MobQueen #NetGalley

She called him Ben.

History knows him by his more notorious name, Bugsy Siegel.

If this was the 2020s, you’d say he stealthily slid into her DMs.

In this authors’s telling, they encountered each other at the race track. By then, Virginia Hill lived quite the life as she balanced her job at a Mob frequented restaurant with her side job at a Mob funded brothel. She still managed to remain on the outskirts of the Mob.

Then it all changed. Armed with determination and courage, her quest to locate a long lost friend tangled her further into the Mob’s.

Her quest threads this into a compelling read. Her relationship with Bugsy is both complex and violent.

Yes, her story is shaped by men’s actions and desires. But with this historical novel she leaves her stiellto footprint in American history.

Imagined dialogue and action scenes were excellent.

This ARC was provided by the publisher, Blackstone Publishing, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! I love a good book especially ones based on real life people or events. This book had me hooked from first page till the very last.

Erin Bledsoe takes a spinoff of what Virgina Hills life may have been like up close. Virginia Hill was a real life girlfriend to notorious mobster Bugsy. The author takes real life facts and all the unknowns into something you don't want to miss reading!

Virgina Hill finds herself escaping from her abusive father's hands into the hands of a man she marries who promises to take care of her. Sadly, he too fails to give her a safe home. With the help and courage from her new friend Madeline; Virgina takes the drastic steps (during this time frame) and divorces him. The two girls wind up waitressing at a Hotspot for mobsters. Madeline goes missing after falling for one. Madeline saved Virgina from her abusive husband. Now Virginia feels the need to desperately repay the friendship and find her friend. Searching for answers about Madeline's whereabouts means getting caught up.....for life in the mob. Virginia engages, entertains, falls for, helps commit crime all for one outcome; find her friend. What she didn't expect was to be good at being in the mob. Will she ever find her friend? This book is an excellent read of what it would be like to be a woman of power in the mob. Highly recommend

I was very excited about the subject matter of this book. However, the idea was better than the execution. The book was a very slow to start and seem to drag for the first part which took about more than half of the pages. The second half of the book seemed relatively rushed by comparison. It seemed to focus only on 1 small part of the main character's life and then leave the breeder hanging as to the rest of her life with a brief epil0gue at the end. I liked the idea of this book, and the writing was fine, but the plot seemed to drag for me.

I love a good 1930s set book. Make it about the mob and I'm instantly hooked. But this one was about a woman climbing the ranks and as the title suggests, becomes the mob queen. This was very well written and the time period was done accurately. I loved reading about a woman rather than a man working his way up in the 1930s mob scene. This is one of my top 10 ARCs of the year!