ARC Review: Deception by Natalia Lourose

The Sopranos meets Dexter: a dancer searching for the truth and a psychopath trying to hide his desperate desire to kill.
A liar searching for the truth,
A psycho hiding behind a mask.
Both trapped in a web of deception.

Zoe
Everything has a meaning.
Every action has a consequence.
So there has to be a reason my world was turned upside down.
I just have to find it.
And that’s how I end up at Saints and Sinners, wrapped up in lies and half truths.
Surrounded by wolves, who don’t think twice about letting a lion into the hen house.

John
I’m not an honest man.
I manipulate the truth, pulling the puppet strings to get what I want.
I use people’s secrets against them, turning their transgressions into a license to kill.
I’m not expecting the doe eye girl in black lingerie to send a dagger through my heart with the sway of her hips.
But she has a secret, and I want to know it.

What’s a liar to do?

This is the first book I ever picked up by Natalia Lourose and I’m definitely coming back for seconds. 

Zoe never imagined she’d become a ‘dancer’ at Saint and Sinners but life never turns out the way we want- or need- it to. At the club though, she’s not Zoe, she’s Kat. Kat is sweet and playful and a total sweetheart. This might not be what she imagined for herself but she needs answers and she’s okay with it if this is the only way she’ll get them. Her life however changes permanently when she catches the eye of the most handsome and dark man in the club, she just isn’t aware of it yet. 

John is a cold-blooded killer, he doesn’t have time for anything but vengeance in his life. All of that changes when he meets Kat whom he immediately develops a liking, an infatuation for. He wants to know more about her, he wants to know everything there is to know about her including all her secrets. For a killer like him, the last thing you’d be worried about is him getting attached to her. But he isn’t a regular killer and this isn’t your regular story. 

I absolutely adored the dynamic between Zoe and John, it was the perfect balance and they just…fit together. Zoe is a badass heroine who I loved to follow along with and watching John fall for Zoe slowly was so fascinating. A ruthless killer who once never had any space for trivial things like this in their life actually falling in love is something I’ll always find fascinating. 

When her best friend went missing, and she found clues that pointed to it being related to the mafia whose club she works at, Zoe starts working there to spy and hopefully get closer to the owner Marcus to get information about her friend’s disappearance. To Zoe, John is a good way to get the information she wants because he’s Marcus’ cousin, and that’s as good as it gets. I love how every mafia book I read has a plot wholly different to any other and this was no different. I was so fully engrossed into the whole book including the plot and not just the romance. 

Here’s some tropes/things to convince you to read this book: 
🔥dual POV
🔥mafia
🔥spicy
🔥secret identity 
🔥guaranteed HEA
🔥alpha male 
🔥’touch her and die’ vibes
🔥psychopath hero
🔥mafia fixer
🔥innocent-ish heroine
🔥interconnected standalones with overlapping plot 
🔥praise kink 

I absolutely adored this book and I can’t wait to read more of Natalia’s works because I loved the writing, the characters, the plot and just about everything else. Natalia has a talent for writing books that I can’t wait to come back to. 

Natalia Lourose writes angsty romance about broken people figuring out life and finding love along the way. Television and far too much smut as a teenager left her obsessed with dark-haired bad boys who are moody and wear leather jackets. Tucked away in her office with a dog at her feet, two cats on her keyboard, and husband doing something she is always writing something, or trying to. 

She loves interacting with fans and fellow book lovers on social media, here’s where you can find her:

Instagram ⇒ https://f.ls/xtwWt
Facebook ⇒ https://f.ls/Y8xwJ
Goodreads ⇒ https://rb.gy/xz5pxm
Tik Tok ⇒ https://f.ls/tPPOL
Amazon ⇒ https://f.ls/0AS1i

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