10 best mafia romance books, ranked

So you guys want to know some real good mafia romance-type books? Them there novels better not be revealing any sort of sensitive information, capice? Don’t want the inner workings of the familia known to the proper authorities ifyaknowadamean. As long as it’s just romance you’re after, I don’t see no harm in reading about the business. Just as long as ya promise ya won’t stick ya nose anywhere it don’t belong.

Fully in the mood now? Here are the 10 best mafia romance books around.

10. Ivory Tower: A New Jersey Mafia Romance

Ivory Tower by Morgan Elizabeth takes place in the most mob-friendly part of the world. Sicily? Nah. New Jersey. It’s about a woman named Delilah Turner, who starts working as a dancer at a skin joint owned by the Carluccio family. But gyratin’ on made men for money ain’t the reason she’s there. She’s there as an agent of the Russo crime family and is lookin’ to take down the rival Carluccios from the inside. Make ’em an offer they can’t refuse. Too bad her thoughts have become preoccupado with the club’s newest client, Dante Romano, a gentleman of mystery. Can she stay the course of revenge? Or will love make her go soft?

9. Queens & Monsters

I bet you didn’t think that “Sapphic Monster Mafia Romance” was a genre, did you? Well let me give ya a piece of advice: you were wrong. Queens & Monsters by Clio Evans is exactly that. Our heroine is a demigod serving the oldest organized crime family in human existence: The Greek Pantheon. Those guys are ruthless. Trouble for her is that she’s secretly pining after snake-haired cutie for centuries. The gods and the Fates might stand in the pair’s way, but Heaven knows that they’re going to fight for one another and topple the divinities themselves. Bada-bing.

8. Run Posy Run

Run Posy Run by Cate C. Wells is the story of Posy Santoro, the lovestruck lady pining after finance bad boy Dario Volpe. She thought Dario was her perfect match, a man who wouldn’t care about her family’s troubled, legally questionable past. She was wrong. He’s a total psychopath who’s got criminal ties of his own. Now she’s on the run, and he’s trying to hunt her down. I don’t know if he wants to sleep with her or make sure she’s sleepin’ with the fishes, but man, I have to find out.

7. The Master

In The Master by Kresley Cole, Maksimilian Sevastyan is one of the oldest types of mobsters around: he’s a politician. He’s also got Russian mob ties, so there’s that. He’s not quite “in the business” but he’s more of a fixer that helps the business run smoothly. And run smoothly it does, until Cara comes to town. She’s on the run from her husband, working as an escort in Miami to make ends meet. But after she crosses paths with her Russian-mob-affiliated first client, will she become a loose end after all?

6. Filthy

Filthy by Serena Akeroyd is for all you readers who dream of falling for men from Europe’s far west: Ireland. Finn O’Grady is a powerful man in Irish organized crime, and he’s just crossed paths with the beautiful Aoife, an innocent who finds herself in over her head with the mob. To keep the skeletons in her closet behind closed doors, she has to be prepared to get her hands dirty, as the title suggests. She might just get her hands all over Finn in the process. Who’s to say?

5. Twisted Emotions

Twisted Emotions by Cora Reilly is the story of Nick and Kiara, whose meet is anything but cute. He’s a psychopathic capo for a powerful crime family in Las Vegas, whose emotionless demeanor helps him get the dirtiest jobs done for the family. She’s the daughter of a disgraced mafioso out of New York City, and her only hope of staying in the family’s good graces involves an arranged marriage with the aforementioned Nick. But will their political alliance turn into something more intimate? I don’t know much about all that romance stuff, but I do know a thing or two about betting. And my money’s on “yes.”

4. Ruthless People

Tired of reading about doe-eyed heroines in over their heads when it comes to crime? Wishing for a main character with a little more emotional muscle? Ruthless People by J.J. McAvoy is the book you need. It’s a romance crime fiction set in Chicago (the other mafia capital of the world) that revolves around the marriage of Melody Giovanni and Liam Callahan, each the boss of their respective crime family. Melody ain’t no babe in the woods, she’s a mafia queen, but can she and Liam put aside their pride to make this arranged peacemaker marriage between rival crime lords work? Yeah, but it’s going to take some serious work … if you know what I mean.

3. Lucien

Alright, alright that’s enough of the straight people. It’s time to get the best of mafias—the alphabet mafia—involved again. Lucien by Silvia Violet is the story of a cash-strapped man named Peter whose friend Jimmy offers him his old receptionist job for a wealthy family. What Peter doesn’t realize is that the Marchesi family is a mob family. Apparently, the name didn’t give it away. Once he meets his powerful mob boss employer, Lucien, it’s all over. Peter is smitten, and Lucien can think of more than a few ways Peter can be of service to him. Wink wink.

2. Brutal Prince

The Griffins and the Gallos—rival Chicago crime families—have what you’d call an incendiary sort of relationship. This turns literal when Aida Gallo crashes a Griffin mansion party and accidentally sets their library on fire. To smooth over the singed edges, Aida’s father arranges a marriage between her and Callum Griffin, scion of the Irish Mob. Brutal Prince by Sophie Lark gets off to a classic “enemies” start, with Aida trying to poison Callum on their wedding night, but resolves into a passionate “lovers” end.

1. The Maddest Obsession

The Maddest Obsession by Danielle Lori is the creme de la creme of mob dramas. It’s about a lady named Gianna who’s a glitz-and-glam socialite type. She’s always flim-flammin’ from one New York City party to the next, a real high roller due to her organized crime connections. Enter cold-blooded FBI agent Christian Allister, who sure as hell ain’t no Boy Scout. He’s ready to use any means necessary to bring down organized crime in the Big Apple, even if it means turning his back on the underworld that raised him. At least until he gets distracted by Gianna, and she becomes his newest obsession.