The Saviors: Beta Team by Ames Mills is a standalone, why choose dark mafia romance duet. It’s an extension of the Abbs Valley universe, Ames Mills’ series of books following the criminal underworld of this fictional area and their polyamorous relationships. This spicy duet features complex interpersonal dynamics and lots of “touch them and die” vibes.
The Saviors: Beta Team has a mission. They’re well-trained, covert, and they protect those who need it most. These men are not just a team; they are a family.
After a brutal mission, struggling, the team needs an assignment that’s less mentally heavy, so their boss gives them a job as a protection detail for a mafia princess, Kira. None of them is thrilled to babysit, but it’s just what they need to recover.
Kira isn’t at all what any of them had expected, and between her and the cute, innocent bartender at their favorite bar, Jason, the guys are left reeling as the dynamics of the group start to change.
When old cases and buried traumas come back to haunt them, the team must face their most dangerous mission yet, with more to lose than ever.
Like every other book in this universe, there are a lot of male main characters to keep track of, which is a little overwhelming in the beginning. It leaves one wondering if every single member of this group is really value-added in the story, or are they all just there for the novelty of a seven-person relationship?
The relationships build gradually within the group, to an extent, which helps mitigate the unbelievability of that many people getting along and agreeing on sexual compatibility. This group is surprisingly empathetic and emotionally intelligent for a group of highly trained mercenaries, which helps the relationships work.
For The Saviors: Beta Team, the spice is the main event. It kicks in almost immediately, with wild positioning and plentiful scenes. There is spice in every other chapter, and it’s truly what we’re all there to read.
The story is fast-paced. The plot stays moving between the dangerous missions and the interpersonal drama. This isn’t a book you read for the quality of the prose, though. There are some flaws to find here, like confusing dialogue where it is unclear who is speaking. If you’re a stickler for that sort of thing, it may bother you, but it was pretty easy for me to tune out amidst all the drama.
Be warned, this book has Israeli characters, and Mossad is piece of the story in a complex way. This felt tricky given the current situation in Israel and the horrific human rights abuses currently underway by the Israeli government, but it doesn’t feel like this book has an agenda politically. There was no mention of Zionism or any current events. I think in a mafia romance, it was a choice of which organized crime group to portray. One can only go with the Russians and the Italians so much, I suppose.
The Saviors: Beta Team is unapologetically cheesy, campy, and over-the-top. No humans actually talk like this, not to mention all the mercenary stuff. Go into this book ready to suspend all disbelief for the sake of high emotion and high drama. It has the exact same framework as every other Ames Mills book, so it will feel familiar to long time readers, but damn it if the framework isn’t fun.
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