Flawed Bride
by Blake York
My review:
“Flawed Bride” is the fourth book in the ‘Blood Empire’ series by Blake York. If you haven’t read any of the other books in the series, you’ll still be able to understand and enjoy this one. Each book focuses on a different member of the Rossi crime family. Ryker is the fourth of the five Rossi brothers. His father has arranged a marriage for him to Zoey, a woman who’s a stranger to him. Her father is the head of a criminal organization in New York, and the marriage is intended to formalize an alliance between the two powerful mafia families – the Romano Family in New York City and the Rossi Family in Chicago.
After a nightmare wedding night, Zoey and Ryker agree theirs will be a marriage in name only. They each did what family obligation forced them to do, but neither of them has any desire to be married. Both are furious at the situation, and after his behavior that night, they are even more furious at one another. While they are not speaking or seeing one another even though they live in the same home, Zoey works at the career she keeps a secret from Ryker. After a year of living in their strange circumstance, Zoey takes action to end it. It’s very helpful that this story is told in dual POV because that lets us understand what each character is actually thinking when they behave in the ways that they do. There’s plenty of dramatic tension, some suspense and several steamy scenes.
This book has nonstop action. It held my interest from the prologue right till the very end. After the way this story started, it was difficult to imagine how the author would make Ryker worthy of Zoey, but she managed to do it. I appreciated that there was character development for them both. There were a couple of little things in the plot that never got resolved completely, but didn’t affect my overall enjoyment of the book. The youngest brother in the Rossi family still hasn’t been paired up with a woman so I’m expecting his story will be next. There is also a cousin who played an important part in this book and I’m wondering if the author might consider giving him his own story ass well.