Callie Hart can do it all. Romantasy, new adult, and now a rerelease of her dark mafia romance series, Blood & Roses. The series was initially published in 2014, and while it’s now condensed and compiled into two volumes, it has the same gritty, high-energy, dark drama.
Dr. Sloane Romero’s baby sister is missing, and she will do anything to find her, which leads her to a place she never thought she would be, in a dark hotel room about to have sex with a stranger.
The shady PI she hired told her that in order to get the information he has on the whereabouts of her sister, she needs to do him a favor and sleep with the complete stranger he sold her to. But this stranger is not what she expected, and the night changes her forever.
Two years later, Sloane has become something cold and calculating, and it makes her an excellent surgeon. But she still hasn’t found Alexis. At the emergency room where she works, a man rushes in, desperate to save his friend.
It’s him. The man who bought a night with her two years ago, whom she hasn’t been able to forget. He’s the key to finding her sister, but he quickly becomes so much more. Before she knows it, Sloane has been dragged into the world of organized crime, but she’s more determined than ever to do whatever it takes to save her sister, even if it means risking it all.
The very first surgery I performed was on myself. I carved out my weakness with a rusty scalpel and reveled in the glorious void that remained afterward.
Every single character in Blood & Roses is unhinged in one way or another, and it makes for an exciting read. In any given scene, Zeth and Sloane, and any other supporting characters, will consistently throw something twisty into the story with wild actions and even wilder secrets.
Shit, Sloane keeps on surprising me. Sometimes in really entertaining, really fucking hot ways. Sometimes in desperately stupid, idiotic ways.
This was originally three books that have now been compiled into one, and this undoubtedly works better as a single volume. The story moves fast, and the pages keep turning, and each chapter affects the plot in a meaningful way.
The writing in Blood & Roses is crafty, providing a perfect balance between the dark intensity and the lighter moments. There is a subtle dry humor at play in both Zeth and Sloane’s perspectives as they switch throughout the book.
Dr. Walcott, Yankees Fan, profuse sweater and prescriber of wonderful drugs, has a nervous disorder.
A less spicy version of this could have been a whole Grey’s Anatomy subplot, and I mean that as a high compliment. A surgical resident starts fucking a guy involved in organized crime? In Seattle? In my head canon, Sloane works at Grey Sloane Memorial.
While there are some lighter moments, the spice is not exactly sunshine and rainbows. Even the romantic moments feel raw and gritty, and the BDSM has elements of the taboo. The whole thing is aggressively horny, and it works.
Blood & Roses is intense and passionate, a classic mafia romance. It’s exciting, with lots of action, and while it is dark, it’s also easy to read. This volume is the first of two parts, and be warned that it ends with unanswered questions. Part two is coming sometime in 2027.
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