American Literary Review

Once I became pregnant, I was hailed as the most precious woman in the underworld. My husband, the new Don of the Jenkins family, shut down an entire private hospital wing for my check-ups, while my father, the Collins Don, summoned every Michelin-starred chef in New York to the estate, just so I could pick whatever I craved. The baby I carried was destined to be the sole heir of the two most powerful mafia families. But on the day we were to sign the papers securing my child's inheritance, they both vanished. "An urgent family matter came up," my husband, Vincent, said, kissing my forehead. "We can finalize the child's inheritance when we get back. There's no rush." Shortly after they left, I received a link to an anonymous live stream. My father's voice came from the video, colder than I had ever heard it. "You're saying your marriage contract with Evangeline was never valid. Doesn't that make the child a bastard?" Vincent, lounging in a club, blew a smoke ring. Cradled in his arms was my half sister, Sarah. "Evangeline has always had all the love and affection. Her child will want for nothing." "Sarah has been mocked for her status for years. I have to make things right for her, give our child a legitimate name." In that moment, my heart seized, and I could barely breathe. Then my phone vibrated again. It was a text message: "Welcome home to the Gallo family, my queen." "Just give the word, and the child you carry will bear the Gallo name and become the most powerful heir in the American underworld."

Valentina Moretti is the Don the Italian Mafia. Smart and formidable, surviving a male dominated environment, overcoming tremendous challenges. Trained from a young age to be a deadly assassin, she commands respect wherever she goes. She seemingly has everything, until her father decides to arrange her marriage. Luca Delgado is the head of the American Mafia. He is a ruthless and cold individual. He understands the rules of the game perfectly and will do anything to achieve victory, including breaking others without hesitation. Their forced marriage is a cruel twist of fate. Will these two ruthless individuals find comfort in one another, or will they end up destroying each other? "I don’t remember agreeing to play strip poker," she remarked. Her lips formed a slight frown, but her eyes sparkled with playfulness. She realized she couldn't outmatch me in this game. "Are you giving up? Are you a coward? " I taunted, aiming to provoke her. Her lips quivered before she pressed them firmly together. The richness of her eye color intensified as she offered a sly grin. She began shuffling cards and removed one of her sandals. Great. We’re taking the long route. She held it up, letting it dangle from her finger before casually tossing it aside. She raised an eyebrow at me, clearly challenging me. I was pleased to know I had touched a nerve. Just as I expected. BE AWARE: Trigger warnings: MATURE CONTENT 18+ (SMUT) SWEARING SELF HARM/SUICIDE (REFERENCES) LANGUAGE THAT IS UNAMBIGUOUS CURSING VIOLENCE, GUN VIOLENCE SELF-INFLICTED HARM /SUICIDE (REFERENCES) BLOOD, DECEASE, and GORE

“I'm the lycan of the American wolves. All packs on both continents are under my protection, and yet you wish for me to let you have your way with one of my most productive. Even provide assistance when necessary. Don't you think you ask for too much?” “I do. That's why I'm pleading for your mercy and kindness.” “I possess none of both qualities, but I do enjoy a good deal. I'll let you do as you want... if you become my sex slave. Your body will be mine, and I'll have you whenever, wherever, and however I please.” “Until my family is dethroned.” Belinda is what people call unfortunate. She is the result of an extramarital affair of the Luna of the Chicago Pack with a human, dooming her to be born an omega. At the age of 15, she loses her twin brother to a mysterious illness, and at 25, she has yet to awaken her wolf. On the morning of her wedding, her mate, the Beta of the pack, rejects her to be with her step-sister. Hours later, she is thrown into a river by her family and left to drown. It should have been the end of Belinda Knight, and it would have been, had her powers not awakened in her last moments of life. Belinda is transported back in time to exactly a year before her death. She has a chance to exact revenge on those who have wronged her, and she plans on taking that chance, but the Chicago Pack is powerful. Only one can rival them, the king of werewolves himself, the Lycan. But his support comes with a price.. she must give herself to him.

