Coldhearted Bastard Paperback – February 23, 2022

Please, Ms Snow, write more like this, please! This is a dark, gritty world that these characters live in and they are both survivors. Arlo's upbringing made sure that he would know exactly how to navigate the shark infested waters that make up the Bratva, Cosa Nostra and the Cartel. Galina's had to take care of herself her whole life. She had accepted her father's neglect and didn't let it drag her down too much. Until she was dragged into his mess when he sold her to settle his debts so she runs. Fate definitely brought her to the right man to protect her. These characters were incredible. Arlo has a moment or two where his cold rage explodes and I lived for those moments. I wanted more of that, it was phenomenal. I also wish we had more time with Arlo and Galina together interacting and as a couple. The energy, the chemistry between them was stellar. Cannot wait for more Underworld Kings!

Coldhearted Bastard by Jenika Snow is a very well written story of heartache, betrayal, survival, finding love and protecting what is yours.I found Arlo a man with few words but full of action. Upon seeing Lina he felt an emotional pull towards her. Being a man that never experienced emotions he was intrigued and watched Lina from the shadows. Lina's father owed money to the wrong people and sold Lina to them to pay his debts. Thus starts a chain of events that brings Arlo crashing into Lina's life.An entertaining and fast paced story.TW: violenceNo cheating or ow/om dramaSpicy bedroom scenesDual POV

The storyline was interesting. Arlo, an assassin, came across an innocent you woman who called to his protective side. Galina was used as a debt for her father and his gambling problems. She escaped only to find herself involved in another dangerous situation. Luckily for Galina, Arlo had her back and would provide protection. The story was okay, the characters didn't grab me, but it was interesting.

Reading Jenika Snow is always a treat. Her Hs become obsessed with their h’s, which is something I always look forward to in her books.Lina’s (21) father is an a hole. He’s not a good figure in her life and she avoids making contact with him. He owes a lot of people money and he promises a mafia guy his daughter’s virginity, which is where Galina comes in. But she’s not going to go down without a fight, and she’s going to get away from this life as far as she can. And she does. 2 months later, she meets the mysterious stranger that always watches her while she works at a diner.Arlo (29) wants the waitress. For two months, he comes in and watches her work. He also follows her home (cough cough *stalks* cough cough 😅😉) to make sure that she arrived safely, considering that she doesn’t live in the best area and then resumes his mafia job of cleaning up bodies. There’s tension rising in his world, which is why he hasn’t approached her yet.But then, a drunk man dares to touch her on her way home. She manages to get away, but the man made a mistake. He touched what was his- and he’s going to pay, with his life 💁🏻‍♀️💅. No one touches his woman. NO ONE 👀.When Lina decides to do a side job at a club that he sometimes goes to and she gets grabbed by a different man (don’t worry, he won’t be able to use his hands anymore), he takes her to his home and teaches her to fight.The chemistry. The tension 🔥. My gosh, when he’s teaching her to fight and get out of holds, I even felt the tingles Lina was feeling 💦🥵. Yeah, this is on the slow burn side, but dayum, Arlo goes all in. By 60%, things became combustible, and Arlo was very gracious in offering Lina relief, but by 76% it’s on 😅🔥😉. Oh LAWD. My kindle was on FIRE🥵. Arlo has such a duuuurty mouth.Arlo will do anything for his woman. We need more Hs to match that energy 💁🏻‍♀️. He’s gonna always make sure the world is a safe place for Lina.Swooooon! 🥰🥰🥰Overall, I loved it ❤️

This book has been on my TBR for quite the longest and I'm now finally gotten around to reading it. Surprisingly enough it only took me about a day to finish reading. I fairly enjoyed the story it was a nice little romance Mafia book. Now in the beginning of the book it is a bit slow but after some time when the 2 main characters actually get together it kind of picks up. There is a lot of dialog from both characters and very limited amount of talking throughout the book. What made reading this so much better was listening to the audio along with it.Galina a young 21 year old woman gets kidnapped and held by a bad man. She find out that her father sold her virginity to pay off his debts. Gaming manages to escape and changes her name to Lina. While working as a waitress she comes across a mysterious man. This mysterious person goes by the name Arlo and he works for the mafia. Pretty much at the book is about trying to keep her safe from his enemies Who might wanna harm her. During the events that you get very close to where they are attraction tours each other get so intense. Galina decides to tell Arlo the truth about what happened to her. Why she's on the run. Torwards the end Arlo and Galina travel back to Vegas to put an end to her father and Henry who wanted to do harm to her. The story does and on a happy note, in the epilogue the two have been together now for 5 years and married for 3 years expecting their first child; a daughter.

I am completely obsessed with Jenika's books and this was just amazing! I love a good mafia romance and the spice was just perfect! I completely devoured this book and was praying it never finished. So excited to read the next books of this series!Tropes:• Mafia and dark romance• Boy/girl obsessed• Morally grey MMC• B@d@ss FMC• Mutual pinning• Immaculate spiceHonestly Jenika never disappoints!

Love the underworld series! Galina and Arlo are a great example that when you find your person that's all that matters. Arlo will do anything for Galina. A must read!

So I read Jenika's Reckless Heir's ARC a while back and was intrigued by Arlo's story and made my mind to dive into the book with my book bestie.While buddy reads with her are always best, this book made it even better.So the book starts with Galina being sold by her father for the debt he couldn't repay. But our Sparky, fiery girl didn't accept her fate and run away from it. Two months has been passed and we meet Arlo—most ruthless guy who in Russian mafia, who doesn't work for anyone but himself.One night, Galina and Arlo cross path and that's when Arlo realise that there's something in her that makes him protective of her.So this is not our usual mafia romance. This is filled with action with a hint of smut and romance. While you'll be frustrated to have them consummate their love, the final moment will have you mouths open. Why? Because their love runs so much more deeper that it makes you melt!While at the end of the book my emotions were all over the place, i devoured each and every moment!Definitely a 5/5 for me!

5.5/6 stars.Awesome buddy read with my book bestie! I listen to the audiobook while reading on my kindle and it was the best of both worlds. The narrators were perfect, J. F Harding talking in Russian was the best, it made me tingle for sure 🙈.I feel like I should address this cause it was a major problem in my buddy read, the prologue 😂🙈.So basically everything was fine at first but then we came to a certain point in the story where we thought that the guy from the prologue was the same from the rest of the story. I can’t even begin to explain how much back and forward was involved just because of this fact until eventually we came to the conclusion that they were not the same men. We clearly had a great time with this 😂.I was in love with Galina right from the prologue and although I thought at a point in the story that she was gonna disappoint me, she didn’t. She was a survivor and fierce from the beginning and so that shone through throughout the story for sure.I already liked Arlo before picking up this book because I’m doing this backwards because I read first Reckless Heir and so when Arlo appear I was intrigued by him and I liked his behavior.He’s everything, he’s so ruthless, protective, possessive and so willing to give and doesn’t expect anything in return and I love that about him.The lengths he went to make sure Galina was safe and no harm could come to her just made me swoon.Their chemistry and sexy times were off the charts.His Russian was 🥵 and the things he said to her were 🔥 .The epilogue just got a bit emotional for me, his professions of love were so beautiful that I couldn’t help but swoon a bit and I got teary eyed cause it was that beautiful to me.Again, I love everything about this story and I can’t help but fall a bit more in love with Jenika’s books.

Well written, great development of characters and interesting storyline, left no stones unturned.Can't wait to read the rest of the series.