Maksim is a Russian who was overlooked for his place as Bratva heir due to his speech impediment. He is big, brawny, and the bookkeeper for the family. But his half-brother is set to be the official head of the family in his place. He has struggled with self-worth due to his stutter, but one way he relieves stress is by going on "pleasure hunts" at masked parties where his custom masks hide both his face and his speech issue. 

But when circumstances and duty call for him to work on fixing his issue, what's a man to do when the speech pathologist he wants to help him refuses? When you are raised in Bratva, you do what you have to do.

Sarah is a speech pathologist and an expert in her field and works with children with stuttering and language issues. She has no reason to agree to work with an adult demanding her attention. But when things escalate and more reasons and commonalities are revealed, it has the potential to change everything. 

Sarah also has a secret side interest that helps her let go of her stress.  And she just had an intense experience that then spiraled into something unexpected. She is haunted by the hot memories of their night together before everything changed. She cannot stop thinking about the masked man, Beast. But now she finds herself needing to help his associate, a Russian mobster with his stutter and is in forced proximity with him and his brothers. But Maks has his own agenda he needs to follow through with no matter how bad it might be, even though he wants to keep her for himself.

As these two spend more time in forced proximity, Sarah begins to see what Maksim‘s really like under his intense persona. She knows he’s a mafia man, but she can also see the core that is a little boy who just wants to be accepted and wants love and to love someone else. He’s protective, thoughtful, possessive, and takes some of her burden away. Even though she has friends, she’s always been the one who has to be the strong and dependable one for her family and never really had somebody to fully lean on. But as things between them seem promising, there are still secrets lurking and threats in the background. 

I really liked these two together, and I just really fell for Maksim. He is this big, imposing man who lives in a violent world, but has a big heart lurking. This is a mafia story with dual identities, a little kink, humor, romance, and suspense. He lives in a violent world, and she is thrust right into it. 

This brings back the Russians, but also some of the Irish and Italians from this author's mafia series. I like that they’re now technically at a point where they’re trying to build relationships between the families. I loved getting more with Dima, Lev,  and Aleks, and I am hoping the Russian Brothers are going to get their own stories.