This was a great book! I at first wasn’t so sure about it but ended up really enjoying it. I ended up loving the take it took on beauty and the beast

This was one of my more favorite books in this series - it gave me serious Beauty & the Beast vibes and I was so HERE for it! I loved seeing the relationship between Miko and Nessa really grow and blossom, and watch Miko become so down bad for Nessa. Is this the best book ever written? No. Did I absolutely enjoy it? Yes. Would I re-read it? Maybe.

Definitely worth the read, especially if you're a fan of Beauty and the Beast!

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and Sophie Lark for giving me the chance to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Beauty and the Beast is my absolute favorite fairytale so I've read a Lot of retellings. This one is in my top 5 favorites; half because it was very well written with great characters and half because I love ballet and you can never have too many stories about ballet. I highly recommend this book!

Actual Rating: 3.5⭐

Stolen Heir has a beauty and the beast vibes but darker and more ruthless set in modern time.

I love seeing some of the artwork insides that portrayed some of the scenes here, it’s very beautiful!
The pacing is a little bit slow at first to give room for the main characters to develop feelings towards one another.

I do enjoy seeing Nessa’ character grow from the spoiled and innocent little girl to a more daring and confident kind of girl after meeting Miko.
I like Nessa’s love for dancing, my favorite part is when Nessa and Miko dances together for the first time.

Overall, it’s pretty enjoyable to read if you can suspend disbelief while reading this and just go with the plot.
I would also highly suggest checking out the trigger warnings listed below because some parts may be sensitive to some readers.
Nevertheless, I’m excited to continue this series and read Nero’s story next!

⚠️ 𝐓𝐖: sexual content, kidnapping, confinement, violence, suicide, rape, sexual assault, stalking

okay as much as i love a little bit of mafia romance every now and then. this was hella weird, home girl right here got sketched out. i couldn't like either character because of how weak she was and how fragile he was. like sure, you're big boss dude, but in reality, you're basically just a little guy.

I really enjoyed the first book in the series, so I was really excited for book two. I have to say Ii really liked the FMC. I already liked her in book one, so I was excited to read her story. Overall, it did not disappoint. I liked the dynamic between her and the MMC and the way he changed throughout the book. There were a few parts that didn't resonate with me too much but I did enjoy it in general and would recommend reading it.

What a beautiful spicy romance story with great storyline and great characters. Really liked the writing style and the cover is beautiful will definitely read more from this author.

This book is just everything I love about dark romances without being too dark. 💞
Sophie Lark just writes the best morally gray book boyfriends.

Although do check the trigger warnings before reading it.

Sophie Lark has just been falling flat for me lately. I really wanted a mafia romance book that started off with a bang, and this wasn't it.

I actually liked this even better than the first book in this series. The characters were great and I liked the storyline a bit more in this one. Sophie Lark really knows how to suck you in.

I wasn't really sure what to expect with this book, but was very pleasantly surprised to find that I really, really liked it.

Are you trying to tell me that:

1. His sister get r worded by some mafia members, unalive herself so he then goes to kill those mafia members does so and then ends up joining them??? I mean this MMC just is stupid because who does that unless the end goal is to take the whole mafia down but no ... nothing to do with that (tbh that would have been more enjoyable to read).
2. She is the daughter of the Irish mafia and she has zero protection, like she is so easily stalked and taken and apparently it would be a big deal if she got taken that it will cause a mafia war but NOBODY thinks she needs protection?? What even is this book! And then some dude steals her routine and she cries about it, like babe your daddy is the mafia... he can sort that out.

Honestly again just really weird and unlikeable characters and for me I am not a smut person or atleast smut how it is written in this book.

2.75 star read. This one was OK for me. I found the story entertaining but the pacing for me was a bit off.

I want to start off by saying I loved the artwork throughout the book and the Beauty and the Beast references.

I feel like Nessa and Miko didn't interact enough to fall in love. Miko was adamant that he hated Nessa. And while we got the bits that lead up to their romance, I don't think there was enough of them. It's like all of the pieces were there but there weren't explored enough in my opinion. He found her attractive, had moments jealousy, was willing to protect her at any cost, allowed her to get away with more than other people would. All of the ingredients were there, but idk something must have been wonky with the oven.

