Nikolai

Justine once planned to become an architect. Then her brother was sentenced to life in prison, and she changed course. She is now a first-year intern at a top defense firm, trying to find her footing quickly in a job she took for hard personal reasons.

Nikolai Popov grew up inside a bratva empire, a criminal organization as violent as it is unyielding. The mafia prince has spent his life close to the law without ever serving time in a cell. Then a mix-up in his house-arrest paperwork gives Justine's firm the chance to take on his defense.

The mix-up has a personal cost for her. Nikolai becomes her houseguest for a weekend, which puts a woman committed to the right side of the law under one roof with a man who has never lived on it. The attraction between them grows past what either can control.

This is a mafia romance with a forced-proximity setup, built around the pull between a defense intern and her notorious client. It is the first book in the Russian Mob Chronicles by Shandi Boyes.