Review: Mine by A.K. Rose

Mine by A.K. Rose

Series: Blood Ties #1

Publication date: January 30th, 2022

Pages: 372

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Synopsis:

Family is everything...

I always knew my father was a cold, heartless bastard.

But the moment he took Elle Castlemaine and her pathetic daughter into our home, barely a month after our mom died, he unleashed something savage inside me.

I didn't care they lost their home. Didn't care their father was behind bars.

Didn't care he betrayed the notorious Stidda Mafia boss, Benjamin Rossi, and now their lives were in danger.

All I cared about was her.

Ryth.

I wanted to hurt her. Wanted to make her squirm.

I wanted to make her pay for the moans coming from my father's bedroom.

When he slipped a ring onto her mother's finger, Ryth became mine.

Mine to bully.

Mine to break.

And I'll use my brothers to do it.

She'll become our favorite obsession.

Our sick, tormented game.

She'll become the only thing I think about, until not thinking about her tears me apart.

I'll hate her. I'll hate her so much it hurts...

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Review:

Ryth only thought her stay with the Banks family was temporary. Eventually after her mother recovered enough from their home being burned down, they would move out and find a way to get her father released from prison. But things change very quickly. Now she is hearing her mother in bed with the man she said was just a friend from college and listening beside her is her mother's lover's angry son. But it isn't until her mother starts to change and announces her impending nuptials that Ryth knows this is not going to be temporary. She will eventually become the angry son and his two brother's stepsister. The same stepbrothers that love to torment her with equal amounts of pain and pleasure. She knows it's wrong to desire her future stepbrothers but wrapped up in the mystery of her father's incarceration and the questionable actions of her mother and soon-to-be stepfather, she has nobody else to turn to but the bullies she lives only a few doors down from. But will they hell her or will they simply force her out of their home as they plan to?

Ryth is such a meek little thing. She has almost no backbone to speak of when she first comes to the Banks home. She cowers and hides her odd cheek birthmark behind a curtain of hair afraid of giving anyone more ammo to bully her with. She also is a little be twisted. While she is completely submissive there are times when she gets a little fire in her eyes and a little steel in her voice that make the boys perk up a little with surprise. Ryth showed a lot of growth throughout the book which I love to see. Especially in meek characters, it's important that they don't stay that way or I will lose interest fast and find them just to be a chronic damsel in distress.

Out of the boys I find myself drawn a bit towards Caleb. He seems like he is more in the wheelhouse of an actual Dom as opposed to the other two who don't really adhere to the same rulebook as Caleb does. The others don't really take no for an answer and they offer encouragement. They offer degradation and humiliation more often. Which is fine in some places but I like dominant characters who command obedience without having to resort to such antics. Caleb I felt was like that. 

All of them fall into different roles. Caleb is the emotionally supportive type, Nick is the protective approachable type and Tobias despite his gruff exterior is a caregiver. While he is telling her he hates her he is also putting pajamas on her while she sleeps so she doesn't get cold and the first one to fetch her food whenever she needs. They all kind of fill a need and they work well together. Simply missing one of them in the mix would throw the whole dynamic off I feel.

I liked the romance, I am still puzzled about the mystery, and I am hungry for more!