I have come to accept that there is no trope I won’t read if written by the right author. I don’t love dark romance and I don’t love mafia romance, but I can’t say I won’t read dark mafia romances, because I have read Run Posy Run multiple times. I’ll read mafia romances by Cate C. Wells and Katrina Jackson, and a few other writers. I first read this last year, but couldn’t figure out how to talk about it without sounding like I’m giving a bunch of back handed compliments, exposing a secret shame, or disparaging other dark romance books. I reread it last night and I think I can talk about it a little more clearly now. I put the content warnings at the end of the review, as usual.
Two of Posy’s exes have gotten together and altered a sex tape the high school ex made to make it look like she cheated on her current boyfriend, and the more recent ex sent it to the Renelli (mafia) family group chat. Posy’s current boyfriend, Dario, is the Renelli money man. He’s also terrifying. Dario kicks her out of his house and lets her know that if he sees her again, he’ll kill her. His driver takes her into town and reminds her that that the head of the Renelli organization will also want her dead when he finds out she’s not with Dario anymore. This is where we get the running.
When Renelli tells Dario he’s going to have Posy killed, Dario changes his mind and wants her back. Eventually, he finds her and kidnaps her. By this time Posy has figured out that she was lying to herself about who Dario was and has decided she deserves better. Other people aren’t real to Dario – except Posy. Now he has to figure out how to make her happy again, how to keep her safe, and how to communicate his feeling to Posy. It’s fascinating.
I tend to think about what I read in terms of how it is feeding my brain or my soul. I love romances that center found family, community, and radical acceptance. I’ve finally figured out that Cate C. Wells does two things that I absolutely love in subgenres I don’t usually love: radical acceptance and challenging unjust systems. In several of her books, she creates men who get to a point where they are willing to abandon a system that serves them because it endangers the woman they love. In Run Posy Run, while Dario does do his best to kill everyone who hurt Posy, the interesting part is the way they reckon with the cultural system that told them girls are worthless except as vessels for sex.
One of the fantasies that mafia romance and dark romance can fulfill is the fantasy of having a monster that will protect you from the evil of world. Alternately, it can be an outlet for all the rage and violence women aren’t supposed to express. In this case though, I think Wells is playing with the safety fantasy, because Posy thought she was safe, had to run for her life, and then didn’t automatically accept that Dario would protect her again. Watching Dario and Posy learn to be real and honest with each other was very entertaining.
I’m going to quote my own review of Wells’ four books about the Wall family:
I’m not sure I can adequately explain why Cate C. Wells works for me. She centers characters I don’t generally want to read – motorcycle clubs, cops, bullies, mafia, and so on. But she makes her characters so human and compelling…She doesn’t burn down the world to build a better society, but she does let her glance linger on built in and perpetuated power structures. There’s something about the way she lets her characters be messy, difficult, and unapologetically their own selves that works for me.
This book is bananas. I certainly do hope that we all know that we deserve better than putting up with bad sex for physical and financial safety. But I love that Cate C. Wells consistently asserts that people who treat others with respect deserve love and acceptance.
Content warnings: murder on page and in past, attempted murder, mutilation of tertiary character on page, gun violence, sexual harassment, intimate partner violence on page and recounted in past, slut shaming, revenge porn, threat of death, threat of sexual violence, humiliation, death of parent from cancer in past, euthanasia in past, on page pregnancy and childbirth, emotional violence.