Fallen Raven

The Society, Book 5

By: Diana A. Hicks

Narrated by: Dane Anderson, Rose Dioro

Length: 12 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

Seventeen-year-old Aurora Vitali didn’t have the best life in Las Vegas, but it was a place to call home. When her father scores a win after so many fails, he abruptly moves the whole family to the Upper East Side in New York City. Aurora is quickly seduced by the glitz and glamour of her new world, where designer clothes, limos, and beach parties are the norm.

Her first day at their elite school, she meets Enzo Alfera, one of the royals. He’s rich, gorgeous, and so dangerous. The magnetic pull she feels when he’s near is absolutely irresistible. She’s warned to stay away, and that’s exactly what she plans to do. Except every time their paths cross, neither one of them can deny their powerful attraction.

Going against their parents’ wishes, they give into their burning desires. He’s dark and cunning. She’s sweet and innocent. Together, they are explosive.

But their parents have plans of their own. The choices they make to get ahead threaten to pull Aurora and Enzo apart. Now the star-crossed lovers have to decide if their forbidden love is worth going against everything and everyone.

Enzo knows what he wants. And he’s willing to do whatever it takes to keep Aurora for himself. If he fails, it could destroy them both.

A Note from Diana: Fallen Raven is book one in the Raven Duet, which is a stand-alone romance in the Society World featuring Enzo Alfera and Aurora Vitali. This modern-day Romeo and Juliet retelling is about never letting go. Check TW

This book features:

• He falls first
• Star-crossed lovers
• Angst, family feud
• Forbidden love

©2022 Diana A. Hicks (P)2023 Diana A. Hicks

Critic reviews

"Now a 2023 Readers' Favorite Gold Medal Winner in the Romance: Contemporary genre!"

Enzo and Aurora!

Aurora has never had a lot of choices when it comes to her family, and she now finds herself in another difficult situation. All she wants to do is stay under the radar and finish high school but when she attracts the attention of Enzo and his friends that is no longer possible.

Enzo has always known what his future would be which includes being a powerful man within the mafia family. He can’t afford to show any weakness, so he tries to treat Aurora like the rest of his friends, as the recipient of their scorn, however his feelings for her are way more complicated.

Aurora is both innocent and naïve while Enzo is sophisticated and jaded. The love between them is undeniable and the performance of narrators only amped up the suspense as the twists keep coming as well as the angst only increases which leads up to a cliffhanger that leaves us wondering what happens next.

Holy Cliffhanger!

With this being the first book of the duet and both Aurora and Enzo still in high school, it was hard to picture them as 17-18 year olds with the narrators voices. However, the narrators did an AMAZING job portraying every emotion Aurora, Enzo, and all the other characters were feeling.

Aurora and Enzo meet in high school, and their senior year is not what one would expect. It's full of emotional abuse and tragedy. What a cliffhanger!

fantastic

This book had such an amazing storyline. I loved the characters, I mean Aurora is just so interesting. This book kept me entertained for hours. Do be warned about the doozy of a cliff hanger! Luckily I jumped right into book 2

I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review

great story

New to me author and narrators. Thoroughly enjoyed this story and the audio.
Great plot, great character build. Author managed to make the society seem very realistic. I was really rooting for Enzo and Aurora. There are so many things stacked against them. Good ups and downs throughout the book and I'm hopeful that book 2 brings their happy ending.

Angst and drama

Fallen Raven Book 1 is the fifth book in the Crime Society series, and while the previous books don’t need to be read, this does end on a cliffhanger.

Aurora and her family have just moved, and she now attends high school with the royals, the teenagers with family high up in the mafia. Enzo is at the top, and he’s immediately drawn to her, but he tries to deny his feelings. And when his friends make her a part of their game, he decides not to partake, until he realizes he doesn’t want any of them to touch her.

Well, since it’s set in high school, this came with angst, bullying, the people at the top being cruel to the new girl, and of course, drama.

Enzo was a little cruel, but he quickly changed. And Aurora, well. She didn’t have it easy, but she also just forgave so easily. She wasn’t my favorite, but Enzo was sweet enough (in the end).

This is ends on a cliffhanger, so the next book will finish Enzo and Aurora’s story.

Audio
Narrators: Rose Dioro and Dane Anderson
Style: Dual

These two did a great job bringing the story and characters to life. Although, I wouldn’t have expected a high school student to sound the way Dane made Enzo sound.

