❤️🧡To Have & To Hold (Brutal Vows 5) by Aleatha Romig-review tour❤️🧡
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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date March 24, 2025
The Roríguez cartel is spinning out of control, tragedy putting the alliance and our future in question.
I’m Emiliano Ruiz and throughout the last few years, I’ve witnessed my sisters being doled out to members of the Luciano Mafia. The cartel has also taken famiglia women. It doesn’t matter if it’s the Luciano famiglia’s turn to take a bride.
My mind is set—it’s my turn.
I never imagined marrying a young bride until I caught sight of Isabella Luciano. She’s only eighteen, and with her long yellow hair and big brown eyes, she’s a vision to behold. She sees me, however, through the tinted lens of her father’s hatred.
Carmine Luciano’s disdain of the cartel and the alliance isn’t a secret. His opinion won’t stop me. I’ll prove to Isabella that even bad men can be good husbands.
No matter what her father says or what happens in our war, Isabella will be mine.
•••••
REVIEW:TO HAVE AND TO HOLD is the fifth and final? Instalment in Aleatha Romig’s contemporary , adult BRUTAL VOWS erotic, Mafia romance series. This is twenty-nine year old, Roriguez Cartel lieutenant Emiliano ‘Em’ Ruiz, and eighteen year old, Luciano Mafia princess Isabella Luciano’s story line. TO HAVE AND TO HOLD can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story lines is revealed where necessary but I recommend reading the series in order for backstory and cohesion.
Told from dual first person perspectives (Em and Isabella) TO HAVE AND TO HOLD follows in the wake of Isabella Luciano’s arrival in San Diego, California where she is tasked with helping her cousin Dario’s sister Mia, in the wake of the birth of her child but Isabella believes she is being tested, in the hopes of crawling home with her proverbial tail tucked between her legs . As a princess in the Luciano Mafia, Isabella has been ordered to keep her distance from the Mexican Cartel but two of Isabella’s cousins have married into the Roriguez Cartel, and our heroine is about to lose her heart to their newest Lieutenant. Emiliano ‘Em’ Ruiz is a high ranking member of the Roriguez Cartel, and our hero has fallen for a woman who has been raised to fear, wholly unaware of the workings of the Mafia and Cartel. As Em begins a slow seduction of our story line heroine, the Cartel is pulled into war the Russian Bratva.
The world building follows several paths including the dysfunctional dynamics of the Luciano family. Isabella is nothing more than a naïve pawn for her father’s rise to power but our heroine refuses to stand down when her father demands her return and more. As the Cartel battles for control, Isabella quickly learns about the dangers threatening the man that she loves.
The relationship between Isabella and Em is an age-gap, forbidden love, Romeo and Juliet-esque story of insta-love. Emiliano knows immediately that Isabella is the woman he is hoping to claim as his own but Isabella struggles with the pre-conceived notion that all Cartel members are dangerous killers. Naive and young, raised in a proverbial gilded cage, Isabella quickly settles into life with the Roriguez Cartel, falling for a man who will lay claim to her heart. The $ex scenes are passionate and intense without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.
Once again, there is a large ensemble of colorful, powerful and energetic secondary and supporting characters, most of whom we met in the previous story lines including Isabella’s new friend Liliana. We are introduced to Isabella’s father Carmine Luciano, and her siblings Noemi and Tony, and her guards Horace and Silas.
TO HAVE AND TO HOLD is a story of power and control, family and restriction, acceptance and love. The character driven premise is engaging and compelling; the romance is seductive; the characters are determined and charismatic.The Brutal Vows series is not as dark or dramatic as some of the other Mafia romance story lines-the quick conflict resolution is subdued but there is plenty of sl&t shaming, which is addressed and condemned..
Reading Order and Previous Reviews
Now and Forever
Til Death Do Us Part
Bound By A Promise
Queens and Monsters
Copy supplied for review
Reviewed by Sandy
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Aleatha Romig is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author who lives in Indiana, USA. She grew up in Mishawaka, graduated from Indiana University, and is currently living south of Indianapolis. Aleatha has raised three children with her high school sweetheart and husband of over thirty years. Before she became a full-time author, she worked days as a dental hygienist and spent her nights writing. Now, when she’s not imagining mind-blowing twists and turns, she likes to spend her time a with her family and friends. Her other pastimes include reading and creating heroes/anti-heroes who haunt your dreams and bring your imagination to life!
Aleatha released her first novel, CONSEQUENCES, in August of 2011. CONSEQUENCES became a bestselling series with five novels and two companions released from 2011 through 2015. The compelling and epic story of Anthony and Claire Rawlings has graced more than half a million e-readers. Aleatha released the first of her series TALES FROM THE DARK SIDE, INSIDIOUS, in the fall of 2014. These stand alone thrillers continue Aleatha’s twisted style with an increase in heat.
In the fall of 2015, Aleatha moved head first into the world of dark romantic suspense with the release of BETRAYAL, the first of her five novel INFIDELITY series that has taken the reading world by storm. She also began her traditional publishing career with Thomas and Mercer. Her books INTO THE LIGHT and AWAY FROM THE DARK were published through this mystery/thriller publisher in 2016.
In the spring of 2017, Aleatha released her first stand-alone, fun, and sexy romantic comedy with PLUS ONE, followed by the sweet stand-alone, ONE NIGHT.
Aleatha is a “Published Author’s Network” member of the Romance Writers of America and PEN America. She is represented by Kevan Lyon of Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.
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