A real enemies to lovers!?!?!?!?! LOVED THIS BOOK SOOOO MUCH! This was my first Sophie Lark book. I can’t wait to read the rest of the Brutal Birthright series. Everything about this book was amazing.

Thank you NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Bloom Books for the arc of this book.

This is the story of Aida Gallo and Callum Griffin, of the Italian mafia and the Irish mafia in Chicago, respectively.

I love the enemies to lovers trope and the arranged marriage trope. I kept getting distracted, though, by the fact that the families, the characters, freely admit to crimes they’ve committed, murders they were responsible for, torture they inflicted on others.

I almost wish the story was just thismuch longer, long enough to spend a little more time on Aida and Callum learning to love each other. It happened a bit to quickly and easily for my taste…

Brutal Prince is the first book in the Brutal Birthright series. This book is told from dual points of view from Callum and Aida. This book starts out with Aida crashing Callum's birthday party and setting the library curtains, and stealing something important to him. This puts her on Callum's radar and she ends up in an arranged marriage with him.

Neither Callum or Aida want to marry each other. I love the banter between the two characters. Aida is a strong heroine, and won't take anything from Callum. She fights Callum the whole way. As it goes on they start to have feelings for each other.

Things happen to both of them, and the other has to decide if it's worth it to help save the other one. Will their relationship survive the tough battles it's thrown into?

I really enjoyed this book, and am excited to start the second one.

This was okay. It read very quickly. Your typical enemies to lovers mafia romance. There was great plot with the beginning of their story being funny AF. I just felt like this was missing the oomph, you know? more spicy, more savage, more and more of everything. I love the cover and the art in the pages! very fun and refreshing. Thank you for this ARC these are my own words.

Omg these books, this author!!!!! This world is pure gold! I devoured this book in one sitting! Thank you for the ARC.

Thank you so much Bloom Sourcebooks for this arc in return for my honest review.

I could not put this book down at all. If I did, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. This book has it all. Action, adventure, love, drama, twists and turns and more!

Aida and Callum are forced together in marriage as rivals to bring their two families together What happens when one day that pent up anger turns into something more? Brutal Prince has the following tropes
-enemies to lover
-miscommunication
-mafia
-age gap

The spice scenes had me giggling screaming throwing up. And the humour in this book? So good

I have given this book 4 stars as the epilogue contains pregnancy. I feel like this is too cliche in romance books now and it wasn’t really necessary to fullfill the story but you can read this without the epilogue and it would still be great!!

Blooms Traditionally published version of Brutal Prince comes out in July! Don’t forget to pre order this!

Thank you to NetGalley for giving this ARC, and this doesn’t influence my review. I lovedddd the tropes in this book and they were well done!
Tropes: enemies to lovers, hate to love, arranged marriage, jealous guy, guy falls first
Mannnn a must read, but it’s a bit freaky so watch out

This book definitely had me hooked until the end! Highly recommend!

~This book was given by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

*cue Crazy by Patsy Cline when Aida ate strawberries right before the wedding* LOL

Tropes:⁠
🗡️ enemies to 💘 lovers ⁠
💍 arranged marriage ⁠
⚔️ rival mafia families ⁠
🫡 age gap⁠
🥊 "touch her and die" vibes⁠

Genre: mafia romance
Tropes: arranged marriage, age gap, etc
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you Netgalley and Bloom Books for providing me with an ARC of Brutal Prince.

I’ve heard so many amazing things about this book and I really wanted to love it, but it fell flat for me personally. I love the concept of the feuding mafia families forming an alliance through arranged marriage, but I didn’t like characters or how quickly the issues seemed to resolve themselves.

I will definitely read more of Sophie’s books in the future despite not loving this one, and I am excited to see what she continues to publish!

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Bloom Books for the advance reader copy. First, this is most definitely a true enemies to lovers. So there is brownie points for that. A book can't get much more enemies to lovers than the true hatred these two have for each other.
I liked some parts of this, I just found the main character quite insufferable. Aida gave "I'm-not-like-other-girls" energy and it did annoy me a tad. Some bits made me giggle and others made me wonder what on earth I was reading. So, I have mixed feelings. All in all, an easy read that was super quick and a bit of fun. I honestly think the main character just was not for me; this meant I found some parts really hard to get into because she acts so questionably. I did read it in about two days so for some reason I was very compelled to finish.
Probably a good read for someone who can get past Aida. Another point is the illustrations were very fun and I liked the fact the author provided a playlist. I would probably go for 2.5 if I could but that's not possible so 3 it is.

So glad I took a chance on this book. I don’t gravitate to the marriage of convenience/ arranged marriage tropes, but this one just worked. It was witty, fast paced, spicy, and fun! The writing was better than I anticipated too. Highly recommend Brutal Prince. I enjoyed every page.

First time reading Sophie Lark but it definitely won't be the last.

This was a quick, spicy mafia* read that I devoured in a couple of hours. I didn't realise how badly I needed a good romance until I picked this up.

*The mafia aspect isn't the main focus, in my opinion.

I loved Aida as a character. She was the perfect mix of funny, scrappy, smart, switched-on and she had a sense of humour I could find myself gelling with. I loved how the things her and Callum did to each other at the start weren't all that far-fetched. Their pettiness was believable. Callum did toe the line of being maybe a bit too much of an ass at times, but Aida toed the line of being a bit too much of a brat at other times, so I wasn't mad.

