Break Me Like a Promise by Tiffany Schmidt (review)

When Carter Landlow was killed in a war between crime families for control of black-market organ harvesting (in Hold Me Like a Breath, BCCB 7/15), his secret girlfriend Magnolia Vickers was shattered. Months later, her continued grief threatens her future as the heir to her own crime family’s empire and nearly causes her to expose the Family’s operations. Desperate to fix things, she turns to Alejandro “Alex” Cooper for help, but Alex exacts a promise in return: a new kidney. Now Maggie’s stuck babysitting Alex until a match can be found, but as they sit together through his dialysis, they slowly grow closer. Just as she’s starting to care, though, the Family pulls out of the illegal transplant game for political gain, forcing Maggie to decide between her family’s business and Alex’s life. Less action-packed but more deeply emotional than the first volume, this second in a continuing series retains all of the original’s gangsters-meet-fairy-tales appeal while offering a sassy new heroine to root for. Maggie is a compelling mixture of broken and tough, grappling like her predecessor Penny Landlow with emotional trauma and unexpected romance, and the novel emerges as both familiar and fresh as a result. Fairy-tale allusions are again subtly wrought, drawing here on the underlying “Princess and the Frog” tale. The novel works well for readers who like their sweet romance mixed with spicy suspense and a twist of The Godfather. No knowledge of the previous story is necessary, since this novel functions more as companion than sequel, but readers will likely want to read the prior book first in order to avoid the many spoilers.