Brutal Vows

Reviews

• Cenigh

  Finished March 14, 2026

  This book was absolutely fantastic. This and the 3rd book are my favorites of the series. I devoured them. The humor and banter were phenomenal. The 2nd book was good as well, but I was not a fan of the first. I am so glad that others insisted I continue reading because the other books were so much better than the 1st one. Reyna is terrific. She is strong, fierce, brave, and a real badass. I love how her brother and other men in the family fear her (they call her the black widow). She was married at 16 to an extremely violent & abusive, and sadistic psychopath, who she was rumored to have killed 14 years into their marriage. Spider is honorable, loyal, protective, funny, charismatic, perceptive, and he sees right through her from the start. He's intrigued and strongly attracted to her, but of course, he is engaged to her niece. He wants a wife who won't make him feel any strong emotions towards her (he doesn't think his heart could survive falling in love). Reyna is surprised that Spider doesn't fear her like everyone else. She misjudged him from the beginning; her assumptions made her dislike him at the start. She is protective of her niece and wants her to be able to marry for love or at least vet the man she is to marry, to ensure he isn't a monster like her husband was. Reyna's and Spider's chemistry was everything; it leapt off the page, and you could feel the heat build up and knew that it was like a powder keg ready to explode. Reyna was constantly spewing vitriol at Spider. Even her mother had a bit of her snark, but it was rarely aimed at Spider since she took a shine to him from the beginning. Reyna was also attracted to Spider from the onset, but was in denial over it. Spider is hot and a great dirty talker. Their wedding night was a spicy read. The names he called her were sublimely perfect and funny (i.e., wee viper, she devil, & swamp witch). The insults are creative, I will give him that, and they fit her to a tee. Their verbal skirmishes were a battle I totally enjoyed and laughed at. She takes it a bit too far, and Spider tells her he never wants to see her again, and he is not welcome to come visit her niece once they are married, which devastates Reyna. In reality, he doesn't want to see her because of how attracted he is to her. Reyna had an acerbic tongue and loved to threaten to kill Spider, but sadly for her, that only turned him on more (he loved her spirit). The wedding ceremony was something, a surprise switch of brides unbeknownst to everyone, including the groom. Once married, though, Spider wants her to be happy and even offers to buy her her own house after he finds out about her past with her dead husband. They both have experienced a lot of trauma in their past and are broken in their own ways. It was very refreshing to see a MMC (or any mc) communicating and not letting misunderstandings fester (Spider actually went to therapy in the past). He totally opens up to her and tells her his shameful and horrendous story from his past. They share secrets no one else knows about themselves. Rey's icy walls melt a little when Spider tells her he would have killed her husband and made it slow and painful, since no one else in her life would have ever done that for her. Gianni, Reyna's brother, only cares about becoming Capo. He is a selfish, bad guy and was glad he got his comeuppance in the end. Troy Duran & Tara Langella voice narrations were excellent. I highly recommend the audiobook. I’ve never seen an attractive serial killer, but I bet this is exactly what she’d look like. “Too late, woman. I’ve already seen the swamp witch you’re trying to hide under that human skin suit you’re wearing.” I leap to my feet, kicking the chair out from under me and crouching low. Pulling my gun from the holster inside my suit jacket, I snap, “Get under the table!” “No can do. I’ve got wine to finish.” As another volley of shots rings out, she sips her wine and smiles at me. Bloody hell. The whole fucking family is bonkers. Reyna. Queen Devil Bitch of All Existence, who makes my blood boil and my dick hard and speaks to me with the kind of disrespect no man would dare to, because it would get him killed. Reyna who hates me. Reyna who challenges me. Reyna who has the guts of a Viking and the body of a fertility goddess and the attitude of a feral cat. I shouldn’t be worried about her. If anyone ever did kidnap that woman, he’d regret it within the hour. He’d throw her back through the front window with an apology note and speed away as fast as he could. If she didn’t drive a dagger through his heart first. She’s a witch! Demon spawn of the devil! But she shot a man for me. She had my back—literally—and killed a man. Despite her sharp edges that could cleanly shear off a limb, I like how smart she is. How quick-witted. How funny, though I’m usually the punchline of the joke. I like the way she lobs an insult like a tennis drive, then hits me again when I lob one back. I like how protective she is of Lili. How tender she is with her. Like a mama bear with her cub. It means she’s not all razor blades and barbed wire. Somewhere underneath all that armor she wears beats a soft heart. “No, because I don’t want to be telling secrets to the soul eater who replaced Queen Devil Bitch with this reasonable person.” He waves a hand at me in irritation. “Whoever she is.” Queen Devil Bitch of All Existence.” “I’m not comfortable answering that.” “And I’m not comfortable taking a wife who thinks she’s not going to have to sleep with me.” She closes her eyes and mutters, “Jesus Christ, Quinn, you’re killing me.” Leaning close to her ear, my heart pounding like mad and my dick aching, I murmur, “If I marry you, Reyna, I get to fuck you as hard and as often as I want.” “Oh my God.” “That’s the deal, or there’s no deal.” I pull away and gaze down at her. “I’ve wanted you since the first second I saw you, stabbing me to death with those eyes from the bedroom window at your house. This fake marriage includes sex, or it doesn’t happen.” “Mr. Quinn … will you marry me?” I reach out and stroke my fingertips over her cheek. “Aye, viper,” I murmur, feeling my blood pump fast and hot through my veins. “I’ll marry you. But if you decide to kill me, wait until tomorrow.” She arches a brow. “Because?” “Because I need to feel those