Title: Coerced Queen
Series: New York Underworld #3
Author: Charmaine Pauls
Genre: Dark Mafia Romance
Tropes: Enemies to Lovers/Touch Her and Die
Fake Relationship/Forced Proximity
Release Date: December 16, 2024
My husband will never love me, but I’m in this now until death do us part.
The man who threatened to carry me over his shoulder down the aisle and marry me at knifepoint is both my captor and my liberator. He makes me weak and strong at the same time.
Before, he didn’t give me an option. Now, there’s a choice. But he’s determined to push me away.
If I’m wise, I’ll take that freedom and run for my life. Because the heart of the man who captured and saved me will always belong to the woman who broke it. The man who calls himself my husband will never be mine.
Only, there is no choice for me any longer. It’s way too late to walk away.
I’m in this war now … until death do us part.
Renee’s Five Star Review
I received a copy of this book from the publisher/author to review for Stephanie’s Book Reports.
This is the third and final book in the New York Underworld Series. We get to see Sav and Anya married finally. However I knew that things would never be easy, but the aftermath of their marriage was pure chaos. But Anya is no quitter baby and all. That girl would get to work with a newborn in her arms around Sav’s men and demanding respect from them. She kept that group of men together and more than motivated them for what was to come all while gaining their trust and loyalty. However, she also had things that were sinking them fast and she will be the one that knows who the true enemy is and she wasn’t afraid to go to battle for what would keep Sav’s empire in tact and all of them safe and secure. Sav though is dealing with some heavy things. Not just his physical injuries, but his mental well being as well. He has failed Anya, has a face that even he won’t look at in the mirror he isolates himself big time. Which also begins to affect Anya and cause her to doubt the love he had for her. I have to shut up or I am going to give something away. This book puts you though the emotional wringer while one the edge of your seat a times. I have loved this series. It is one that you do not want to miss.
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EXCERPT
He turns, facing me squarely. “Everything I do and everything I’ve done are for selfish reasons. If I’m watching out for you or taking care of you, it’s because I like the way you make me feel. You have an effect on me no other woman has. You make my c&ck hard every f#cking time I look at you, even when I’ve just come the hardest in my life and it should be physically impossible. So when I tell you that I’m doing it for me, I’m not lying.”
His words hurt, slicing right through me like he almost did with the blade of his knife. Yet that’s not the truth I see when I look at his actions. That’s not the hope I hold on to when I close my eyes at night and shed lonely tears with him right beside me in bed.
Swallowing back those tears that burn at the back of my eyes, I lift my chin. “You’re wrong, Sav. A man who does everything with his own self-interest in mind won’t give his life to save me and my baby.”
The statement pierces him like a sword. I see it in the way he winces as he’s forced to face the simplest of truths when all his arguments are exhausted and only his considerate behavior is left to speak for itself.
We face each other like pieces on a chess table. It’s a checkmate move. It’s playing dirty. I admit that. Pushing him into a corner to confess something I desperately need to hear isn’t honorable. But I don’t know how else to open his eyes to something he won’t allow himself to believe. Maybe he thinks it will be a betrayal of his love for Rachele. But people can love more than one person. They can get hurt and trampled and find happiness again. He lost his first love, but he’s my first love. If he gives us a chance, we can be so much more than lust and s€x.
He turns away with that wounded look on his face, running away from the future we could’ve had. And I’m still thoroughly and utterly ruined, a silly, opportunistic woman who put her heart on the line in a gamble she lost.
ALSO AVAILABLE
AUTHOR BIO
Charmaine loves to write dark and edgy romance that will melt both your e-reader and your heart. She’s a mom of two teenagers, an adorable dog, and a dominant cat. Her country of birth is South Africa where many of her stories play off. Her French husband kidnapped her to the south of France where she currently lives with her family. When she’s not writing, you’ll find her in the kitchen baking cakes or in the gym lifting weights (because … all those cakes!).
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About Renee Henson
Renee Henson has an obsession with reading and reviewing. Especially anything that is a dark romance, fairy tale retelling, MC, and is trying her best to love the PNR worlds. Nothing is quiet as exciting to her as reading a good book and then talking about it or making comments while reading with her friends that have read the book too. She is always happiest with her kindle in her hand and her nose is a book. She has been reviewing for Stephanie's Book Reports for over ten years.
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