and other mob bosses and we have the makings of a fantastic book.
Check this out if you like:
*mafia romances
*enemies to lovers
*marriage of convenience
*strong and sassy FMC

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.”