Cruel Saints

The Saints Series, Book 2

By: Michelle Heard

Narrated by: Gomez Pugh, Alyssa Avery

Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

Alliances are made. Loyalty is owned. Love is taken.

Little did I know my love and freedom would be taken to form a new alliance.

Brutal, possessive, and dangerous, Lucian is feared by all. Including myself. When his father is assassinated, Lucian takes his rightful place as head of the Cotroni family. They rule the Mafia with an iron fist, and he's set his sights on my family.

Until now, we've been the only threat, but when a new one emerges, my father is forced to arrange a marriage between Lucian and me.

He might be handsome but he's not the kind of man who loves. He takes what he wants and right now, it's my body.

I might belong to him in name, but the question remains—will our union be consummated in blood or love?

From USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Michelle Heard comes a new standalone, full-length arranged marriage mafia romance novel. Intended for mature listeners.

©2021 M.A. Heard (P)2023 Podium Audio

ENJOYABLE.. but there should be trigger warnings

Wow Michelle, that was one hell of a tense dark opening - and the physical and sexual abuse that follows seventeen yo Elena by her bodyguard is brutal too. A mother dead, a daughter unloved, kept a prisoner by her cruel uncaring Father and used as a bargaining chip for marriage. Elena dreams of one day being free.. and that chance comes four years later when she’s sent to neutral ground St Monarch’s Switzerland for her own safety. That’s where she’ll meet a feared, dangerous, handsome man that’ll have the strength and power to slay all her demons. Twenty-five yo Lucian is set to take over his father’s position as head of the Mafia and he was sent there to train in all the things he must know to take his place as Don. However, he will also be fascinated by a broken little bird who shows glimpses of strength and fire.. he’ll become protective and possessive.. and he’ll be disturbed by the fear she shows whenever he comes near. Quickly she becomes his obsession.. but their dangerous world hits hard, death follows, neutral ground becomes a battle ground and they will have to fight to survive. And the sweet and savoury.. and sometimes suspenseful story that follows is really enjoyable as Lucian’s kid gloves slowly come off when Elena learns that not all men in their brutal world are monsters.

Worth a credit? Apart from one TSTL move by the heroine 🤦🏻‍♀️, yes I loved the action, the characters, the plot (which wasn’t drowned out by too much sex), the romance and the blows delivered to very bad men. Gomez and Alyssa were absolutely brilliant at bringing the feels and the characters to life - and together they delivered five star perfection.

👉Trigger warning.. it had dark scenes, it had forced bj sexual abuse and it had abusive threats of rape.

Another great book by this author!

Starting to be convinced that this author can do no wrong! I loved this book and would recommend it to a friend.

Loved it!

Great love story that kept my attention. I enjoyed both main characters. It was an emotional story with just enough spice.

Hard to listen to....

...there are some dark scenes in this book, more than in any other listen to in this series.

Lucien is actually a great character & you learn to really feel for him.

His love really tested my limit on how much she as inter monologue in her head - enough so that it takes away from the story.

This story has alot of up & downs but does give a good ending.

Keeps getting better

I loved this book. I’m nervous about book 3 but I may skip to book 4 first. We will see. This was a great book.

Not what I thought it was…

Seriously, when I did a sample I was like SOLD!! Well, it was a mafia alright but the 🌶️ was like 0.5/5 and the typical you are “the best ever” crap that I was hoping writers were getting away from…

The story is about Elena who doesn’t know her mother and her father doesn’t really take interest in her so she does what most poor little rich girls do, mess around with the help 🙄 she gets him unalived, she gets into crap, like really bad with one of the grimy men… that was bad and essentially locked in her bedroom.

She turns 21, she’s sent to St. Monarch and that’s where she meets Lucian. He’s to take over his father’s mafia empire and of course it’s live at first sight…

They angst, she dies the dumb stuff and I kept thinking, with your history here’s where you get a pseudo backbone of she knew the dude liked her so she’s playing… There was a story there but she lived in her head so much and the inner monologues were excessive to the point I wasn’t feeling bad for her anymore… I was like yep it’s all your fault… that kid didn’t deserve it… she didn’t deserve Lucian either ugh…

I just did not enjoy this at all… the sample got me to buy the next one too and I really hope it’s better than this…that’s what I get for buying on a whim I guess… 🥴

Average Mafia Romance

3.5 stars. The narrators in Audible were good, but when the female does the male voice, she sounds like Count Dracula. As for the plot, it picked up towards the end.

The only book out of this series I haven't read was the third one. However, the FMC, Elena in Cruel Saints, was my least favorite. She was weak and made a dumb move that almost put her and the MMC, Lucian, at risk. As for Lucian, he was more likable.