Handsome Devil

A Dark Mafia Romance (Forbidden Love, Book 3)

De: L.J. Shen

Narrado por: Troy Duran, Leila Allarie

I made a deal with the devil to save my mother…

But is it really hell if I love the way it burns

Gia

The monster from my nightmares crawled into reality, masquerading as my boss.

Tatum Blackthorn is Lucifer personified.

When he discovers my weakness, he makes me an offer I cannot refuse, and I become his wife.

I always knew he was depraved, but as his twisted vendetta unfurls, so does my darkest secret.

Now we're both the targets of very nefarious people…

They're about to find out no one matches my husband's wrath.

Tate

I am a man of few pleasures, one of which is destroying Gia Bennett.

Slowly. Patiently. Systematically.

My fixation with my secretary has an origin but no limits.

When my revenge spree sparks into an all-consuming Mafia war, I expect nothing but a good time.

After all, death cannot come too soon.

Alas, it isn't just my life that's on the line now.

In this chess game, the king protects the queen.

Even at the price of burning down his entire empire.

Handsome Devil is a mafia-themed, enemies-to-lovers standalone romance. It deals with sensitive subject matters and includes violence, gore and explicit scenes some might find disturbing. Listener discretion is advised.

©2025 Bloom Books (P)2025 LJS Publishing Inc

Shen this is what this series needed 👏🏽

I literally have nothing negative to say about this book! This is the Shen we fell in love with. The banter, the craziness, the extreme psychotic MMC yesssssss! We are here for it all. Get this book! It's the best in the series for sure!

4.5⭐️Tate approved stars!

I knew I’d adore Tate, LJ wrote his character so well in my opinion. Even when he’d say some of the most out of pocket stuff I couldn’t help but laugh…even when I probably shouldn’t have. Troy delivers those lines so perfectly it was horrifying yet comical. I loved it. Gia was a complete spit fire that I loved! These two together were a perfect match. Gia gave Tate some of his humanity and he gave her all the love she deserved. Did he go about that in the wrong ways yeah sometimes, but Gia also knew he’d never hurt her and would protect. Even when being a complete dumbass. He loved her, even when he said he couldn’t. He just didn’t know that love is what he was expressing. I loved them!

Now these story and Wildest Dreams were both amazing, but Tate’s grey zones gave in the edge. Otherwise both were pretty evenly matched for my tastes!

Read: Audible🎧/Physical📖
MMC: Tate Blackthorne
FMC: Gia Bennett
Spice: 3🌶️
Tropes: Enemies to Lovers, Billionaire, Marriage Contract, Boss/Asst, Mafia Ties

Perfect narration!

The duet and narrators were excellent. Each book in the trilogy got better. This was the best out of the 3! Loved these 2 characters and the storyline so much.

Amazing narration

LJ Shen is always good but the narration makes it great. I have always enjoyed Troy Duran but he is really good as Nate. I am not familiar with Leila Allarie but she was also amazing. LJ Shen wrote a book that was different than many contemporary books, which is refreshing. Still had a happy ending, but Tate’s character was something new. Really enjoyed the book.

Gia brings Tate to his knees.

I don’t know how LJ makes us love the bad boy alphaholes but she does. Always has. She writes them so well. Tate’s backstory will have you understanding him immediately. Make you like him when in the first books we despised him. You will feel for him. You will fall in love with Gia immediately especially with how she takes nothing from Tate. I loved how strong and resilient she was. How she was determined to help her mother, no matter the cost. Now Tate and Gia, loved their story. Loved how she had pinned for Tate. Loved how quickly Tate fell for Gia. Loved their chemistry. Loved how Tate protected her fiercely. This story does have some darker elements but I wouldn’t say it’s really dark. I absolutely loved the mention of Vicious and Wolf Keaton. Makes me one to do some re reading.

Love this one!!

This was darker than the rest in the series & I was here for all of it! Absolutely loved Tate & Gia!!

Morally gray mafia, immaculately cast!