sharp claws of yours dig into my back at least once before I die.” And what I think is that deep down, you wanted to marry me.” “Your ego is the eighth wonder of the world, my friend.” “I never thought I’d find a threat on my life romantic.” “Oh, shut up,” I grumble, shaking my head in disgust. “You’re an idiot.” “But I’m your idiot,” he says, his laughter fading. His voice lowers an octave. His gaze grows intense. “And you’re my viper.” “I hate that nickname.” He growls, “No, you don’t, you fucking liar.” He pulls me in and kisses me. He growls, “Fuck, it’s hot when you threaten to kill me.” Which means she’ll have to kill me to get away. But I won’t give her a reason to. I’ll be the opposite of everything her last husband was. I want her to learn that marriage to me isn’t the end of her life. It’s only the beginning. Which means she’ll have to kill me to get away. But I won’t give her a reason to. I’ll be the opposite of everything her last husband was. I want her to learn that marriage to me isn’t the end of her life. It’s only the beginning. I’ve never cried in my adult life, but I think I’m about to break that record. Watching my face with shining eyes, she says softly, “Don’t you dare look at me with pity. I’m not a victim. I’m a survivor. I’m alive. There are millions of other women just like me who weren’t so lucky.” I exhale a disbelieving breath. “Lucky.” “Yes,” she says vehemently. “And grateful. And determined I’ll never waste another second of this life I won. So get your Irish ass over here and fuck me, or I’ll divorce you so fast, it’ll make your head spin.” Later on, I’ll look back and realize this is the exact moment I fell in love with her. I’d be a liar if I told him I didn’t like him calling me his good girl, though I really fucking hate that I like it. Quinn. The name of the man who looks at me like I’m a sunrise and laughs when I threaten to end his life. The man whose ego is so big, it could flatten a city, but whose heart is so tender, it broke when he saw my scars. The man I know almost nothing about except that he’s sweeter than any made man should be. Under all his macho swaggering, past his comic book superhero good looks and beyond his armor of snark, there lies a soul that aches with loneliness. Just like mine does. Or did, until right now. “I’ll kill anyone who ever disrespects you. I’ll kill anyone who even looks at you the wrong way. If anyone so much as annoys you, I’ll put a bullet in his skull and throw his body into the Charles River. You never have to fight your own battles again, viper, understood? I’ll fucking destroy any dumb motherfucker who ever dares to even make you frown.” My sweet girl. I’d kill an army for you. I’d burn down empires and lay all their gold at your feet.” But all I feel is sheltered. Secure. As if his body is a shield instead of a weapon that could do me harm. For the first time in my life, a man feels not like war to me, but like home. “I think you’re a brilliant golden sun in a sky that’s only ever known the black and starless night.” “I’ll kill anyone who ever hurts you. Including myself.” “I don’t ever want to hear you talk about hurting yourself. I don’t like it. The only person who’s allowed to hurt you around here is me.” He lifts his head and peers at me. I warn, “Don’t you dare say another word, Quinn.” “I have to. Because that almost sounded like you care.” “I’m not lying. I’ve never felt safer before than I do right now, here with you. My gorgeous, masculine, badass Irishman who I haven’t stopped thinking about since the day we met.” When he scrambles down my body, shoves his face between my legs, and starts to feast eagerly on my pussy, I decide it doesn’t matter. If he’ll do this every time I say something nice to him, I’m going to be a goddamn cookie dispenser from now on. “Did you just disrespect my wife?” When he smirks at me, I pull out my gun and put a bullet in his head. “And you have the nerve to call me a land mine. You explode at the drop of a hat.” He shoves his gun back into his waistband and pulls me against his side with one arm. Glaring at Massimo, he growls, “Nobody disrespects my girl.” I am a sick and twisted individual, because this violent display of protectiveness has got me so hot, I want to push him down to the bare concrete and tear off his pants with my teeth. I know he’s only hunting for praise, but I still sigh in exasperation. “The psychotic machismo. Watching you blow out someone’s brains because you didn’t like the way he talked about me was a real turn-on.” A smile in his voice, he murmurs, “Careful, viper. Another compliment like that and you’ll have a hundred bodies laid out at your feet by the end of the day.” I shiver with happiness, burying my face into the crook of his neck. Then, because I know my reaction is all sorts of wrong, I say sternly, “That’s awful.” “You never mentioned that, viper. You let me fuck you and—” “Keep your voice down!” “—begged for me to come inside you. Begged me. And the whole time, you weren’t on birth control.” He bites my throat, then says hotly into my ear, “What does that mean?” Shivering, I whisper, “That I have brain damage and should be taken to see a specialist immediately.” When he finally breaks the kiss, he’s breathing hard, his eyes are ablaze, and his expression can only be described as exultant. He looks as if he just returned from a trip to heaven where he took a personal meeting with God himself. “You want my children.” I cover my eyes with a hand. He pulls it away and insists, “You want me to get you pregnant.” I groan. He laughs, and it sounds crazed. “That’s why you begged me to come inside you, baby. You want me to knock you up.” “What I really want is to go back in time to before we had this stupid conversation.” “Why are you telling me that?” “So both of us know something about the other that no one else does. So that you don’t feel like I have something to hold over you. And so you know I trust you with my life.” “But just so we’re clear, Quinn, whatever happens next, I want you by my side. Marriage license or not, contract or not, head of the Cosa Nostra or not, I want you.” I laugh softly. “You and your superior gladiator seed with which I’d like to make babies.”

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• Hades

  Finished October 10, 2025

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