| Title | : | The Broker (Venice Mafia, #2) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 435 |
| Publication | : | First published September 14, 2023 |
here.
The Broker is my nemesis. Now I’m forced to rely on him to protect me.
Dante Colonna. Ferociously competent and distractingly sexy, the heir to the Venetian Mafia is my enemy.
My boss.
My abusive ex’s brother.
But when danger comes calling, he’s the only one who can protect me and my young daughter.
And in exchange, he wants just one thing…
Me.
The Broker is a standalone enemies-to-lovers mafia romance with a single mom hacker heroine and an ultra-competent hero who will do whatever it takes to get her. No cliffhanger. HEA guaranteed.
The Broker (Venice Mafia, #2) Reviews
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This is a Mafia Romance, and this is the second book in this series. I have read the first book in this series before picking up this book. This starts around the same point that the first book in this series started from, but it is just told from a different point of view. I love the characters in this book, and I loved getting to know the characters in this book better. This book is a fast paced book with a lot of steam and romance with action and a little suspense mixed into it. Loved it and I could not put this book down. I was kindly provided an e-copy of this book by the publisher or author (Tara Crescent) via Booksirens, so I can give an honest review about how I feel about this book. I want to send a big Thank you to them for that.
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He supposedly has been in love with her for 10 years but did jack shit about it except make her hate him
She has been celibate for 10 years while he who is supposedly madly in love has been whoring and dating around for 10 years
And even goes on a date and attemps to sleep with ow after the book starts untill the fmc ruins the date.
He goes on a rant on how he hated going on dates and sleeping with women because they aren't her, like boohoo is that supposed to be romantic? Are we supposed to swoon? If you didnt want them then dont fucking be with them
Sigh what a basic book
She's a tech genius that's not like other women with thick glasses and boyish clothes
Girl bffr you'll never be Morana
And dont get me started on her shaming the ow he went on a date with like how is it her fault the man has no balls and would rather be on a date with her then ask you out ? The fmc was appaling with her pick me nonsense
Safety and trpes:
- no cheating
- bit of jealousy no major owd
- clibate fmc , manwhore mmc
- the book is promoted as boy obsessed and he falls first but i will tell you it's utter BS, SHE was the one pathetically obsessed
-single mom
- ex's brother
- mention of past abuse and child kidnapping -
I love the dynamic of these two MCs. Dante is Valentina's ex's brother. Ex was an abusive jerk and now dead. Dante and Valentina work for the same mafia organization and although they're attracted to each other, have never acted on that attraction due to their shared traumatic past. Circumstances changed and they start to reveal their feelings to each other. Smexy times ensue and all is looking good until the bad guy rears his head. Not much of a mystery and it's a bit anti-climatic, but I loved their relationship and how you saw them grow. Great HEA.
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The Broker broke my heart and put it back together. Valentina had a bad hand dealt to her in the form of an abusive boyfriend who is now deceased. Dante is Valentina's ex's brother and they share space in the same mafia organization. Dante has always felt an intense connection to Valentina and when danger arises he must protect her at all costs.
Valentina is reluctant to accept help but knows she needs it. Working together, Valentina and Dante begin to explore the chemistry between them. Will they have a future?
This was a slow burn and I appreciated that because it gave them a chance to really create a wonderful foundation of love and trust. When the steam did happen, it was pretty hot. Valentina was...at times...too stubborn in my opinion and Dante a little too much of a pushover. But ultimately I liked them as real authentic human beings who have seen the worst parts of humanity and become better for it.
The suspense and action was decent but rather anti-climatic and unoriginal. The Broker was an enjoyable ride.
ARC in exchange for an honest review. -
He met her ten years ago in the hospital, beaten from her abusive boyfriend, also known as his brother.
Dante and Valentina
What a ride, she always thought of him as her nemesis, she hated him or did she just dislike him?
Secrets unravel, love gets in the way, will she forgive him when she knows the truth?
Valentina, The Sparrow, I loved Valentina's personality, she's a badass hacker, a strong mother who didn't let anything defeat her, a survivor of her abusive asshole of an ex
Dante, The Broker, dark hair smoky gray eyes, he gives the best compliments out of nowhere, an overprotective ass who adores his niece (what else could you ask for??)
He gives out his control for her, so she could feel safe with him, he literally has a tattoo of a sparrow that matches hers HOW CUTE IS THAT???
“And the flowers keep appearing in the office.
Every day, there is a fresh vase of blooms.”
