WAITING FOR MY QUEEN by GEORGIA CATES

‘The story will begin like this: Once upon a time, a devil fell in love with an angel.’

It’s been a while since we last read a Georgia Cates book, so we were so excited to see this Author was releasing a mafia romance set in the 70s, and a dark one at that. Waiting for my Queen did not start gently, rather it had quite the exciting and powerful beginning.  We were immediately drawn into the mafia romance of Emilia and Luca and were compelled to find out how this anti-hero could possibly redeem himself in Emilia’s eyes. After all, his atrocious acts of dominance and control were not forgivable in our eyes.

‘All I ever wanted was to marry for love. But girls like me don’t have that luxury. We are used as pawns in a game we can’t control.’

‘I’m going to be king of everything. Including Emilia Bellini.’

Luca Rossini is quite the formidable anti-hero. From a young age he’s known that one day he will marry Emilia Bellini, joining two mafia families, however what he did not know is that this is the last thing Emilia wants. Rather, she has already found the love of her life. However, tradition dictates that agreements made in the life of the Mafioso are forged in blood and anyone who attempts to break tradition will be dealt with. And dealt with they are!

‘My destiny. It’s a destiny that has cost me the people I love most. Cost me my freedom. Cost me control of my own body.’

‘I won’t forget. I won’t forgive. I’ll get even.’

Emilia is a fabulous heroine and we loved her from the beginning. Strong, sassy and determined, she wows to avenge the horrific consequence of falling in love with the ‘wrong’ person. Her life has been mapped out from birth, yet she’s desperate to take a different path. Circumstances outside of her control sees her entering a life which she was doing her very best to avoid. Channelling her inner strength and Mafioso upbringing she decides that the ultimate revenge is hers for the taking. Death begets death.

‘I’m going to have the upper hand. Luca Rossini is going to love me. He’s going to love me. He’s going to want my heart and soul. And when I’m finished with him, he won’t be able to bear living without my love. But he’ll never have it.’

We really enjoyed Waiting For My Queen. Whilst the general theme is one which we’ve read before, Georgia Cates definitely put her own spin on it and it was both compelling and deliciously shocking. In respect to it being classed as a dark romance, we’d say that compared to other mafia romance books we’ve read, it’s not all that dark. We would have loved more grit and rawness in the writing to suit the nature of the storyline and what came to be, however it takes great writing chops to create a complete redemption, which Georgia Cates certainly achieved. So if you’re on the fence, we say jump right in. We have to applaud this Author in regards to the anti-hero aspect. Luca is an arsehole but you know how we feel about those, right?! We love to hate them and we hate to love them!

‘Love is a volatile thing. It begins. It grows. It changes. Sometimes, it ends. It can be easy. It can be hard. Love can be damaged. It can be mended. Love can sneak up on you when you least expect it, and it can also disappear without warning. Love. It’s what you make it.’