Silenced by Serena Ackeroyd

*Thank you to Give Me Books PR for gifting me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. They also provided all info and graphics.

RELEASE BLITZ

Title: Silenced
Series: The Forgotten Boys #1

Author: Serena Akeroyd

Genre: Dark Mafia Romance

Trope: Hades & Persephone Modern Retelling

Release Date: June 1, 2023

BLURB

A Hades and Persephone modern-day retelling.

I sit on a throne of sins.
Silent in the shadows, untouchable like the King of the Underworld himself.
Few even know the sound of my voice, but those who fear me call me Monster. My men just call me Pakhan.
To her, I am Nikolai.
Her savior. Her captor. Her lover.
With hair as bright as the sun, a face that could sink a thousand ships, and more curves than I can handle, Cassiopeia. Is. Everything.
But she’s in danger.
And safety comes with a price tag.
She can fight that, can even fight me, but I’m her Hades and I won’t let my Persephone go…

This is book one of The Forgotten Boys, a Russian Mafia series set in the Five Points’ Mob Universe

GOODREADS LINK: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61234520-silenced

Review

Silenced is heavy with the mafia aspect which I know a lot of people will enjoy. Akeroyd spends quite a bit of time with the hierarchy of the mafia as well as all the drama and different plot lines affecting the mafia. It did serve to set up future books in this series so it is there for a purpose but it still veered into being too much for me.

While the mafia angle didn’t work for me in this story the romance definitely did. As soon as Nikolai sees Cassiopeia (Cassie) for the first time he claims her as his. And the way this brutal man takes care of and cherishes her is melt worthy. This is also a dark romance so Cassie has been through a lot of terrible things and been badly mistreated. But even she couldn’t deny the sense of safety and belonging that Nikolai offered her. My favorite part of this story was seeing how Cassie healed from her trauma and was able to flourish under Nikolai’s love.

I also have to commend Akeroyd’s brilliant retelling of the Hades and Persephone story. She really captured the essence of that iconic romance and transplanted it to her well thought out world. And it can be hard to write a hero to root for that is so overbearing and domineering but she nailed it. I also loved her choice of making Nikolai mute and how they played into the story.

Akeroyd has written previous books that I think are all set in the same world as this one. So while this book can definitely be read as a standalone I do think I would have gotten more out of it if I had more knowledge of those books. However, I fully realize that I wanted to be able to visualize everything and other people will probably not be so caught up in the intricacies of the mafia world like I was. Not only will I be picking up future books in this series I will also be diving into Akeroyd’s backlist.

AUTHOR BIO

USA Today and International Best Selling Author Serena Akeroyd aka G. A. Mazurke is most known for her mafia and MC series set in the Five Points Mob Universe.
Avid reader of all things romance, she first started her career as a why choose author in both contemporary and paranormal. She eventually made her way to MF romance where she found her groove with the O’Donnelly brothers, the Satan Sinners and most recently the Valentini Family.

In her back list you can find some MM, MF, MFM and Why Choose romances. HEA guaranteed!
When not writing Serena is either reading, traveling or coloring.

AUTHOR LINKS

Website: https://serenaakeroyd.com

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Serena-Akeroyd/e/B00EC76REA

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SerenaAkeroyd

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/SerenaAkeroydsDivas

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/serena_akeroyd

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/serena-akeroyd

Twitter: https://twitter.com/serenaakeroyd

Newsletter: http://www.serenaakeroyd.com/newsletter.html

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7205755.Serena_Akeroyd

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@serenaakeroyd

Verve Romance: https://ververomance.com/app/SerenaAkeroyd