Summers Power by BL Jones Review

Summers Power by B.L. Jones My rating: 4 of 5 stars | Amazon | Goodreads | Bookbub

Summers Power by BL Jones is a dark mafia romance set in Danger City, somewhere in the UK. Attempting to combine many tropes: mafia family, enemies to lovers, oblivious but obsessed main characters, single (widowed) dads, bi-awakening, and maybe a bit of superhero action as the cherry on top (but superheroes were only mentioned in the first book, they were never seen on page), seems a lofty feat.

But BL Jones does a good job of weaving together the increasingly complex plots into a cohesive, exciting, and endearing story. Summers Power is the first book in the Danger City series, with the next installment, Winters Reign, coming out sometime in the future. Another note: Summers Power takes place within the same universe as another series by BL Jones, one in which superheroes and villains are also present. Knowing that now I understand more why superheroes are casually mixed in with a mafia story.

Blurb

The daylight between us, and the darkness we share.

Danger City has been ruled by the bloody iron fists of the Winters crime family for decades.

When the Summers family waged war on the Winters in an attempt to take their power, violence reigned, taking no mercy on both sides of the conflict. The Summers were eventually defeated and as a result Max Summers lost everything.

Flash forward sixteen years, Max is a new man, no longer a gangster, but a simple primary school teacher still grieving the loss of his first love and trying his best to raise his children as a single father.

Cue his old rival Sam Winters re-entering his life when their oldest sons meet at school and become best friends.

During their time apart, Sam continued on the path laid out for him, climbing the organisation’s ranks right to the top. He has become every inch the mighty and lethal crime boss he was born to be.

After their unplanned reunification, both men are forced to confront the nightmares of their joint past and the burgeoning desire which seems to be developing between them.

Can Max allow himself to fall in love with anyone again, let alone the man who was once his greatest enemy?

Tags: Romance, enemies to lovers, mm romance, gangster romance, mafia romance, demisexual, bisexual, dark romance, slow burn romance, rivals to lovers, single dads (throw in some superheroes too)

Expected publication November 5, 2024

Max Summers

Max grows up being groomed to be the second to the ruling mafia’s family ruler. He has a horrible childhood devoid of love. It’s stark. His father works for the crime boss, and his mom wants Max to emulate everything possible to be a little child crime boss. No shielding her child from the horrors of criminal Mafioso dealings. Still, quiet, seen and not heard to the greatest degree possible. How he grows up and is somehow okay without massive amounts of therapy is anyone’s guess. His rival growing up is Sam Winters, the heir apparent for the Winter legacy, ie the criminal organization their family is the head of.

Max Loses Everything

Max loses everything when his family tries to usurp the ruling mafia family, the Winters. Yes, the summer/winter metaphor is played pretty bluntly here. Max’s family is totally destroyed. His father, in prison. His mother, dead, violently killed by someone in the Winter’s clan. Max is stripped of his money, his home, and cast out, shunned from the network he was raised in and expected to live his whole life in.

Taken In

Somehow, a homeless Max is taken in by good people. Nathalie and Penny, the owners of the family-run Starr Café, rescue Max from the streets. They give him a stable home and job. While I love Penny and Nathalie’s characters, this plot element is one of the most improbable parts of the whole story. Only in a fantasy world would a single mother insist that the homeless teen they just accidentally hit with their car should come live with them permanently. And work in their café.

Mainstream Max

But that’s what Max does. He goes mainstream, marries Nathalie, has children, forgets his mafia upbringing, and becomes a 1st grade teacher of all things. Most importantly, his childhood rival Sam Winters no longer plays any part in his life.

Nathalie

Eventually, Max and Nathalie get married and have children, living an idyllic life together. Their life together is a perfection that Max thinks will never be replicated once Nathalie tragically dies. Nathalie, even though she is already dead when the story starts and whose entire page-time consists of flashbacks, still feels like a main character in this story. In part because Max thinks nothing good will ever happen to him again once Nathalie is gone. She is, admittedly, a wonderful mother and wife, written in a way that’s nearly perfect in every way. Almost Mary Sue-like, dare I say, her characterization is almost too good. No one is that good. That sounds pessimistic, sorry.

Sam Winters

Sam Winters is, by comparison, a nightmare of a person, a description that is used more than once. It fits Sam’s personalization perfectly. He has anger issues, can be a massive prat, and is strangely intense. He’s been raised from childhood with the understanding he’d take over the family once his grandfather retires.

But adulthood mellowed Sam too. He got married, had children, and started more upstanding businesses that aren’t money-laundering fronts. And he’s chafing at the impending promotion to leader of the family. He feels as if he will never be free if he takes over the family, he’ll be forced to fit the mold of an unfeeling, murdering villain if he steps into power.

His children are cute. What’s more, in a completely different manner they seem to be shielded from the reality of their family’s criminality. That speaks to me. Did Sam see how he and Max were completely fucked by their upbringing and vow to break the cycle, to be better? Did that foreshadow his desire to break free from the expectations he’s burdened with and step away from the family business?

