A Sinner’s Promise by Kylie Kent
Kylie Kent introduces a new family with book one of the De Bellis Crime family series. If you have read her backlist, then you have met them in the periphery before, but now we get the full introduction to this family of mafia brothers. This book opens up with the prequel novella, Birth of a Sinner, to give some background on how these brothers become the head of the family. A Sinner’s Promise opens a few days after Birth of a Sinner concludes.
A Sinner’s Promise is the story of oldest brother Giovanni and his realtor Eloise. (Again… if you have read the backlist you will have briefly met Eloise in her Tempter series.) Gio is a man who was sure that he never wanted to get married. Never wanted more from a woman that one night. Never wanted to bring someone into his world. Then he meets Eloise, and life as he knows it changes. This story has highs and lows, ups and downs, and Kent takes risks and chances on page that we haven’t quite seen from her before. But the way in which it happens makes sense to the story and doesn’t feel like it has been induced for shock value.
Ellie, to only Gio, is a woman who knows her worth, but feels a little stagnant in her choices. Gio doesn’t hold her back which I appreciate so much in a made man. The family that surrounds, both DNA and found, her is perfectly portrayed and everything you want in a story. The relationships that she has cultivated, and the love in which they share for each other continues to grow as lives change.
Gio and his brothers are floundering a little bit. But not in business, in the fact that they are looking for a new normal after they lose someone extremely important to all of them. The backstory of these characters stories is teased in such a way that you know that your heart will break for a couple of them.
While A Sinner’s Promise is interwoven with other series, you can start right here. I do say… if you have triggers. Check TW/CW
POV: Multiple 1st Person in Prologue Novella– Dual 1st Person in Novel
3rd Act Break-Up: No
Tropes: Mafia, Instant Connection; Family Series
Series: De Bellis Crime Family
Type of Series: Series of Interconnected Standalones
Rate: 4/5 Stars
Release Date: January 22, 2024
PoP: 16%
