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In the Company of Killers

ebook
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks
Gossip Girl meets The Sopranos in this fast-paced drama about a teenage mafia heiress who would do anything to avenge her family, even join forces with her handsome enemy.
 
Inside the tony suburb of Scarsdale is New York’s worst-kept secret: The mob runs everything, and the Nicastro family is at the center. Seventeen-year-old Tasha Nicastro lives a life of glitz and glamour, but she has no idea her family harbors a dark truth. 
 
Tasha might look like your classic high school mean girl, but behind the designer clothes is a sharpshooter who knows how to bring anyone to their knees. The only person who has ever gotten under her skin is her former best friend, Leo Danesi, the youngest son of the Nicastro family’s rivals. After Leo returns to New York older and more handsome, Tasha thinks he’ll be the worst of her problems—until the life she thought she knew takes a violent, shocking turn. When her father and beloved older sister are murdered before her eyes, Tasha learns the dark truth: Her family runs the most powerful Mafia branch in New York, and now she’s set to inherit it all. 
 
Tasha vows vengeance on the mysterious new mob behind the hit, but she can’t do it alone. She needs someone who already knows the underground world to help track them down. And that person is none other than Leo, the heir to his own family’s dangerous empire. 
 
But Tasha is a Nicastro. She’s been raised in the company of killers, and there’s absolutely nothing she won’t do to avenge her family. That is, if the enemy doesn’t put her in gold chains first.
 
Perfect for fans of:
  • Mafia Romances
  • Second Chance Romance
  • Rivals-to-Lovers
  • Thrillers
  • Mysteries
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      • Kirkus

        January 1, 2025
        A high schooler joins forces with her ex-crush-turned-enemy to avenge her family. Behind all the glitz, glamour, and designer clothes of the wealthy elite of Scarsdale, New York, lie betrayals and deadly secrets that rising senior Tasha Nicastro has been shielded from--until the night her father and sister are brutally murdered during a party at their mansion. She's shocked to be made the new boss of the Nicastro Mafia and to learn that since childhood she's been groomed for the role. Tasha must decide if she has what it takes to run the state's most powerful crime family--and track down the traitorous mob boss who killed her loved ones. Leo Danesi has avoided his mob ties for as long as he can, but he's finally forced to reckon with his family's past and future, as well as his feelings for Tasha, when his mom accepts a surprising invitation and he ends up at the Nicastros' party. At times, the weak and unclear motivations behind the complicated decisions made by some of the characters, who are largely cued Italian American, distracts from the action-packed drama. But the story, told in Tasha's and Leo's alternating first-person perspectives, brings the characters to life through distinct voices that together paint a picture of a violent and sinister underworld of organized crime. A fast-paced and unpredictable mafia page-turner with an enemies-to-lovers duo hot on the case.(Thriller. 14-18)

        COPYRIGHT(2025) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

      • School Library Journal

        March 1, 2025

        Gr 9 Up-Natasha "Tasha" Nicastro, 17, is always at the top of the social ladder. But even with her shrewd social acumen, Tasha is shocked to learn that her family's status comes from more than generational wealth and strong investments. In reality, they are the most powerful mob family in New York, and her father wants Tasha to take on a bigger role in the family business. But then her father and beloved older sister are shot down in front of her, and Tasha is left with a misogynist mafia that's unwilling to follow her, scattered clues, and a thirst for revenge. Hoping to bring the killer to justice, Tasha seeks help from Leo Danesi-her former best friend and the son of the Nicastro's closest mob rival. With a protagonist reminiscent of Regina George from Mean Girls crossed with Blair Waldorf from Gossip Girl, Cook's novel shines a light on a seedy financial underbelly where acts of violence are as over the top as the obscene wealth of the main characters. That Tasha and the other mafia families are Italian feels largely surface level with income status serving as the dominant culture marker. Chapters alternate between Tasha and Leo's first-person narrative highlighting their deep reluctance to engage with their family's respective criminal activities until it is more expedient. This shift causes both Tasha and Leo to read as reactive and lacking in agency. VERDICT Cook delivers exactly what readers would expect from a mafia romance for the teen set complete with a jaw-dropping finale that fans will hope signals a sequel.-Emma Carbone

        Copyright 2025 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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