Item: The Russian
Rating: 3
Author: ReadingLlama

The Russian
by Renee Rose
Publisher: Burning Desires
Publication Date: December 18, 2017
Genres: Romance
Pages: 94
Source: NetGalley

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

My rating: One Star

MY PRISONER. MY OBSESSION. MY SUNSHINE.

I can't stay away from her.
I don't care if I get whacked by the mob. Or fired from the FBI.
There's no way I'm letting her get hurt.
Hell, if any of them touch her, I'll blow my cover in a second.
She's my solnishko.
Her brother's a scumbag. He owes the don money.
The don sends me to collect my pound of flesh, but I want more than a pound.
I want her.

“It’s true, I couldn’t see how you’d fit. But then I found out my life doesn’t fit me anymore. Not without you.”

This is a quick but sexy novella. Because of the length, I think, I never really formed a connection with Lucy, the heroine, though I definitely felt that she and Yuri had a connection. I felt like we got a good sense of Yuri, how he’s spent a good part of his life trying to make the best out of a bunch of bad situations, and why he’s latched on to Lucy. I liked the little bit we got of Lucy, and I admired that she was committed to her career choices (DJ and yoga teacher), even though everyone else, including her idiot night club owner and drug addict brother, wanted her to get a “real job.” The sex scenes were definitely quite steamy, but I had some issues with consent. Part of the way Yuri protects her is by spanking her (non-consensual) and then making the other mobsters think he’s raping her (which she agrees to), but I think, for the most part, it’s handled well.

The plot for about the first half of the story was fine, with Yuri managing to protect Lucy as well as possible from the other mobsters, but during the last half there were several events that seriously strained the bounds of credulity, which unfortunately took me out of the story. I think the stakes were set a bit too high for this short of a story and it would have worked a lot better if there had been more time to develop the characters and plot.

Overall, most of the flaws can be attributed to the length of the story, but as long as you can suspend disbelief for a while, the rest is quite fun and sexy. I’ll definitely search out a longer work by Ms. Rose.