His Forbidden Obsession by Silvia Violet | Book Review
Hot dark romance that fizzled.😭
Book Blurb
A man whose father is selling him to the highest bidder. A dangerous connection to New Orleans’ infamous Theriot crime family. A protection arrangement with a price tag that’s more than just money. His Forbidden Obsession is the first book in Silvia Violet’s Forbidden Mafia series (a spinoff of her Theriot universe) and the setup hit every note I wanted: obsessive MC, power imbalance, innocent MC, simmering New Orleans heat. I put this book down for three months. Then I picked it back up because I refused to believe it was as bad as I remembered. Reader, it was.
Book Review
His Forbidden Obsession is the first book in Silvia Violet’s Forbidden Mafia series — a spinoff of her Theriot family universe set in the New Orleans crime world. Niko’s father is selling him to the highest bidder. He escapes and runs straight to the one person he shouldn’t — Lorenzo, a man connected to the infamous Theriot family who agrees to protect him, for a price. The setup is genuinely compelling. The chemistry between Niko and Lorenzo is HOT. When Lorenzo sneaks into Niko’s room at the party, I was like, here we go. I am here for obsessed MCs, power imbalance, innocent MC… The bones of a great dark romance are there.
The first half of this book is exactly what it promises. The tension between Niko and Lorenzo is electric, the danger feels real, and the dynamic of Niko essentially trading one kind of captivity for another — but this time with someone who actually sees him — it’s rich with potential. Violet does this well in her other work, and it shows here in the early pages. If the whole book had matched the first half, this would have been a five-star read.
The Theriot family connections are also a genuine draw. If you’ve spent time reading the other books in the Theriot series, seeing those threads woven through this new book adds real texture. It’s enough to make me want to keep going with the Forbidden Mafia books even after this one disappointed me — and that says something.
Somewhere around the final third, the book loses the plot — almost literally. I put this book down for three months. Then I picked it back up because I refused to believe it was as bad as I remembered. Niko’s father showing up in the swamp should have felt like an inevitable, satisfying confrontation. Instead, it felt formulaic and rushed, like the story was just checking a box to get to the finish line. I found myself skimming just to get it over with, which is never a good sign.
The frustrating thing is that this wasn’t an irredeemable book — it was a good book that stopped trying. It reads like two different authors handed it off somewhere in the middle, and the second one was in a hurry.
If you’re already invested in the Theriot family universe, this is worth reading for the connective tissue alone — just go in with adjusted expectations for the ending. If you’re new to Silvia Violet, I’d start with the Theriot series proper first and come back to this one once you’re attached to the world.
Three stars (I’d be willing to go 3 1/2)— and most of them belong to the first half. His Forbidden Obsession had everything it needed to be great, and didn’t quite get there. I’ll still read book two, but I’ll be going in cautiously.
His Forbidden Obsession by Silvia Violet is on Kindle Unlimited.
Have you read the Theriot series? Did the universe connections land for you, or did the ending leave you as frustrated as it left me? Let me know in the comments!
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