Coerced Wife by Charmaine Pauls

Title: Coerced Wife
Series: New York Underworld #2
Author: Charmaine Pauls
Genre: Dark Mafia Romance
Release Date: November 18, 2024

ABOUT THE BOOK

He offers me protection, but the bed of a killer isn’t a safe place to be.

I got myself in a predicament. Powerful people on both sides of the law want me dead. A killer needs me alive for his own selfish reasons, reasons I never could’ve imagined in my wildest dreams.
I’m not safe in the bed of a cold–blooded murderer, but I don’t have a choice. On the one hand, he offers me protection, and on the other, he tightens the noose.
I’m caught in his web of lies and deceit. Every truth that’s uncovered destroys me a little more. But he’s already injected me with his venomous seduction.

Before I know it, he’ll swallow me whole.

GOODREADS LINK: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/215340868-coerced-wife

BOOKBUB LINK: https://www.bookbub.com/books/coerced-wife-a-dark-mafia-romance-new-york-underworld-book-2-by-charmaine-pauls

PURCHASE LINKS:
US: https://amzn.to/45PU8jf
UK: https://amzn.to/45QUZR6
CA: https://amzn.to/45VlAwk
AU: https://amzn.to/45Mfv5e
B&N: https://bit.ly/4cJ7Tm7
Kobo: https://bit.ly/4ctVanJ
Apple Books: https://apple.co/3zoanrZ
Google Play: https://bit.ly/3zqZTYO
Universal: https://books2read.com/CoercedWife

EXCERPT

As for the rest, desolation rips through me when I push the door open and walk through it. Every step I take is like walking on a bed of glowing red coals.

Saverio stands on the gallery, talking to Dante. His smile slips when he sees me.

“What’s wrong?” he asks, wrapping an arm around my waist.

I plaster a smile on my face. “Nothing.”

The way his eyes tighten in the corners says he doesn’t believe me, but he doesn’t push the issue.

I stand like a statue at his side while people file past in a steady row to prematurely congratulate us and to make mindless conversation.

A short while later, Luigi asks the DJ to kill the music. He makes an announcement, but everything is like white noise in my ears.

Saverio takes my hand and pushes a ring with a huge oval diamond over my finger. I can’t stop staring at the monstrosity that shines under the lights, the huge stone weighing down my hand. Saverio holds my gaze as he lifts my fingers to his lips and kisses the ring, something dark and deviant sparking in those eyes that resemble the color of an iced-over lake. Clapping follows and then cheers.

Lowering his head, he claims my lips in a kiss that lasts too long to be appropriate for the occasion. This time, wolf whistling sounds.

It all happens in a blur. The one moment I’m Anya Brennan, and in the next, I’m to become Ms. De Luca.

“Soon,” Saverio whispers in my ear, sealing that frightening promise with a tender kiss on my neck.

Coerced Wife by Charmaine Pauls
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

About these covers … can someone pleeeease put a shirt on this most feared and powerful man in the New York underworld?! TIA

About this story … I’ve already told you guys in my review of Coerced Kiss that the beauty of a Charmaine story lies in the details so I’m not giving you any (probably). I don’t think I ever have with one of her stories and I’m not starting now. Also, try not to read reviews that have details, ktks :)

It has been a long while since I’ve been this captivated and committed to a Charmaine story. Like this is probably in her top 3 best of best. Don’t get me wrong, all past stories have been outrageously good but this trilogy is more. It has that edgy factor that keeps the reader in a state of anxiety for what’s to come but also not really starring at a blank canvas not knowing what’s to come. Feel me? Details people! It’s the details! What did I say! It’s her prose. It’s the style in which she puts together her prose and pulls the reader into the story but also pushes. GAH, sometimes I just can’t explain Charmaine adequately!

Charmaine loves to put together light and dark characters and she does it really well. Sav, being the dark one, and Anya, being the light, have tremendous chemistry even when they don’t! Together as characters they are fire and ice and so is their story. It has honestly been spectacular to read. This story is also very immersive. I found myself feeling all the circumstances that were happening even when I knew something was about to twist, I still felt the shock! MAN, I love Charmaine so much you guys! She is truly talented!

Well, I’ve said enough, but also nothing (lol). My work here is done :)

View all my reviews

MEET THE AUTHOR:

Charmaine loves to write dark and edgy romance that will melt both your e-reader and your heart. She’s a mom of two teenagers, an adorable dog, and a dominant cat. Her country of birth is South Africa where many of her stories play off. Her French husband kidnapped her to the south of France where she currently lives with her family. When she’s not writing, you’ll find her in the kitchen baking cakes or in the gym lifting weights (because … all those cakes!).