Beneath the Shadows

Dark mafia retelling of The Cask of Amontilado

I found this one by chance on Apple Books,and since it was only €0,99 i decided to take a chance.
Having read the excerpt and the blurb,i knew i was in for a rough ride,and boy was i right!
Alessia has to go through só much abuse before she gets a chance at the happy after she deserves!
It took a very long time before the romantic part started,but when it finally did,it was worth the wait.
In the end,i have to say the story was well built,well written,and it kept me captured from start to finish.
As retellings go,i have to say this retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado was a good one,and i will check more of this author.

Alessia and Antonio were childhood sweethearts until his cousin Valentino,son of Capo Giovanni,finds a way to break them up…..by convincing her father that he should marry her as he would become the new Capo when his father died.
Alessia’s father was a cold and brutal man,always seeking ways to gain power,so he didn’t need much convincing…..
Antonio was left with no other choice than to back out and keep his distance,his father Marco may be the Capo’s second,but even he didn’t have the power to change what was happening.

Alessia went through hell in her marriage,her husband did everything he could to make her life as miserable as possible,and he enjoyed every second.
Thinking marriage meant he could take over from his father turned out to be the wrong assumption,but he had a solution for that….
And once he got what he wanted,he immediately started to conduct business the way he wanted to….and that meant going in a direction that La Familigia didn’t approve of,but couldn really do anything about.

In the meantime,Antonio was biding his time,acting loyal but trying to find ways to dispose of Valentino.
He didn’t trust the death of his uncle Giovanni,and when his father,who’d become Valentino’s second after his uncle’s death,was killed,he knew exactly who was behind it.
Valentino didn’t accept critique,and Marco had been a little critical…..
It also hurt him to see how Valentino treated Alessia,even lowering her to waitress for free in their restaurant.
She had no freedom,no one to stand up for her,no loved ones to comfort her,and was forced to suffer through the abuse of her husband.

Finally Antonio had the opportunity to get rid of Valentino,and he planned on keeping Alessia safe from the backlash his death could cause.
Until she disappeared…..finding her freedom far away from everything she’d endured during her life.
But her father wouldn’t accept her getting away,and Antonio,being voted as the new Capo,was the one he forced to bring her back.
Because her father still had use for her…..Antonio would have to marry her,or he’d find another candidate that would.
You’d think that was the best solution for both,but her trust in him was gone,and it didn’t look like it would return….even when he treated her like the treasure she was…..even when he showed her he still cared.
On top of that,there were threatening letters starting to arrive…..letters that painted a very dark fate for Alessia.

As i said,it was a rough ride,but worth it,and i enjoyed the story very much.
I will be trying more stories by this author,and i know she has another retelling of Edgar Allan Poe coming,called The Pit and the Pendulum.