Story Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ (0-5)
Narration: 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧 (0-5)
Overall: 4.75/5
Steam: 🔥🔥🔥☄️ (0-5) I bump up for public-ish places/outdoor spaces.

What I'm Starry-Eyed Over:
🤩 Immaculately, impeccably cast with Leila Allarie & Troy Duran!! Such a DUET narration treat.
🤩 Tatum Blackthorne is 100% morally gray, alphahole boss.
🤩 I'm not sure I could handle him, but Gia Bennett is absolutely perfect for him.
🤩 That need to know how their paths are connected. It involves revenge turning to obsession.
🤩 "Life was a temporary inconvenience. Though I enjoyed good food, good liquor, and good pu$$y. I didn't fear death." This is Tate Blackthorne, plus a whole lot of childhood trauma. Like, stuff that made me gasp aloud. And mental health issues.
🤩 With Tate Blackthorne, it might not be I love you, but it's "You'd be surrprised at the sum I'm willing to pay to make sure you're immortal."
🤩 It's so well written, but I didn't know if I would be able to love it. I did. The author healed me along with them—it's executed beautifully.

What I'm Wishing/Dizzy About:
💫 I prefer my mafia blood, guts and missing eyeballs at a bit more of a distance, but Gia can handle a whole lot more than me.
💫 We feel the HEA for certain, but I also think we deserved a steamy hot (after drama) HEA scene in Jamaica. Hormonal Gia at her best would have been my kind of fun!

Tate Blackthorn💕

I didn’t think it was possible for Vicious to have any competition for my favorite LJ Shen morally gray MMC, but Tate is now right up there. The way she can write characters that are absolutely lovable despite doing things that are morally reprehensible is just brilliant and I’m here for it every single time. If I’m honest, I love all of her morally gray characters. I found myself laughing at Tate and how he rationalized all the absolutely unhinged things he did for Gia as if they weren’t completely unhinged, just a natural way of existing in the world. I loved the way Gia was able to go toe to toe with him and demolish the walls Tate built around his heart and brought him back to life. Tate would absolutely burn the world for Gia. This is now one of my favorite enemies to lovers books. Their backstories are intertwined and both have a reason to dislike each other, but they also cannot deny the attraction they have for each other. Tate finally met his match and Gia discovered a side to her that she didn’t know existed until she was forced into a relationship with Tate. This is definitely the darkest book in the series so far, and trigger warnings should be heeded. It’s also one of my favorite books in this series!

Troy Duran was absolutely the best narrator choice for Tate and he once again performed flawlessly in this book. He is one of my absolute favorite narrators. This is the first book I’ve heard narrated by Leila Allarie but she didn’t disappoint as Gia and did a fantastic job narrating. I will definitely look for her as a narrator in future books. LJ Shen writes the best books and I have absolutely loved every single book she’s written. If she writes it, I’ll be reading it. I can’t wait for Tiernan’s story in Bad Bishop. Somehow I get the feeling he might be more unhinged than Tate if that’s even possible.
***Chapter 23 was missing in the audiobook but was added to the end as the very last chapter of the book. It contains information that is vital to the plot so definitely don’t skip it.

Great book. Audiobook Error

The last chapter is chapter 23 and confused me. The chapter is out of order. Other than that, loved all the dry humor that is Tate and it was easy to love the characters. Narrators were phenomenal. They sounded very attractive together haha

Loooove this

When we get the warning that this is darker than the first two, it was right.
Tate Blackthorn is not your typical billionaire who happens to be mafia adjacent. He is troubled and it plays a big part in who he is as a person. Gia is a bada$$. She’s the only one who can put up with him and give his energy back in full.
This is possibly my favorite of this series of standalones. It just had a different feel to it. Highly recommend if you like to see those who struggle in secret/silence win in the end.
The narrators were amazing. I loved every bit of this audio. Duet narration is my favorite format for audiobooks when in multi pov. Troy Duran gives that gruffness we need to bring Tate’s character to life. Leila Allarie’s voice is beautiful and I loved it for Gia.