Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Beautifully Savage Butterfly
SERIES: Mafia Bound
AUTHOR: K.M. Neuhold
NARRATORS: Nick J. Russo and Declan Winters
PUBLISHER: K.M. Neuhold Publishing LLC
LENGTH: 7 hours and 58 minutes
RELEASE DATE: Augustus 21, 2024
BLURB:
Being savage in the ring is one thing. The way Elio Moretti craves my violence outside the ring is another.
I feel like I’ve been fighting my whole life, and tapping out has never been an option.
I can live with owing money to the Morettis. I can even live with the constant guilt that my brother is the one paralyzed in a hospital bed while I live his dream. What I can’t live with is Elio Moretti, second in command to the infamous crime family, showing up to all my fights, sitting in the front row, watching me like he can’t look away, and barging into the locker room to patch up my wounds and invade my space.
The Morettis are monsters. Vicious, brutal sociopaths. So, why is Elio so eager to get on his knees for me?
He’s as desperate to give up control as I am to take it, but is giving in to these primal urges enough of a reason to sell my soul?
He claims there are worse people in this city than his family, and the deeper I get dragged into his world, the more true that’s starting to seem. Can I really fall in love with a Mafia underboss? Is it even possible to walk away?
REVIEW:
Note: This is the second in a series and has some spoilers for the first book. Also there is mention of underage sex trafficking in this story.
Whoa! This is a crazy roller coaster of a ride. In this story, Elio, brother of the head of the Moretti crime family falls head over heels over MMA fighter Orion. Well first he’s obsessed 😉 But then he falls in love.
Orion makes his living as an MMA fighter – a living that provides for the care of his quadriplegic brother that he feels guilty about. He’s living Jack’s dream, but it’s a bit more like a nightmare. He’s taken out a loan from the Moretti crime family, but even that’s not enough and so he’s also fighting in illegal underground fights to keep afloat.
Elio, underboss of the family is obsessed with Orion – attending every fight and making sure Orion is ok after each one. This despite the CLEAR wish of Orion to be left alone. He hates Moretti and all that the family stands for, but particularly because Elio has money and the means to have whatever he wants. But it turns out what he really wants is Orion. Elio is definitely a sub and he longs for Orion to take control.
These two are hot and bothered from the get go. But soon Orion realizes that although Elio can be a stone cold killer, he does have a moral compass. And he wants to help Orion (and Jack) but he has to tread lightly. It takes a while for Orion to trust Elio and his motives. He does not want to be owned. There is a push-pull between them that also ramps up the sex (which is smoking btw). Eventually they figure out they are better together and Orion accepts that he maybe needs Elio in ways he didn’t expect.
This audio is scorching! I think the heat in this one is even hotter than the last one. These narrators do a fabulous job. Declan Winters growly Orion was perfection! Nick Russo’s Elio is the mobster with a heart of gold. I cannot wait for another book – Enzo is the one I want to see find his love 😉 This series is a not necessarily “realistic” but I think that’s fine. It’s interesting and fun and the characters are fascinating 😀
RATING: 
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