A Legacy NovelA wild boy.A sly girl.Cross Donati defines trouble. He does what he wants because he’s never known anything different. He’s unapologetic, and he owns it.Catherine Marcello is every bit a good girl … on the outside. Her entire world is a legacy, and she lives it. She’s curious, and she’s exploring it.She chases bad things.He never learned to be good.They’re late nights, stolen cars, … good.
They’re late nights, stolen cars, first times, fist fights, leather jackets, beaches, bloody smiles, and life.
They’re vicious and precious, dangerous and harmless, innocence and sin. They are love.
Love is killing for someone.
Love is living for someone.
Sometimes, you can’t keep saving your heart when it means sacrificing it, too.
Sometimes, you have to learn to save yourself.
Sometimes, love has to fall, crash, and burn.
This is what love is like when you’re a principe and principessa della mafia.
This is what love is like when you’re Cross Donati and Catherine Marcello.
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Always is a Legacy Novel, and while it is standalone, it can also act as a prequel for Revere. Each Legacy Novel stands alone from any other book, series, or collection.
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It’s a gut job to the soul. I just finished this book and I’m sitting here staring at my phone screen. I can’t say enough things about how well Bethany Kris wrote this story and what she did with these characters. When you can read a book and you’re a ball emotion in the end because you lived and loved with the characters, that author has done her job. Cross, and his girl Catherine, will take you on an amazing, fun, heartbreaking, loving ride. The past two nights I went to bed at 4AM and 2AM reading because I’m a slow reading and because this story kept tugging me back to it. It’s always a pleasure to see character’s evolution and BK does perfectly. You’ll go through a gamut of emotions with Cross. I found myself laughing at his antics in the beginning or shaking my head at his smart mouth and arrogance. But little by little he grows, and evolves. And the way he loves Catherine, wow. It made my chest tighter and tighter with every chapter.
I love Catherine too. She’s vulnerable, she’s attitude, she’s pure steel. I feel in love with them in the first chapters of this book and I only put them down when forced to. Theirs is a story of a beautifully broken, imperfect, heartbreaking, and ALWAYS constant love.
After you finish it, you’ll want to go into Revere, right away!
Thus begins the story of Catherine and Cross.
Catherine is biological daughter of Dante Marcello (Don of the Marcello Cosa Nostra) and Catrina (former Queen Pin) Marcello.Cross Donati is the son of Calisto Donati, the head of the Donati family, and his wife Emma.
Well prepair yourself for yet another amazing story where friendship, love, betrayal collide with each other.
Look, Bethany Kris singlehandedly started my descent into mafia madness back in May of 2020 and I’m still here for it. Cross + Catherine is a part of her Legacy series, as they’re the second generation of the author’s famous Marcello and Donation storylines. The three books, Always, Revere, and Unruly span the course of Cross and Catherine’s lives, from their high school days to their eventual takeover of the parents’ mafia empire. The author is so adept writing each stage of the character’s lives, from their antics in high school where they were bold, brash, and sneaky, to their dangerous careers. The three books center around mental health issues, family secrets, and really, the process of finding out who you are and who’s always going to be in your corner.
I think this may be my least favorite of the three books, as it centers around their own high school years. It definitely portrays the start of their young relationship and details a lot of the crazy things they do in high school. And although there’s a lot of pressure on them because of who they are and the legacy they carry, it’s nice to see that there were some light hearted parts of their relationship. Cross always stands up for Catherine, and he does the sweetest things for her and with her (the seashell bracelet, the fun flour closet incident, that knuckle ring for her birthday- the boy is always watching out for her). The ending is definitely a heart breaker, but it’s what’s needed so that Catherine can be strong without Cross.
Wow! The author sure knows how to suck you in to a story and then leave you wanting more. This was dark, sexy, emotional, and leaving me wanting more. Cross and Catherine are fire together and the angst from who they are and their families had me on the edge of my seat.
Mafia royalty from our most favorite families. Bethany has taken some of my most treasured characters offspring and given us a Cross and Catherine, destined to be together from the inception of this story. I was awestruck in this beautifully written rollercoaster of an emotional story of mafia-crossed lovers pulling your heartstrings and rooting for them to make it.
“Love you.” “Promise.” “Always.”