Book review: SAVED BY A GOD, by Michelle Heard

Kings of Mafia # 10

Enzo & Rosie

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This story felt like a beautiful farewell gift to the whole series. At the center of it all is Rosie, the bright, funny heart of the Cosa Nostra. She grew up surrounded by danger and power, yet she’s still the girl who loves pranks, jokes, and making every capo say “pretty please with a cherry on top” before she helps them. She’s their little sister, their genius hacker, and the one person everyone protects without question.

And then there’s Enzo, the man who feels everything too deeply and hides it behind discipline and silence. He has always cared for Rosie in his own quiet way, even when he convinced himself he couldn’t have her. Their bond—this strange mix of comfort, routine, and unspoken longing—was one of my favorite parts of the book.

What struck me most was how emotional this story is. Rosie goes through something terrifying and life‑changing, and the book handles her journey with so much heart. Watching the Cosa Nostra rally around her, watching Enzo fall apart and then pull himself back together for her, watching Rosie slowly return to herself—it all hit me so hard. I cried more than once.

The romance is tender and slow, full of care and patience. Enzo’s love shows in the way he protects her, the way he listens, the way he gives her space to heal. Rosie’s love shows in the way she trusts him and lets him lead, little by little, until she’s strong enough to stand on her feet and tease him like she used to. Their connection feels earned, deep, and incredibly sweet.

I also loved the family moments. The capos, the parents, the friends from all the different mafia groups—they all come together in a way that made my heart swell. When Rosie returns and everyone celebrates her, you can feel how much she means to them. It was one of the most touching scenes in the whole series.

By the end, everything comes full circle. Love, loyalty, healing, and family all wrap together in a perfect final chapter. The wedding had me in tears—happy ones.

This was an epic, emotional, beautiful ending to the Kings of Mafia series. I loved Rosie, I loved Enzo, and I loved every moment of their journey.

Purchase links

Amazon: https://geni.us/aSw9

About the author

Michelle Heard is a Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Bestselling Author who loves creating stories her readers can get lost in. She resides in South Africa with her son where she's always planning her next book to write, and trip to take.

 

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Book review: EVERY SHATTERED NOTE, by Claudia Burgoa

Heartbreak Mixtapes #3

Dexter & Alyssa

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Aly is an event planner who feels held together with duct tape and hope. She and her friend June run their business while sharing an apartment, and you can feel how Aly lives in a constant state of stress — juggling contracts, invoices, backup plans, and disasters waiting to happen.

One of those disasters hits when the wedding band falls apart and she’s still missing a guitarist. She storms into the venue lobby, sees a drenched guy with a guitar case, and immediately scolds him into getting presentable in five minutes. From his smirk, I knew he wasn’t the guitarist. Later we learn he’s Dexter Vaughn, rockstar, of the imploded band Dead Moth Parade, and honestly, he handles the whole thing like a champ. He steps in, plays beautifully, and completely floors her. He loves the quiet, intimate setting — no chaos, no crowds, just music. He even tells her to call him again, and she pretends she’s not impressed.

Aly has deep abandonment issues, so she refuses to get attached. Dex comes from a famous musical family, but his life has been loud, messy, and numbed with booze and drugs. He’s convinced he doesn’t deserve anything good, especially not someone like her. Still, they keep emailing and texting, and he keeps showing up as her substitute wedding singer. His friends roast him nonstop, especially Eddie, who warns him that hiding the truth will blow up eventually.

Dex falls first; Aly falls slower and with a lot more hesitation.

When he finally tells her who he really is, she’s shocked and hurt because he made her feel safe. He convinces her to get away for a couple of days, flying her to his grandparents’ place in Baja California. It’s luxurious, and the truth comes out — she’s shaken, but she adjusts. They have a lovely weekend… until a phone call drags Dex back into the nightmare he’s been running from.

We finally learn the whole story: a family scandal, courtesy of his father, and a stepbrother who resurfaces whenever he wants money or attention. This time, Dex decides he’s done hiding and he goes to fix things, asking Ally to wait for him. 

The romance is lovely, and I really liked how honest they were once they let themselves open up. Dex hides his identity, but his feelings for Ally are always real. Ally is scared, but she never pretends otherwise.

