My thoughts: I give it ❤️❤️❤️❤️. Sergei, the vengeful hitman and Dom, the reluctant mafia royalty. I’ve got a soft spot for star-crossed lovers, where it seems like there’s just no way that the MCs can make it together. I’m a sucker for the angst.
I also liked the contrast between the two characters. Dom hates himself for every hit he makes, whereas Sergei relishes each hit because it brings him closer to his goal. Despite their differences, the two had an immediate emotional chemistry that was believable, though that emotional aspect often took a back seat to the sex and plot.
They had some pretty great sexual chemistry. The sex in this book is hot, and it comes often. Sergei and Dom aren’t afraid of giving or taking what they want from each other. My inner smut-lover was very happy.
The family/mafia drama kept me hooked throughout. I was eagerly waiting to see who would get his brains blown out next. Yes, I know that sounds bloodthirsty, but it was an entertaining read. There were a few things which I guessed correctly early on, but there were quite a few surprising twists and turns.
What dropped this down a star was the repetitiveness, particularly of the inner monologues. For Dom, it was how he wanted to leave, but couldn’t. For Sergei, it was about how everyone in the mafia would pay for what happened to his family. Those two points were just bludgeoned to death. The two would repeat variations of those monologues repeatedly – while they were alone, while they were together, and when they were with others. By the halfway point, I was annoyed.
I get that Sergei and Dom have baggage, but I don’t think it needed to be repeated so many times. I understood just fine the first twenty times.
Overall, this was a fun read. It’s got some entertaining action and lots of hot sex. It could have done with less repetitiveness, and some more focus on Dom and Sergei’s emotional connection.
Author’s Blurb:
Sergei Andronikov was a child when the Mafia wiped out his family, leaving him with nothing but a hunger for revenge. Years later, through ruthless strategy and tireless patience, he’s a contract killer working for the three families ruling Cape Swan… and he’s nearly in position to bring them all down from the inside.
Domenico “Dom” Maisano is Mafia royalty, a made man… and a hitman. He’s caught up in a violent life he can’t escape, struggling to maintain an image he doesn’t want, and suppressing desires he can’t have.
A chance encounter throws the killers into each other’s paths. Though Dom knows he’s playing a dangerous game, he’s intrigued and keeps coming back. Sergei can’t resist him either—Dom is everything he set out to destroy, but he’s also everything he’s ever ached for in a man.
Then Sergei gets the contract he’s been waiting for—the hit that promises to bring the town’s Mafia to its knees.
But when a boss makes an unexpected move, Sergei must choose between dropping the hammer on the families he vowed to annihilate, and protecting the man he swore he wouldn’t love.
And the wrong choice—or even the right one—will destroy them both.
My Brain Vacation 