Asher Black

4.5 stars

I went back to the beginning, if you've been following my Five Syndicates reading you'll know I've been going backwards, but I skipped and went back to the start after Ranieri Andretti. Asher Black, sigh, what can I say? This book is so good. Parker S. Huntington is masterful (or should it be mistressful 🤷🏻‍♀️) at writing a riveting story. I was hooked from the first chapter. She writes so beautifully and draws the reading in and keeps them intrigued. I swear, I was ready to throw my Kindle, Asher pissed me off so much. I couldn't understand why anyone liked him. Sure, he's good looking but he's manipulative and an arse. But, then the explanations start pouring in and BAM! I'm lost in the sea of emotions that I have for him. It brought everything into perspective and from that moment it all made sense and I adored him. I just love that...having my opinion completely turned on its head. Not everyone has the skill to do that...I'm not exactly easy to please, but Parker did it. Lucy was so awesome. I loved her, I wanted to shake her at times for not kicking Asher in the nads and telling him to do one! But, I loved how she overcame things in her past and how being around Asher made her comfortable enough to truly be herself. Some might say being with Asher made her strong and fierce but I don't see it that way, he didn't change her and she didn't change for him. She finally had the safety and confidence to be the person she always wanted to be and I think she was as shocked as anyone else to figure that out. I adored the way the conflict she felt about being with Asher was portrayed. It felt very real and believable.

The sexual tension between this couple was off the charts, my god. It was intense and when they finally came together? Explosive. I loved their interactions and seeing the Big Bad Asher with a heart of gold played a big part in turning dislike to love. I thought the book had some wonderful humourous moment and they really balanced the book out. There are plenty of characters to love and hate throughout this book, you should read it to find out who they are.

Definitely a must read!

Okay, this is more ridiculous than anything and sweet. I was expecting something dark especially since it is mafia. The thing is, I was really enjoying it and would have given this a 5 star until the relationship conflict at the end. This is where everything fell apart and I started looking back over everything and realizing I had more problems with the book.
It is very good for a debut, yes. I was so drawn to this book and enjoyed reading it– I can't remember how many times I laughed aloud. It is just the conflict was something I thought she had already knew about (since she had referenced it previously) and made peace with it. So, it felt out of place and I realized she wanted to change him, so... ugh. At the end it felt like there were a few other lines that were dropped or I feel like could have used more attention than what the book actually focused on.

Will I read more in this series? Probably not? If I'm reading a mafia book I want the dude to be bad, an anti-hero, not trying to redeemable.