Lev by Belle Aurora

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Lev (Shot caller #1) by Bella Aurora
4.5 stars

From the moment Lev Leokov spots the young woman hiding behind her hair in the middle of the gentleman’s club, he can’t take his eyes off of her.
For the very first time in his life, he is affected. Having been told his entire life that he can’t process or understand emotion, he considers it a big deal.

When Mina Harris gets caught red-handed with a wallet that isn’t hers, she falls apart. She’s tired, lonely and hasn’t eaten in days.

Lev offers her an ultimatum… A nice warm bed, a hot meal and a job, or the cops.

Mina takes her chances with Lev.
After all, a person with nothing has nothing left to lose.

I’m a big fan of Bella Aurora. She wrote the Friend-Zoned series, which I thoroughly enjoyed. This appears to be somewhat of a spin-off from the Friend-Zoned series, as Lev is their cousin. Lev is a genius and is socially awkward because he doesn’t know how to process emotions. One day he sees Mina stealing Sasha’s wallet (his brother). Mina is literally starving and desperate. Instantly Lev feels drawn to her.…feels the need to protect her. Before they know it “a perfectly imperfect friendship” forms between them.

I loved Lev and Mina. They both struggle, but they hold onto one another to gather strength and support from each other. Mina helps Lev feel normal and Lev gives Mina a new life. I think Mina was such a strong character. It breaks my heart how she lived on the streets and was basically starving to death, but she always kept her kind heart. And Lev… what can I say, he makes being an intellect so sexy and he was such a good father. It just makes you swoon. He said the sweetest things to Mina:
“They say penguins mate for life… and I want to be your penguin.” Swoooon..

This is Lev’s version of twinkle little star:
Twinkle Twinkle little star
Burning gas is what you are
Up above the world so high
You’ll burn gas until you die
Twinkle little star
Burning gas is what you are
Now, who can resist a man like Lev? Too cute =)
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The story is told in dual POV, although, most of it is in Mina’s. I wish we got a little more from Lev. I’m biased though because I tend to like the man’s POV best. There were also random chapters from other people’s POV, such as Sasha’s, Nas’s, and even Uncle Laredo. I really felt drawn to Alessio as well. I’m excited for the next book. Bella Aurora has set it up for Sasha (although I was not a fan of Anika), Nas, and Alessio to get their own book and I can’t wait to read them.
Oh and I really enjoyed seeing Max and Nik and the whole crew from Friend-Zoned.
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