Concede

The Diamond Empire, Book 1

By: Kathy Coopmans

Narrated by: Alexander Neal, Lynn Barrington

Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

A new series of stand-alone full-length novels from USA Today best-selling author Kathy Coopmans.

For years, I pretended to be something I’m not. Drowning the beast living inside of me in copious amounts of alcohol and women. Not that I complained.

And then Victoria Hughes walks back into my life and took me by surprise.

The woman stunning me clear out of my mind the minute my mouth touched hers.

After tragedy strikes and knocks her off her feet, I expected her to come to me, yet she didn’t. She pretended we’re nothing. But I see her. I’ve watched her, and she’s fighting grief while battling an all-consuming need for vengeance.

If anyone understands that, it’s me.

Deep down, she knows the only way to ease the pain is to give in to me and let justice bleed from her enemy’s veins.

And she will. I’m the type of man to make sure of it.

But there’s a problem. We have no idea who the enemy is. All we know is they want to destroy the Diamond Empire.

©2021 Kathy Coopmans (P)2023 Pink Flamingo Productions

A mafia Romantic Suspense!

This is the first book in the Diamond Empire series, a mafia romantic suspense. This next generation series is interconnected with The Syndicate Series (Victoria's parents), The Unbound Trilogy and Abrupt (Seth's brothers). Victoria and Seth's story is intense, dark, emotional, and captivating! Seth is enigmatic, ruthless, alpha, and protective. Victoria is beautiful, brave, strong, and determined. The storyline is complex, filled with mystery, secrets, lies, angst, danger, suspense, and the twists and turns. Alexander Neal and Lynn Barrington did a great job bringing this story to life. Looking forward to listening to Callous, the next book in the series. If you like dark romantic suspense, this series is for you! #PFPAudio

Great Story & Narration🎧 Emotional & Intense!

Kathy Coopmans blows me away with this dark and emotional mafia romance novel, the first book of her “Diamond Empire” series, a series of standalone novels. The story grabbed my attention right from the start and held it captive the entire time, it also tugged on my heartstrings like no other. This book is a spinoff of an existing world, a world I am new to, but I had no problem jumping in, never felt lost or like I was missing something. I am not sure how I missed the earlier series, I only know I am looking forward to checking them out soon. This book is Victoria Hughes and Seth Mitchell’s story and wow, what a story it is. Victoria and Seth were both born into a dangerous world of power. Although Victoria wants nothing to do with it, it's in her blood and can't be avoided, especially if Seth has a say. Seth moves to New York to be closer to Victoria and to be an enforcer for the Diamond Empire. There was a hit on Victoria’s family, she and her father were spared because they were not home at the time, both are suffering from heartbreak and survivor’s guilt. How does someone come back from such a gut-wrenching loss? Seth and Victoria have known each other for years, but she despises him, at least that is what she thinks, and Seth is determined to prove otherwise. He is also determined to find out who was behind the attacks and who is trying to take the empire down. The chemistry between these two was undeniable, and Victoria could only deny herself for so long before finally giving in to it. The story is cleverly plotted with non-stop drama, angst, thrilling suspense, heartfelt emotions, and steamy romance. Kathy Coopmans, thank you for this great story and emotional rollercoaster ride. 

🎧📚🎧  And for the fantastic narration, Alexander Neal and Lynn Barrington were the perfect cast to bring these characters to life and they did so with a complete understanding of who they were portraying, giving each a voice that was fitting to that character’s persona and were believable in every role they played. They set the perfect tone for the story, captured all the characters’ emotions and had you feeling every single one. These entertaining storytellers are versatile voice artists and a pleasure to listen to. Thank you for another excellent listen.

Angsty but good

This is a good story. It is dark, angsty and graphic. I was surprised at how angry and vicious the male lead could be. It is spelled out but usually the author smooths the violence over but nit in here. I have read a lot of MC/mafia books but this one really took it to the next level.

This is the first in a new series aso I figured newish characters but in here there are numerous other characters whose stories are touched or talked about I am assuming from previous series. After a while I did not keep track of who was who and where they belonged. I would suggest reading other books from this author as it seems more of a continuation.

I listened to this on audio. Alexander Beal and Lynn Barrington did a good job with the narration. Both are newish to me and I would enjoy them again.

Concede

Concede is the first book in The Diamond Empire series. This series is about Seth and Victoria.

Seth and Victoria were born in the same circle, but Victoria will do whatever not to be a part of this life. Seth has always had feelings for Victoria.

When something happens Victoria is back in his life but still wants nothing to do with him, however, Seth is going to win her over, while also protecting her.

I enjoyed this book and getting to know these characters! The banter between these two was great. The secrets and lies and both of these people learning and growing. I'm excited to read more in this series.

steamy

This mafia story is exciting, dark, full of danger, brutality and revenge.
Victoria is a strong willed woman -she's broken when members of her family were murdered.
Seth , only wants to find revenge to make his Angel whole again.
This story is thrilling, full of suspense, non stop drama. It had me on the edge of my seat!
Lynn Barrington and Alexander Neal tell this story with so much emotion, they captured all the voices and personalities of each character they portrayed, making this an enjoyable audio to listen to.
# the flock #PFP production.

A dark Mafia romance

A dark Mafia romance with danger and a family out for revenge. Victoria and Seth have been in each others lives since childhood since they come from similar backgrounds. They're has always been an underlying attraction between them but now they seem to be enemies. When Victoria is in the sights of the Diamond Empire's enemy, Seth moves in with Victoria in order to protect her as well as convince her to give them a real chance of becoming a couple. When danger comes calling, will they lose each other on their quest for revenge or will they get their much deserved HEA.

Great narration by Alexander Neal and Lynn Barrington.

Mafia dark romance- Victoria and Seth

This is a dark mafia romance. It's book 1 in the Diamond Empire Series. This book is about Victoria Hughes and Seth Mitchell. Although they have known each other a long time, they are best described as enemies to lovers. Victoria's family except her and her father were brutally murdered. Victoria doesn't want anything to do with her family's mafia ties. Seth leaves his family and moves to New York to becomes the enforcer for the Diamond Empire. This puts Seth virtually working for Victoria's father. Victoria is determined to figure out who killed her family. Seth is determined to protect Victoria. Before Victoria Seth was certainly a carefree playboy. The only person Seth loves as much as Victoria, is his niece. His niece is sassy and spoiled in the best way possible. Seth really had to break down Victoria's walls because she was in such a depression. Victoria didn't see much point in life if her whole family was killed. The book has a lot of emotion, chemistry, and action.

Fantastic!!

OMG!! I didn’t think my heart could take much more. Right out of the gate, Kathy Coopmans gutted me and not just once. Concede had me in tears so many times. Her dark and dangerous men are bad when they need to be, but oh so good to those they love. Seth had my heart from the beginning and I fell harder right along with Victoria.

The narrators did a fantastic job bringing this story to life!!

Incredible story

Kathy did a great job with this story. Adventure, excitement, suspense, wonderful characters and chemistry. Loved every word.#The FlockonTour

Book 1 - The Diamond Empire

This is book 1 in Coopmans new series The Diamond Empire. I loved the dual narration by Alexander Neal and Lynn Barrington who were perfect for our main characters Seth and Victoria. I thought this was a great intro to this new mafia romance series. I really liked the history between these two and the ties that bound them. Wonderfully well written with all the dark and danger you could want. I did feel like some of the conversations were more monolog than actual conversations, but I really enjoyed the storyline and flow as well as the dynamic and connection between these two main characters. Definitely looking forward to more in this series!

This book was given to me for free at my request and I voluntarily provided this review.