Burn This City LGBTQ Romance/Erotic Thriller
44 Raccoons
September 9, 2021
372
Some passions can set a city aflame.
Consigliere Jack Barsanti has worked his way up from nothing, survived a vicious Mafia war and, proving his loyalty, done time for his crime family, the Lo Cascio. He’s devoted his life to defusing tensions, reining in volatile men, and keeping the peace between the three crime families in Port Francis to prevent another bloody war. All the time harboring one devastating secret that would cost him everything.
Enter Salvatore Rausa. A boss himself, Sal doesn’t care about peace or the feelings of other made men. The war has cost him the wife he dearly loved, and he’s bided his time to prepare for payback. But he needs intel to wipe the Lo Cascio off the map first.
Nobody in their right mind would lay a hand on a rival family‘s consigliere. Nobody except Sal. When he grabs and bags Jack Barsanti, he knows the clock is ticking. He needs to work quickly to make Jack spill his secrets. Except when he interrogates Jack and uncovers the weaknesses of his enemies, he gets a whole lot more than he bargained for.
Content words: suicidal ideation, organized crime, threats of sexual violence, dubcon, mental health (depression), minor character death (past, off-page), murder (mostly off-page), grief, bereaved spouse, drug use (voluntary and involuntary), corruption, domestic violence (off-page), bisexual rep, demisexual/graysexuality rep
DUAL REVIEW!
He Said – She Said
He Said
Reviewed by Ulysses Dietz
Member of The Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team
I am a fan of Aleksandr Voinov’s work. His 2020 book “Mean Machine” is as rough and intense a romance as I’ve ever read. There are parallels between that book and this one—the pitch-perfect writing, the vivid sense of place (even though it is a fictional coastal city called Port Francis), the careful delineation of character, each according to his or her significance in the plot.
At the core of this page-turning narrative is the shifting relationship between two men; a relationship that both defines the book and gives it a powerful emotional punch. Voinov uses emotion with great skill to manipulate the reader’s reactions, tweaking the action and the characters’ internal dialogues with elegant precision. There is a strong sexual element in this story, which is as richly metaphorical as it is erotic.
Jack Barsanti is the consiglieri of a mafia boss named Andrea Lo Cascio. He is a master of self-control, known as a peacemaker within the not-so-peaceful world of organized crime in Port Francis. Jack, however, has a big secret, and at forty-five years old, he realizes he can’t fake it for much longer.
Salvatore Rausa is the young kingpin of his own mob family, a man who has been stewing in personal grief and quietly plotting vengeance since before Jack Barsanti rose to power. Sal knows nothing of Jack, other than the public image of the smooth, handsome mafia powerbroker.
This book offers up the most extreme enemy-to-lover trope possible. There is even a sly reference to a “reverse Stockholm Syndrome” situation. Voinov plays this chancy plotline like a master, surprising us repeatedly, even as Sal and Jack surprise each other. Throughout the story the reader can’t help but wonder how the author will manage to resolve things; and yet he pulls it off. Brilliantly.
But for one fact, this would have been a five-star read for me. What I could not forget, as impressed as I was with the author’s skill, is that both Jack and Sal are, quite simply, bad men. No matter how you slice it, they are criminals and killers. I actually respect Voinov for not trying to minimize or dodge that truth. However, I really can’t embrace this as a romantic fantasy.
This mafia-romance genre must have its roots in Mario Puzo’s brutal “Godfather” books—which I read as a college student. However fascinating those books were, you never sympathized with anybody; they all got what they deserved, because they were all bad people. There’s really no way around it.
In the 1980s I created a vampire character in response to Anne Rice’s landmark vampire novels. My Desmond Beckwith may have been the first of his kind—the good vampire, who survives the centuries without killing—because only monsters kill people. I’ve never been able to stomach killer vampires—even gay ones—since I wrote Desmond Beckwith into being. Romanticizing evil doesn’t make it less evil.
And that’s the way I am with any character in any book I read. If they cross certain boundaries, they lose me. As good as Aleksandr Voinov’s “Burn This City” is, I would never have read it had I not been asked to. I’m glad I did, but mafia romance will never make me happy, no matter how sexy or well written.
She Said
Reviewed by Gloria Lakritz
Review Chair for the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team
A year ago, Voinov’s Mean Machine was released and was a breath of fresh air….This year Voinov has also gone to what he knows best! Bad Boys, murder and two men who are both so broken.
We meet Jack Barsanti Consigliere for the Lo Cascio family. Living in Port Francis he has worked hard to keep tensions to a minimum as three families share the town. He survived the last war and was promoted to this position….But, in the family you are never safe.
Voinov gives us a tremendous background story, as to let us see what cost it is to be Jack Barsanti and we also learn who Salvatore Rausa was and is now. Sal being one of the other Crime family bosses who has all become a ghost due to the death of his beloved wife.
As we learn about these two opposite men, Jack so in the closet he fears he must produce a fake bride to his boss to keep his secret hidden. Jack has no way of knowing Sal Rausa has other plans. Before he starts another war Sal needs Intel to wipe the Lo Cascio family off the map first.
Voinov does what he does best, setting the story up slowly for the reader. I found he was whispering in my ear, ”you need all this information, soon, soon” generating a slow unpeeling and then when you Need the story to move on….WHAM! Nobody would harm a family’s Consigliere….But Sal Rausa is desperate….. It was an easy plan, he breaks into Jack’s home….No one would expect it and when he grabs Jack he knows time is of the essence.
To this point in the story we have the background and the setup! These maybe 20 chapters have been very enlightening; but from this moment, the reader is now taken to the very guts of the story!
The rest of the book moves at a much faster pace as Sal and Jack learn about each other. Being a captive with a bag over his head, Jack is helpless. When Sal’s second his Capo Enzo unrolls a bag of torture tools and starts laying them out before Jack, things get really ‘real’ ! These few days were strange for both Jack and Sal as they grow to ‘see’ each other. And maybe they have more in common than the differences they first thought…These chapters were difficult and yet insightful into both damaged men and you actually are forced to love the Bad Guys.
Soooo, Sal called his retired friend in Italy, Mafiosi Gianbattista Falchi, retired consigliere. He requested him to send a hitman to America, and that was arranged for the next day. Fans will love who showed up to help!!!
Again, this book is not for the faint of heart, but the heart palpitations and surprises were soooo worth it!! I really enjoyed this story and always will look for Aleks Voinov Coming Soon!!!
