Beautiful Carnage: A Dark Enemies to Lovers Romance (Dark Empire, Book 1)

-m/f-no cheating-Romeo/Juliet vibe-enemies to lovers-steamy-slow burn-interconnected stand-alone series-multi POV-mafia, but very light on the mafia aspectThis book was brilliant. I have to say that it exceeded my expectations. It’s always a gamble for me on whether or not I’m going to like a book by these two authors, I seem to go back and forth. But this one has well and truly exceeded my expectations.You have a mafia princess and a mafia prince from rival families who have had it engrained in them to hate the other due to many lives that have been taken on both sides. On our principessa’s wedding day, she is kidnapped and taken from her life in metaphorical chains, and placed in actual chains by the 3 brothers of the rival family. From there, we slowly watch the sexual tension heat the pages up and we get to watch their opinions of each other slowly change. I like the slow burn aspect because I felt like we really got to watch them fall in love, and it wasn’t insta-love, or even insta-lust, they wanted nothing to do with each other sexually in the beginning, cue the angst and alllll the feels regarding her believing she’s going to be killed and doing everything she can to escape. She really did have a lot of fight in her. I liked the extra mysteries/tension going on in the story, and the angst in the latter part of the book. I never felt bored with this book. The mafia aspect of the story, to me, was very light, which I was fine with because I really liked just sticking to watching these two circle each other until they snapped.Rocco was a yummy as hell manic psycho. I loved that he could be cold and controlled but yet also still had his crazy side where he literally makes up his own words to popular kids songs about murder, he was quite entertaining. And once he decided she was it for him, NOTHING would stand in the way.Sloan was the perfect heroine for Rocco. I thought she was the perfect mix of strong and soft. Not once did I ever roll my eyes at her or think she was a weak heroine. I really did think she was great. I personally thought she had a lot of growth in this book. She went from a girl who accepted her carefully planned future by her father, to learning how to stand up for herself and become a survivor. Although she always had the fight to live, right from the very beginning. I LOVED watching her put up a hell of a fight for a small woman on this big brute of a man.I have to say that these authors are truly on-point with their character development. I felt like I really was in these characters heads and could understand their actions because I KNEW them.Overall, this was an excellent book and I look forward to reading others in the series.

Wow, I was on the edge of my seat. So many plot twists and hot steamy scenes. I can't wait for the next book.

❄️ TROPES & THEMES ❄️✔️ mafia romance✔️ enemies to lovers✔️ found family✔️ kidnapping (the FMC)✔️ Romeo & Juliet vibes✔️ icicle play 👀✔️ steamy standalone✔️ a feisty Pomeranian named CocoTruly I played myself waiting so long to pick up this book. I don’t dip my toes into other waters that are not my usual romantasy/pnr vibes but I’m glad I did!The sisters wrote such a fun, unhinged and deliciously spicy mafia romance here! I had the most fun reading this story. One of the biggest things that stuck out to me the most was how strong and resilient Sloan the FMC stayed. No matter what she was going through, she always remained strong for herself and it was so refreshing. Rocco the MMC was slightly feral with a tough exterior, but mushy insides when it came to her… eventually. 😏The story was great and I was dying to know what was gonna happen next. This is a standalone book, with an HEA, and the next focuses on a side character. 👀Mafia romance lovers, this one was an excellent one and I highly recommend it!

In Beautiful Carnage we learn about the Calabresi and Romero families. Two rivals for years with a history of violent attacks on each other. We first meet Sloan, the only child of the Calabresi family. With her role in her father’s plans she has been sheltered and given no control over her own decisions. Being as her father has no male heir he arranges a marriage between her and Nicoli, the boy he raised and primed as his own. During the wedding though Sloan is kidnapped by Rocco Romero and his brothers. They take her to their hideaway and keep her locked in the wine cellar with nothing but a couple blankets. Being tired of being used and treated poorly, Sloan finally snaps and fights to break free from her captives and her father’s control.“I’ve lived my entire life in a cage, Rocco,” the only difference here is that my chains are on show to the world.”.Sloan is such a relatable and likeable character. She is just someone who wants to be free of the chains tying her down. She wants to find herself and make her own choices. It was nice seeing her grow during the story. I enjoyed watching her defend herself and not let others push her around. Her and Rocco’s chemistry was intense. There were so many times you see them fighting their feelings since they were raised as enemies. When they finally give in it is all fireworks!“Forget our families,” he growled. “I don’t want to talk about any of that right now. I just want to enjoy you."While we get Rocco’s and Sloan’s POV we also get Nicoli’s too while he searches for his fiance along with the best sidekick Coco the pomeranian. Nicoli is one of my favorite male characters and even though he wasn’t the main character in this book he still won my heart. Enzo and Frankie are great side character’s also and I look forward to their books. The plot twist at the end had me speechless. I did not see that coming at all. My heart broke for the Romero family and I’m glad a certain character met their end.

This is either the most self aware, hilariously addicting mafia romance book or just so bad I ate it up.

I really enjoyed the mafia romance. However, I would not consider it a dark mafia romance. There was some spice, but not a lot of it. That being said what we did get was spicy. I loved the banter between the characters, especially between the FMC and MMC. I felt that the end wrapped up too quickly. I don’t want to give away any spoilers but I felt like there could have been an additional chapter put in there. I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

OKAY so Caroline and Susanne slay me.I loved Rocco. 100% added to my list of fake boyfriends because he is effing perfection. So damaged, dark, broken, twisted and Savage. But all it takes is recognizing his twin flame in Sloan and he's done for.And Sloan! I 100% thought she would be some weak, scared, ill equipped spoiled brat. But- she has SO much fire in her. She wants to figure out who she can be without being guarded all the time. And even though she's been kidnapped by the Romero's, she's more free than she's ever been!Holy crap though, was this a slow burn. The tension had me ON EDGE!!! When they finally fooled around for the first time I was off the couch celebrating right along with them!!I loved that no only was this the whole mafia kidnapping thing, we had some additional storylines.Also... how many TROPES can you get in a book?!?!- kidnapped on her wedding day by a rival mafia family with an obviously hot son- forced proximity- Enemies to Lovers- bully- and then that surprise at the end.....!Yep. Loved it so good.**** can we also have a standing ovation for the Icicle?!?! Well done. Just so good.12/104/5 spice... I mean, it was HOT!

This book is absolutely amazing if ur looking for a good dark (mafia) romance this is it.The main story is going to be about 2 mafia families that are rivals.There is an arranged marriage trope the girl gets kidnapped on her wedding day, by the oldest son of the other familie.He kidnaps her and they start falling for each other very spicy and steamy scenes will come up.Its a real enemies to lovers book and absolutely so good!I gave it a 5⭐️ cant wait to hop on the following book names Beautiful Savage!Also i rarely buy from Amazon but i came nice nothing was wrong with the book so im very happy!

What an amazing book. I never read the Zodiac Academy series as it didn’t appeal to me.However this book was truly amazing. It’s well written.They are truly enemies at the beginning… not like any typical mafia book where they are enemies for 2 seconds … here they are really at each other throat!!It’s slow burn but with enough spice for my liking, likeable characters with normal reaction, and some plot twists and the mix was perfect!Will read the other book now

It's so difficult to find a good mafia book. This.one was.really perfect for my taste. Let's move to the second one.

Libro bueno para pasar el rato.