Review: Callous Desire: A Dark Mafia Romance (New York Underworld #4) by Charmaine Pauls

CALLOUS DESIRE is now available in ebook, paperback, and audiobook everywhere you read and listen! 👉 https://charmainepauls.com/books/new-york-underworld/callous-desire-book-4/

Tropes inside:
♡ Dark mafia romance
♡ Heroine on the run
♡ Strong, intelligent FMC
♡ Morally gray antihero
♡ Possessive & protective alpha male
♡ Mine
♡ Secret baby
♡ Second chance
♡ Forbidden love
♡ Forced marriage
♡ Enemies-to-lovers
♡ Touch her and ☠️
♡ Soulmates
♡ Betrayal, revenge & redemption

Blurb
My mother raised me on knights in shining armor and happily-ever-afters. She groomed me to be the perfect mafia princess. It was only natural that I’d believe in fairy tales.

Only, I didn’t fall for the prince.
I fell in love with my father’s enemy.

I’ve never deluded myself about the man Dante is. Powerful. Cold. Ruthless. Brutal. Bad doesn’t come close to describing him. But when he held me in his arms in a rented room, he showed me that he could be good. Just for me. He always chained the monster when I was pinned beneath him, at my most vulnerable and exposed, in the most dangerous place I could be.

The darkness I glimpsed in him is embedded in his soul, coloring his heart and world black. I knew exactly what I was getting into when I lost myself to a callous man. I just couldn’t have imagined in my wildest dreams that his seduction was only part of a cruel strategy and that I was nothing but the pawn he used for his revenge.

Note: Callous Desire is the first book in the Callous Duet and ends on a cliffhanger. Tatiana and Dante's story concludes in Callous Love. The duet is part of the New York Underworld series (Books 4 & 5). You don't have to read the other books in the series to follow this duet. The story contains violence and scenes not recommended for sensitive readers. Reader discretion is advised.

MY REVIEW

Tatiana's been on the run from her son's ruthless father Dante, for 5 years, when he finds them, and brings (forces) them back into his dark world. She didn't know it, doesn't believe now, that he has feelings for her. After his betrayal, she firmly believes she's only his pawn in the cat and mouse game he's been playing with her and her family for so long. As time goes by, the attraction between them only grows stronger, but the emotional connection is lacking. She refuses to give him the chance to break her broken heart all over again, absolutely refuses, even when he looks at her with what could pass for affection.

Dante did back then what he had to do, but he lost Tatiana because of it. Was it worth it? He thinks it was, because it got the result he wanted. But, he's a possessive man, AND Tatiana has, or knows where it is, something he wants. So he's got her back again and he's going to keep her, even if she refuses to give him her heart. He's not used to someone refusing him anything, saying no to him, and normally that person would be dealt with. But this is Tatiana, the only one he...loves? Feels something for? He's never defined how he feels other than that she belongs to him. As time goes by and she won't give him the emotional assurances he wants, he's starting to wonder if she ever will.

Charmaine always does this - gives me these complex characters with layers and layers of good, bad, and everything in between. Dante's on the black end of the scale, Tatiana's on the lighter end, and I'm worrying that never the twain shall meet, at least emotionally. I love Tatiana, her friend Jasper, and her adorable son. I'm not sure about Dante and all his horrible actions, but I have faith Charmaine will give him some sort of redemption in the conclusion, when Callous Love releases in a few weeks.