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I absolutely loved Virginia Hill. Fierce, determined, and headstrong, she bursts off the page in Erin Bledsoe’s Mob Queen—a gutsy, gripping dive into the glitzy but treacherous world of 1930s organized crime. From the moment Virginia flees a violent marriage in Georgia and tumbles into Chicago’s mob scene, the stakes are life and death—and she rises to meet them with swagger and smarts.
Bledsoe doesn’t sugarcoat the brutality. Mob violence is graphic and unsettling, and Virginia grows increasingly at ease carrying out the family’s dirty work. It’s a humanizing portrait of a woman who finds agency in a world that rarely offers it. Her relationship with Bugsy Siegel is steamy and volatile—fueled by lust, ambition, and a hunger for power. The sex scenes are explicit, but they fit the raw, no-holds-barred tone of the story.
The plot can be cringeworthy—there’s some truly dark stuff here—but that’s part of its power. You feel the danger. You don’t always know who to trust.
Fans of gritty historical fiction with complicated female leads will devour this. My only complaint? I didn’t want it to end. I wanted more: Virginia’s testimony before Congress, her downfall, exile, and fiery final act. Here’s hoping Bledsoe writes a sequel.
** Thanks to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for copies of the eBook and audiobook. Opinions are my own.