As for Nessa, her need for Miko came out of left field. It was as if all of a sudden she was just in love (this is actually the case for both of them) and then... the end... ???

I feel like this book could have easily been another 100 pages. I would have enjoyed more of a "will they, won't they" dynamic between Nessa and Miko. A trope like this should be dragged out just a little bit, in my opinion. More conversations surrounding Miko's process in grieving the loss of his sister. Nessa's conflict with being her own person versus how her family perceives her. I also wished to see Miko grovel to her family more.

I'm not deterred from reading the rest of the series. BUT I feel like if I saw all of those scenarios played out, I would have enjoyed the story so much more.

4.5/5 🌟

"𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙘𝙖𝙣'𝙩 𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙖𝙡. 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙘𝙖𝙣'𝙩 𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙞𝙩, 𝙚𝙞𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧. 𝙄𝙩 𝙚𝙞𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙚𝙭𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙨 𝙤𝙧 𝙞𝙩 𝙙𝙤𝙚𝙨𝙣'𝙩. 𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙛 𝙞𝙩 𝙚𝙭𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙨, 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙘𝙖𝙣'𝙩 𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙞𝙩 𝙗𝙮 𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙘𝙚."

Kidnapped by the most vicious gangster in Chicago, Nessa is thrust into the middle of a plot for revenge. Mikolaj wants her family to suffer. It doesn't matter that she is innocent. She is the daughter of those who had a hand in killing his adoptive father. But the more she is around, the more his frozen heart melts. Especially when he watches her dance.

This one definitely felt more Mafia romance than the last one since Mikolaj has no issue getting his hands dirty. I loved the gothic aesthetic and ballet aspects. I wasn't a huge fan of Nessa being a trembling innocent as I like my heroines to have a little more umph but overall I still enjoyed this book. I read it in a little over a day and didn't want to put it down! If you like Mafia/dark romance, give @sophie_lark_author a try. Her writing is so good!

𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦:
🖤 Beauty and The Beast retellings
🖤 Gothic aesthetics
🖤 Enemies to lovers
🖤 Mafia Romance
🖤 Spice 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
🖤 Ballet

Thank you to Bloom and the author for this copy

Mafia romance retelling of Beauty and the beast
well done with a lot of smut and a certifiable Stockholm syndrome
Not my fav trope but good enough

3 stars

Really enjoyable mafia romance. Definitely one that I could go back and reread. It’s like a merge between classic mafia romance and a beauty and the beast retelling. The characters are well developed and you’ll be surprised at how much you love the FMC.

This was another great book within the Brutal Birthright series. I am excited that I have all of them to binge. This was a fascinating one as it was all beauty and the beast and that is my go to for retellings. So far these are addicting but I feel that they could do more. I also kind of wish these didn't have artwork in them. Some of it's ok but most of it is just really weirdly done.

It was so fun to revisit this world with the inclusion of the illustrations that only add to the immersion into this world. I love Sophie Lark and these characters and am so happy that more people get to experience them now!

thank you again to netgalley and the publisher for this eARC

This book was absolutely everything!!! I don’t know why but a kidnapped Stockholm story always hits the mark for me, and this one was perfect! You could definitely feel the beauty and the beast vibes and I loved it. Nessa character was so good, Sophie did a great job of writing a sweet delicate feminine FMC with out making her Mousey and weak.The way nessa handled everything that was thrown at her was so good, and I was just in awe of her resilient. And I loved how her dancing was such a big part of this story you could really feel how much she loved it and needed it through the pages. Miko was such a great MMC too, his origin was heartbreaking and I loved that we got a backstory to why he was the way he was. I also loved how easy his cold heart melted the more nessa took over his life. The two of them together were so good, I loved when they danced together. I also loved how he handled trying to win her after all that went down, he was such a gentleman in that way and I loved how much he would do to have her in his life. Together the character growth was amazing! I also really loved the dark gothic setting of this book the mansion was perfect and added such a good element to this story!

I breezed through this book in almost no time. Nice and quick read. Not boring but nothing to keep in the memory bank for re-reading.