This was my first book in the Genoa Mafia Series and my first book by Ginger Ring. It will not be my last though. I enjoyed this story and I love Valentina and her need for independence and distance from her family life.

Valentina Caponelli is a strong willed woman who is kind, sweet, and in love with a man that contradicts her family’s line of work. Her father is a Don in the mafia and is very protective of his daughter. She has passed the bar exam and is now a lawyer. Her father paid for her to go to law school and become an lawyer so that she could work for the “family”. The problem is that she doesn’t want to just work for the “family”, she wants to open her own law office and help people who needed her, and she wanted to work on the right side of the law. She moves to Lake Genoa, Wisconsin to open her office and continue to run her restaurant. She will still be near family, her brother Ramon and his wife Madison live there, so she won’t be alone.

Officer Ryan Donovan, a police officer in Lake Genoa. Orphaned as a child, he found himself in trouble quite often until his Uncle told him he needed to settle down and take the right path in life. He’s know Valentina since he was a sophomore in high school and has wanted her since then too. When Valentina moves to Lake Genoa, Ryan finally finds his chance to get to know her and make those wishes of having her as his come true. He doesn’t care who her father is or what her brother thinks, he only cares about her. He feels that he has to get Valentina’s fathers approval to marry her and he knows that it won’t be easy, but he will do anything have Valentina in his life forever.

These are meant to be together and it becomes pretty clear early on that they were made for each other. Even Valentina’s family can see it and she doesn’t face too much trouble when their relationship starts.

If you like stories about mafia men, strong women, mafia princesses, and kind hearted men who will do anything for the woman that they love, then you will want to read this book. There are some very dangerous men in this book, but there are also some very strong and dangerous women as well. This was a great read and I look forward to reading more of this series, and going back to read Ramon and Madison’s stories as well.