Calliope DiMaggio might have been born a mafia princess, but she fled that life a long time ago. Now at peace as a singer, writer and teacher in Nashville but that peace is about to be destroyed by that long-reaching family. A man that Calliope realizes is NOT MINE TO KEEP comes to her rescue when it is known that the head of her family plans an arranged marriage for her.
Allesandro Costa is a millionaire playboy, but he is after the DiMaggio patriarch. He will marry Calliope temporarily while he moves on with his plan to settle an old debt. Little does he imagine that the planned business-only marriage could turn into such a sizzling attraction.
NOT MINE TO KEEP is a combination of sweet romance with a mafia twist and danger and suspense that will have you turning the pages quickly to see what happens to this couple next. Allesandro and Calliope soon find out that the temporary plan is thrown so far out the window that they can never be about business. The two of them are such opposites that you cannot see how this would possibly work out, but it does. He is an unapologetic playboy, but one who loves his family; she is a teacher, singer and writer who left her father’s life and the glitz and intrigue far behind her.
Author Brittney Sahin is new to me but the blurb on the book caught my eye, and I am so glad that I took the chance to read it. NOT MINE TO KEEP is well written with strong points of view by both main characters. The sizzle was instant, but Ms. Sahin did a very good job of letting it all build as they learned about one another and the world that they had been thrust into. The danger is certainly realistic as things begin to ramp up with her father’s upset over the marriage alongside Alessandro’s plan for revenge.
NOT MINE TO KEEP will pull readers through a number of emotions as you move along. There is a darkness that is expected with a mafia book, but you will find moments of sadness even bewilderment – with Calliope feeling slightly overwhelmed by the lifestyle that she had been lucky to miss out on. It also will allow you to enjoy a deep romance and a happy ending. Calliope goes through a bit of writer’s block until the end and the song she writes is a play on the book title – which will give readers warm feelings and a big smile.
A playboy billionaire and a mafioso’s daughter ignite dangerous passions, vengeance, and betrayal in a sizzling novel of suspense by Wall Street Journal bestselling author Brittney Sahin.
The name DiMaggio means mafia royalty, but Calliope, the dynasty’s last living heir, is no princess. A teacher and singer in Nashville, she’s moved as far away from the generations-old criminal legacy as she can. But she still can’t escape her dying father’s wicked reach, or his plans for her arranged marriage to carry on the family name.
Playboy Alessandro Costa has a different plan: marry her himself—temporarily. It’ll give him a chance to take down the DiMaggio patriarch and his empire, settle an old debt, and save Calliope from a catastrophic fate. But when the attraction between them sizzles, business becomes pleasure and a marriage game becomes the real thing.
It only raises the stakes—and the danger. Because now they are living in the shadow of violent men who’ll do whatever it takes to destroy them. With their love and their lives on the line, Calliope and Alessandro are ready to fight fire with fire.