B
Genre: Romance, Contemporary Romance, Romantic Suspense
Theme: Mistaken/False Identity
Archetype: Neighbor/Roommate, Criminal/Mafia, Spy/Assassin
I can’t explain why Katee Robert’s O’Malleys series works for me.
Normally I don’t go for stories about dudes who run criminal empires. I don’t find the mafia to be sexy. The recent trend of morally dubious motorcycle club leader heroes doesn’t work for me. I’m firmly on the side of the “good guys.” Usually.
My romantic suspense heroes are more Captain American and less The Professional.
Usually.
But then I pick up an O’Malleys book and I’m like, “Well of course you lock your bother in the dungeon-basement of your townhouse and beat him up. It just makes good business sense.”
I don’t know who I am anymore, man.
The fourth book in the series was equally, inexplicably crack-tastic as the first three. You don’t have to read these books in order, but honestly it’s better if you do.
So here’s what you need to know.
There are several families vying for control of the Boston underworld: the O’Malleys, the Sheridans (united by marriage in The Marriage Contract), the Hallorans, and the MacNamaras.
Out of all her siblings, Sloan O’Malley wants nothing to do with her family or The Family. She wants as far away from it as possible. So her brother Teague manages to extract her completely from their world, finding her a place to live in the small Pacific coast town of Callaway Rock. In order to keep herself safe, Sloan has to be absolutely cut off from her past life, meaning she’s totally alone. New identity, no friends, no contact with home.
Her isolated existence is interrupted by a very hot, very mysterious neighbor, Jude. They have some incredibly steamy sex (Robert writes some of the best dirty-talking heroes) and start to have some feelings, and that’s a problem because Jude is really an assassin.
Of course he is.
He’s been watching Sloan’s safe house because it’s owned by Sorcha Sheridan and the Sheridans wiped out the entire MacNamara clan, and now he’s got to kill her and everyone else involved.
Which, aside from the obvious moral objections to mass murder, is also a problem because Sloan’s brother is now married to a Sheridan.
Also did I mention the head of New York’s Russian mob is after Sloan because he wants to marry her? He is.
So Sloan and Jude now need to figure out a way to get away from all of these people, and then maybe they can talk about how he wants to murder her in-laws.
There’s a fuckton of politics and running around and action in this book. The last third is non-stop, balls-to-wall action movie deliciousness.
I think the reason that this book (and the series) worked for me is that it adheres to a strict set of world-building rules. I knew that Jude was objectively not a good person, because he kills people, but he’s a not-good person who sticks to the rules of his world. I’m thinking of John Wick here – I love that movie and know exactly how far to fast forward to get through The Scene. There’s a clear, almost medieval subculture at play, and the people who choose to engage in it know that they risk suffering violence, but everyone outside that world is off limits.
Jude is willing to hurt the people who have entered the underworld he’s a part of, who have done horrible things, and who knew when they were entering that world what they were getting into. People who haven’t opted in to this subculture won’t be hurt – which obviously is a departure from the real world. It also helps that while situations are certainly dire in the book, there actually isn’t a lot of violence.
I also appreciate that Robert’s writes alpha-males who don’t domineer the women in their lives. Sloan and the rest of the heroines in this series are more than capable of managing on their own. At times she defers to Jude while they flee from the people trying to kidnap her, but that’s because she’s acknowledging that he knows what to do to extract them from that situation.
And Sloan isn’t willing to give up her freedom to be with Jude either. She fully intends on a complete breakaway from her past life–she’s not going to run back to it just because she has feelings for him. She’s not willing to compromise on that.
The only thing I had a problem with is that this book ends really quickly and I didn’t feel we had adequate resolution given how tremendous the odds against Sloan and Jude making it work were. In fact, I reread the last the few pages to see if I missed anything.
I have a weakness for romantic suspense with a lot of action and dangerous heroes. I just usually draw the line at dudes who kill people for a living. But Robert’s world-building, the clear set of rules within, the action, and the strong heroines made me really love this book–assassin hero or no.
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Thanks!
Elyse–like you, I’m not really interested in criminal “heroes” (bad boys yes, criminals need not apply). Also like you, I really like these books and preorder them because I need to read them immediately!
Somehow, the books make you forget that the heroes are pretty much terrible people. I think it’s because the first book had two main characters who were reluctantly complicit in the family “business;” I was hooked by the time I encountered main characters (mostly in books 3 and 4) with actions that are less easy to write off as “but they aren’t REALLY bad, it’s just their dad/family/circumstances.” I’m very curious to see how Roberts pulls off books 5 and 6, since those heroes will have even less plausible deniability.
I’m also not a fan of the mob/ MC trope but I like a dark complicated hero. I read the first book in this series and don’t remember much except the hero sat around a lot thinking up ways of getting them out of the mob and never really accomplished anything. Do nothing heroes are a no go for me. This one sounds like it’s right up my alley though. Or maybe it’s all the John Wick gifs that sold me on it 😉
Following recommendations here, I enjoyed the first of the series but won’t continue. The hero of the second book was thoroughly unpleasant as introduced in the first and nothing I read of the (2nd book) heroine made me curious about her future.
Observing, I admire the stretching of the romance genre with “morally dubious” lead and support characters. As a reader, I expect better behavior.
I purchased the first book when it was a daily deal. Honestly I was afraid to start reading it since I really don’t like Mob/Mafia stories. But I was pleasantly surprised. Purchased the second book and enjoyed it as well. I’ll admit I skipped parts that I found a bit ‘dark’ although there weren’t many of them. Now I’m waiting patiently (not!) for the other books in the series to go on sale.
After those gifs, I’m gonna watch John Wick at the weekend!
I loved- like LOVED- the first three books in this series. If James Halloran was in my life, I’d be unable to resist him. At all. But I digress.
After the first three books, Forbidden Promises was a letdown. It never quite came together for me. Maybe it was a little too instalove for my tastes but I also agree the ending was rushed. Jude and Sloan have some big issues to figure out and we don’t get that resolution. Maybe it’ll be addressed in the next two books but I think it would have been better for it to have been included here. I’m really looking forward to whatever happens next!
This series reminds me of “The Godfather.” Were those people reprehensible? Yeah. Disgusting. Yeah. Disturbing. Yeah, but. . . sexy too. Or at least, interesting.
Loved the first book but as each has continued, less so. I think part of the appeal is the good woman who is in danger and the man who rescues her. Also, the trope of being trapped in a situation of not your own doing and trying to get out of it. It reminds me of a medieval family–like the Borgias. How do you get out? The reader must suspend all logic and disbelief of crime families that intermarry to secure power, etc.