#Kiss thief in the night free

The fact that Francesca was forbidden by her father to go to college, or to have a career, seemed completely foreign and medieval to me. It’s not often you see an arranged marriage novel set in the 21st century, and I repeatedly had to remind myself that I wasn’t reading a Regency romance. The Kiss Thief, by LJ Shen, features Francesca Rossi, a spoiled high-society 19-year-old with a rich, albeit ruthless, daddy, a boarding school education, and a standing place in the high-end society of the Chicago mafia.

He makes a deal with Francesca’s father that cannot be refused, and before Francesca can even think about protesting, she is whisked away to Wolfe’s Chicago mansion to await her sentence as his future bride.Īs Francesca familiarizes herself with her new reality, she must decide where her heart’s loyalties lie: with Angelo and her childhood dreams, or with her soon-to-be husband, who is quickly becoming more than just her captor. On the night she is to share her first kiss with Angelo, it is stolen by Wolfe Keaton, an Illinois senator who is very much the big bad wolf to Francesca’s little red riding hood. She doesn’t mind this part since she has known who she is going to marry since she was a kid – Angelo Bandini, her childhood crush. The only thing she’s expected – or allowed – to do is marry into an affluent family – of course, associated with the Chicago mafia.

#Kiss thief in the night free

Francesca is the metaphorical bird in a gilded cage: free to do as she pleases, as long as it supports her mafia-boss father’s agenda.