Shadowed Loyalty By Roseanna M. White

*No picture of the cover was available.*

Summary

Sabina Mancari never questioned her life as the daughter of Chicago’s leading mob boss until bullets tear apart her world and the man she thought she loved turns out to be an undercover Prohibition agent. Ambushes, bribes, murder, prostitution—all her life, her father sheltered her from his crimes, but now she can no longer turn away from the truth. Maybe Lorenzo, the fiancé who barely paid her any attention in the last two years, has the right idea by planning to escape their world. But can she truly turn her back on her family?

All his life, Lorenzo’s family assumed he would become a priest, but he has different ideas—marrying Sabina and pursuing a career in the law. Despite his morals, he knows at the core he isn’t so unlike his mafiosi father and brothers. Has he, in trying to protect Sabina, forced her into the arms of the Prohibition agent bent on tearing her family apart? How can they rebuild what has so long been neglected and do it in the shadow of the dark empire of the Mafia?

Shadowed Loyalty, set amid the glitz and scandal of the Roaring Twenties, examines what love really means and how we draw lines between family and our own convictions, especially when following one could mean losing the other.
 
Positives

This novel taps into an unheard time period in historical fiction. I mean, really, how many historical novels have you read about the Mafia? And she’s not content to leave it at surface level either. She examines all the complexities that made up the real life of Mafia bosses and their families.  

Sabina and Lorenzo’s relationship was very different than expected as well. Far from a fairy tale romance, they had to deal with some big problems and miscommunications from the start. Their commitment to working through them, being honest and open with each other from here on out, and being there for each other was a refreshing change in a genre teeming with romances half-baked on feelings. This novel dug into the hard in relationships and camped there a while.

Negatives

None.

Conclusion

Shadowed Loyalty is an interesting peek into a time mostly forgotten and relationships curiously similar to ours today.