Book Info
The Chief by Arabella BlackSeries: San Ricardo #1
Rating:
Book ratings explainedGenres: Contemporary Romance, Dark Romance, Romantic Suspense
Pages: 279
ASIN: B08KPHJ22V
Published: 09/04/2021
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Purchase at: Amazon | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | Amazon AU
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Three corrupt men can't fix a broken girl. But in San Ricardo? They sure as hell try.
The Chief holds the highest power in San Ricardo, a small town in California. Near the southwestern American border to Mexico, the Chief helms an operation that steals from human traffickers.
He runs everything and everyone in San Ricardo where nothing's as it seems.
Life in the Chief’s community is under control until the day of Grey’s arrival. He wants Grey to himself, but the young girl becomes infatuated with Remo, one-half of San Ricardo’s infamous twins.
Underestimated in her past, Grey escapes and involuntarily lands in San Ricardo. As Grey messes around with ravishing men, avoiding facing her intuition, the Chief’s past starts to catch up with him.
*REVERSE HAREM. Triggers galore. There's MF with an older man & MFM with twin brothers.*
Should you read Grey or the Chief first?
And there’s the big debate. I think a lot comes down to whether you’re testing the waters or in it for the long haul.
If you read Grey first then you understand more about the woman she is when she comes to San Ricardo and exactly what she’s hiding when she doesn’t want to tell anybody her story. You’re left constantly wondering about the twins (one of whom you’ve met before) and why one of them is hiding the truth about being the assassin.
If you read The Chief first then you know less of Grey and have the delight of discovering her own secrets at the same time as Charles and the Twins. That said, you have no idea of the depraved experiences Grey has had to endure and how they’ve shaped her. It may leave you in a free position to appreciate Vegas and Remo as you’re not questioning their pasts.
The Chief – My Review
First off let’s start by saying that if you’ve read the Wraith Royals series, it is not indicative of the type of writer Arabella Black truly is. It’s almost like Grey and The Chief were written by a different person.
This family had immaculate dick genes.
The Chief tore at my heart, made me laugh out loud (a rare occurrence), had me picking my jaw up from the floor in shock and squirm in my seat before… yeah, TMI. Having experienced this in less than 48 hours I feel like I’ve been on an emotional rollercoaster of the best kind.
Their faces were almost identical. Sculptured edges with full lips and a straight nose, they looked like your typical troublemakers. If I had met them when I was a teen, I would’ve succumbed to them without the blink of an eye.
The Chief is the story of a woman who escapes from her husband after years of horrific abuse and torture. We follow her in the weeks after her escape as she begins to rebuild her life, reclaim her body and take charge of her sexuality. It’s a journey of discovery turned tragic by Grey’s anxious self-harm. All this is set to the backdrop of criminal activity disguised behind a veneer of law and includes a healthy dose of mystery and intrigue. There are secrets and lies galore and I’m not sure anybody comes out entirely unscathed.
My body was exhausted by my constant mood swings. It only wanted to know, was I safe or was he about to kill me?
Her thoughts were juvenile at times, but her broken body carried weighty and wicked secrets.
I heard her chuckle. Her inner slut had come out to play. The girl that had scratched herself had vanished into thin air.
Black could easily have failed with her portrayal of Grey. Writing about mental illness is never going to be easy, especially when so many people with the same condition have such varying experiences. Black writes sensitively when Grey is triggered and really works to bring the reader into the mind of the character, explaining the circumstances without the story losing its pace. She perfectly captures Grey’s urge to self-harm and the satisfaction she feels when she knows that her actions have gone unnoticed by those who are looking out for her.
Somehow, I felt like Vegas needed to protect me from himself. The way he looked at me just twisted something inside of me. I wanted him to grab me by my hair and show me where the fuck the stars were.
Reverse harem novels can often seem like a trap. Characters can be similar enough that you often wonder why their individual aspects couldn’t have been combined into fewer characters. (Well, okay, we know it’s because you can’t have kinky group sex with only two characters.) In The Chief, Grey’s three love interests couldn’t be more different, even though there are threads that bind each of the men to the others. They all have such different energies but come together to form an amazingly strong and supportive harem that will do anything for its girl.
I saw the world through different eyes because of Mr. Martí. I saw his ghost everywhere. He taunted me for being naïve, turning me into a paranoid person.
Want more?
Not quite ready to let go of the Chief? Why not read the extended epilogue? It’s free! Plus it’s got the hottest scenes in the whole book – you really don’t want to let it pass you by.
“I can’t wait to have you walking around in a butt plug I’ve bought for you. I’ll get you an expensive one, you know. With real diamonds! That would be so fucked up. We’ll just have to be careful not to lose them inside your… Fuck. It’s going to be glorious! Who gets to fuck you first? Do you want to decide? Perhaps we should do a random name picker just to be fair…”
This is definitely a book where the trigger warnings don’t lie. It will be a difficult read for some, but if you can handle it, it’s a beautiful and well-written story with enough steam to keep you hot for days.
Why you should read The Chief
- Laugh out loud moments
Off the chart steam levels- Amazing web of secrets and lies
About Arabella Black
Arabella Black writes “WTF Did I Just Read?!” type of dark romance books in the reverse harem, mafia and taboo tropes.
Last Updated on 20 November 2021 by Glowstars
