Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: A Devilish Christmas
SERIES: The Marchesi Family Book 4
AUTHOR: Silvia Violet
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 159 pages
RELEASE DATE: November 18, 2021
BLURB:
Devil, my beast of a man, seduces me into eloping, then kidnaps me for a honeymoon in Christmastown, Vermont.
A lot of men would be furious. I simply planned revenge involving handcuffs.
My annoyance doesn’t last long. Devil rents my dream cottage and manages to draw me out of my Scrooge-like ways. But I’ve been keeping a secret, and it follows me all the way to Christmastown.
Can Devil and I enjoy each other, find our Christmas spirit, and keep ourselves safe from a vicious killer?
This is a sequel to Devil (The Marchesi Family 3) and is best enjoyed after that story.
REVIEW:
Silvia Violet’s A Devilish Christmas gives us an opportunity to visit with mafia man Devil Marchesi and his ex-cop boyfriend Joe in a holiday story that shows their relationship after the HEA in Devil. This novella is set in Ms. Violet’s Marchesi Universe and is written with the same tenor and style. The story has a lot of humor and is spicy, sweet, and sexy, plus we get some action too. It’s the mix of elements we’ve come to expect from Ms. Violet’s stories. However, it’s tempered here by the Christmas theme and the family’s rejoicing over Devil and Joe’s wedding with all of the attendant Marchesi family craziness. We also get to revisit these other family members, like Angelo and Lucien, and all of their snarky banter and lunacy. It’s crazy, often chaotic, and always funny.
We get to see more of Devil and Joe’s relationship in this story, which pleases me because they were hands-down my favorite Marchesi couple. It was nice to see their dynamic and their emotional connection as strong as ever. I loved the clever juxtaposition of Devil, the tough, intimidating, mafia gangster with the cheeriness and, dare I say, softness, of a Christmas elf spreading (or at least trying to) joy and unadulterated happiness.
However, some things remain consistently true throughout Ms. Violet’s stories in this universe. The Marchesi interpretation of happiness and joy always includes some bad guy vanquishment, and not even a wedding or honeymoon are exempt. Additionally, as usual, we get Marchesi (or in the spinoff stories, Vigilance and Theriot) macho proclamations about possession over their lovers. In fact, the first thing Devil says to Joe after they’re married is, “I own you completely now.” Ownership, possession, and control are the relationship linchpins for all of these mobsters/vigilantes.
If you’ve enjoyed the other stories in this universe, A Devilish Christmas is a must-read. It’s highly enjoyable, engaging, low-angst, mafia-style love and adventure dressed up in holiday trappings.
RATING: 
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