Beautiful Broken Obsession (Bratva Bound 1) by Fiona Murphy-review tour

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date May 31, 2022.

“You’re getting married. Milos Levin needs a wife. He heads the Russian mafia—Bratva—here in Chicago. It’s time for him to get married, he wants kids and he wants them soon.”

Ice slides down my spine. Milos Levin is a man who has haunted my dreams and nightmares for the last four years. As the daughter of the Don of the Outfit, I knew this was a possibility. Yet I hoped since I made it to the ancient age of twenty-three, I was safe from a mob marriage. I’m the weird cat lady, too fat, and my mother is half Filipino. I shouldn’t have anyone asking for me—but Milos isn’t asking for me.

All he wants is a woman who fits his needs, someone who will cement his relationship with the Outfit and give him the children he wants. He would take my sister if she were willing because, as he told Carlo, all women are the same in the dark. But Carlo picked me, and I’ll do anything to protect my little sister.

Or so I tell myself—but that’s the biggest lie of all. The truth is four years ago I met Milos Levin on a freezing February morning, and I’ve never been the same since. I’ll marry him because I think that day, as crazy as it sounds, I fell in love with him.

But I can’t let Milos know that. Ever. He’s mafia, and whatever the name, their ways are all the same: take until there’s nothing left, then leave the enemy broken. I won’t be broken by him, or anyone. I won’t become my mother, willing to endure the affairs and lies in exchange for the money and status.

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REVIEW:BEAUTIFUL BROKEN OBSESSION is the first instalment in Fiona Murphy’s contemporary, adult BRATVA BOUND dark, erotic, Mafia, age-gap romance series-a spin off from the author’s THE SABATINI FAMILY series. This is thirty –nine year old Russian Pakhan Milos Levin, and twenty-three year old Celia Parker’s story line. You do not have to have read the previous series-several of the characters cross over or are mentioned as part of the world building.

WARNING: Due to the nature of the story line premise, there may be triggers for more sensitive readers including violence and graphic language.

Told from dual first person perspectives (Celia and Milos) following several time lines BEAUTIFUL BROKEN OBSESSION focuses on the relationship and arranged marriage between thirty –nine year old Milos Levin, and twenty-three year old Celia Parker. Four years earlier, a then nineteen year old Celia Parker would meet the head of the Chicago Russian Bratva Pakhan Milos Levin, and her world would never be the same. Throughout the next four years Celia would willingly and unknowingly depend upon the man to whom she would be promised in marriage, a marriage of convenience in the criminal underworld but Celia’s home life was cold and distant, except for her sister Carina whom she loved very much. Hoping to get her degree as a veterinarian, Celia faces a number of challenges, many of which are too difficult to overcome. Fast forward to present day wherein Milos Levin returns to claim our story line heroine but secrets reveal both Milos and Celia have been targeted from opposite directions, and Milos is determined to protect the woman he intends to call his own. What ensues is the building but tempestuous relationship between Milos and Celia, and the potential fall-out as a marriage of convenience doesn’t necessarily mean a marriage for love.

Celia Parker wants nothing to do with an arranged marriage, and Milos must suffer her immature attitude and behavior but Celia was raised in the Bratva lifestyle, and is heart broken to accept a life unwanted and unloved having watched her mother pine for a man she could not have. With emotional issues of low self-esteem, Celia believes she is unworthy of love and affection. Wanting Milo meant accepting a life of loneliness, Celia struggles to move forward feeling betrayed by her family, and the man with whom she is falling in love. Milos Levin fell for Celia from the moment they met but Celia was too young to claim, and Milos wanted Celia to experience a life without the invisible bars but someone has placed a target on Celia and her sister, and Milos ensures that no harm will come to our story line heroine.

The relationship between Milos and Celia is acrimonious at best. Although Celia wants nothing to do with an arranged marriage, our heroine finds herself wanting the man who could break her heart. Four years without the woman that calls to his heart, Milos Levin struggles in the face of an unknown enemy, and an enemy from within. The $ex scenes are intimate, aggressive and erotic with some scenes of spanking. I do not like the use of a certain four letter word-used 69 times throughout the story-although I accept the word in my MC and Mafia romances, I found the overuse distracting, excessive and disruptive.

We are introduced to Milos Levin’s brothers Maxim, Damien, Aleksander, and Nikita as well as their mother, and uncle Gregori: Celia’s sister Carina, their parents Carlo and Cassandra, and Celia’s roommate and best friend Sergei; Milos’ right hand man Peter, and the cameos by Luca Sabatini, Tony and Christy Sabatini, and Dominic and Regina Sabatini, the Mafia and the Cartel. Here’s hoping the author has plans for Milos’ brothers and Celia’s sister as each introduction reveals a life of their own.

BEAUTIFUL BROKEN OBSESSION is a detailed story of family and relationships, betrayal and vengeance, secrets and lies, obsession and love. The premise is captivating, complex and twisted including the establishment of a number of future story lines; the romance is seductive and provocative; the characters are determined, charismatic and combative.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

Due to commitment issues I have lived in many different cities and my favorite is Chicago but I have managed to settle into Austin and perhaps my commitment issues are behind me. 

I have enjoyed reading from a very young age and it wasn’t long before the children books bored me and I read the books my mother enjoyed Stephen King and Dean Koontz and I didn’t sleep without the light on until I was about ten.

I came across my first Harlequin by accident and it was love at first read, no one died and happy endings? It was a whole new world and I loved it.

I wrote my first story at eight and everyone died, of course. Since then I would like to think I’ve gotten better and now I’m writing the happily ever afters I first fell in love with, with some hot sex thrown in along the way. 

As a plus size woman myself, I have started writing the stories I always wanted to see myself in but never did. And now I’m ecstatic to give BBWs the happily ever afters with hot Alphas I want to read.

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