It says something about how open the corruption of real life officials has become in 2019 that I find a compassionate mob boss more compelling and sympathetic than many more noble-seeming romance heroes. In the context of this book, Christopher is definitely more hero than villain while actually being a villain. Snow definitely has reasons to not be bothered that his new guy is a mob boss. Content warning for violence & killing, dead and bad parents, & abductions including the rather low-trauma child abduction as the opener.

I have a bunch more quibbles than I would normally call out & still give a 4 star review, but the story held my interest and was enjoyable enough to recommend it and the author, who is new to me. I think the handling of Snow’s eidetic memory was handled really well. (Recently saw bio bit how friendships are hard when slights against you never fade.) I liked Christopher & Snow together. The thriller portion, though aided by what I think were mistakes, was mostly well done and internally consistent.

It’s not getting 5 from me because the motivation behind the romance didn’t feel sufficiently explained:

– Snow starts calling Mr Mob Boss by his first name all of a sudden. In most romances this transition is a point of new intimacy and that is what was attempted but I didn’t see the transition happening from Snow’s POV so it felt blurted out. It was awkward as my first thought was “who is Christopher?”
– Similarly, when things first start heating up between Christopher & Snow, Christopher has a thought about how “honored” he is to be getting it on with Snow. Huh? Sure, he’s nice enough but he was a filthy vagrant 5 minutes ago. Again, I did not get enough transition here to justify Mr. Power with Big Money being entranced by a guttersnipe.

Also, Christopher’s competence was too inconsistent. Quibbles are things that distract me from the story. I was pulled back into the story well enough to keep listening.

Spoilers ahead, which I will try to discuss without really spoiling things.
My quibbles:
– Christopher is a foot taller than Snow and likely a hundred mounds or more heavier and there is almost zero mention of how they accommodate each other.
– Snow is hired on to spend time with Simon, Christopher’s ward, but at several points where I would have expected Snow to be with Simon or at least check in with Simon, he was hanging out with Christopher or running around.
– I don’t recall how Snow kept afloat. It is mentioned that he decided not to be a sex worker. That was fine until he followed a perfectly reasonable explanation of “I tried it and it wasn’t my thing” with an wildly unnecessary dig at sex work being a wrong moral choice. This seemed like an attempt to make Snow more morally good than bad but came off as a dig at sex work. And like this sentence, it was redundant.
-Now that I think on it, I don’t remember how Mr Mob Boss makes money either. We know he inherited & desired his position. Presumably he isn’t living off investments.
– Security wise, very few of the gang seem to be housed in or near the very large castle-like house. I would expect multiple night guards, for instance. They may not all eat as family but there’s one scene where it was my understanding that the entire household gathered for dinner together (sans prisoner) and it was 9 people. Mob boss, Snow, Simon, female household help and 4 top male enforcers. I would expect, with the house’s setting, that there would be active patrols, and more bunking on site for someone who can muster a few dozen trusted/vetted members when needed.
– I find it odd that a police force from a not very distant town wouldn’t know on sight the top mob guys from a nearby city. If they’re that well known, they shouldn’t be a surprise to law enforcement.
– I appreciated Christopher’s “carrot before stick” approach but it worked too fast and isn’t consistent. Having multiple ways of dealing with hostiles is fine but the book opens with a series of fits of temper one justified, one not.
– Unlike some bad-boy romances, Christopher really does execute some enemies. (That isn’t the quibble.) But there were plot points that felt preventable had he been more on the ball, had more staff, or called in more favors. These points are weird because at other points in the book he is on the ball, has more staff, and calls in useful favors.
/End Spoilers

Normally after enumerating this many unforced errors, I start to get worked up and might drop the rating but no. I think the 4 stars hold. Here, having an entertaining tale about characters I want to see work things out triumphs over oddities in the details. Even with most of the sex being off page.

Steam: Medium-Low. M/M sex is had but it’s mostly closed door. There is some detail on page but not much. For all the graphic violence, it seemed a little odd to fade to black on the sex. It wasn’t badly done though, so we clearly see that they find each other sexy and act on that.

Narration: I thought it was well done by both narrators. The burly giant got the gruffer narrator so the voices felt matched to character. I like dual narration and this was a good example of it. Sound quality was even.