Matteo (The Syndicates series) Paperback – January 20, 2021

What a good story. The book is written well and all of the characters are described beautifully. I loved reading Vanessa and Matteo’s story! This is the first book that I have read by Cala Riley but not the last! ♥️♥️♥️

I thought this was a good story. I felt that it didn't represent the Mafia people like I'm used to in other books, not that I know any Mafia people, but seemed tamer. Otherwise it was a good read about a homeless woman meeting a Mafia guy and they fall in love.

Matteo such a good daddy. Loved him for her. Made me sad when Nico died. Loved how Matteo took care of him though

This book was okay. It felt extremely rushed. It's a rags to riches story for the FMC. But at the beginning of the book, the MMC is a little, let's say, demanding and unnecessarily rude. It's got a little bit of spice to it, but not much. I liked to story line a little bit, but it was really lacking. There needed to be more to the plot and stories of both the MMC and the FMC.

Let me start off by saying that you don’t need to have read the previous mafia books by Cala Riley to understand this world, however if you are like me you may run to amazon and grab them because it gives you more of these characters stories and after I finished this book I was instantly in the authors inbox saying I NEED MORE.Matteo is tied for one of my top reads of January.Matteo is a BAMF hero, with a dirty dirty mouth but when you get to know the real him, I swear he’s a giant teddy bear and you just want to snuggle him to keep you safe at night.Vanessa... where do I begin. Cala Riley nailed her on the head ... well not literally but there are some super sick (in a good way) scenes in here that are utter *kisses fingers* perfection! Anyway back to our heroine, my heart not only broke for her and the hardships that she has faced throughout her life but as we get a deep dive into her character development we get to grow with her - discovering her newfound hopes, wants, dreams and needs. We are learning them just as she is. For all her live she didn’t need more- just whatever it took to survive.Now you put these two on a page and holy moly it’s tension for days! Rewards never seemed so sweet!I highly recommend checking out this book and I will most definitely be adding this paperback to my shelf.

I loved the character development in this!Vanessa goes from fighting the comfortable life she always wanted being thrust at her, to finally embracing it. She is indifferent towards Matteo at first then finally opens up enough to get to know him as more than what she made up in her mind.Matteo has been struggling to find the love he is constantly surrounded by when it bumps into him. He is acting completely out of normal with Vanessa and he just can't figure out why. Watching the struggle of wanting her and then not being sure what to do when he finally does. Then being unsure about her because the people around him keep instilling doubt (with good reason).Well written, just wished I could have seen her gain more freedom throughout. It only touched on her doubts about actually being able to leave when she wants, followed by how it bothered him when she went shopping with the ladies. There was never the discussion between the characters about the conflicting thoughts on the matter. Probably just me but I would have liked that tid bit just for their relationship development.Fantastic read, totally recommend if you like Mafia romance with kidnapping trope.

Cala Riley really knocked it out of the park with this release! Trust me when I say, If you love Mafia Romance, you will love this book.The chemistry between Matteo and Vanessa was page melting. And when I tell you this book is hot, I mean it.I loved Matteo right off the bat. He was an jerk, but he has a sweet side that he didn’t let too many people see. He was so protective of Vanessa.I was weary of Vanessa, because I loved Matteo so much. She’d had a hard life and wasn’t willing to trust so easily, but when she finally let her guard down I started to love her character. She was a force to be reckoned with.This book definitely deserves five stars. It was steamy and exciting. It left me on the edge of my seat. And I truly didn’t see some things that happened coming.

I really enjoyed this book. It has all the Mafia elements: money, power, family, loyalty, rules, action and consequence, and revenge. Plus a lovely dose of hot sex. I really like how the characters were slowly revealed. There wasn’t an overdose of introspection. Characters you would like to know and have in your own life. Kudos to Cala and Riley.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/6.🌶️🌶️🌶️/5.This was my first book by this author and i actually enjoyed the heck out of this.Vanessa is a homeless girl but she holds up to her values and no matter the offers she gets, she always turned it out because she knows nothing is for free. I loved how street smart she was and i loved the dynamic she had with Matteo.Matteo felt like he needed to help the homeless girl who stole from him because he has sisters and he knows how hard life can be. I loved how thoughtful he was and how/ why he set himself up to conquer Vanessa and her heart.I loved that she didn't gave in right away and she slowly started trusting that Matteo was way more than his reputation and family.I loved the sexy dynamic they had and i liked how through those scenes, they built their trust in each other.I will say i found Matteo's relationship with Iz a bit weird. Her reaction in the beginning felt like a jealous ex and i didn't vibe with it however she did redeemed herself in my eyes later on.I did like how tight the friendship within the family was and i honestly can't wait to read the next one.

I am a sucker for rich meets poor. In this instance, Matteo bumps into Homeless Vanessa and drops his wallet. Vanessa picks it up and runs off. Matteo is so cute (i know, he is not suppose to be cute... should be big tough mafia guy!. But i think he is cute... at least underneath) some funny moments, slow burn, rags to riches story. This couple was perfect, so cute!

For a fearless mafia man, Mattel has a soft heart. From the start he had stars in his eyes.For me, the tough stuff was a little too absent, but overall a good read.

My first read from this author duo and series. It's one I've been wanting to read for quite a long while, and as I received an arc for the 7th book in the series, Kenji, I decided now was the best time to start.The storyline in this was good, and I think it had a lot of promise. It combined some of my favourite elements... mafia romance and rich guy-poor girl with lots of awkward embarrassment from the girl's POV due to feeling inadequate. But, personally, I just didn't love the writing style and felt I wasn't fully immersed in the story. Plus, there were some elements of Matteo's behaviour and other situations that happened which felt a bit unrealistic.I did like the way they talked about Vanessa's homelessness situation though. Rather than just saying she'd been homeless, they went into more depth and gave us more background on some of the struggles she went through, whilst being so.Likewise, I was interested in the family bond between Matteo and his family/friends, and was definitely shocked by a specific event that happened towards the end! I was expecting to find out that it hadn't actually happened as we thought, but was gutted to find out that it did.The set up for the 2nd book seemed quite intriguing too, so I'll definitely check it out with the hopes that the writing hits better for me.I rated this 2* because for me it was just okay. It's not that I didn't like it, but I think it could've been better personally.