Reviews

Favorite quote:
“We could never be just fucking friends. You awaken too much in me. You make something warm spark through the coldness inside me.”

Thank you to The Author Agency and C.C. Monroe for the chance to ARC read this. All opinions are my own.

danireads1225's review

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5.0

I freaking loved this book. Mafia romance. Marriage of deception. Family drama. Kick ass female main character. Spice - lord, the spice!!!

Emelia’s father is a mafia boss who is a truly awful person. He forces Emelia to marry Nico under the guise of an alliance between the two families.

Nico has his own agenda, unbeknownst to Emelia. But…he also shows Emelia how a woman should be treated.

_elliereads's review

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adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 (see spice scale on my instagram)

“Don’t you ever threaten to leave me, Emelia. You are mine, and I would hunt you down to the ends of this fucking earth if you ever tried to hide.”

Emilia, a mob boss’s daughter is forced to marry Nico, a mob boss himself. Emilia’s father wants to use her to get information on Nico’s outfit so he can destroy it from within. However, Emilia having been abused by her father since forever, quickly finds some sort of safe haven with Nico and doesn’t want to help her abusive father anymore. Emilia and Nico hate each other but are also crazy attracted to each other.. will there marriage become real and will they survive their enemies?

Boy did I love this book! Nico is HAAAAWT!! I absolutely loved Emilia en Nico together. Their banter is A+ and there is so much sexual tension between these two. Sparks fly when they get together. And when he threw in a “my wife” I was done.

I’m a big mafia romance lover and this was everything a good mafia romance should be. Do check trigger warnings before reading this as it is on the darker side.

Plotwise it made me think of Cora Reilly‘s Bound By Honor which is one of my all time favorite books so that’s high praise coming from me 🤣

The thing with dark mafia romance is that you can’t take it to seriously… I feel like a lot of people think it’s over the top or that there’s no storyline but you’re just reading it with the wrong mindset. A forced marriage between a mob princess and a mob boss who definitely do not like each other. The marriage is obviously just a means to an end and then suddenly they start to like each other more than lust for each other (although the lust never dies). The guys are always smoking hot and so extremely sexy in a crazy dark way. And the women usually very feisty.

This book had all of that along with some crazy mafia related scenes (⚠️ TW)

The sex was often, spicy and a touch darker. There was a scene with a gun and a window.. just dropping that here to end this review.

amberraex's review

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

4.0

I have previously only read a few books by CC Monroe and I follow her on all her socials where I saw all the sneak peeks for months regarding this book. I have never read a mafia romance and was super excited for her to be releasing this trope as I am a fan of her writing style.

I was blessed by CC to receive an ARC copy to read and review.

Let me tell you - I WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED!

CC does it again with an amazing plot with plus size representation and all the romance. The shmut in this book is *chefs kiss* top tier. Emelia and Nico are one of my favorite couples for 2023. He is a super protected alpha that will do anything to protect his Queen. My only complaint is the voyeurism scene. I wish we would have gotten more from that scene (if you know, you know). Other than that, the book was great. 10/10 recommend.

This book is very different from her normal writing style, which proves she can tackle multiple tropes.

Please check trigger warnings before proceeding.

*mafia
*confident plus size FMC
*primal play
*knife play
*gun play
*voyeurism

felicityvaughn's review

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

“𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐬. 𝐈 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐬𝐡𝐞’𝐬 𝐚 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐭, 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐤𝐲𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐚 𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐚𝐥. 𝐓𝐨 𝐟𝐥𝐲 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐞𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐨𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐭-𝐮𝐩 𝐰𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐡.”

⭐️: 5
🌶️: 4

Y’all. Y’ALL. Listen to me right now.

CC Monroe has just singlehandedly with one novel proven something—just because an author has always written a certain genre and prefers a particular set of tropes does not mean that she can’t one day decide to write something on the other end of the spectrum with the OPPOSITE trope from what she’s known for…and knock it right out of the fcking park.

Arranged Deception is now in the top 3 of my favorite mafia romances, and that’s a big deal because I have quite a few of them that I adore.

Nico & Emelia are that push and pull kind of strangers to enemies to lovers thrust into a forced marriage that I just EAT. RIGHT. UP. Their banter is top tier, and my GOD do they hate each other for a good while.

But let’s not forget, y’all…the opposite of love is not hate. It’s indifference. And they were NEVER indifferent to one another.

There were times I thought this could never turn out okay because HOW COULD IT with everything they had working against them? But trust in CC, y’all. I swear.

What to expect:
💍strangers to enemies to lovers
💍forced marriage
💍dark mafia romance
💍confident, sassy plus-size queen
💍warring families
💍slow burn
💍the BEST banter
💍sêxüal tension for dayyyyys
💍”don’t disrespect my wife”
💍literally…”touch her and I’ll unalive you”
💍hate-fking that is top tier
💍he’s soft only for her (but not right away by ANY means)

check tw for sure.

Thank you to CC for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

Content Warnings

looksandbooks1's review

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

4.5

4.5 stars
CC does it again! I was able to read this as an arc, and from chapter one, I was hooked! I immediately fell in love with Emelia and how brave she was. Her whole life, she was used as a punching bag by her family physically and mentally. Now she has to be in an arranged marriage with the most ruthless crime boss shw just trading one monster for another.
NICO to me was that ultimate alphahole that feeds odd of fear and respect, and he wants nothing less in his bride. They both have their own plan of what this marriage will turn out to be. Their intensity of hate was consuming. How much they loathed each other but were drawn was so magnetic. I love enemies to lovers, but add in arranged marriage is pure gold. I was constantly tense in this book because of so many variables and secrets. The smexy scene jeezus. Cc is always a one click author for me, and this book did not disappoint.

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