My biggest issue is the excessive emotional description. Because Dex is a musician, everything is described in musical metaphors — his guitar vibrating with feelings, sensations layered on sensations. It gets overwhelming, and sometimes the actual story gets buried under all the poetic babble. I also felt like we never got the full backstory for either of them. We see the symptoms — Ally overworking, Dex haunted by his past — but not the deeper roots. I skimmed parts because the emotional overload slowed things down.

Still, their connection is sweet, steady, and worth rooting for. Once they choose each other, they don’t let go.

Purchase links

https://a.co/d/01SdqI8w

About the author

Claudia is an award-winning, USA Today bestselling author. 

She writes alluring, thrilling stories about complicated women and the men who take their breaths away. Her books are the perfect blend of steamy and heartfelt, filled with emotional characters and explosive chemistry. Her writing takes readers to new heights, providing a variety of tears, laughs, and shocking moments that leave fans on the edge of their seats.

She lives in Denver, Colorado with her husband, her youngest two children, and three fluffy dogs.

When Claudia is not writing, you can find her reading, knitting, or just hanging out with her family. At nights, she likes to binge watches shows or movies with her equally geeky husband.

Connect with Claudia Burgoa:

https://claudiayburgoa.com/wp/links/ 

Book review: MIDNIGHT BETWEEN US, by Claudia Burgoa

Timberbridge Brothers #4

Kier & Simone

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Intense, emotional, and angsty, just how I like my books!  I devoured this book, then re-read slowly to enjoy and savor the angst.  This author enjoys wrenching my heart and putting it together again, and I love it!

I never thought Simone and Keir would ever get their HEA because they were so broken.  They both used the same strategy to deal with their issues: keep people apart, live alone, bury the pain deep inside so it doesn’t come out and unravel.  Except the love they had for each other, which they had buried deep and wanted to ignore, still existed and was too strong to resist.

I loved how the author structured this story.  It has reminiscences from a stormy past, for both Simone and Keir.  Keir comes from the Timberbridge brothers, who had such a crappy home life, full of violence, hatred, and abuse.  Since Keir was one of the oldest brothers, he took a lot of the abuse to protect his little brothers, so he has a lot of issues and dysfunctions to deal with.  Instead of giving us instant redemption and reconciliation, the author took the characters through tribulations and more heartache.   There is a part that was so emotional that I felt like my chest was going to crack open.  

Simone is the product of a teenage pregnancy, and what is worse, her grandfather is the town’s preacher.  She had to live with her mother’s bad reputation and her grandparents abuse of her mother, who finally left, and the strict, loveless household she was forced to live in.  They were each other’s comfort until Keir up and left without a goodbye, until he appears almost dead and tied up, in the trunk of a car.

There’s a feeling of menace, as Keir stays hidden from the Hollow Syndicate, the ones who beat him up and left for dead.  Simone was assigned to patch him up and keep him alive.  Then to keep him at her house which is like a fortress.  Imagine all the feelings and chemistry and guilt floating around for Keir, who abandoned Simone twenty years ago.  There’s resentment and pain on her part, guilt and repentance on his.  It’s all yummy angst!

Another thing I loved was seeing Atlas, oozing marital happiness and even giving out advice!  And then I understood that the older Timberbridge brothers, Malerick and Keir, are the most broken because they got the brunt of the abuse, and luckily their books were left for last, so the best was left for last, yay.  I have my suspicions about Malerick, let’s see if they turn out to be true.  Now I can’t wait for the final book, Malerick’s, and see how it’s all resolved.

Purchase links

https://geni.us/MidnightBetweenUs

About the author

Claudia is an award-winning, USA Today bestselling author. 

She writes alluring, thrilling stories about complicated women and the men who take their breaths away. Her books are the perfect blend of steamy and heartfelt, filled with emotional characters and explosive chemistry. Her writing takes readers to new heights, providing a variety of tears, laughs, and shocking moments that leave fans on the edge of their seats.

She lives in Denver, Colorado with her husband, her youngest two children, and three fluffy dogs.

When Claudia is not writing, you can find her reading, knitting, or just hanging out with her family. At nights, she likes to binge watches shows or movies with her equally geeky husband.

