Michael Valente...
My father was the Underboss of an organized crime family. He was murdered when I was a teenager leaving me broken. My mother died in a tragic accident, her death annihilated me. My life was in shambles until Victor Pastore, one of New York’s most notorious gangsters and my late father’s best friend, recruited me to work for him.
Everyone expected me to walk in my father’s shadow, to be the prodigal son, the next big thing to hit the mob. I was torn between filling those expectations and walking the straight line my mother wished I had. Nothing made sense and I felt as if I was just passing through life.
The only beacon of light in my otherwise dark world was the one girl that was off limits to me. The one girl who could bring me to my knees consuming my mind, body and soul.
She’s the sweetest temptation I’ve ever known and the most illicit.
Nikki Pastore....
My father’s a gangster. My boyfriend’s is the king of New York’s nightclubs. I am often labeled as Vic’s daughter or Rico’s girl, never just Nikki. I struggle for people to acknowledge me for the woman I am and not for the men in my life. I’m fighting a losing battle.
There is only one person who sees me for me, my Mikey.
He’s wild.
He’s reckless.
He’s hot as hell.
He’s completely unattainable, but oh so tempting.
© Copyright 2015 Illicit Temptations
Janine Infante Bosco
“You taking charge Princess?” He said, raising an amused eyebrow at me.
“What if I am? Think you can handle it?” I said seductively as I leaned down and took his lower lip between my teeth. His hands struggled to break free, but I pushed them further into the mattress biting his lip a little bit harder.
“Fuck, Nikki.”
“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too.” I said as I ran my tongue along his lip slipping it inside his mouth to taste him. I loved kissing him because he treated the simple act as if it was a craft, and he was a man who enjoyed his craft with each stroke of his tongue he mastered the art of kissing. He kissed me proper he kissed me raw. He kissed me until I forgot I had ever kissed anyone other than him.
“If I let go of your hands, will you promise to behave?” I asked in between kisses.
“No.” He said through gritted teeth. I pulled away, shook my head in disapproval.
“You’re not playing by the rules Mikey.”
“I’m playing by my rules and my rules require my hands all over you.”
My Review - 5 Stars
Michael Valente has no direction. In his life, he has known many heartbreaks and tragedies. He lost his father to mob violence when he was just a teen. His mother immediately moved him away from the only home and friends he had ever known to keep him away from the bad element that killed his father.
Now years later he has to bury his mother after she dies in a tragic car accident. Feeling lost and alone, he decides to stay in the old neighborhood. Victor Pastore his father’s best friend and the man his father took a bullet for vows to be there for Mike like he should have been all those years ago.
Mike realizes it’s not Victor he wants to build a relationship with but his younger daughter Nikki Pastore. When Mike moved away, Nikki was a little girl with pigtails, braces and a sweet smile he could never forget.
Nikki is not the little tag along Mike remembers. She is a woman with a body he can’t stop dreaming about taking. Grown up Nikki is gorgeous, but she’s off limits besides, he has nothing to offer her no job and no future. He is a screw up and Nikki deserves so much better.
Illicit Temptations is not just a mafia romance. There is a lot of emotion, angst and plenty of sexual tension to go along with the mafia family theme. Janine carries us with the characters as they grow and change throughout the book. Told in alternating points of view, Mike and Nikki talk about how growing up in a mafia family isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Mike wants to be a better man than his father was but he doesn’t think he has it in him. Nikki makes him want more out of life she helps him see the possibility of a future.
There were so many facets to this book, love, drama, and laughter. When Mikey and Nikki go on the run you can expect things to heat up between them fast. Even Nikki’s Aunt Gina is hot for Mikey and of course, we can’t forget Nikki’s gun-toting grandma she was a hoot. The comic relief was a great addition to the story.
Victor Pastore, the patriarch or godfather if you will, of the family has had many great successes in his business career, but he has also had many failures in his family life. One of his biggest regrets is not being there for his best friend’s son after he gave up his life to save Victor’s. There is a very poignant moment between Mike and Victor that completely tugs at your heart.
Adrianna, Nikki’s sister and Mikey’s childhood friend Anthony had me hooked on wanting their story from the beginning. Something big happened there and I am looking forward to reading it in Forbidden Temptations.
