A Beauty So Cruel by Beena Khan (Beauty & the Beast #1) | ARC Book Review and $10 Giveaway
A woman’s life changes when she accidentally becomes a witness to a murder and then taken captive by the New York Underworld Don, Vlad Vitalli. A new dark mafia romance from Beena Khan that is a series starter, read the publication history, genre, book summary and book review of A Beauty So Cruel by Beena Khan in this post below.
About A Beauty So Cruel by Beena Khan:
Publication date: February 14th 2021
Genres: Contemporary Romance, New Adult, Romance, Mafia Romance, Dark Romance
Blurb:
I was a beauty, a stray orphan until the beast took me as his hostage.
Once upon a time…
A Don by the name of Vlad Vitalli ruled New York. He’s a mafia man. The leader of one of the ruling families, La Cosa Nostra. He’s a monster. A trained killer and a cold-blooded murderer. Tall, mysterious, with icy gray eyes, and he rarely smiles. His smile was made to fool any girl. He’s ruthless, cold, dangerous, and wants to kill me.
I was the wrong person at the wrong time.
Just an innocent at the masquerade ball. The mafia has rules: no witnesses left behind. To save my life, I made a deal with the beast. I handed myself to the cruelest man in the kingdom.
For him, It was supposed to be an easy kill. I’m an orphan raised in poverty. No one would have missed me. Just as the Don Vlad was about to order the hit, I threw off my masquerade mask, revealing my face, and offered myself to him. One look and I was doomed. He took me as his hostage. His captive. He didn’t know by taking me, Dahlia Hadid, he sealed his own fate.
Welcome to New York’s Underworld.
Loosely based on the fairytale.
A Beauty So Cruel by Beena Khan Review:
A woman’s life changes when she accidentally becomes a witness to a murder and is then taken captive by the New York Underworld Don, Vlad Vitalli. A new dark mafia romance from Beena Khan, I got a chance to read an ARC before the release and here is my review. This is the first book by Beena that I have read and while I sat engaged throughout, I do think this book had so much more potential.
Right from the start, I had mixed feelings. The main reason for my discontent was Dahlia’s thoughts and actions. One moment she was of one thought and then suddenly she jumped to a totally contradictory thought. So, she had me feeling disconnected with her. She is shown as a fighter one moment and then she acts like a damsel in distress for so long that that twist fizzles. I can’t give out specifics but her character looked half developed at times. I was horrified with her past and so, give her credit for rising above it. The end twist didn’t surprise me. I had suspected a twist and so, when the end came, I had been expecting what happened.
Vlad is shown as the ruthless, cruel Don but he is anything but. So, he was the shining star in this book. His efforts to balance the life he is born into with his ideals is something new in such books and something I appreciated about him. While there are many scenes that had me feeling uncomfortable and even disgusted, I still somehow liked Vlad.
The first few chapters are so-so and I almost got certain that this would be a meh read but then the story picked up and before I knew it I was engrossed!
This book has many scenes that can be triggers for many readers like scenes with sexual abuse, attempted rape, violence and inhuman scenarios describing human trafficking victims. So, only readers above the age of eighteen and people able to digest such dark scenes should read this book.
This is a story where no one wins and my heart cried out at the end but I am hopeful because this isn’t the end and there will be a sequel, “A Beast So Cold” coming out in a few months.
All in all, I liked the first effort of the author in writing a mafia romance and applaud her for going into the murky and inhuman world of the mafia.I enjoyed reading this gritty, edgy and emotionally exhausting book and will pick up the sequel when it comes out. 4 out of 5 stars to A Beauty So Cruel by Beena Khan from me and Njkinny recommends this book to all adult dark romance lovers.
I received an ARC to read and this is my honest and unbiased review that is not influenced in any way. I am thankful to the author and tour organizers for gifting me a copy to read.
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Giveaway:
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$10 Amazon gift card
- Ends 25th Feb
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