Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Release Day Review & $50 Giveaway:Rocco (Ruin & Revenge #3) by Sarah Castille


Title: Rocco
Series: Ruin & Revenge #3
Author: Sarah Castille
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: January 2, 2018

Blurb


Rocco is the third book in a full-length, standalone series by New York Times bestselling author, Sarah Castille, set in Las Vegas and featuring deliciously sexy mafia bosses and the women who can’t help but love them.

Mafia enforcer Rocco De Lucchi is the best in the business.

Cold, hard, and utterly ruthless, Rocco is the most dangerous of men. Feelings are a luxury he cannot afford―until a chance encounter brings him face to face with the only woman who found her way into his heart and touched his soul.

Grace Mantini has spent her whole life running from the mob. The daughter of the boss's right-hand man, she is both a prize and a target. When Rocco walks back into her life, she wants nothing to do with the man who betrayed her and broke her heart. But only Rocco can protect her from the dangerous forces that seek to destroy her family. Can they escape the hands of fate closing around them? Or will love be the kiss of death for them both?




Purchase Links

AMAZON US / UK / CA / AU



Praise for Rocco

“The high-octane third in Castille’s Ruin & Revenge series…[Grace and Rocco] have plenty of explosive chemistry and appealing vulnerability.” – Publishers Weekly

“So awesome I don’t know how to even begin to explain it without giving anything away. Sexy. Romantic. And a little funny…A book that will have you up all night.” – Whispers from the Mountain

 
What I thought about Rocco
 
The enforcer is always an interesting character in a mafia romance, and Rocco De Lucchi is serious about his job.  Having been sadistically trained for the role as a child, he knows he can't ever compromise his job with feelings and emotions that might prevent him from finishing his contracts. But he's known love in the past with a mafia daughter named Grace. 

Grace and Rocco loved each other well, in spite of a ten year age difference and Rocco's job with the mob.  But when Rocco's trainer sees that Rocco is getting too involved, he puts an end to their relationship in the worst way.  Grace is left with a stark reminder of who Rocco is and what he does for the mafia family. She swears off everything about the mafia and runs away from New York for Vegas to get away from it all. 

Fast forward and as fate would have it, Rocco and Grace find each other in Vegas after many years.  There's an instant rekindling of their passion, and even though Grace wants nothing to do with the mafia she can't let Rocco go again.  Unfortunately Grace is pulled back in when a contract hit is placed on her family, and when others start pointing the finger at Rocco  as the killer, Grace has a lot of competing emotions to content with.  Can she trust Rocco?  And how much danger is she in?

Grace does a complete turnaround as the mafia's activities get too close to her and her family.  She starts out as not wanting anything to do with the mafia but she sees that can never happen with the cards she's been dealt. Her view of the family business is different when those she loves are in jeopardy. 

Rocco is in a pickle too -- staying with Grace isn't an option for an enforcer and trying to leave the family will put him six feet under. Lucky for him, Nico, Mia, Luca and Gabrielle are there to help! It was great to see these characters from the previous books in the series and their feelings toward Rocco were so touching. Rocco couldn't have done it without them!

There was a nice set of secondary characters too, from Grace's roommates to Rocco's buddies Mike and Paolo.  I'm hoping there will be more to this series, especially since there is a little teasing nugget of information regarding Rocco's heritage that was left unspecified.  (had to read that part twice!  Can't wait to see who he's related to!)

I enjoyed Rocco's story.  Sarah Castille does a great job of crafting a character who is savage but also has the capacity to love and that was very satisfying.  Rocco brutality is not watered down, and I really did love these scenes. They were nicely contrasted with the Rocco he became when Grace was with him.

There is something about second chance lovers that always gets me interested and Rocco and Grace definitely deserved to be together.  I had some issues with a few of the scenes that slowed things down a little too much for me, and that is why I'm not giving this a 5 star rating. Overall, I did like Rocco and Grace's HEA and I still want to know more about Rocco's heritage!  

Looking forward to more in this series!

An ARC was provided for review. 


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Also Available


AMAZON US / UK / CA / AU



AMAZON US / UK / CA / AU






Author Bio


Sarah Castille is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Redemption Series, Ruin & Revenge Series, Sinner’s Tribe Motorcycle Club series, and Legal Heat series. A recovering lawyer with a fondness for dirty-talking alpha males, she now is a full-time writer, who lives on Vancouver Island. Sarah’s books have been listed as Publisher’s Weekly’s Top Ten Picks and Best Summer Reads, and Amazon’s Best Romance Books of the Year, and have won numerous reader’s choice awards including the Holt Medallion.


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