Toxic Love
Venomous Gods, Book 1
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3 Months Free
Toxic Love
Buy Now for £14.94
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Narrated by:
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Walker Williams
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Emery Erickson
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By:
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Jagger Cole
I tried to outsmart the King of Sin. Now, I'm his.
Brutal, cold, and illegally gorgeous, Dante Sartorre isn't just mafia royalty. He's also the tyrant owner of the infamously deviant and members-only Club Venom.
He's also my new husband.
In my defense, I wasn't supposed to be the bride. But I sealed my fate when I saved my friend by signing the Venom Devil's marriage contract myself.
Now, he owns me. All of me…
Dante thinks I'll play the part of the obedient little bride he needs in order to keep his club. He swears he'll bring me to my knees if I don't.
But little does he know, this marriage has an expiration date. And so do I.
You see, it's not just the simmering heat between us that's toxic. It's my blood and the secret sickness inside of me that's poisonous, too.
So if you choose to know our story, you must know three things: This is not a fairytale. Dante is the Anti-Prince Charming. And my name is Tempest Black, and I die at the end.
Toxic Love is a blisteringly steamy, dark mafia, enemies-to-lovers, marriage of convenience standalone romance by bestselling author, Jagger Cole. It features a smart, untamable heroine, and an ultra-possessive hero with "look at her and I'll unalive you" energy. This is the explosive start to the Venomous Gods mafia series. No cliffhanger. HEA included. For mature listeners.
©2024 Jagger Cole (P)2024 Podium AudioContinue the series
Funny
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Love Love Love
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Love this author but...
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Tempest is fiery; feisty; unconventional; brave and sick unto death. She's loyal and willing to take more risks than most people would be because of her prognosis. She's a survivor who has major trust issues, not just with strangers but also with some members of her own family. She’s lost both parents, her oldest sibling and her best friend along the way. She takes a calculated risk to save a younger relative from an arranged marriage to a dangerous man and ends up married to him herself.
Dante is morally pretty grey but with apparently good reason and understandable motivations. He's risen from fairly humble beginnings and made something of himself, not through the usual murderous means but by opening a successful but legally grey business. He's lost at least 3 family members and a very close friend along the way. He needs to get married to be able to continue to own and run his business due to the suspicions other people may have of him as an unmarried man. This bit makes no sense since it seems to be accepted practice for even married people to be sleeping around so you just need to ignore that untidy detail.
The attraction between the two is apparent from their first meeting though I’ve got to say that I thought the consent in some of their earliest intimate encounters was dubious. Having said that, as the relationship develops and trust between the two grows, those encounters are absolutely scorching (🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️/5). Descriptions are pretty explicit; there's evidence of some kinks and not all the language used is the most respectful. You’ll also find the “c” word used quite frequently as a term of abuse. That's one of my pet hates and did have a bit of an impact on my enjoyment of the story but people do use the word in that way in the real world so I gritted my teeth and tried not to get too angry.
Most of the more minor characters are less well drawn. I found Tempest's brothers pretty cold fish; her young Aunt very two-dimensional; her grandfather an over-the-top villain and the higher echelons of the mafia very stereotypical. Oddly enough, it didn't matter.
The plot is apparently multi-stranded but everything comes together at the end. The final rescue effort was completely unbelievable but, hey, we expect that in novels of this type. The HEA appears to be impossible but obviously isn't (you know this already because the blurb has told you so). Someone fairly significant would definitely have lost something significant in the real world and I wouldn't trust my life to them again but again, hey ho!
The narration was excellent. Both narrators are new to me. Ms Erickson sounded suitably snarky, sassy and devil-may-care. Mr Williams has a lovely, deep and velvety voice with the right edge of steel hidden under that smoothness. They narrated all the parts excellently and read with flair, pace and passion. I devoured the audio in one mammoth session and didn't lose focus once.
This was free from the Plus catalogue when I listened to it, presumably as an incentive to begin the series and get hooked. It worked! The rest of the series has gone into my wish list and I’ll be buying them early, if they are on sale or when I’ve worked my way through some more of what's already in my library.
Dauntingly Tempestuous Mafia Mayhem.
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Must read lots of twists plenty of va va boom
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