Review: Rocco

Rocco by Sarah Castille

My Review ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4.25) Rocco
Rocco is the most feared Enforcer of the mob.  He is both saught after for "jobs" and reviled for being a De Lucci.  The De Lucci family is known to be the most cold-hearted and unfeeling of people.  They are thought of as a necessary evil to deal with when needed.

Grace is a naive, strong-willed and witty mafia princess.  When she was just 10 years old, she met her soulmate in 20 year old Rocco.  When Grace turns sixteen, they become lovers. They remain this way until Grace's idyllic life is shattered.  She gets a first hand account of who Rocco is and what he does.  Because she is unable to correlate the lover she knows with the brutal killer he is, she flees leaving Rocco with the darkness he had been fighting for years.


Six years later, they meet again.  Rocco is in the darkest place he's ever been and Grace is no longer the naive, submissive girl she used to be.  Will Grace's love release him from his darkness or will it pull them both under?

This book is gritty, intense and violent.   I loved every second of it!  Next!  More!!  It makes me feel a whole gamut of feelings; dread, loss, sympathy, compassion and love..  The story is well written and
paced.

Rocco is tortured with guilt and remorse but he is unable to feel it or express it due to his brutal upbringing.  He believes there is no redemption for him because of his past and current transgressions.  Rocco is a man hanging on to his humanity by a thread.  That thread is Grace.  She is the light at the end of his very dark tunnel.  He is protective and sweet, as much as an Enforcer for the mob can be,with her. I love the way Grace blossoms into everything her name implies to heal Rocco.  I also liked the fact that Grace learns that life and people cannot be judged in black and white terms but rather in shades of grey.

Would I recommend this book?  With a tormented, over-protective alpha in need of absolution, a woman that stands strong beside him and for him, and the mob run amok, it should go without
saying. 😀
Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the ARC.  All views and opinions expressed are my own.