Queen of Madness: Wicked Wonderland Duet (The Wicked Wonderland Duet Book 1) by Lee Jacquot
Blurb
The greatest weakness any man can ever have is a woman.
The inherent need to protect them can become overwhelming and all consuming. It makes us think irrationally and do stupid things. In my case, falling down a rabbit hole.
My sister made a mistake. One that put us in debt with the Italian mob who owns half the state, and as payment they’ve enlisted me to work for them.
Only it isn’t them I’ll be working for.
It’s for her. Onyx Embros.
She’s a ghost, a legend, the head of their rival mafia family, and the queen of Wonderland.
In order to save my family, I have to act as her guard so they can find a way to kill her. But the longer I stay, the more I realize Onyx isn’t who I thought she was, and neither am I.
Turns out, I’m just as mad.
My review
This is the most creative and unique mafia book I’ve read and I’m giving the author all the stars for that. The mafia romance genre is hard to write. Not every author can do it. Mafia romance just sounds like an oxymoron. You need to write a book that’s violent, characters that are cruel, hard and unrelenting at times, all while having them fall in love. This author did all that with a female don none the less! Let me say that again. A female don!!! That’s a first for me to read and I loved it. It wasn’t forced and it felt natural.
I loved all the Alice in Wonderland nods. It made me smile every time I matched a character to an Alice in Wonderland character. These are just nods, not a re-telling.
That cliffhanger was unpredictable to me. I wasn’t expecting it. Bravo.
I think my only constructive criticism would be having more dialogue between the main characters. Lots of beautiful narration but I enjoy when the dialogue can progress the story too.
On to the next book.
Happy Reading!