COVER REVEAL: Confess

Confess

Series: Sin City Salvation #1

Author: A. Zavarelli

Release:  September 25, 2018

Genre: Dark Romance

Blurb: 

Lucian
A life free from sin.
For seventeen years, I have lived and breathed those words. But there is no balm to the war inside my soul.
Until her.
The mysterious beauty too lethal to taste. She’s a thief, a con, the essence of everything I loathe. Still, she lures me in with her lying eyes.
In the dark of night, she came to confess her sins, and in the light of morning, I plotted to steal her away.
She will be my ruination. My damnation. My biggest regret.
So help me, God.

**

Gypsy
A word of advice? Don’t show me your vulnerabilities because I will find a way to exploit them. I learned the hard way to take what I want from life with no regrets.
Until him.
He’s one of the most hated men in America. A soulless criminal attorney. A recluse. And as of five minutes ago, my new husband.
He wants to keep my secrets and collect my tears, but he should know that a wild animal can’t be domesticated.
I don’t know how to love men. I only know how to leave them.
With everything I want. 

ADD TO GOODREADS

EXCERPT

I walked into my office and found the tall, leggy brunette waiting for me. She wasn’t the only one either. Beside her, Ace played around on his phone while Birdie flipped through a magazine.

I wasn’t surprised to see her this soon. In all honesty, I’d expected her to show up at my door last night, demanding to have Ace removed from her presence. But it appeared as though they survived the night, just barely.

“May I have a word with you?” Gypsy asked.

“You may,” I told her as I checked my watch. “In thirty minutes. When my lunch is finished.”

Her eyes narrowed, and she planted her hands on her hips as she stood. “You must be joking.”

“I don’t joke,” I responded flatly.

She stalked forward, stopping only when she’d breached the narrow distance that few people ever dared to try with me. She was reverting to her baser skills of seduction, but I doubted she even realized it. The instinct came naturally to her, often rewarding her with whatever she wanted, and admittedly, it might have worked on me too once.

She smelled of coconut oil and sunshine, and it encouraged a vivid image of her lying out on the beach. I could almost bet that if I were to touch her skin, it would be warm too. So warm that it would be easy to get lost in. She probably counted on it, but I was prepared to let Gypsy know from the start how this game would be played. There were only one set of rules, and they were mine.

“Do you want me to throw a fit?” she threatened as her eyes darted around my office. “Because I will.”

Now that was funny. My lips tilted despite my resolve to remain dry as toast.

“Do you think it would be the first time someone threw a fit in here?” I asked her. “I’m sorry to tell you sweetheart, but it wouldn’t.”

“It would probably be the first time someone accused you of holding them hostage in front of your employees.”

I turned and gestured for her to go ahead.

“Be my guest.”

Her lips tightened, and she clamped down on her jaw. After watching her for so long, these unintelligent threats from her were a disappointment. Of course, she wouldn’t make a scene because she had more to lose than I did.

“Thirty minutes,” I repeated. “I’ll have my secretary call for you when I’m finished.”

I walked into my office and shut the door behind me.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A. Zavarelli is a book junkie, cat lover, and traveler when plagued by intense cases of wanderlust. She likes all things chocolate, books that come with warnings, and putting her characters through hell.

Her tales have been known to flirt with darkness and sometimes court it unabashedly altogether. Revenge themes and tortured souls are her favorites to write and this gives her an excuse to watch bizarre and twisted documentaries in her spare time.

She is slightly obsessed with Theo James and funny animal memes. If you don’t mind these things, you should add her on facebook. 

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Cover credit: Lara at Coverluv

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BOOK REVIEW: Thief

Thief
Boston Underworld 5
Author: A. Zavarelli
Pub Date: Feb 22, 2018

Synopsis:

Tanaka

I’m a good girl.

I live by a code that can’t be bent or broken. It is my duty to my family to stay innocent and pure. To marry an Italian man. The stars are already aligned.

But Nikolai Kozlov re-writes my destiny with five simple words.

You belong to me now.

He's Russian mafiya. A thief. A skilled liar with no moral boundaries. He is everything I have been taught to hate. A man who stands for nothing. A man who takes what he wants without a second thought.

And what he wanted was me.

He thinks he controls my fate, but what he doesn’t know is, sometimes it’s the good girls you have to watch out for.

Nikolai

I’m a dangerous man.

I live by a code. The Vory code. It is my duty to my family to protect the brotherhood. To destroy anyone who threatens what we stand for, including her.

