Book Blitz and Giveaway: Princes of the Lower East Side (A Scalisi Family Novel #2) by Meredith Allison

Title: Princes of the Lower East Side
Series: A Scalisi Family Novel #2
Author: Meredith Allison
Publication Date: October 28th 2019
Genres: Adult, Historical, Thriller

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Mia Scalisi returns in this highly anticipated follow-up to Blood & Whiskey!

Sicily is a paradise on earth Mia Angela Scalisi doesn’t want to leave, but after over a year of peace, obligations—like being Hyman Goldberg’s It Girl at his new nightclub—call her back to New York City.

But everything she’s known in New York has changed…and that might even include the men she once thought were her friends.

When a new, ambitious gangster threatens to take over the old neighborhood, bringing devastation to the poor families who live there, Mia can’t ignore the bonds that tie her to the underworld way of life that killed her brother and set her upon a merciless, bloody path of revenge.

With her brother’s widow, her niece, and a mysterious, devoted bodyguard at her side, Mia must reclaim her position as head of her dead brother’s business, establish herself as the reigning queen among the princes of the Lower East Side, and make the ultimate decision: who lives, and who must die.

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EXCERPT:

Mia thought back to that terrible night when her world had changed forever, when Nick had been murdered. Joey had been crouched over his body on the sidewalk. He’d looked up at her with tears in his eyes, agony on his face. There’s nothing I can do, he’d said in a broken voice. I couldn’t get to him in time.

“I used to work as bouncer at this Irish joint in the Bowery,” Bobby spoke up quietly. “All the work I could find, and I had a sick mother to take care of. Nick come in one night, he sees me takin’ all kinds of shit from the owner, some of the patrons. He walked up to me and said, ‘Hey, paesano, how about a real job?’ He had me start driving for him for a while. We’d talk, I’d tell him about my mother. The cancer eating away at her. He fixed her up with a good doctor to get her medicine to make her final months as painless as possible. Paid for everything. He always used to come visit her too, bring her flowers and books and little things like that. When she passed, he paid for her funeral. Stood right by my side the whole time, cried with me like a brother.” Bobby swallowed and looked down at his hands for a moment.

Mia’s eyes stung. She should not display this much emotion in front of men if she wanted them to take her seriously, but hearing of the kindnesses her brother had shown these men, the second chances they’d gotten because of him, the loyalty he’d shown them and had earned in kind, moved her beyond measure.

“The one thing he always asked of us,” Bobby went on, “was that if anything should ever happen to him, we look out for you. He only asked that of us and Mr. Lazzari. He never would have trusted anybody else to watch out for you, but he trusted us. I made him a promise I would do that. And I intend to keep it.”

“Me, too,” Joey said. “And even if you’d never done the things you did to avenge him, we’d still keep that promise. But…you did.”

“We respect you,” Bobby added. “And we respect what you’re trying to do now—save his business. It ain’t my place to say so, but…it ain’t the same as it was before you left. It’s like the rules changed.”

“It’s like they forgot whose business it was in the first place,” Joey said, a sharp edge in his low voice.

“I’m hoping you’ll help me make them remember,” Mia said.

Bobby stood, then Joey. Bobby clasped her hand. “I pledge my loyalty and service to you, Miss Scalisi, until the day I die.” He kissed the back of her hand.

Before she could lower it, Joey took her hand next, kissed it, and said, “My loyalty is yours, Miss Scalisi. Now, until I die.”

For a moment, brief panic set in, though Mia struggled not to show it. What exactly did this mean? What had she gotten herself into?

From the depths of her mind, a frightened girl’s voice cried out. I just want to sing. I just want to dance. That’s all. I don’t know what to do with this. I don’t know I don’t know I don’t—

She drew a deep breath, and the frightened girl’s voice lowered into the voice of Nick, speaking now to a grown woman—one resigned to her destiny, loyalty to her blood. Loyalty to her dead brother, who had been a prince in this world still so foreign to her.

It’s your world now, surrùzza.

There in the empty dining room of the Murray Hill Hotel, with only three trusted men as witnesses, a young queen was crowned.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Meredith Allison has embraced her nerdiness from youth, with minor jaunts of attempting to be "cool" during high school and college. Spoiler alert: she was unsuccessful at fooling anyone. After this dark period, she returned to the light, embracing her bookish nature and penchant for action and horror films, bloody survivalist video games (she's looking at you, Resident Evil and Call of Duty) interspersed with the occasional sweeping fantasy adventure RPG (Final Fantasy, anyone?). Along the way, she developed her knack for storytelling, which began when she was a mere child-person many moons ago.

Meredith is a writer (and reader) of many kinds of fiction, but in particular spy thrillers, military-esque suspense, and historical crime. A native of Lincoln, Nebraska, she is by proxy a Huskers fan (GO BIG RED!), as UNL is her undergraduate alma mater, and moonlights as an obligatory Blue Jays fan due to completing her graduate MFA studies at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.

When she emerges from her writing cave, blinking in dismay at having to be exposed to the cruel light of day yet again, she can be found romping with her two Pomeranians, serving her overlord cat, hanging with her husband, battling it out with the undead or practicing a new kind of magery on her PlayStation, or simply huddled in a dark corner somewhere with just enough light to read a favorite book. Other interests include baking, cooking, and blogging about new restaurants.

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