Two things matter in my captor's twisted world of crime. Power and Money. He stole me to gain both. He is a cold hearted monster with a reputation of violence. So how can his touch make me ache with need? I refused his proposal of marriage but Anthony Rodriguez didn't' break in for a reason. He is surely going to make me his mafia bride whether I want it or not. I'm the Russian Mafia Princess who caught the sight of the enemy. Being kidnapped is nothing but business. My dad is going to hunt this ruthless monster. That's what I should be rooting for. I should hate Anthony Rodriguez. But when the corded muscles of his tattooed arms pull me into his embrace, I feel safer than ever before. He watches me through his security cameras 24/7. I find power in giving him something to look at. But he is a dangerous stranger in my bed, clamping a rough hand on my mouth to stay silent. My entire life has been controlled by my dad. I don't know why he stole from the American mafia when he has everything. And my terrifying intruder doesn't care for a reason. He just wants to claim his debt from my quivering body. But under his command and sheets I am discovering a new strength. I'm becoming this man's doing. Despite being trapped at his mercy and stolen from my family, I might never want to leave my place under him. Kidnapped by my Ruthless Mafia Fiancé is an enemies to lovers, Stockholm Syndrome, cartel mafia romance story.

In my past life, I was a rare treasure: the only she-wolf capable of bearing a pureblood werewolf heir. That singular gift made me a prize, claimed by Leon, the Alpha of the formidable Silvermoon Pack in North America. Leon's ambition burned with the desire for a child. A pureblood heir, he believed, would secure his ascension to President Alpha—the supreme leader of all North American Lycan packs. But fate, as it often does, twisted his expectations. After ten long months, I birthed a pup with gray fur and gray eyes which was different to the golden-marked purebloods. By all standards, a low-ranking wolf. Simultaneously, my sister Eve, wedded to the rival Seurin Pack, delivered a golden-furred, golden-eyed pureblood. Leon's dream of becoming President Alpha shattered in an instant. From that moment, he harbored a strong hatred for me and my pup. He forced wolfsbane down our throats and ended our lives with a silver blade in a cold merciless way. Only in my dying breath did the horrifying truth reveal itself: my own sister had stolen my gift—the ability to bear purebloods—using dark magic, claiming it as her own. Now, I am reborn. I find myself reliving the day Leon and Seurin arrived to propose marriage. Just as before, Leon chose my sister Eve without hesitation. I saw it in his eyes—he remembers everything. He, too, has been reborn. But this time, I possess the knowledge. Without me, he will never father a pup—not pureblood, not even half-blood. Not even a mutt.

“If you think that you have been living in hell all your life, let me break that illusion for you,” Adrian said. He spoke slowly, his voice full of menace. “This place–this is true hell, right here, where I am. His statement, “In this place, death is not an escape, no matter how much you may yearn for it,” was enough to make the audience shudder, but all that tiny figure did was raise her lifeless, dull eyes. “Then help me, so I can remain here.” She replied, her voice barely above a whisper. ********************************** In a world ruled by loyalties and bloodlines, Kira, the first daughter of the strongest family in the American mafia, finds herself entangled in an unexpected twist of fate. She was betrothed since childhood to the second son of the Italian mafia’s don, due to a blood alliance between both families. She was raised alongside him and always considered him as her everything, while joyfully waiting for the day they would finally get married. To her, their love story was set in stone. However, on the day of the wedding, Kira's world as she knows it comes crumbling down when receives a shocking revelation — instead of her betrothed, a different groom appears at her wedding. And to top it off, he was dressed in a prison uniform. What happens when Kira finds herself thrust into the clutches of Adrian Vasillos the infamous ‘devil’ of the Italian mafia? Will she be able to navigate this world of danger, intrigue, betrayal, tested loyalties, and forbidden desires where she must come face to face with her deepest fears? Or will she finally discover the true meaning of love and get her happy ending? Read on to find out more in this twisted romance series…

I never wanted a man. I wanted a baby. After years of failed treatments, a cheating fiancé, and a body that kept betraying me, I made a decision. I would do this alone. No man, no heartbreak, no complications. Just me, a clinic, and a dream I refused to let die. Except the clinic made a mistake. One catastrophic, life-altering mistake. The sample I was inseminated with didn't belong to the anonymous donor I selected. It belonged to Dominic Sinclair, billionaire, ruthless businessman, and the most terrifyingly beautiful man I have ever seen in my life. And now I'm carrying his child. He finds out before I've even processed the shock myself. I expect lawyers. Paperwork. A cold corporate transaction. What I don't expect is him standing in my apartment doorway, silver eyes burning with something that looks nothing like indifference telling me that no child of his will be born outside his pack's territory. Pack. That's when I realized Dominic Sinclair isn't just any billionaire. He's a werewolf. Campaigning to be Alpha King of the entire North American packs. And I, a human, broke, still-heartbroken, carrying his heir, have just become the most dangerous variable in his entire political rise. He says he wants to protect me. His wolf says something else entirely. And the way he looks at me, like I'm something he wants to consume slowly, makes me terrified of one thing above all else. That I might let him.

