Reviewed by Dan
TITLE: All In
SERIES: The Firsts and Forever #2
AUTHOR: Alexa Land
PUBLISHER: Self-Published
LENGTH: 236 Pages
BLURB:
Even though he’s really not over his ex-boyfriend Jamie, twenty three year old former football player Charlie finds himself drawn to Dante Dombruso, the gorgeous, highly dangerous leader of a mafia crime family. Dante is the perfect rebound fling, six feet, four inches of raw sex and hard Italian muscle, wrapped in an expensive suit.
The confident, sexy crime boss is way out of Charlie’s comfort zone. But Charlie already lost everything once by giving in to his fear, and he’s not willing to make the same mistake again.
If he’s going to do this, Charlie knows he can’t hold back. He can’t date this man a little, he can’t trust him a little, he can’t go to bed with him a little. If he’s going to get involved with Dante Dombruso, Charlie has to be All In.
Please note: This book is a lighthearted m/m romance. It contains explicit language, just a bit of BDSM to spice things up, and plenty of steamy sex between two hot guys. It’s intended for adult readers only.
REVIEW:
Welcome to the second book in the Firsts and Forever Series. As I’ve probably mentioned previously, this isn’t my first time through the first four books, but more a coming home to one of my favorite series, and by far one of my favorite characters in this genre, but we’ll talk about that person later in the review. I want to start out by making one comment that I think is crucial to reading this series. Lighten up. Alexa Land loves to take you on a light hearted m/m whirlwind romance with humor, fairly short timelines, and fairly improbable characters. Who cares? I love them! And I think you will as well.
Jaime and Dmitri have taken over the restaurant that used to be Flannigan’s and turned it into Nolan’s. Dmitri, as you recall if you’re following along, turned his Russian Mafia operations over to Dante Dombruso, a Sicilian Mafia boss, who is also the head of his family “business” in San Francisco.
Jaime’s ex-boyfriend, Charlie Connolly is a mess. He didn’t realize until it was too late how much he was in love with Jaime. Rather than come out to his parents, he hid in the closet, got engaged to a girl, and threw Jaime away. Now Charlie has come out to his parents, and it went as badly as he expected. They threw him out and told him to never return.
When the book opens, Charlie has gone to work at Nolan’s, has moved into Jaime’s old apartment (with no furniture) and is waiting to go on a date with Dante Dombruso, the same Dante Dombruso that took over Dmitri’s operations when Dmitri got out of the business. Dante is much more of a crime lord than Dmitri ever was, and both Jaime and Dmitri think Charlie is making a huge mistake dating him.
When Charlie drags Dante along on a “breaking and entering” at his parent’s house to get his clothes and other stuff, where they try to pick the lock with a “Hello Kitty” lock pic set that Charlie got off E-bay, the tone of the story is set!
The world sees Dante as a huge hard ass mafia boss. Charlie sees him as a really nice guy. Who is right? When Dante handcuffs Charlie to a prostitute called Austin things become a little strange for both of them. Will they get out of the cuffs before Dante gets back from his trip to Italy? Will Austin, whose real name is Christopher Robin, convince Charlie that Dante is as bad for him as Dante instructed?
Somewhere about there in the story we are introduced to my favorite character of this series, and maybe one of my favorite characters in this genre as I mentioned above. Charlie’s phone rings and the woman identifies herself as Stana Dombruso, Dante’s grandmother. Oh my god, I love this woman. A five foot nothing, tiny little 80ish Italian woman. I could picture myself hanging with that woman, and having a great time! Of course she tells both Charlie and Christopher Robin to call her Nana…but not until after she forces them at gunpoint to help her escape from the hospital. The gun is actually Woody’s gun from Toy Story, left in the room by one of her very young family members, but hey, a girl has to do what a girl has to do to escape from the doctors! And it looks real enough to fool Charlie and Christopher Robin!
Will Charlie and Dante work out their differences? What happens to Christopher Robin? You’ll have to read the book to find out.
I very highly recommend this installment in the series. Lots of actions, lots of humor, lots of well written characters. If you’re ready for a light hearted romp, with a series of books that is highly entertaining, follow along, I’ll be reviewing the next book in the series, “In Pieces”, next week!
RATING: 
BUY LINK:
Ok, you’ve sold it to me, but, have you got to read book 1 first? or can you enjoy it for what it is?
You don’t have to read book one first, but some of the characters flow into this book. I think you should consider reading both. I think I read book two first when I first read them and I was like…who is so and so? They are both great. So your choice!
Ok, I’m gonna start with Way off Plan first and then, if I like it, move into All in. Looking forward to read your review for book 3 next week.
I just finished #2 too and I loved it. #1 was better, but not by much. I can’t wait to start book three.
I just finished re-reading #3 for next Monday’s review. Love every one of these books!
I whole heartedly. Agree!! Warning reading this book in public will get you stared at,as you break into gales of laughter. I speak from experience.