Degrees of Innocence: Dark Mafia Romance (Cruel Deceptions Book 1) By Via Mari – Review by Ayla Phipps

Degrees of Innocence by Via Mari
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the first book I have read by the talented Via Mari; the synopsis was interesting and made me curious. The first page had me hooked, Katarina, better known as Kate, is in Aruba for a work conference on a new project. When a stranger suddenly needs medical attention and she performs CPR, before another man appears to help her. That happens on Friday night shortly after she arrived at the resort.
Within 48 hours she has completely fallen for the stranger, Chase, that helped her Friday night, and he has fallen for her. Dancing the night away together on Saturday and exploring the island on Sunday. Finally, they kiss, and she asks for him to come into her room only for him to decline, for now. In the moment he strangely tells her to hold on to how she feels about him in that moment and remember it tomorrow. Confused she accepts his decline in the moment as she has a very busy night and her conference starting in the morning. At the same time the CEO of the company that has hired the firm she works for is emailing her, chastising her for working on the weekend while on a beautiful resort, and talks of renegotiating her contract so that she is not allowed to work on weekends. Monday morning everything changes, hurt, confusion and embarrassment are all Kate can feel when she sees Chase, the CEO, the man that hired her, walks into the conference room for the meeting and introduces himself.
Will Kate allow herself to break her rule of not getting involved with someone from work? Can she hold on to the intense feelings she has for Chase? What will happen when his secrets come out? The world the author creates is beautiful, but the characters are so relatable that you can’t help but wish everything works out. Less than 20% through the book I couldn’t help but look up the other three books in the series so I could continue this amazing story. I can’t wait to see how their story develops in book 2 Degrees of Acceptance.

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