“That’s why I never see any of those damned women again. Because none of them are you.”
"Tie me up" he said
“Hang on. Am I hearing you correctly? Dante Colonna, control freak extraordinaire, is voluntarily offering to give up control.”
“I do the math. Dante’s telling me he’s had sex once in the last five years. Once. He wasn’t traumatized like I was. He wasn’t afraid of sex, wasn’t terrified of intimacy.
It was because he wanted me.”
“That’s my sparrow.” -
I hate booktok
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An okay read. It was something to pass the time and honestly to reach my year reading goal. 😅
This is an enemies to lovers mafia romance, it was interesting enough that I kept reading till the end but not a favorite.
I don’t get how Antonio wasn’t even on the scenes regarding the incident with Angelica. He wasn’t mentioned at all even though he is the head of the Venice mafia and this was a direct attack on his people. Anyway, just another one that didn’t do it for me. I don’t know why tho but I feel like reading the rest of the series so that’s what I’ll do. 🤷🏻♀️ -
3,5 ⭐️
Dante & Valentina (+Angelica 👩👧) / Mafia romance (plutôt soft je dirai)
Elle est hakeuse (original j’aime bien même si c’est pas trop développé). Il est un des chef mais genre mega sweet / gentil et tout à certain moment.
Ça manque de transition, ils sont censé se détester mais bon c’est pas trop visible. Elle est censée avoir des difficultés avec les moments intimes mdrrr elle a vite oublié.
J’aurai aimé qu’on s’attarde plus sur certaines scènes mais bon.
En vrai c’est pas mal !
(Ça se passe en Italie, 🥰 référence à plein de nom de villes j’ai biennggg) -
DNF at 65% because I don't understand what is so wrong with the MMC having to kill the FMC's abusive boyfriend and making such a fuss about worrying that she won't forgive him. HIS POV: "You can’t keep this from her. She would see it as a betrayal of her trust." I don't see any problem here, to be honest. It's basically communication!!! Just talk!!
Another thing that irks me is why the MMC is still going on dates when he has been in love with the FMC for so many years.
However, I do love those chapters where they spend quality time together in the MMC's home like any other typical family. It's very heartwarming, NGL. -
3.7 stars
I really liked the book in the beginning but the rest of the book fell flat. The characters had depth but there wasn’t a lot of romance between Dante and Valentina. One moment they hate each other and the next they’re in “love”. Like I get that they had 10 years of pining but we didn’t see any of that. The plot was so generic. I’ve read the same plot in like every mafia book ever. I wished we got more of Angelica though. The books pacing was also very awkward. There were a lot of time jumps and a lot of things were happening in past tense. -
First off, I loved it! And 2nd, though this cover is nice, the Kindle cover version is exactly how I pictured Dante!
I really loved this story. Frenemies turned into lovers. The only problem I had was that it took too damn long. 10 years, they have been juggling their feelings. Granted, Valentina had a totally legit reason, but I just wished they came to the conclusion sooner. Great story filled with betrayal, suspense, hot sex scenes, plus the killing. I love the killing sooooooo much, Lol. In the end, Valentina and Dante get their HEA, and I am overly happy that Leo is getting his own story!!! Yessssssss totally love that dude. And the bonus scene, I freaking lurrrrvvvveeed it!!!!
Kudos on a job well done 4.5 stars🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 -
I loved this book, the story was just so good. I loved how much they both pined for each other but never admitted it, until they had to! I also enjoyed how much of a devoted uncle Dante was. Great storytelling and likeable character, would like to read about more of them.
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Hilariously, I forgot to mark it as read
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2.5/5⭐️ —mediocre 😬
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What a way to have my comeback to reading.
Incredibly predictable plot but had a grand time nonetheless. -
Single mom hacker and a guy in the mafia. It was good! It was really fast paced, really action packed which I loved. A lot of mafia romances tend to focus on the romance side for the most part but this had a lot of action to the point almost where the romance felt like a subplot but I liked it a lot. The characters were good together. Dante and Valentina were great as individuals too.The third act breakup kind of annoyed me but I could see both sides easily tbh. It was a still a pretty good read and this one was one that tiktok got right for me for the first time in a long time so that's good. This can also be a really good palate cleanser. I'd recommend!
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I FINALLY FINISHED ANOTHER BOOK!!!
Yayy fuck reading slump.
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.
