Fallen Rook

“You’re not in my plans.” “The best things in life usually aren’t,”

First things first, let me clear a few things up. This is my first book by L. J. Shen. I’ve never read any of her books; they just felt like they had elements in them that I wouldn’t enjoy 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️ But I have a very soft spot for MM romances, and if I were to discover a new author for myself, what better way to read her first MM book, right?

Not only that, this one is also said to have the Criminal x Detective trope in it, AND Enzo is voiced by Corvin King, who also voiced one of my favorite characters, Kyran Harbor, from For the Fans. At this point, I knew I HAD TO read this book 🤝🤝

And that decision led me to another problem, which is my lack of interest and unwillingness to read the first two books of the series 😑😑 Usually, I prefer reading series in order, even if the book I want to read is like the sixth or seventh one, but I heard many controversial reviews about Bad Bishop and Twisted Pawn that made me hesitate A LOT.

After some detailed research, I decided not to read the first two books. From what I heard, I know I won’t enjoy reading those books, and there is no need for me to force myself to read them and end up hating them. Now, let’s get back to our book 😊😊

—

“Tell me you’ve missed me,”

“I missed you.”

“Tell me you were jealous.”

“I was so fucking jealous.”

“And you thought about me the entire time.”

“I did.”

“Tell me I’m your favorite.”

“You’re not just my favorite, Butterfly. You’re my only.”

Fallen Rook follows Enzo Ferrante, the youngest brother of the Ferrante family, and Thomas Rothwell, the FBI agent whose life purpose is to put Enzo’s family behind bars. It’s a very forbidden relationship with so many reasons why they shouldn’t be together, but the heart wants what it wants 😉😉

Enzo is the family’s enforcer and deals with the brutal, gruesome part of the mafia jobs. But despite his job, he is a ray of sunshine with the kindest heart and cutest smile 🥰🥰

But you know what they say: The brightest smiles hide the deepest pains. And Enzo is basically the personification of that sentence. Behind all his easy smiles and jokes, he has many dark secrets he doesn’t want anyone to know. I wanted to give him the biggest hug and protect him from anyone who dared to look in his direction the wrong way 😭😭

I might not be able to do that, but guess who did it on my behalf? Yep, you guessed it right. FBI Agent Tom Rothwell 😎😎 Tom is, as Enzo would like to call him, his stalker 🤣🤣 They have the exact opposite personalities. Enzo is a ray of sunshine, while Tom is grumpy as hell. Enzo talks too much, too fast, while Tom barely speaks at all and definitely not without thinking twice. The list can go on and on.

Since the story revolves around a criminal and an FBI agent, you can probably guess that Tom gets closer to Enzo to gather intel on the Camorra, only to madly fall in love with him 😅😅 One thing I can complain about is that their relationship was a bit toxic at times, but that made their character development toward the end of the story feel even sweeter.

I loved the dynamic between them so much 😍😍 They healed each other slowly but surely and became the center of each other’s worlds. The love, the betrayal, the heartbreak, the reunion—everything was just so amazing. I went through every single emotion with them. And the best part? I understood both of their logic when it came to their actions.

I also really loved how Enzo was so strict about not cheating on his arranged-marriage fiancée and made sure Tom knew that he was engaged 💯💯 Tom grew a lot throughout the story too, but Enzo’s growth was something else. He came such a long way. The scene where he came out to his family was pure chaos and made me laugh SO much 🤣🤣

Speaking of family, since I didn’t read the first two books, I was sometimes confused by the similar names and the relationships between the other characters, even though I had read detailed, spoiler-filled summaries of the previous books. So, I don’t have much to say about them. But I really enjoyed seeing Enzo’s brother support him no matter what. Ohhh, and I adore Tom’s granny. She was an icon. Loved that woman 🤞🤞

“I don’t like you,” I admitted. “Join the fucking club. My wife’s the president, by the way.” (Between Tom and Luca)

Lastly, Anthony Palmini as Tom Rothwell was a feast to my ears 🤤🤤 As far as I know, it’s my first time listening to an audiobook he narrated, and I loved it so much. I definitely want to listen to more of his work in the future. He voiced Tom perfectly and made me feel everything just with his voice.

Fallen Rook was an amazing book, and I devoured it. And if you have the chance, my recommendation would be to listen to the audiobook while reading it. It definitely made my experience ten times better. Highly recommended. See you later in another review! 👋👋