Who is the real predator between two people who walk into the same room knowing how to destroy each other? Is it the man who has built a reputation around violence or the woman who can hack into any computer system in the world and still point a gun at him? These are the questions I had in mind while reading The Predator by RuNyx.
This book is the first in the mafia dark romance series Dark Verse and it came highly recommended by readers in my online bookclub who had finished the entire series. One reason I picked it up is because it's a blend of mafia and dark romance genres. I've never read something like this before and the book exceeded my expectations.
"No one else gets to kill you, Ms. Vitalio," he spoke quietly. "The last face you see before you die will be mine. When it comes to death, you're mine.”
That excerpt was spoken by Tristan Caine to Morana Vitalio. They are not exactly the usual mafia romance couple where one person is dangerous and the other is waiting to be rescued. These two are dangerous but in different ways and that was what made their relationship fun to read.
Synopsis
Tristan Caine is part of the Tenebrae Outfit, a powerful mafia organisation and he is known by the nickname “The Predator” because he is feared, ruthless and impossible to read. Morana Vitalio on the other hand is a brilliant hacker, stubborn and always willing to put herself in danger to get whatever she wants.
Morana enters Tristan's home with the intention of killing him because of her missing hard drive, instead things become complicated when an old mystery involving their families resurfaces. A twenty year old secret and a much bigger threat begin pulling them in the same direction. They hate each other but soon realise that neither of them can solve the mystery alone.
So the two enemies are forced into an uneasy alliance while trying to figure out who they can trust. And considering the world they live in, trusting anyone is probably the most dangerous thing they could do.
Genres: Fiction, Mafia, Dark Romance, Mystery Publication: January 2020 Pages: 318
My Review And Rating
The book held me spellbound from the beginning to the end. It's categorised as a mafia dark romance but I didn't expect the story to be any different in style from other books in the genre that I had read. The plot is solid and the story is well-written. It was clear to me that the author knew what they were doing when they penned this book.
The romance isn't the only theme taking centre stage in this story. There is actual mystery underneath all the tension and that is what makes this book and the entire series a hit for me. RuNyx gives their readers pieces of information about Tristan, Morana and their families without revealing everything at once. That suspense alone gives the feeling that something much bigger is hiding behind the mafia rivalry. By the end of this book, I was stunned by the unraveling of the mystery and the twists that followed.
Tristan is one of those characters who makes you want to keep reading so you know what more is underneath his calm and dangerous surface. He's the typical cold mafia man who doesn't explain himself and has very little patience for anyone who gets in his way. But his past holds the key to his behaviour.
Morana is the character I found more interesting because she wasn't intimidated by Tristan. She doesn't suddenly become weak because she is attracted to a dangerous man. She challenges him and gets herself into situations that make you wonder if she has any sense of self-preservation but her intelligence makes me like her more.
Their relationship is interesting to read about but I wanted more emotional development before they became intimate. The author portrays the enemies-to-lovers part very well and the tension and attraction between them is convincing. But I wanted them to shift gradually from being enemies to something more.
The mafia setting is also interesting though the book doesn't give us a perfectly realistic picture of organised crime and that was okay for me considering the mystery built into the plot. So I treated this book as a dark romantic suspense rather than a realistic mafia story.
I should mention that The Predator is the beginning of the Dark Verse series and not a complete standalone story. The author describes the series as one continuous story with the first two books following Tristan and Morana. So if you reach the ending and feel like you have been left hanging, it's intentional.
In summary, The Predator was an entertaining introduction to RuNyx’s dark mafia world. It gave me dangerous characters, secrets, revenge, hacking, violence, attraction and ended on a cliffhanger with unanswered questions that made me begin the second book almost immediately. And that is because there was something addictive about Tristan and Morana’s world. I'd highly recommend this series to mafia readers.
Note: Excerpts are from the novel
Images generated with Chatgpt using the e-book cover
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Rating: 85/100
Originally posted through scrobble.life/books.
