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Merciless Vow by Ines Johnson
Release Date: June 2, 2026
Genres: Romance, Mafia, Paranormal
When Addie Vane's brother steals six million dollars from the most powerful werewolf family in New York, the Blackwoods don't want the money back. They want her. Vidar Blackwood is everything she ran from when she left her pack at eighteen: powerful, possessive, and completely certain the world bends to his will. He offers a simple trade: her hand in marriage for her brother's life.
Vidar Blackwood rebuilt his family's empire on one rule: trust no one outside your bloodline. Then Addie walked into his office smelling like lightning and looked him in the eye like she hadn't read the memo about who he was. She won't submit. He can't stop pushing her to knees. But Addie isn't the asset he planned for — she's sharper, more stubborn, and more dangerous to his carefully constructed world than any enemy he's faced.
For fans of dark romance, mafia romance, arranged marriage, possessive alpha heroes, and she-wolves who don't take orders — MERCILESS VOW is a steamy, slow-burn paranormal romance with explicit heat, pack politics, mafia power dynamics, and a love story that neither of them saw coming.
My Review:
For the past ten years, Addie Vane aka Addie O’Shea, has worked really hard to make a name for herself away from her powerful werewolf family. With no desire to be used as a pawn among the werewolf families, she decides to leave her family behind, including her younger brother. Without knowing when she’ll even see him again, Addie focuses on her career as a junior associate at Sterling & Associates. Yet, it’s her intellect and cutthroat business personality at work that her boss admires. But any future career plans are halted the minute Addie gets a call from her father, letting her know that her younger brother has been taken by the Blackwoods after stealing millions of dollars from them. They have made it very clear that they don’t want the money, the Blackwoods want her.
Suddenly Addie is taken back to the place she tried so hard to run away from, but the guilt of leaving her brother is enough to get her to go back to her old world. Meeting Vidar Blackwood completely changes the dynamic between them, he is possessive and wants to treat their marriage as a business arrangement. No feelings are supposed to be involved or so she thinks. Addie will have to decide if staying with helping her new family is worth it in order to save her brother or submit to her growing feelings for the man she vowed to hate.
Every move Vidar Blackwood has always made has been calculated and thought out. He prides himself on catching errors and when a shipment does missing, it’s an error that could cost him millions. So when he finds out that there has been a theft in the family business, he considers it war and Vidar knows exactly who is behind it. Elias Vane has taken from them and to settle the debt, Vidar’s parents want him to marry Addie Vane. He’s always known that one day, he’ll have an arrange marriage like his parents had, yet he wasn’t expecting to meet his match. Addie exudes confidence and power without apology that intrigues him right away. He could take her as an employee with her stellar resume, but it’s her fire that makes the decision for him. She’ll marry him or lost her brother in the process. Little does he know just how much his life was about to change forever.
I throughly enjoyed reading Merciless Vow. Although it was a bit confusing at the beginning, I wasn’t sure where the story was going, but it proved me wrong right away. The tension between the main characters is sizzling and their banter is what ultimately kept me reading. Their marriage might be a business arrangement, but what they don’t know is that they are the perfect match for each other. While Vidar is not interested in a love match, he wants loyalty from his wife. Something that it’s hard for Addie to give knowing the circumstances of their marriage. She guards her trust after the way her dad treated her growing up. It’s easier to focus on her career, but the minute she agrees to marry Vidar her eyes are open to new possibilities as a couple and what they could do if they learn to trust in one another. All in all, this was a great start to the series and I cannot wait to read what happens next. I would highly recommend it! :)
***I received an advanced copy from the publisher. All opinions are my own.***
My Rating: 4.5/5
Lover of fairytales, folklore, and mythology, Ines Johnson spends her days reimagining the stories of old in a modern world. She writes books where damsels cause the distress, princesses wield swords, and moms save the world.
Ines writes books for strong women who suck at love. If you rocked out to the twisted triangle of Jem, Jericha, and Rio as a girl; if you were slayed by vampires with souls alongside Buffy; if you need your scandalous fix from Olivia Pope each week, then you’ll love her books!
Aside from being a writer, professional reader, and teacher, Ines is a very bad Buddhist. She sits in sangha each week, and while others are meditating and getting their zen on, she’s contemplating how to use the teachings to strengthen her plots and character motivations.
Ines lives outside Washington, DC with her two little sidekicks who are growing up way too fast.
https://ineswrites.com/
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