Saturday, September 4, 2021

REVIEW - HITMAN by C. Hallman & Isabella Starling




TRIGGER WARNING: Hitman is a DARK and TWISTED romance with many triggers such as forced drug used, dubious content, kidnapping, death and violence.


Alaric just did a hit in a back alley when he sees girls in bondage gear entering a club.  Just what he needs to burn off the adrenaline from killing someone.  He bypasses the line at Club Purgatory showing the red ribbon around his wrist indicating that he works for the Lombardi family and wasn't to be messed with.  Because the Lombardi's were the worst kind of mafia and he was their hitman.

As he pushes his way to the bar one of the bartenders stands out from everyone else in the club.  She is gorgeous with honey blonde hair and baby blue eyes.  He orders his drink and tells her to meet him outside.

Against her better judgment, Monroe takes a break to see what the stranger wants.  He is ruggedly handsome with hair as dark as his clothing.  He is dressed from head to toe in black.  His age is indeterminant since he has specks of gray in his hair, but definitely older than she is.

She is speechless when he offers her five thousand dollars to go down on him.  Did she hear him correctly?  She's not a whore and five thousand?  Really?  When she tells him where he can put his money, he instead takes a kiss and tucks two thousand dollars in her bra.  When he turns to leave she calls him back.  What does she have to do for the rest of the money in his wallet?

She knows what goes on upstairs in the club, but has made it known to her boss that she won't be giving any extras to the club goers.  But, today changes all that because she needs the money - and badly.  So she takes him upstairs to a room with a bed surrounded by any form of torture device you could wish for - dildos, whips....

But, he only wants a bj.  When he leaves she counts the money he left her.  Eight thousand dollars.  Who carries that much money on their person?  

Women were only good for one purpose so Alaric was confused why a few days later he was still thinking of Monroe.  So he decides to see what she is doing with all the money he gave her.  Most whores would be out buying expensive clothes and purses, so why is she living in a small empty basement and what was she using the money for because it definitely wasn't to get a better place to live.

I loved this book.  It is very well written and the characters are very relatable.  Monroe is doing whatever she can to support the person who means the most in the world to her.  And she will do anything to make that happen.  No matter how degrading.

Alaric is well...I have no words for Alaric or maybe too many.  Alaric is a hitman, but he has the most depraved kink that I think I've read before, but in spite of that, I still like him.  He is not cruel to Monroe in the normal sense, he just has needs that are beyond imagination.

I may be as twisted as Alaric because I thought it was funny that Monroe would do anything to not be locked in the trunk of the car as Alaric went about his mafia business.  I can just imagine the horror on her face when she sees what is behind option b, but despite the horrors she is confronted with they aren't as bad as being locked in a confined space.

This book is action-packed and depraved.  The warning above says it all, but if you can get past those triggers it is an amazing book.

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