As I have grown to expect from Janine this is a great well-written story that keeps your attention from the prologue that starts off with a bang to the epilogue that leave you wanting more of these amazing characters. This tale has romance, a little mob suspense and just the right amount of zing to keep you glued to the page. The phone sex scene will blow you away. Even though it is a series, this book you can read as a standalone. Anthony and Adrianna’s story is next and I for one can’t wait to find out how things end up for these two souls destined to be together.
RECEIVED AN ARC IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW.
JB’s Book Obsession: When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
Janine: I’ve always had a passion for writing and started to write when I was a teenager. After graduating High School I did want to pursue writing screenplays and applied to the New York Film Academy but I never followed through. When I turned thirty I decided to go back to my passion and write a novel.
JB’s Book Obsession: What is your favorite book?
Janine: I have so many favorites it’s impossible for me to single out one.
JB’s Book Obsession: How much of your own life do you put into your stories, if any?
Janine: There is a little piece of me in each of my characters. In Pieces, my first novel, there is a lot of my life scripted in all of the characters.
JB’s Book Obsession: What is your dream location to live and which fantasy book boyfriend would you take with you?
Janine: I always loved California so if I had to live anywhere other than New York, California would be my choice. I would take Harrison from Heidi McLaughlin’s Beaumont series with me.
JB’s Book Obsession: Who are the authors that have inspired you?
Janine: There are so many talented authors, but my early favorites such as Jill Shalvis and Carly Phillips inspired me to write. However, Colleen Hoover is just an amazing person as well as author and I love the charitable work she incorporated into her work as an author.
JB’s Book Obsession: What has been the best part of your self-publishing journey?
Janine: I tip my hat to all self-publishers because they are responsible for every single thing to get their book out there. I think that learning everything that goes into being an indie author is the best, most rewarding part.
JB’s Book Obsession: Do you know how your stories will end or does it come to you as you go?
Janine: I knew the ending for all my books thus far, but the book I am currently working on I’m not sure how it’s going to end just yet.
JB’s Book Obsession: From your own list of characters do you have a favorite?
Janine: I loved the entire Lanza family, but if I had to choose only one character from that series it would be Jake. However, I think Anthony Bianci from Forbidden Temptations may be closing in on Jake.
JB’s Book Obsession: What other books do you have in the works? Can you give us a short description?
Janine: I am working on Forbidden Temptations, which tells the story of Adrianna Pastore and Anthony Bianci whom you met in Illicit Temptations. They were one another’s first love, but Anthony left Adrianna and went to jail for a crime he didn’t commit. Now he’s home, she has a son by another man, and they both are still fiercely in love with each other. It’s a heartbreakingly beautiful story about their sacrifices.
I also will be adding two more books to the Tempted Series.
Uncontrollable Temptations (Jack “Bulldog” Parish; President of Satan’s Knights MC)
Reckless Temptations (MC)
Take Me To Church – Hozier
Goodbye’s (The Saddest Word) – Done Again
Wild Ones (fest. Sia) – Flo Rida, Sia
The Man – Aloe Blacc
Make It Rain – Ed Sheehan
Blaze of Glory – Bon Jovi
GDFR – Flo Rida
I’d Do Anything For Love – Meat Loaf
We Weren’t Born To Follow – Bon Jovi
Runaway – Bon Jovi
Jealous – Nick Jonas
Divine Sorrow – Wyclef Jean, Avicii
My Hometown – Bruce Springsteen
Happy – Bruce Springsteen
I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You – Leatherface
Blame – Calvin Harris
The Heart Wants What It Wants – Selena Gomez
Heartbeat Song – Kelly Clarkson
Your Song – Ellie Goulding
Love Me Like You Do – Ellie Goulding
All About That Bass – Mo’jive
I Need Your Love – Shaggy, Mohombi
If I Lose Myself – Corey Gray
My Way - Frank Sinatra
Janine Infante Bosco lives in New York City, she has always loved reading and writing. When she was thirteen, she began to write her own stories and her passion for writing took off as the years went on. At eighteen, she even wrote a full screenplay with dreams of one day becoming a member of the Screen Actors Guild.
Janine writes emotionally charged novels with an emphasis on family bonds, strong willed female characters, and alpha male men who will do anything for the women they love. She loves to interact with fans and fellow avid romance readers like herself.
