Savage Mafia Prince by Annika MartinMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
It's finally time to experience Kiro and his own unique story!
It feels like we’ve been waiting for Kiro’s story for an age but in reality it’s only been months. Destined to be the culmination of the Dangerous Royals series, the barrier was possibly set impossibly high for Kiro and Savage Mafia Prince, but did it deliver?
Mostly, yes, although I didn’t find myself swept away by this book, in the same way as its predecessors. Had I read it without the mafia theme so strongly attached to it I am sure I would have loved it. For me, I missed the drama of the mafia and organised crime family essence portrayed in the series to date, although this did appear at the end of the book, much to my delight. This is not a bad thing per se but, for me personally, I found myself in unchartered territory and reading a book with a Tarzan and Jane theme throughout.
We know Kiro was taken as a child which resulted in him living in the wild and becoming a shadow of the man he was destined to be. We know he had been captured and was highly dangerous and was now living out his days in a mental health facility and that’s where we are finally properly introduced to him, and his story. I loved how the author handled Kiro’s unconscious consciousness whilst under heavy medication. It may be a little too difficult to accept for some but for me that element worked well, especially as it was the way Kiro was introduced to his love interest in this book, Ann.
Ann is an undercover reporter working at as a nurse at the institute. Working on a completely different story, she doesn’t expect the pull of Kiro’s treatment and isolation to draw her focus away from her real purpose there. Ann finds herself talking openly to Kiro and, having experienced horrors in her own life, she finds it cathartic to talk to a man who is unable to respond, or even listen to her rambling words, or so she thinks. Kiro is hiding his level of consciousness though and soon he finds himself unable to ignore Ann any longer. With a lip twitch here and an eye follow there, Ann soon comes to realise that Kiro is trying to deceive the staff at the institute and Ann starts to investigate why this is. With Kiro mostly unresponsive, he’s of little help so Ann must dig deeper and in doing so gets herself into danger.
Kiro has formed a bond with Ann and despite not trusting her, finds himself drawn to protect her and after Ann is attacked, Kiro reveals the true level of his sedation. With his secret out though, he is pumped with even more drugs and that’s when Bloody Lazarus targets Ann. With the need to find the third Dragusha brother still a priority for him, he searches the wards to find and kill Kiro, with Ann’s forced assistance.
As expected, despite his drugged state, Kiro springs into action in Ann’s defence and the two flee the facility together and once again into the wilderness, and to Kiro’s true family. Kiro still finds it difficult to trust Ann and feels that she is leading Lazarus to him, however, his attraction to her overwhelms him and his sensibilities and the two start to form a relationship under the stars.
Lazarus may have all the answers in relation to Kiro’s locations but Aleksio and Viktor inevitably catch up with Kiro but is it too late to save their long, lost brother?
Despite my misgivings about this story, it is an epic one and one like no other. I am sorry to see this trilogy conclude but the characters and the relationships they formed along the way will last with me.
If you haven't experienced this author before then I implore you to do so, you won't be disappointed.
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