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This book is good. Not something great to imprint on your heart and mind forever, but really good. Good plot ending in a whimper...not a bang as the FMC called it 😂
Good characters, good smut, good fast pacing. All in all it works really well 🩷 Well that I want to read other two books in the series. Lessgooo -
MMC/FMC- Dante and Valentina
POV- 1st person dual
Genre- Mafia Romance
Setting- Venice, Italy
Meet Cute? He rescued her from his abusive brother.
Heat- 🌋🌋🌋☄️the C word and a little bit of kink are involved.
Series? Y
Safety: no cheating, no S. Violence, no sharing, no cliffhanger. There was dating of other women (without details) after they met but before they got romantic, and she went on one disastrous blind date. But no cheating. HEA.
Triggers- Graphic Violence, Explicit Erotic Content, Child Abduction, Language, and They May as Well Have Played That Sarah McLaughlin Song Because They Described Pound Puppies.
Tropes- welcome to the Trope-icana! We’ve got Ex’s Brother, Enemies to Lovers, Workplace Romance, Forced Proximity, Do-Si-Do With The Mafioso, Alpha Male (who is also Protective Hero), Single Mom, Adorable Moppet, and a Partridge in a Pear Tree.
What I liked- Valentina was strong and brilliant and I loved seeing her in her element as a hacker. And Dante was tender towards the ones he loved, but was also one scary b*stard. They were both so loving towards her daughter. It was sweet when Valentina helped her work on the massive LEGO project, and when we saw the delightful room Dante had set up for the child with all of the details to make her happy. I also love a good loving from afar/anear romance and the zexytime was hot and creative. And when the’54 came out I swooned.
What I didn’t- Oh, the ‘54….
Verdict- recommended, and I’m going to find and read the rest of the series.
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this honest review voluntarily. -
This was an enemies to lovers, forced proximity mafia romance.
I loved this story! I'm a bit leery of mafia books except by a few authors but this one was a fantastic read. Fast paced, tons of action, intrigue and lots of steam! Highly recommend!
Valentina Linari aka Sparrow is a hacker working for the Venetian mafia. She has a 9 year old daughter Angelica.
Dante Colonna aka the Broker is second in command of the Venetian mafia. He is Angelica's uncle.
Valentina goes on her first field mission to retrieve Salvatore Verratti's computer in a remote farmhouse. Dante drives up while she is waiting for the ok to proceed and tells her he is her security detail. They get the data off the computer and she works on decrypting it. She discovers Verratti hired his own hacker known as the Revenant. Antonio Moretti the head of the Venetian mafia tells Dante he wants to take over the Verratti territory because he started dealing with the Russian bratva. To protect his people Moretti orders them to his island fortress. Dante has Valentina & Angelica stay with him at his house to not disturb Angelica's schooling. Valentina sees another side of Dante and starts giving into her attraction (he has been in love with her for ten years). They start a relationship but it blows up when she discovers a secret he has kept from her. Angelica gets kidnapped and they work together to find her and bring her home. They reconcile and get their HEA.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. -
Went in with high hopes but came out with disappointment 😶😶. I saw one of my favorite booktokers talk about this book and the way she described it made me really excited to read it...but, unfortunately I was disappointed with what I read😭😭.
In this we follow Valentina and Dante. Valentina has had a rough life due to her abusive ex boyfriend. Because of him she has formed a new fear of intimacy and dating. Dante is the brother of said ex boyfriend and he blames himself for not focusing more on the rumors about how Valentina was being treated. Valentina in order to pay her gratitude towards the Padrino of the Mafia she agreed to work for them as a hacker. When an unfortunate incident cause her and her daughter to be in danger, Dante demands that she comes stay with him in order to protect both the woman he has deep feeling for and he daughter.
I don't know you guys, when I saw that the FMC was a hacker and etc etc... I was so hyped to read this. But the FMC srsly got on my nerves at some point of the book tbh. Also even though it was single parent, her daughter rarely appears throughout the book. She appears maybe 5 times max? Anyways also their relationship moved WAY too fast. Like towards the end there was no love confession or anything. They just say "I Love you" in ONE PART throughout the whole book and I'm like, wait what!? Y'all confessed your love to each other? WHEN!? So basically what I'm saying is that I didn't like the book☠️ there were some parts where I found Dante and Valentina really cute and stuff but otherwise... 🥴🥴 -
Valentina is a single mom to a 9 year old daughter and a hacker for the Venetian Mafia. She is also a survivor of a brutal attack by her daughter's father that could have easily left her dead.
