Savage Ruler: An Enemies to Lovers Arranged Marriage Dark Mafia Romance (Sinfully Savage Mafia)

Savage Ruler is the mafia romance between Matteo Villani, the new Manhattan mafia Don from Sicily who is focused on growing his business, and Heaven Mulligan, the independent and fiery daughter of the Irish mafia Don who shares responsibility for her family organization with her oldest brother. A marriage of convenience with Matteo occurs to protect Heather when her brother kills a member of another rival mafia family. I really enjoyed the strength of each character even with their flaws. The storyline is superbly constructed with steamy and erotic passion. I highly recommend this excellent book which is one of the best Kristen Luciani has written in my opinion.I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

The story was good, if a bit unbelievable. Matteo started out strong, like you would expect the leader of the Sicilian mafia to be, but then he turned wimpy, allowing the leader of a drug cartel to threaten him and make demands without ever responding strongly in return. Instead it's, gee sorry, please forgive me. And Heaven, the heroine, is supposedly an underboss of an Irish mafia and yet she regularly walks around without a gun, tends to freeze up whenever violence happens, and doesn't seem to know how to fight. #1, she wouldn't last a day on the streets like that but we are supposed to believe she can take out the cartel boss and his guard by herself? Like I said, a bit unbelievable. But, the story otherwise is good. If the author had cleaned up the couple of problems noted, it would have been a fabulous book.

This book is my first Mizz Kristen tale & I have to admit I'm impressed. She can twisty & turn a suspended filled tale with unexpected baddies popping out of the woodwork. Both Matteo & Heaven are scarred by a past tragic event that has scarred them & either seem to think that they will ever prove themselves worthy. Spicy dialogue, fierce characters with complexities, lots of NAUGHTINESS galore, betrayal is rampant & there is no looking around any corners of this romance unfolds. Mizz Kristen gets my too score of 5 fingers up & 10 toes for this dazzling unstoppable amp up tale.

-M\F-Mafia-supposed to be dark, but I’ve definitely read much darker-arranged marriage-steamyI really struggled to rate this book. This book is about Heaven and Matteo. Heaven is from an Irish mafia family, and Matteo is from an Italian mafia family. One of heavens brothers does something stupid that ends up putting their family in danger. To solve the issue, her father arranges for her to marry Matteo to strengthen their family ties/connections for more protection. Don’t forget to add in steamy bedroom scenes, betrayal, crappy family members, battles for top dog in the family dynamic, and an enemy out for blood. First let me tell you what I didn’t like:❌ lack of BC/sexual preparedness: I didn’t like that this was never even discussed in the book. They have unprotected sex the entire time and it’s never mentioned if she’s on birth control or if they’ve been checked for diseases or anything. Idk, that’s just a turn off for me.❌at one point, during a sex scene, Matteo literally compares his hard erection to a dead body L O L literally says “stiff as a corpse”. I guess if we’re trying to make the book “dark” I can understand where the author was trying to go... but yeah... making me think of a dead body in a sex scene just doesn’t work for me.❌Heaven talks about how horrible Matteo is in the beginning because of the sex clubs he owns. Keep in mind these are not trafficked girls, these are legit sex clubs. She also talks about how horrible their enemy is because he’s a drug lord.... okay, she’s from an Irish mafia family, that she’s currently trying to fight for leadership of, and they run drugs as well... so it’s a little hypocritical to judge them on what they do in their businesses when her family is no better, like at all.❌her brother literally tries to kill her at one point but she ends up later running off with him to kill the bad guy. I’m sorry but if I hated my brother and he legit tried killing me at one point, you best believe I wouldn’t be going anywhere with him where he could easily stab a knife in my back and say the enemy did it. Make it make sense please. (BTW f*ck her brother and her father, misogynist pricks)❌there’s really no background information at all. Yes, we know they all are mafia families and they apparently have beef with each other, but that’s basically all we get on the “mafia” information. Other than one family trafficks girls, some run drugs, etc. just not much info at all. Also, Matteo talks about his mom, but it’s never explained where she is and why she’s not there. Is she dead? Does she just not like to travel? Also, the way he hinted around at why he’s not in Sicily anymore, we never get much information on that. Yes we know someone he loved died, but he almost made it sound like he wasn’t allowed to go back there and then it’s never discussed further. I need to know these things ma’am.❌I felt like there was some inconsistency with Matteo. Most of the time he talked about how everyone should fear him, he’s gonna run this whole world eventually, etc, but then when he has a conversation with Heavens family enemy, and it almost felt like he tucked tail and bowed his head a little. Don’t make my alpha male a coward!!⚠️Heaven Heaven Heaven Heaven: I feel like I hated her and loved her too. In some places she was kickass. In others, I wanted to slap her and tell her to quit being ridiculous and stop feeling sorry for herself. And then she was kickass again. Quite the pickle she had me in while trying to decide my feelings for her. But, overall I decided I like her because i know just how ridiculous I can be with my emotions since having a baby so who am I to judge?⚠️ I’m making this one a caution, because it might bother some, and I’m sometimes fine with insta love, but here’s your warning, they’re in love within a week and a half of being “engaged”.There was a few other things that had me side eyeing my kindle and rolling my eyes a few times, but I can’t even remember them at this point. BUT, even though part of me feels like this book just didn’t work... the other part of me feels like it does and I can’t explain it. Maybe it was the angst and OTT drama, but I was hooked and had to keep reading to find out what happened next, which is the reason for 3 stars. Sometimes, that’s exactly what I want in a book. I want the ridiculousness, I want to suspend reality for a little bit and go frolicking in another world. Sneaky little author, I see you. Making me want to stop reading yet being addicted at the same time. I really wish I could give y’all a better explanation. I want to say I hated this book, but I can’t because it really did keep my attention, and it was decently steamy. I will say though, don’t go in to this expecting your new favorite read of the year, but I definitely think it’s good enough to give it a shot and see what you think, hell maybe it will be your new favorite, but it was an okay read for me and I don’t regret reading it.

