Series: Protector Series #3
Author: Celia Aaron
Genre: Mafia Romance (standalone)
Release Date: August 28, 2018
Cover Image: FuriousFotog
Cover Design: Perfect Pear Creative Covers
I had her once. Or at least I thought I did. But that was a long time ago. Before prison. Before I became the Butcher. Seeing her now shouldn’t make me feel anything. It’s been too long. She forgot about me as soon as I was sent away. But all those truths can’t break the connection that links me to my Angel. No matter how hard I try, I’m still drawn to her, damned to want her even though she’s promised to another man. Being assigned to serve as her bodyguard is a torture so ingenious that I have to respect it. If I don’t deliver her to the altar, my life is forfeit to the Genoa family. But if I do, losing her again may kill me surer than a hitman's bullet.
Author's Note: This is the third novel in the Dark Protector world, David Raven's story, and a standalone.
Review
4.5 Stars
David Raven was made for the role of the Butcher, tall and strong and terrifying even to those he reports to. Angel, though, is sweet and innocent, her fearless nature taken from her. As youth living in broken homes they found allies in each other, the comfort of each other's arms just one night enough to tell them they're meant to be. The hard world they were born into though wants to chew them up and spit them out, separating them for 5 years and putting each on a path they can't escape from. When David sees her again, beautiful and broken, he knows he'll do whatever it takes to have her.
"I was his little bobble head doll. Beautiful but hollow."
I love Celia Aaron's Protector series, each standalone made up of terrifying men with hearts made for for loving. The Butcher was no different, an erotic, suspenseful romance that tells the tale of two young adults trapped in the mafia world that was impossible to put down. While David seems made for it, accustomed and even enjoying the bloodshed, Angel is not for the life. She's clearly broken, a doll for the men who rule her life, but she had a bite to her and I liked watching young Angel come back out of her shell. As the story progresses we see the characters develop further, with David comfortable with the darkness and Angel embracing it as she learns to fight evil with the same darkness. On top of the action and mafia drama there is a romance, with these two driven by a youthful love, the kind no one forgets, and by lust that simmers between them. They're meant to be, they can see that, but those who run the show aren't about to let them go.
"I was just the guy for the job. No one else could touch the depths of brutality I would willingly plumb. After all, I was the Butcher"
"I was just the guy for the job. No one else could touch the depths of brutality I would willingly plumb. After all, I was the Butcher"
Told in dual POVs, The Butch is the dual-POV story of two star-crossed lovers and the risks they're willing to take. Bodies fall, lives are threatened, and yet love keeps them both fighting. David and Angel's novel is full of twists and turns, with Angel as David's guiding light. I highly recommend each standalone in this series and am so happy we have a new Protector to lust after.
Celia Aaron is a USA Today bestselling author and recovering attorney who loves romance and erotic fiction. Dark to light, angsty to funny, real to fantasy--if it's hot and strikes her fancy, she writes it. Thanks for reading.
Posts
Post a Comment