The series name was a little misleading for me: Brutal Birthright. There wasn't really anything brutal about the characters or the story. It was kept more on the light side, so if you're after a face-paced mafia romance with good spice, likeable characters and funny dialogue without it focusing too much on the actual brutality of "mafia" families, then this is the book for you.

I'll definitely be picking up more from Lark in the future.

𝘉𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘗𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦 follows Aida Gallo and Callum Griffin, sworn enemies after an accidental thievery incident and now a married couple to pay off their mistakes.

- ~ -

𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘸𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘸𝘦𝘥𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘪𝘤? Queen shit.

𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯? Mafia King shit.

This book has stoked the flames of my mafia addiction fire and I'm hooked.

The Gallos and Griffins have lost many members of their clans due to their long drawn fued and their best solution is to gain alliance through the marriage of their only daughter and only son.

There was so much fierceness, thrill and vengeance. All carried out with poetic justice. And the little illustrations throughout the book definitely enhanced the plot.

Callum continued to serve the most unfavorable situations to Aida till a good chunk of the book was covered but she didn't wasn't one to back down. She fought tooth and nail and her fierce nature added half the character in the plot.

Needless to say, I'm going to continue with the series and am patiently waiting for sweet little Sebastian (although I don't think he'll be all that sweet either).

- ~ -

4.03 / 5✩

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘚𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬, 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘐 𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘦𝘥. 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯.

This has all of the tropes I love. Arranged marriage, enemies to lovers, mafia romance, and the best vibes a woman can ask for…touch her and die!

A fun and entertaining read. Very spicy and action packed as well.

Ate this book up and left no crumbs. Definitely recommend!!!

What if the Montagues and the Capulets wanted Romeo to marry Juliet?

Aida Gallo just wanted a little fun. She didn’t mean to set the fire in the Griffin house—it was just supposed to be a little distraction. But the tiny mistake winds up costing her everything. Now she has to marry Callum, the prince of the Irish mafia in order to right the wrongs she’s caused. And he’s just as reluctant to the marriage as she is. She’s boisterous, unpredictable—an uncultured savage. His polar opposite. How can they make a union between them work when they want to kill each other every chance they get?
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I’m so thankful I got to read this edition of such a smash hit. The illustrations & bonus chapters were amazing, and I absolutely loved the premise. Aida & Cal are just perfect in their own ways. Getting to see their love develop through both their POVs was a great way to get a feel for the drama. I loved their violent beginning and hate-filled tension, the spice, the Romeo & Juliet vibes, and Lark’s fantastic use of the Irish/Italian mafia lore. Lark’s writing is exquisite, full of raw emotion and packs an intense punch in every chapter, really drives the story home. I so loved this and can’t wait to finish the series. Easily one of my fav reads this year!

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Bloom Books for the advance reader copy.

I had heard a lot about this book from TikTok and online so had high expectations for the read. I maybe should have gone in with no expectations and just read it.

I didn’t enjoy the main characters and their very hastily flung together ‘romance’. I don’t usually go for large age gap books and found that this book reinforced that for me as I found Aida immature and sometimes quite annoying and Callum was a lot.

I think a good thing was that it was a quick read (maybe too quick) and am apprehensive about reading the other books in the series.

I'm a huge fan of Sophie Lark and read Brutal Prince when it was originally published and got sucked into the mafia world she created.
This second read with the new edition was even better. A book that can captivate and hold my interest more than once is a 5 star for me. The cover is beautiful and the illustrations were a fun surprise.
Can't wait to dive back into the rest of the series.

Thank you to Bloom Books and NetGalley for providing me with this ARC of Brutal Prince by Sophie Lark in exchange for an honest review.

A TRUE gritty delicious enemies to lovers romance. Most romances aren’t great but keep me entertained, this one had plot and was well written which is a unicorn in the smut world!
I immediately went onto Amazon and bought book 2

-Arrange Marriage
-Enemies to lover
- Mafia Romance
-Touch her and die
-possessive
Aida and Callum
Brutal Prince is the first book in the Brutal Birthright series.
This was such a fun and entertaining to read. Feuding families, arranged marriage, enemies to lovers, sexy/spicy scenes, and action/adventure... what more could you want in a smut-tacular novel?
Aida and Callum's relationship starts off rocky with hatred.
Callum is running to be an Alderman of Chicago knowing that there is more power when you are part of running the city. He isn't the most likeable for most, but he is charming and puts on a good show. He is handsome, dangerous, possessive and dare say jealous. He thinks he knows what everyone wants out of his campaign but a wild spit fire sure shows him he doesn't have everyone pegged. He doesn't want anything to do with this marriage but what is he without his family, the power, and the respect so he will play the game and get things done. He doesn't expect Aida to surprise him as much as she does, and he can't deny that he likes it.
Aida doesn't take crap from no one, she is sassy as hell, strong and she a prefect match for Callum talk about keeping him on his toes. she is angry, stubborn and pretty damn awesome. She's fearless, will do anything for her family even if it mean sacrificing herself - after all she believes it's all her fault. She knows more than they think, she's stronger than he knows and she is ready for a fight. She's beautiful, confident, and oh so feisty! I really enjoyed this book, I love a good maria romance.