ARC Review: THIEF by A. Zavarelli

Tanaka

I’m a good girl.

I live by a code that can’t be bent or broken. It is my duty to my family to stay innocent and pure. To marry an Italian man. The stars are already aligned.

But Nikolai Kozlov re-writes my destiny with five simple words.

You belong to me now.

He's Russian mafiya. A thief. A skilled liar with no moral boundaries. He is everything I have been taught to hate. A man who stands for nothing. A man who takes what he wants without a second thought.

And what he wanted was me.

He thinks he controls my fate, but what he doesn’t know is, sometimes it’s the good girls you have to watch out for.


Nikolai

I’m a dangerous man.

I live by a code. The Vory code. It is my duty to my family to protect the brotherhood. To destroy anyone who threatens what we stand for, including her.

She’s a dancer. A beautiful little doll. My prisoner, and my new favorite puppet. This mafia princess thinks she has me under her spell, but in the end, she is simply collateral.

It’s a shame to destroy precious things.

But this is what bad men do.

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REVIEW

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It’s been a while since I dived into the world of the anti-heroes of this series and I believe Thief was the perfect book to get my feet wet. It was high on emotion, full of guts, and the chemistry between the main characters was dangerous. Who knew a thief and a ballerina were capable of providing so much entertainment?

Tanaka/Nakya was a sheltered girl, living under the oppressive shadow of her mob boss father. Her only personal happiness came from dancing and she did everything within her power to be a prima ballerina. But that life was going to swiftly come to an end as she was expected to give up her hopes and dreams to fulfill her obligations, namely her impending arranged marriage. But even those plans hit a snag when she is traded as collateral for a debt her father can only hope to pay. Her captor? Nikolai Kozlov/Nika. He was a high-ranking member of the Russion mafiya, a thief who could procure obscure collectibles or could make a realistic forgery. A man to be feared, not one to be trifled with. A man who never expected his world to explode by the shy girl he takes as his pet.

I loved Nikolai and Tanaka. She didn’t have a clue about ‘normal’ life, her reactions were almost childlike because of her innocence, but her heart knew exactly who it belonged to. All the while, she fought against the inevitable pull of him, but resistance was futile.

As for Nikolai, he was in a state of absolute confusion. He had this young girl in his possession, who for all intents and purposes was utter perfection, but she was a lot more damaged than he bargained for. And for some reason, he couldn’t leave her in the state he found her in. He also couldn’t fight his obsession with his new pet or the fact that, despite his circumstances and what was expected of him, his heart kept reaching out for her.

I can’t get enough of bad boys who fight the good fight only to fall all over themselves when they find love and A. Zavarelli captured this brilliantly.

Release: Feb. 23, 2018 | Genre: Mafia Romance | POV: Dual - 1st person | Heat: 4 out of 5 | Standalone - Boston Underworld #5

*** Graphics taken from author's Facebook page ***