I dedicate this review to my significant other. This book made me remember some of the crazy antics that we got into during the early years of our relationship. Well, and it also reminded me of the fact that he usually lets me read while he watches MMA on television (unless there's a knockout - then I have to stop what I'm doing and watch it with him as he rewinds and reviews it 20 times). These are good times, my love. Good times. 
 Note : I did not read the first book in this series because I'd seen mixed reviews. Since I'd noticed that many people liked the second book much better than the first, I went ahead and skipped to book 2 and it read completely fine without me knowing what had happened in book 1. 
 What I'd expected to be nothing more than a run-of-the mill contemporary romance-slash-erotic book turned out to be something which surpassed my expectations in the plot department. The story started out fairly quickly with a hookup (I appreciated the female being the instigator), which left me wondering what was going to happen for the next 90% of the book. Thankfully, there was more to this love story than meets the eye. 
 The family dynamics and fighting lifestyle reminded me a little of the 5th Street series vibe. Just swap out MMA fighters for boxers and there you go (although I'm wondering why there are traditional boxing gloves on the book cover?). Where I think the level might have been turned up a notch was with the addition of the "mafia family" element. I was impressed with much of the backstory - to the point where it has me wanting to find out what's going to happen with the other brothers in their books, especially Nova. 
 I loved the meeting in Vegas and the long distance relationship over the phone which went on for months. Those two things are exactly how my own relationship started with my husband. We met in person for the first time in Vegas, and then we spent a lot of time on the phone until we were able to see each other again. Ahh...memories. 
 Wow, the phone sex and video-conferencing sex was H-O-T. If you can't be with someone, get creative, right? Well, this was pretty flipping steamy for having absolutely no physical contact. Me likey. 
 It was nice to see that some of the secrets and angst were channeled into a flow which actually fit the ongoing story-line. There was some drama and one or two over-the-top moments, but I never felt like I was on a constant roller-coaster of ridiculousness. Everything tied together and the H/h learned to lean on one another in fewer steps than you often see in romance novels. 
 For the first time in his life he let down his guard by falling asleep, trusting Jules enough to let her take the wheel for him and not fuck it up. 
 Romeo chose Juliet instead. 
 So yeah. We started off sexy, continued sexy, got some interesting action/drama near the end... and now I'm going to try out the next book because I'm curious to see what happens next. 
 The few whammy moments : 
 ~ Characters named Romeo and Juliet. Really? No...really? 
 ~ A Jersey Shore reference when mentioning the cast of characters. Gah. Not the mental image I want to pull up when I'm trying to imagine the male lead as sexy. Now all I can conjure up are greasy juice-heads wearing too-tight clothing who like to fist pump for no apparent reason. I'm half Italian and I know that Italian men can be scorching without looking like a stereotype. 
 ~ I'm all for close sibling relationships, but lying in bed up against your twin brother while he's clothed only in boxers is creeeeepy. 
 ~ He had big hands. And I got to hear about it more than once. I don't know why but I've always been disturbed when there's a mention of big hands repeatedly in a book. Why doesn't he just touch her with his 'hands' and not his 'big hands?' I don't get it. Sasquatch always pops into my head. 
 This book provided from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.