Connect with Claudia Burgoa:

https://claudiayburgoa.com/wp/links/ 

Book review: PENN, by Sawyer Bennett

Pittsburg Titans #17

Penn & Mila

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I was so looking forward to Penn Navarro’s story and the author didn’t disappoint!  He’s the best hockey player in the league, so getting him to play for the Titans was a major win.  However, he’s a jerk and a loner and it’s pretty apparent he has a huge chip on his shoulder. He rejects any friendly advance and keeps to himself.  The guys are frustrated because it affects their synergy, but leave him alone.

When a woman from his past appears, he rejects her calls for help until she convinces him of the gravity of the situation. Remembering how she was the only one on his side when a scandal broke out years ago, he agrees to help her, and thus causes a series of events to happen, not the least of which is that their chemistry goes nuclear.

I loved this story and loved Penn and Milla together.  Milla was brave in the past and is brave now, but totally fears for her safety.  Her story is sad, rejected by her parents and by Penn when she needed them most.  Penn is successful and rich, but very much alone.  

I loved seeing Milla shake Penn out of his bubble, make him open up and eventually realize that not all teammates are as treacherous as the ones of his youth.  I loved seeing all the Titans party together, the wives supporting Milla, and the guys supporting their teammate in his time of trouble. 

There’s a low thrum of suspense because there is someone who wants to harm Milla.  Penn thinks they need help and protection, so Jameson Force is brought in!  Now I got to see old friends from this series!  I love it when authors do crossovers and lets us see previous characters and how they are living their life.

The story has all the feels, love, fear, sex, friendship, suspense, and keeps you going on to find how it’s all resolved.  And what I love most of all? Penn’s opening up, to friends and to love.  It was everything I wanted and more!

Purchase links

https://geni.us/SB-Penn

About the author

New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal Bestselling author Sawyer Bennett uses real life experience to create relatable stories that appeal to a wide array of readers. From contemporary romance, fantasy romance, and both women’s and general fiction, Sawyer writes something for just about everyone.

A former trial lawyer from North Carolina, when she is not bringing fiction to life, Sawyer is a chauffeur, stylist, chef, maid, and personal assistant to her very adorable daughter, as well as full-time servant to her wonderfully naughty dogs.

If you’d like to receive a notification when Sawyer releases a new book, sign up for her newsletter (sawyerbennett.com/signup).

Connect with Sawyer Bennett:

https://geni.us/SawyerBennett

Book review: FIRST VERSE, by L.M. Halloran

A Perfect Song Duet #1

Wilder & Evangeline

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This author is the queen of angst and I am a willing subject.  I love how she shreds my heart, how she makes her characters so perfectly adorable and broken, and their story so compelling.  

Wilder and Evangeline are the children of the Breaking Giants rock band; Evangeline is Matt Sullivan’s daughter, Wilder is Julian Ashburn’s son.  Like their fathers, they’re insanely talented and have been making music since children.  They had their own band when they were teenagers, and right after high school, Wilder debuted in the high stakes world with his band Night Theory, and with Evangeline doing keyboards and harmonizing with his voice.  They were magical together but inside, they were broken.

I truly loved this story, stopped many times because I didn’t want it to end.  I was completely captivated by both characters and also saw that they were poison to each other.  Wilder was obsessed with Evangeline and not in a healthy way, and Evangeline was constantly hurt by Wilder’s selfish wants.  I saw the love, the need, their co-dependency, loved how they harmonized together, like they were soulmates, but they feel unfinished, like they were not ready for each other.  Both needed to grow up, to learn to love themselves first before they could love unselfishly and wholeheartedly.  It was such a beautiful story, full of love and yearning, and I even loved that it ended in a cliffhanger because I understand that they needed a little more growing individually before being together.  Now I can’t wait for the next book and read what it brings!

Purchase links

https://a.co/d/2OkZiGQ 

Available in KU 

About the author

When not writing or reading, the author can be found gardening barefoot or chasing her spirited daughter. Some of her favorite things are puzzles, podcasts, and small dogs that resemble Ewoks. Home is Portland, Oregon.

Connect with L.M. Halloran:

https://www.lmhalloran.com/