KING
By: Hannah Rio
Series: Shattered Pieces: A Mafia Romance Saga
Book # In Series: 1 of 6
Genre: Dark Mafia Romance
Publisher: self published
Publication Date: April 30th, 2025
My Rating: ✮✮✮
My Reading Format: I received a copy to review honestly
Synopsis:
Giovanni
I loved her in secret. I buried her in silence.
Now, she’s back with the one thing I can’t deny—my son.
Zina appears at my wife’s funeral like a ghost from hell with a boy who has my eyes.
She says she wants justice. She wants me to accept him.
But I know she wants power.
She’s poison in a black dress. And I crave every damn drop.
I can’t think straight around her—her scent in my sheets, her fire in my veins.
Her scent haunts me. Her body still begs for mine.
Zina wants the kingdom I built…and I want her.
If I’m not careful, she’ll take it. Piece by piece.
Zina
I was his wild obsession. His hidden sin.
I loved him, but SHE wore his ring.
Giovanni Rivas swore he loved me. Then he left me to rot in silence.
I disappeared—pregnant, heartbroken, and erased.
Now his wife is gone, and I’m done hiding.
But this time, I’m not his mistress—I’m his reckoning.
I want what was promised to me long ago—my place beside him.
I see the way he looks at me…he remembers my taste.
He still hungers for my body.
But he tells me I’m a threat.
I tell him I’m just getting started.
King is the first book in Shattered Pieces: A Mafia Romance Series, but it can be read as a complete standalone. This is a full-length novel with no cheating. This six-book series follows the Rivas family and the twisted tales of love, hate, secrets, and lies that tie them together and shatter them apart.
King by Hannah Rio is the first book in the Shattered Hearts: A Mafia Romance Series. This also happens to be the first book I have read from author Hannah Rio. I’ve been trying to broaden my horizons and experience different authors this year. The synopsis for Hannah Rio’s book KING had me immediately wanting to read this book! The synopsis speaks for itself so if you want to know what this book is about, check it out!
Giovanni has just had his life ripped apart for the past year. He watched his beloved wife battle cancer and then lose her fight. Now it’s taking all the power he has to keep his three sons from unraveling into their grief. But to make matters worse, a blast from his past comes back into the picture with a sixteen-year-old secret standing by her side.
Zina has waited the past sixteen years to tell the love of her life that he fathered a son and she would’ve waited as long as his wife was still in the picture. She’s not about dismantling a family she initially knew nothing about. But now, it’s Zina’s time to show her son who his father is and be given the Rivas last name. And she’ll fight like hell to see her son get the name he deserves.
What Zina doesn’t grasp though, is Giovanni’s three sons are not about to let her step into their lives with a fight of their own. It’s a matter of life or death and where Zina is concerned they’ll quickly choose her death over her life.
My Thoughts:
I read this book in one day! Hannah Rio had me consumed with her words! Sure, there were a few storyline issues for me that initially had me rating this book a 3 ½ star rating. But at the end of the day, I had trouble putting this one down! I will be reading more from this author very soon.
Let’s talk about the characters. Starting with Zina. I have to say, timing is everything, and introducing her sixteen-year-old son on the day of the father’s wife’s funeral is not perfect timing. Of course, the man is going to be relentless and not want to hear your words. He’s in mourning. Give it a few weeks. I do have to say, it made for some wonderfully dramatic moments! So when it comes to Zina, she does not have good timing in situations. But where she lacks in the timing she makes up in the persistence category. This woman knows what she wants and she’ll do anything in her power to see it happens. She is also fiercely stubborn and a tad bit manipulative. Her character had me scratching my head and wondering what the hell she was up to. But at the end of the day, she is a caring mother who only wants what’s right for her son.
And then we have Giovanni. Giovanni is cold, calculated, and dark when he needs to be. Only the people closest to him see his soft side. And Zina used to be one to see his gentlest side. Now, he doesn’t know what to make of Zina and her son and I loved the back-and-forth array of emotions he showed throughout the first half of this novel. This man was all caught up in his emotions, and it showed. I do have to say, he was my least-liked character in this novel. There were moments when I wanted to shake him and remind him that he was the KING of the RIVAS MAFIA! He has the power to seek out answers on his own. He doesn’t need a handler to do his dirty work. But no matter how much I screamed at my Kindle, the man just wouldn’t listen to me… I liked him during the first half because I understood his turmoil. After conversations were had, feelings were exchanged, words were proclaimed… the back and forth started to feel forced and wrong. And here is the perfect time to talk about my rating and why I decided to rate this book 3 ½ stars. I loved the premise and the storytelling was amazing. What I didn’t like was the back-and-forth between Zina and Giovanni. At first, his pushing her away was understandable due to his circumstances. But, in my opinion, after the fourth or fifth time, it started to feel a bit emotionally abusive. I could have done with a recollection earlier on and a hand in telling his sons to bite the big one over the constant push-and-pull method. It seemed like once I started to like these two together, they were suddenly torn apart by misguided accusations…
My initial plan was to drop my rating to 3 stars…. But then Hannah Rio did the impossible! She pulled the rug out from under my feet and shocked the hell out of me with that ending. My heart felt like it fell into my stomach. Now, I have to keep reading this series to find out what happens to Zina and the Rivas family. And that is why I added a ½ star back to my rating. I need answers and hopefully, I will find them in the next book, Queen! We shall see
King by Hannah Rio’s tropes is labeled as Enemies To Lovers, Secret Pregnancy, and Dark Mafia Romance. The enemies-to-lovers vibe was strong as is the dark mafia romance. I do have to make a claim, this is not a secret pregnancy romance… this is a Secret Child romance or as I have labeled it, SURPRISE! You’re a daddy romance. When Zina walks back into Giovanni’s life sixteen years later, she brings with her a sixteen-year-old son. So if you decided to pick this one up due to the secret pregnancy aspect, you won’t find that here.
Overall, King by Hannah Rio was a like for me. I wanted this one to be a love and I thought it would be during the first half of the novel. But we can’t always get what we want. I needed a little less emotional warfare back and forth to feel the connection between Zina and Giovanni. But I am intrigued to keep reading and see where Zina finds herself during this crazy journey she set for herself.
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Amazon US: https://amzn.to/3FsTFe6
Amazon World: https://mybook.to/kinghr
Peace Love and Happy Reading,