She’s a dancer. A beautiful little doll. My prisoner, and my new favorite puppet. This mafia princess thinks she has me under her spell, but in the end, she is simply collateral.

It’s a shame to destroy precious things.

But this is what bad men do.

My Review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This was an intense, beautiful and difficult read all in one.  These are lovers who go through emotional upheaval just to be together.

This book was exquisite!  The author really pulled on my heartstrings leaving me teary eyed. 

Tanaka’s pain, was my pain.  Her triumph, mine.  I did not want this book to end.  It was so poignant.

This book held my heart hostage within its pages, stealing, grabbing and clenching my heart until all I could do was feel.  Feel Tanaka’s loss, her suffering, torment and longing.  Feel Nikolai’s anger, his need for revenge, his fealty towards his brothers, the desperation he feels when he must make an impossible choice and the passion he undeniably feels for Tanaka.

These characters were so well written and fleshed out in my opinion.  With real trials and tribulations.  Everything about this book just worked for me and it will go down as one of the best I’ve read to date.

This is not the first book I read by A. Zavarelli but, it is the book that cements this author, her previous books and her future works a guaranteed spot on my TBR list.

REVIEW: Beast

Beast

Author: A Zavarelli

Twisted Ever After Book 1
Pub Date: May 16, 2017
Genre: Dark Contemporary Romance

Synopsis: 

Once upon a time, I believed in fairytales.

But then he took me.

And he taught me that life isn’t a fairytale.

He is scarred. Broken.

A dark and wild thing.

His beauty is violent and his words are cruel.

His heart is a shadowed landscape where nothing can grow.

He tells me he could never care for me, and he proves it every day.

He’s destroyed my life.

Tortured me.

And worse…

He’s trained me to beg for his affection.

This prison is a place where sunlight doesn’t reach.

He taught me that hate is born in darkness.

And then he taught me that sometimes love is too.
 

My Review ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 

“And I rise to every one of his challenges, meeting them with determination.  Because I can hear the lies in his voice.  How much he doesn’t want to like it.  It chafes him and it gives me power.”

Isabella Rossi is a pop singer who has lost her passion for singing and is now disillusioned with the music industry and life itself.  She is also worried about her father who is MIA after a mission with the CIA or NSA.  She actually does not know where he was or who he was working with since he left her in the dark about these matters.  One thing she does know and remember is a boy her father had mentioned to her Javier Castillo.  She knows Javier could shed light on what happened to her father if only she could find him.

“She was not made to be fucked by a beast like me.  Beautiful things are not meant to be touched.  But I have touched her anyway.”

Javier Castillo is a tortured and dark soul.  He is a recluse and has but one friend, River, a boy he met while in a sanitarium.  Their friendship has lasted throughout the years for one reason-revenge.  They both have been affected by the actions of Isabella’s father, Ray, but Javier will be the one to settle the score.  He will kidnap and then break Isabella and flaunt it in front of her father.

Will Javier succeed in destroying Isabella’s light?  Or, will Isabella bring light to Javier’s dark world?

This is a very dark read that is told in dual POV.  It is well written and fast paced.  I kept turning the pages so consumed was I in this story.  It is gritty, raw and definitely not for the faint of heart.

A. Zavarelli takes an absolutely dark, ugly, twisted story and makes it beautiful quite seamlessly.  This includes Javier’s transformation as well

This book was psychological warfare.  It made me feel like I went down the rabbit hole and that I was going crazy.  How could I come to love and want to know more of such a manipulating character? 

A.Zavarelli skates the edge in this dark read.  She pushes her characters and readers almost to the breaking point.  I both hated and loved Javier and Isabella’s actions in equal measure.  He was cruel and hateful but also tortured and loveable.  He did wicked things and beautiful things as well.  Isabella seemed at some points like a doormat while at other times, I couldn’t believe how strong and resilient she was.  Throughout the book, I was wondering how I could root for this couple to be together.  This, my friends, is the magic that this author brings to her work.  To be able to create such flawed characters and make us love and understand them is quite the feat.

The only real critique I have is that for me, the author did not completely overshadow my doubts about Stockholm Syndrome between these characters.

This is the first book I have read by this author and it definitely will not be my last.  When all is said and done I loved it.  I loved how the author was not scared to go completely dark and push the boundaries.  I recommend this book to anyone who loves a dark and engrossing read-To anyone who is unafraid to look for the light in the dark.