Book Review: Married to the Mafia by Lucy Smoke

Book Summary

From bestselling author Lucy Smoke comes a new dark mafia romcom full of high heat, hilarious banter, and a marriage-of-convenience love story, perfect for fans of Butcher & Blackbird and Rook & Rebel. 

Daisy Turner is a broke, single recent college graduate who would say yes to just about anything if it helps her climb out of the pile of debt she’s in. Which is why she agrees to fill in for her roommate as a waitress catering a high-end private wedding. Her expectations are low—at most she’ll get a small stack of cash and a free meal, right? Wrong. Bad luck has a way of finding her, and so it’s no surprise that she would become an accomplice to a murder. Okay, not an accomplice but definitely a witness.   

Turns out the wedding is an arranged marriage between two rival crime families, and the woman who died was supposed to be the bride. As the sole witness and the only living, breathing woman within feet of the angry and ruggedly handsome soon-to-be husband, Daisy knows she has to do something. Unfortunately offering to bake him a sympathy casserole isn’t what he was looking for. Sorry for your loss, also not good enough. She’s sure he’ll kill her on the spot but instead he shakes his head and gives an ultimatum.  

Death or marriage.  

Of course Daisy chooses to marry the man. Marriages can be annulled, but there’s no coming back from death…

My Review

Lucy crafted a great romantic mafia story, and there were some things that I really enjoyed (the adoption into to mafia family, the fact that they had both come from foster homes, the best friend being included into the drama, and the side characters were well done). The only things that knocked this down for me were the facts that it was too long, and the internal dialogue from “mean Daisy” felt a bit too weird. Other than that, I enjoyed this story and will be reading more from Lucy Smoke!

Characters 3.75⭐

Daisy’s character was crafted well, even though her “Mean Daisy” second personality was a bit weird. I know the author’s intention was to simply showcase that other side of oneself that we all sometimes have, but the way it was portrayed in this story felt a bit strange…almost like Mean Daisy was another personality entirely trapped inside Daisy’s head. Most times, it worked fine, but other times, it had me giving it the side eye.

The MMC, Guilio, carried the weight of being an adopted son to a mafia don damn well. He brought everything expected and then some, and I’m glad Lucy Smoke gave both characters depth with well-crafted backstories. I also really enjoyed Daisy’s best friend, Michelle, and Guilio’s adopted brother, and I’m hopefully Lucy will craft their story next.

Setting 3⭐

Mafia central – New York City – is where this novel takes place, but to be honest, the setting could have been highlighted a touch more to seat us properly into the atmosphere.

Plot 4⭐

This was my first novel by Lucy Smoke, and I think the plot felt original and interesting, even with thousands of other mafia novels on the market. Of course, Daisy and Guilio have a marriage of convenience, which I’m always a sucker for, so there’s that.

Writing 3.5⭐

Better than average, but nothing stood out as exceptional.

Enjoyment 3.75⭐

The story was just too long, I think. I understand the author wanted the romance to develop properly, especially with the marriage of convenience, but for a romance with the mafia plotline, I think I expected it to have a faster pace and more excitement. There were definitely mafia “events” but I guess I thought it would play a bigger part in the actual story. My bad?