Yaroslav “Viktorovich” Demidov: 25, of Russian descent, the second heir of the Demidov Family. Stoic, disciplined-well too much, perfectionist, hot headed and uptight. Hides vulnerability within that hard exterior of his. The only one in his family who has no magic because of an incident that happened when he was 4 years of age. Soul-bonded to Lian and actually holds the rarest and most powerful but dangerous power of all. Lian MAteo Alonzo-Kensington: 20, Filipino-British American, from the nurturing but competitive Kensington Family. Confident, expressive, sometimes impulsive kind of vulgar but well disciplined not in an uptight way. Has magical abilities, the rare dual type ability holders, ice and wind. His warmth clashes with Yaroslav and is soul-bonded with him therefore can also wield the other rarest and most powerful magic. Can two opposing hearts on ice bound by a soul-bond survive the weight of legacy, pressures of the competition and the dangerous pull of love and desire, when the bond that they believed to be a curse demands that one must lose his life for the other to live? For even every clash of skates, every stolen glances across the rink, every searing touch and mind-numbing kiss when they met in secret seems to burn the ice ablaze as the hatred blurs into hunger that draws them closer to a collision that could destroy or bind them for eternity. “Fuck Kensington, then I’ll risk everything, suffer everything….for one thing that matters…..You.” -Yaroslav Demidov

Ava Parker, the daughter of a notorious American mafia family, is about to marry Riccardo De Lucca, her late sister’s fiancé. He’s the guy she’s secretly loved since the first moment she saw him ten years ago when she was only fourteen years old. After two years apart, she’s shocked to find he’s not the same man she fell for. The Riccardo in front of her is a ruthless figure, ready to turn her life into a nightmare. All she’s ever wanted is to break free. Living in her sister’s shadow has never been easy for her. But fate has other plans for her so it seems. Riccardo has his own reasons for wanting to marry Ava. He’s out for revenge against those who caused his fiancée's death and is willing to go to any lengths to achieve it, even if it means hurting the wrong person. He always thought Ava was meek, but he quickly discovers there’s a fiery spirit in her that drives him wild. As the barriers between them start to crumble, their connection becomes something neither can control. Ava has to navigate the dangerous world of the mafia while grappling with her undeniable attraction to the man she vowed to never love again. And Riccardo? He’s determined to claim her completely—body, mind, and soul.

Miguel has built his life around the land. Born of indigenous Costa Rican ancestry, he believes ownership is stewardship, not control. High in the mountains of Monteverde, he struggles to preserve his farms and a failing eco-lodge sustained by pristine mountain springs that carry life-giving water for the entire valley. Bobby, a kindergarten teacher from Ireland, arrives in Costa Rica carrying a private grief. A genetic diagnosis has ended her hopes of motherhood, and leaving Ireland for Costa Rica is the only way she knows to start a new life. Vulnerable and unmoored, she falls under the influence of Sean, a charismatic expatriate who offers work, protection, and belonging—while quietly binding her to his business interests. The springs beneath Cabinas Las Nubes become the fulcrum of their collision. To Miguel, it is sacred. To Sean, it is a commodity to be stripped and laundered through shell companies tied to South American narco networks. When Miguel refuses to legitimize the illegal extraction, intimidation escalates into violence, culminating in the kidnapping of a child—Christopher—to force his compliance. Bobby recognizes the danger too late but refuses to run again. Risking her life to save Christopher, she confronts the man who once controlled her and exposes the depth of her courage. Her choice strengthens Miguel’s resolve. Working from within, he dismantles Sean’s operation and reclaims the land before it is destroyed. Set against Costa Rica’s ancient waters and living terrain, the novel explores grief, integrity, and the quiet ferocity of love chosen under threat.