Book Review | SCAR Blood Oath – Iris Cannon (Gatti Brothers Mafia Empire Series, Book One)

SCAR: Blood Oath
By: Iris Cannon

Series: Gatti Brothers Mafia Empire
Book # in Series: 1
Genre: Dark Mafia Romance
Trope: Enemies To Lovers, Arranged Marriage, Mafia, Organized Crime
Publisher: Brooke Writes Romance, LLC
Publication Date: October 27th, 2024
My Rating: ✮✮✮✮
My Reading Format: I was given an Advanced Copy to review honestly.

Synopsis:

‘The only thing darker than his heart is his suit…’

SCAR
The Marones took from my family, and now it’s time for payback.
I. OWN. HER.
And I will crush her if it’s the last thing I do.
Her fate is sealed—she’ll endure the darkest torment as I defile and destroy her.
I’ll make sure she’s the last of their tainted bloodline.
But Allegra isn’t as fragile as I expected.
She defies me at every turn, threatening to flip the script and drive a stake through my heart.
And if I’m not careful, she just might make me want to keep her…

ALLEGRA
I was destined for Scar Gatti before I drew my first breath, my fate sealed by an oath written in blood.
Now, I’m shackled to a man who sees our marriage as nothing but revenge against my family.
He’s a monster lurking in the shadows.
He wants to see me shattered, broken, ruined.
He’s vowed to destroy me, to make me suffer, and to send me to an early grave…
I’m determined to thaw his icy façade.
But he’s a beautiful demon, and if I’m not careful, I might start to believe he has a human side.

SCAR: Blood Oath is the first book in the Gatti Brothers Mafia Empire series. A steamy hot arranged marriage dark romance full of tension and off the charts chemistry. For all lovers of dark mafia romance, you can expect forced proximity, enemies to lovers, with touch her and die vibes. It’s a full length novel with a HEA and sets the stage for book 2 in the series. Spice level 18+. Please check the trigger warnings.

honey-script.light

SCAR Blood Oath is the first book in Iris Cannon’s Gatti Brothers Mafia Empire Series. This book was my introduction into Iris Cannon’s writing style, and I have to say, I can’t wait to read more from her in the very near future. If you are looking for a mafia romance featuring an arranged marriage trope with extremely strong enemies to lovers vibes, don’t hesitate to pick this novel up.

Because Scar and Allegra’s story is riddled with suspense and twists and turns, I’m going to keep this review as spoiler free as I possibly can while also giving you all a view on my thoughts. So let’s get started with this review!

Allegra’s life was never meant to be her own, all thanks to a blood oath her father and his now rival enacted thirty years ago. The first born Gatti Son would wed the first born Marone daughter, joining their family’s and becoming the most lethal mafia family around. She would rather die than marry a man who loathes her very existence… If Scar thinks this marriage is going to be easy, she’s about to give him the fight of his life.

Scar would rather die than marry the enemy. Until he comes up with a plan to exact his families revenge towards the Marones. An eye for an eye, or so they say. But what happens when the line between hate and love is crossed. What happens when Scar no longer sees Allegra as a threat and starts to see her as his equal…? What happens when Scar starts to allow himself to fall in love with the enemies daughter? This may be a risk he isn’t willing to take. That is where I will be ending this portion of my review!

My Thoughts:

As soon as I finished reading the blurb for Scar Blood Oath, I was intrigued, and I knew I needed to get my hands on a copy of this book. I can’t say I’m a HUGE fan of mafia romances due to the fact that I’m still fairly new to the sub-genre. But, this is the month where I try to pack in as many novels that involve danger, suspense, and dark vibes as I possibly can. With all that being said, It has to be said that Iris Cannon definitely had me invested and intrigued from the start to the very finish! I couldn’t put this one down!

Let’s dive into the characters, starting with Allegra. Allegra is a fighter. She’s as fierce as they come, but beneath the surface, she has a fear that is undeniable. She uses that fear to flame the anger burning within her. I loved the fierce vibes she brought to this novel.

And then we have Scar. I have to say, I wasn’t a huge fan of Scar during the beginning of this novel. This man screams Anti-Hero, with his alphamale tendencies and his overall dangerous vibes. But then, I saw a flash of something he kept hidden beneath the surface, and my hate started to morph into understanding. I can easily say, I’m a fan of Scar and his protective instincts. He may not always make the best decisions, but he has his reasoning for why he decided to do things a certain way. This man brought the dark vibes to this novel, and I couldn’t get enough!

I loved the constant push and pull vibes from Allegra and Scar. The endless feuding and the battle between the two had me turning the pages as fast as I possibly could. I loved the fact that Allegra dished out exactly what Scar was serving. He pushed, and she fought back. But their was always an underlying current of chemistry that ran between them. Let’s just say my heart was invested in their love language.

Now, for the reasoning behind my rating. I decided to drop a star on my rating due to the fact that I wanted a little more context and detail during some key point moments. Because I’m avoiding spoilers that’s all I can say about that moment. I’m going to add one more thing. Typically, I try to stay away from suspense type novels, and I think that is why I tend to steer clear of mafia romances. The fact that I have the ability to easily predict a storyline from the very start is the main reason. With that being said… Iris Cannon has done the impossible. She pulled that damn rug out from under my feet and had me falling flat on my back with her suspense. That is one of the top reasons why I’ll continue my journey into her novels! It’s hard for me to be surprised/shocked while reading suspense, and I was SHOCKED!

Overall, I loved the romance aspect between Scar and Allegra. I also really enjoyed the arranged marriage, enemies to lovers storyline!

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