Bennett Mafia

This is definitely more on the average end of Tijan's books. I didn't think the characters provided much chemistry at all, though they were having sex every five pages in the last half of the book. There was a lot of withheld potential relationship communication for the sake of badass-pretense but as life constantly shows us, it's actually REALLY badass if you communicate with your partner and face your feelings directly. Consequently, when we are first introduced to the Bennett mafia, the patriarch and Kai Bennett particularly, in a flashback, I could really think of them as cowards for going to their daughter's/sister's school and telling her tragic news, only to walk away.

(And no, that lingering moment that the protagonist bases Kai's sliver of humanity on does not redeem him in any way for that entire scene. I know he was under his father's control and it's not really his actions I'm critiquing here. The book is based on Kai having this morally gray, nuanced approach to conducting business and the main character excuses a lot his attitude with just that, excuses. I actually would have liked if the author embraced more of Kai's character head-on rather than reading from the timid-dance Riley's mind plays anytime she tries to rationalize any bad attitude or decision from Kai. It would have been much more nuanced had the author confronted the hard decisions Kai made throughout the book with all the planning that led up to the grand "reveal/finale", rather than dissecting while it was happening.)

The rest of the characters were lackluster, which is not to say is a surprise from Tijan, but I wish she'd spent more time on their history and relationship to the protagonist because it would have been great to connect to their personalities and motivations.

I feel like I might be unduly harsh on this one but I'm not a big mafia fan. I'm a Tijan fan. :) I will read anything she publishes to get more of that angst she does so well. This has not dissuaded me from my dedication.