Savage ruler had what we come to expect from the mafia genre and one I haven't read much about: a strong heroine in the mafia. Matthew and heaven had instant chemistry from the start and made for some sizzling scenes when they were intimate. There was betrayal, action commaction karma and annoying characters that you wanted to smack lol. Sarah and Tor did a great job narrating and I think their voices seemed to match the characters and their personalities.#TheFlockOnTour #TheFlockVIPReviewTeam #PinkFlamingoProductions #PFPAudio

Matteo, Italian Mafia, used as an enforcer and protector for the right amount, with a penchant for BDSM. Especially seen as he owns several rotating locations for those with the same desires.Heaven, Irish Mafia co-underboss, is used as the leveraging point for Matteo's protection payment. Protection from whom though gets convoluted the longer Matteo takes to finalize an underlying agreement with a cartel member who is gunning for her family. Unbeknownst to her are the layers of lies in between all the protection.The author definitely knows how to spin an erotic read steeped with secrets and suspense. Very thorough chapters filled with steamy moments between the bed sheets and other moments in which you are grasping at thoughts and straws to unravel the secrets yourself. Side note: Conor and Declan are a*ss hats.

Really enjoyed this first book in this dark mafia series. Heaven and Matteo are a dynamic duo together. Lots of twists and turns. Dangerous encounters. Exciting read.

Both Matteo and Heaven are savages in each their own way. Both are fierce on their own but together they will be even more fierce. Kristen knows how to spin herain characters with all the sondary ones. She keeps you turning the page to keep you hooked. There is intrigue, suspense, hate and love all mixed in together. Some questions are answered but other arise which hopefully be resolved in the other books in the series. Well done Kristen.

I enjoyed the outline of this book but felt like some of the scenes were anti climactic. Personally I thought Heather was a great character but couldn't understand why she would freeze at shooting someone when she happily likes to slice and dice them. It just didn't quite add up in places but could easily be rectified ☺️ Admittedly I felt like the sex scenes could've been a little kinkier for a guy that runs sex clubs but maybe that's just my foul mind 🤣Loved the section where Heather does go all badass 👌 and the push and pull with Matteo. Overall definitely enjoyable and worth a read but I think it could be made even better!

This is my first read by Kristen Luciani am I absolutely loved savage ruler and I love heaven and Mateo relationship they were everything and more and I love how heaven is such a bad ass and doesn’t let anyone walk all over her Mateo heaven‘s relationship is everything 4/5 ⭐️ 4/5🌶

Matteo is the head of a Mafia family, he is after another families empire and he also want Heaven who is underboss of another family he wants. Heaven is smart and firery. Her Brother causes so many issues but now her life is on the line. Matteo realises he loves her and nearly died saving her spice level is 5✳ plot 5✳