Dark Hearts Series by Victoria Holliday

I know only one way to acknowledge the anniversary of my mama’s death – by drinking away the memories in a back street bar. But there’s nothing like waking up to the news I’m to marry the don of New York’s biggest mafia family to induce the hangover from hell. My husband-to-be is unhinged and terrifying, but marrying him is the only way to save our family. I expect my fiancé to be disinterested in me, and he is. What I don’t expect is… his brother... moreI know only one way to acknowledge the anniversary of my mama’s death – by drinking away the memories in a back street bar. But there’s nothing like waking up to the news I’m to marry the don of New York’s biggest mafia family to induce the hangover from hell. My husband-to-be is unhinged and terrifying, but marrying him is the only way to save our family. I expect my fiancé to be disinterested in me, and he is. What I don’t expect is… his brother. Cristiano Di Santo is intense, unfairly handsome, and has a tendency to shoot people’s hands off if they don’t do as he demands. He’s also charged with protecting me. If that means crippling any man who looks my way, and carrying me upside down out of parties, his performance is exemplary. If it means not watching me when I shower, and not holding me through my nightmares… not so much. It takes me just six weeks to realize I’m falling for the wrong brother, and with my wedding day around the corner, my heart isn’t all I want to give him. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------. Mafia ~ Forbidden romance ~ Arranged marriage ~ Virgin bride ~ Touch her and d^e ~ Forced proximity. less

Hate is too small a word for the way I feel about Benito Bernadi, the Di Santo’s consigliere. If Benito hadn’t ruined the Falconi family two years ago, they wouldn’t have dragged their son – my best friend – across 50 States, and I wouldn’t have given Federico my V card as a parting gift. My sister’s marriage to the don of the Di Santo mafia family makes it hard to avoid Benito’s rock solid presence and smoldering glares... moreHate is too small a word for the way I feel about Benito Bernadi, the Di Santo’s consigliere. If Benito hadn’t ruined the Falconi family two years ago, they wouldn’t have dragged their son – my best friend – across 50 States, and I wouldn’t have given Federico my V card as a parting gift. My sister’s marriage to the don of the Di Santo mafia family makes it hard to avoid Benito’s rock solid presence and smoldering glares. But when he goes and buys the office above my dance studio, escaping him is impossible. He knows just how to get under my skin and he’ll stop at nothing to do so. Shooting my stalker in the head? Tick. Treating me like I belong to him. Tick. Flashing his inked chest and corded biceps when he thinks I’m not looking? Tick, tick, tick. Just when my head has been emptied of sharp put-downs, and filled with the feel of Benito’s rough hands on my thighs and searing lips on my throat, Federico Falconi comes home. And he’s no longer a scorned boy. He’s a man with a chip on his shoulder, a loaded gun in his waistband and a thirst for revenge. And he’s going to make me choose. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------. Mafia romance ~ Enemies to lovers ~ Touch her and d^e ~ Opposites attract ~ Possessive & jealous MMC ~ Feisty FMC. less

**It is very important you read the trigger warning at the beginning of the book before proceeding. Your mental health matters. **. Watching my sister marry her soulmate should have been the happiest day of my life, but instead, it was the day my life ended. The handsome hotel guest who caught me from falling, listened to my dreams and spun me into a web with his rough thumb and whispered words, is not the innocent man I thought he was. He is someone else entirely... more**It is very important you read the trigger warning at the beginning of the book before proceeding. Your mental health matters. **. Watching my sister marry her soulmate should have been the happiest day of my life, but instead, it was the day my life ended. The handsome hotel guest who caught me from falling, listened to my dreams and spun me into a web with his rough thumb and whispered words, is not the innocent man I thought he was. He is someone else entirely. And as it turns out, he never wanted me—he wanted Boston. So he and my brother-in-law made a Boston's underworld for my hand in marriage. Now I'm engaged to a man I don't know, whose icy gaze can freeze the warmest of hearts, and whose roared threats can make the most fearsome bow down. When he finally sees me as more than a piece of collateral, cold screams in the dead of night turn to heated gasps in dark doorways. But scars run deep beneath the Band-Aid. Will our marriage of convenience remain just that? Or will his persistence peel away my protective layers, allowing me to finally live my truth? ----------------------------------------------------------------------. Mafia romance ~ Arranged marriage ~ Virgin bride ~ Touch her and d^e ~ Innocent FMC ~ Possessive MMC. ----------------------------------------------------------------------. A note from Where Quiet Hearts Scream can be read as a standalone but the experience will be better if you start with book 1, Where Dark Hearts Devour. Please read the trigger warning. less

Being the youngest of four sisters, I’m the one who remembers our beautiful Mama the least. And the only one who has to face every day the painful reality that Papa has moved on. I’m also the only sister who has to share a roof with the devastatingly handsome but chillingly arrogant capo, Nicolò Di Santo—my new stepbrother. While I can’t help but watch every enchanting move he makes, he doesn’t even know I exist... moreBeing the youngest of four sisters, I’m the one who remembers our beautiful Mama the least. And the only one who has to face every day the painful reality that Papa has moved on. I’m also the only sister who has to share a roof with the devastatingly handsome but chillingly arrogant capo, Nicolò Di Santo—my new stepbrother. While I can’t help but watch every enchanting move he makes, he doesn’t even know I exist. In another life, he’d be the man of my dreams, but in this one, he’s rude, dismissive and bitterly cold. He's far from sub-zero in my fantasies though. The heat he brings to my dreams in the dead of night makes the pages of my diary smoulder. The leather-bound book is my darkest indulgence and most delicious secret. But on my eighteenth birthday, I discover Nicolò Di Santo has read every page. And now he’s the one watching me. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------. TROPES: Mafia ~ Forbidden romance ~ Stepbrother ~ Look at her and d^e ~ Forced proximity. less