A dark mafia romance where love thrives in the shadows.

📓Brief Description (Spoiler-Free):
- Quince “Hunch” Romano locked Esmara in his gothic cathedral.
- He claims love is his weakness, but there is a man beneath the monster.
- Can Esmara break through the darkness, or will it consume them both?
- Hellfire Mafia blends dark romance with hints of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Beauty and the Beast, and Romeo and Juliet, with a guaranteed HEA.

❤️ What I Loved:
- The classic “touch her and die” energy from the MMC.
- The characters of Hunch and Esmara were fun to follow - loved the dual POV.

🤔 What I Would Change:
- I found some plot points were rushed, whereas others felt dragged out.

📚 Recommended For:
- Fans of Katee Robert, H. D. Carlton, and Sophie Lark
- Readers who enjoy gothic romance, dark mafia, and/or retellings

💭Final Thoughts & Rating:
- I’m so appreciative of NetGalley and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for providing me with the opportunity to review an advanced copy.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

4/5 Stars

as the cover says, this is a mashup of the hunchback of notre dame, beauty and the beast, and romeo and juliet. except this time around, it's a dark romance rendition. this has breeding kinks (woot woot) and a lot of spice, so be ready. the characters had immature moments for their age, but they are likeable. overall, it's a good read and a fun, dark take on retelling fairytales so many love.

The consept sounds great but is written in a way where it lacks emotion and has repetitive language. There are points that should be very emotional for the character to remember and instead presented in an informative way. This also impacts general dialog where the conversations don't flow naturally and again feel more informative.

This book was a fast paced spicy read.
Now for me I prefer when the spice feels like an addition to the book rather than the book an addition to spice and mostly this but was the latter, their was a few times I felt as though it WAS a bit overshadowed by the smut but it wasn’t too bad.
Overall I really enjoyed this hunch back of notre dame/romeo and Juliet mash up type book it was a really interesting read.

Hellfire Mafia by Audrey Halliwell was something else! I rated this story 5 stars because I couldn't give it more stars for it. I totally recommend everyone to read this book as fast as they can because it's really good and the characters are fantastic.

Perfect if you enjoy a breeding kink and spicy scenes in a quick read. While I enjoyed the story, the characters did seem very juvenile for being mid, late twenties. I wish I felt more emotions between the characters, deeper than surface level.

I usually gravitate towards mafia romances for a pallet cleanser when in-between books or when I don't know what to read next.
I would have enjoyed a little more world building but overall, this was a good story. I loved how protective "Hunch" was over Esmara and how we got to see him grow and finally get the love he deserves. Esmara evolved from a shallow mafia princess to a strong woman. I loved the Epilogue!!!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC copy of this book.

Overall this was a fast paced spicy read that combines a dark theme with fairytale. The story has strong male and female leads that successfully transition through the story from Hunchback of Notre Dame to Beauty and the Beast and finally ending with Romeo and Juliet while combining a dark mafia aspect too. For parts of the story the spice overpowers the story line, but I think that’s only because the story between Quince and Esmara is such a quick read. I’d love it if there was more about their story, family histories and have more detailed characters included to expand the whole picture.

Thank you to the publisher for the chance to review this ARC with my honest opinion.

I was ecstatic to see a Hunchback retelling with some really good tropes. I was prepared to give this 2 stars, because the first Act One was really badly written and honestly needs developmental edits and cleaning up. It wasn’t until almost 50% in that it improved greatly. I highly suggest that the first act be gone over and reworked. There’s many issues from her knowing his name before he tells her, to just really badly written that it’s cringe. It also has information constant repeating that doesn’t need to be. There’s more telling than showing, which makes it boring to read. I honestly thought that this was badly written wattpad fiction until the last half where it was really nicely cleaned up.

But I was so invested in the characters and the potential that this story has. Once I got past 50%, it improved and got really good. But the first part is just so bad I can’t give it any higher than 3 stars. The characters are solid and have their flaws and aren’t 2d or flat, which I was thankful for because I did care about them and got invested.

Please consider giving it a once over with edits before continuing to publish. I most likely will not be posting my review onto the other platforms because it still needs work on it and I don’t want to post negative reviews when it can be fixed before publishing.

"Hellfire Mafia" was a quick read based loosely on The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Beauty and the Beast, with a bit of Romeo and Juliet tied in. At times the complete unrealistic story line had me laughing with the absurdity but weaved in was a bit of romance. I enjoyed watching the romance between Quince "Huck" and Esmara unfold (though again, totally unrealistic) and how they fought for each other, against their feuding crime families. I also appreciate that Esmara could see beyond Quince's scars and love him for who he was, not what he looked like.

Be aware of trigger warnings before you venture into this story.

Thank you to Audrey Halliwell and Net Galley for the ARC for an honest review.

This story is loosely based on beauty and the beast, The hunchback of notre dame and some elements of Romeo and Juliette. It follows Quince “Hunch” Romano and Esmara Barbu in a mafia romance with two sides against one another.

This was good plot and it was enjoyable, I liked how protective Quince was of Esmara when she needed him he was there to help her. Esmara was a good female lead that knew what she wanted and went for it (Quince). I do feel that the explicit scenes overpowered the plot a little but did appreciate the growth of the relationship. The love that grew between the both of them was lovely to see bloom no matter what their families said. For Esmara to love Quince scars and all was so beautiful and to finally see Quince receive the love that he deserved was heartwarming after what he has been through.

I recommend this book but check trigger warnings before you go into reading !

This was a quick and spicy read! Hunchback of Notre Dame is an all-time favourite so was very excited at the promise of reading a story taking inspiration but combined with a bit of dark romance!
The spice is very heavy on the breeding kink, and checking the content warnings might be a recommendation - but it was a good enough of a plot! The story felt quite fast-paced, I would have appreciated some more character and world-building, maybe some more into characters' thought processes etc before flying through the story at the speed at which it did. But overall it had some really good moments! Loved the art and the epilogue!

This was a nice read. I felt badly for Quince being isolated for so many years. I was glad that he finally found his love in Esmara. I admire her for seeing past his scars, and realizing his true self. There was plenty of spicy scenes, and a nice epilogue. I will read more by this author.