Riiiight, so what we’re dealing with here is a quite saucy series of Russian uber-males and damsels in distress. I’ve spent three days reading 3 books from the series so far. Each book focuses on individual Russian guys. I have read “Ivan”, “Dimitri” and “Yuri”… “Nikolai” is the fourth book for me to tackle and hopefully soon as his story line has been gradually building up throughout the first three. I am now aware the series will build on to sequels for some of the guys and that there is also a books focusing on Sergei, Kostya, Alexei, Danila, Vasya… You get my gist. Lots of Russian heat!

I can honestly say I am not too sure if I will be reading all of them because the first three were really written in a pattern. It was him brooding over her, him and her profess their undying and unconditional love, something happens to put them into danger (whether a mobster or gang related street war, or a personal vendetta), he saves the day because he’s a rich macho and life goes on. Oh yeah, not to mention the repetitive, seedy bedroom action. I am, however, rather interested in Nikolai’s story as he is still connected to the dark dealings of illegal sort and I think I need to read Kostya’s story because he’s the guy that shows up with bleach and plastic bags to clean up blood! Yeah, you read me, a super-cleaner of sorts (or a mob cleaner, to call things as they are!)

Generally though, I’ve had a good few laughs and more than anything this series has made me contemplate refreshing my Russian language skills. Not that there’s a lot of Russian words in books themselves, but things like “He cursed a line in Russian” and my brain is filling in the parts with all the Russian curses I know.

I like the series for the camaraderie and, say, for the respect in between the men that has been woven neatly into the storyline. So, if there’s a book about one of the guys, all others appear as well whether to help out in fighting a Mexican drug lord, to win a ridiculously expensive painting in poker or in the form of bodyguards. The female characters are created nicely as well- they all have their history to tell and are all completely different to each other with various personality traits. I guess, this is what makes the series interesting- there’s something fresh yet familiar in each book.

You may find the Roxie’s author page here on Goodreads.

Because I found them a bit repetitive I gave each of the three first books a rating of 3 stars *** but I would still recommend the series to anyone out there looking for exciting and entertaining read.