Strengths

Overall Summers Power is a strong introduction to this dark romance series. I enjoyed it, looked forward to reading it, kept picking it up to read a few pages here and there even when I should have been doing other things. This marks an interesting read, in my book. There are plenty of good things to remark upon about Summers Power, but I’ll choose just a few.

Main Character Chemistry

The childhood rivals, enemies to lovers progression is hot, and one of my favorite things to read. It’s done well in Summers Power. Max seems swept along by the tide of their wildfire chemistry, and it’s hot. I enjoyed the way they tiptoe around one another until they inevitably bring up things that would better be left in the past, but they can’t help but share with each other. Their conversations are tense, and I just wanted to yell at them to kiss already! It also seems like several of their friends had been wanting to do that for years, as well. When they finally get together, the wildfire combusts in a very satisfying manner.

Sets Up Book Two Well

A LOT needs to happen, so I am looking forward to book two a lot, and wonder if it will be a trilogy? It seems like a lot of plot developments need to play out so maybe it will be a three-book series. There’s a lot going on, by the end of book one.

Weaknesses

As strong as the writing is in Summers Power, there are some weaknesses that I’d like to touch on now. Note this doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy the book, it was a fun read, but improvements could make the story flow better and hammer down the central focus of the series.

Maybe Too Much?

A LOT is going on, trope-wise in Summers Power. Let’s see if I can summarize it. Deep breath. Single widowed dads with kids who are school friends but who were also once violent childhood rivals in their Mafia family, one shunned and the other groomed for succession. When they reconnect they experience their bisexual awakening for one another.

The Superheroes

There are also superheroes in this universe but we never see them, only hear about them. Because I didn’t know that Danger City exists within the same universe as another series by BL Jones that has superheroes, I kept wondering about how superheroes would play into the story. For part of Summers Power I half expected a big twist like maybe Max would be the superhero or something since they kept being mentioned, or Sam as some sort of defiant FU to the family business, but I don’t think that will be what happens.

Off Page Action

A lot, if not most, of the action in Summers Power takes place off-page, and mostly in flashback. We learn about the violent childhoods Max and Sam live through through flashbacks and snippets of memories, a lot of times when Max is lost in his thoughts. Side note: Seriously, Max needs to work through his trauma in therapy. That or he’s super neurodivergent and has never been diagnosed. I wish more things happened in the now, in Summers Power.

Especially the Mafia Related Stuff

None of the mafia stuff happens present day, except for a meeting. The reader only distantly hears about the family business. This being told in flashback makes it seem like things happened a while ago, but in theory, the family business is still going strong, better than ever. In my mind, an heir apparent would be heavily involved in current family criminality, and more mafia-related things should be moved to present-day action and minimize the flashbacks related to the Winters family organization. This would make the impending retirement of Grandpapa and the promotion of Sam to Kingpin more urgent and present.

Who Was Ashley, Sam’s Wife?

Readers get to know Nathalie and Max’s whole relationship through flashbacks and memories. It makes Nathalie a strong character in Summers Power. But the other widowed partner, Sam, we don’t know much about Ashley at all. There are no flashbacks from Sam’s POV about his courtship or memories with Ashley when his kids were young. We know that Ashley was Will’s sister (another side character). We know she’s not alive anymore. I wanted a bit of balance there.

Lots of Side Characters

There are a lot of side characters to wrangle and keep straight. I liked all of them, especially Vic, Penny’s beau. They get a lot of page time, along with the kids. The side characters are on-page more than the mafia stuff, which this story is marketed as. In my opinion, balancing the mafia/enemies-to-lovers dark romance side of the story and the cute single-dad romance would be better achieved with more on-page mafia shit. I like the page time for side characters and playdates with the kids, but it takes away from what the story is supposed to be, at least from the description. Choose who you want to be, and be that story. But trying to do it all spread things a bit thin, I’m afraid.

Ends Very Abruptly

The story ends like RIGHT after a scene that I expected to be just the first of many relationship-developing scenes. It was a good scene, I liked it a lot, and I checked the progress on my Kindle and legit did a doubletake when I saw I was at 97%. Wait, what? I just expected the story to keep going, and it seemed like an abrupt place to draw the line for the first book.

Overall

Summers Power was a compelling read. I picked it up with a smile each time I had a few minutes to read and read it quickly even with a busier than normal week. I wait for the next book impatiently. Despite the inconsistencies I already touched on, this story is exciting and the characters are interesting. I recommend this book to anyone who likes any of the tropes this book ticks off. Because even though there are a lot of tropes, Summers Power manages to cram them all in pretty well!

ARC Review

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

MM Romance Reviews

I write reviews on my blog, Goodreads, Bookbub, Amazon, and more. If you want me to read and review your upcoming novel read my review policy and submit a contact form.