Dante is the brother to the man(who is now deceased) who hurt Valentina so bad. Since this happened he has been Valentina and her daughter's protector, keeping them safe from harm.
But do they actually like one another? Valentina sees Dante's need to protect her as making her weak and unable to take care of her and her daughter. They both have baggage resulting from Valentina's ex/Dante's brother, and a lot of feelings they need to figure out.
Rival Mafia is starting trouble, which is giving Dante and Valentina work to do. When a rival hacker discovers Valentina's involvement, it then puts her in danger.
Can Dante and Valentina solve the puzzle working together and will Dante be able to keep Valentina safe? Will they sort their feelings toward one another?
The feelings between these two is evident but yet they cover them with snarky comments and attitude. When there is danger and both are forced to live in close proximity they may have to deal with the feelings. I just loved them!
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. -
DNF 47% I like the premise of the book but both characters got on my damn nerves. The female character is a single mom whose boyfriend abused her real bad(the abuse appears off page). And it was so bad it put her in the hospital. The male character blames himself for not listening to the rumors of how his brother was treating her and now he wants to make amends by protecting her at every turn. It was a little annoying because he was undercutting her at everything she did. He did finally realize that she is very good at what her job is and that's the mobs hacker. And when danger comes calling, he makes them move in with him. You don't see her daughter very much so it would have been better if she did not have a child because of that. So really why write about a single mom when you don't even have the child appear in the book very often. They are both very wishy-washy the back and forth the back and forth the back and forth on whether or not they can be together or not got really really irritating. I just wanted to yell at my Kindle, just kiss her already damn it!!! It is a slow burn but just too slow for me and that's why I didn't finish it. Others May like it we just got too tedious and irritating.
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i would’ve been okay with not reading this, for me personally i felt like the romance between dante and valentina wasn’t enticing, it didn’t leave you wanting more. it fell a bit flat, and the whole ‘lessons’ thing gave me a huge ick 😭 i feel like a lot of this could’ve been written much better & the way the problems were resolved felt lackluster, we lost the actual plot in there somewhere and when we brought it back it was not it 😭😭 it could’ve been worked on more, the characters could’ve had sooo much more depth!! dante, we basically know nothing about him. they had sm more potential imo!
the conflict was very confusing as well- i think it might’ve made more sense had i read the first book so i don’t think this point has a lot of weight, but still a lot of names were thrown everywhere and new people we have no idea about i feel like i got lost trying to keep track of who’s who.
but it’s not all bad!! i loved the relationship between dante and angelica, he’s so fatherly towards her it��s adorable lol. leo was an interesting character, the very short scenes between him & rosa leave you wanting more, i think they’re cute.
antonio and lucia’s relationship also sounds interesting, i might just read the first book lol -
The Broker is a mafia romance that follows Valentina Linari and Dante Colonna.
It's been ten years since Valentina was dating Dante's brother Roberto. He was nothing but an abusive excuse for a man that enjoyed using her as a punching bag. After being nearly beaten to death she was told Antonio Moretti head of Venetian mafia ended his life to protect her and her unborn child. To repay the debt she went to work for his organization as their hacker.
Dante Colonna known as The Broker is second-in-command of the Venetian Mafia. He's considered brutal when it comes to work yet very protective when it comes to family and friends. Which is why Valentina considers him her personal nemesis because he is stifling her from doing her job by being so over protective of her and his nine year old neice Angelica.
There's an underlying chemistry between them that is tension filled with a hate/love vibe. It's an action packed, dangerous, suspenseful and steamy read with twist, turns and betrayals intertwined till the end.
I received an ARC from the author through Bookfunnel an I'm voluntarily leaving my review.
Five intriguing, dangerous, delicious ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ -
After the death of her abusive ex, Valentina has been afraid to even date. She joined the Venetian mafia as their expert hacker but is forced to work with her ex's brother Dante as her boss. He's overprotective to the point of overbearing, keeping her from doing her job.... but he's a wonderful uncle to her young daughter. When the whole organization comes under threat, Dante insists they stay in his home under his protection and Valentina starts to see a different side to him. But Dante has a secret that could break her trust in him forever.
Dante is fiercely protective and terrifying but inside he's the perfect cinnamon roll hero. He been hiding his feelings for her for ten years and he's finally getting everything he ever wanted. When she finds his tattoo...just wow! I felt all the feels! And Valentina is such a strong character herself, building herself back up after her ex tore her down, showing up the men with her hacking skills, all while residing her daughter by herself. I loved both of these characters so much.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