Star crossed lovers

🖤💙AUDIOBOOK RELEASE💙🖤

🎧: 🤩🤩
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
🌶️🌶️🌶️.5/5

Tropes:
🖤HE FALLS FIRST
💙STAR-CROSSED LOVERS
🖤ANGST, FAMILY FEUD
💙FORBIDDEN LOVE

This audiobook was wonderful!! New to me author, Diana A. Hicks wrote an angst, family feud, star-crossed lovers romance set at an elite high school in New York. Enzo and Aurora (Rory) run into each other when she’s fresh in New York and shopping for school. They wind up in school together and she finds herself in the drama of the five families of the mafia because of her father’s wrong-doings. They still manage to fall in love and have a whirlwind of a story to get to their happily ever after. The narration is spot on and Dane Anderson and Rose Dioro do a wonderful job bringing voice to these characters and making the experience immersive.

These are a duet and require reading book 1 before book 2 because it picks up 11 years after book 1. Thanks for the audiobook Diana and Indie Pen, hope to read more of your books in the future!!

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I need part 2 - now

We have a mafia hierarchy with a lot of moving parts here, we see it from the POV of their kids, the next generation. There's a lot they can get away with at their fancy school, but internally within the organization there is tight control and even the heir to the throne is abused and has his life planned out for him.
Aurora's family comes from Vegas and basically her dad is a wanna be big loser who is now suddenly second in command of the crime family after saving the boss' life. Aurora is also now betrothed to a much older man and to be wed on her 18th birthday.
But there is Enzo, the prince, the heir, the next in line. And he's helpless to stop any of it from happening.
There is a lot we don't know happening here and I need book 2 pretty soon to see how it all plays out.
The narration is so well done by these two, they elevated the book in audio form with their performances.
Recommended listen.

Five star narration for this duet

Fallen Raven Books 1 & 2
By Diana A. Hicks

Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5)

The Fallen Raven duet is so good, and the audio companion brought the characters to life in the best way. As I was listening + reading, I was instantly captivated by Aurora and Enzo’s connection to each other. Throughout book one, when the characters are actually in high school, I got very strong Cruel Intentions crossed with Romeo & Juliet vibes, so naturally I was all in, waiting with bated breath to see how bad Enzo and his crew would haze Aurora while simultaneously becoming infatuated with Enzo’s internal thoughts about her. Narrators Dane Anderson and Rose Dioro brought these characters to life with perfect intonation especially when it came to every emotion they experienced via the author’s writing.

Aurora is new to town, NYC, having moved from Las Vegas before the school year begins. Las Vegas is the only place she’s called home and is torn between missing it and being thankful for being given a new slate to start over with her parents in a new city. What she is concerned with, though, is how her father (who is basically a con artist) managed to find good favor with the Italian mafia in NYC to move them cross country and put them up in a swanky apartment & enroll her in the best academy in the city. Often times throughout the book, Aurora ponders what her father is up to and worries about her safety as well as her mother’s, and she’s not wrong to be worried, but it’s not exactly what you would immediately think as a reader. I appreciated the unpredictable twist the author gave us.

I read + listened to both books in the duet back-to-back. I don’t even remember how much sleep I got in between each book because book one leaves you on such a cliffhanger that you don’t want to believe what’s happened, prompting you to immediately jump in to book two!

When I made it to book two, I knew there would be a jump in time based on how book one ended, and I also knew I was guaranteed a happy ending. The second book has many chapters that are based in the past, and these chapters are intermingled with the present time chapters throughout the book. These chapters focusing on the past were necessary to explain the development of the characters through a decade. I understand it was necessary to do this and each one of these chapters honing in on the past gave new details of significant events that happened prior to “now” but I found myself getting antsy a few times in these chapters from the past filling in the gaps. I wish the past chapters could have been a little bit shorter because I was more concerned with what is happening now and where the characters would progress and it made me a little restless. I didn’t skip anything; I’m not that kind of reader, plus I have major FOMO so I physically could not make myself skip to the current chapters.

As adults who find their way back to each other, Aurora and Enzo are still crazy attracted to each other and despite Aurora’s hesitancy, and maybe a little bit from Enzo, they cannot deny their chemistry has not dissolve over ten years apart. There are several discoveries made throughout book two that I did not predict, and I cannot express enough in any review how much this means to me. I do not like reading books that are highly predictable! With that said, when I was finally in what I’ll call the meat-and-potatoes of the “now” in book two, I was living for Aurora and Enzo reconciling and cheering them on as they worked together with a common goal to save someone very important to them. Subsequently, said important character was incredibly sweet the way he took to Enzo and I was really hoping we’d get the treat of that happening versus harboring bad feelings and being a jerk.

If you enjoy a duet romance with heavy mafia themes, heartbreak and emotion, plus some deceit and manipulation, this is the book duet for you. The narration was very enjoyable and I felt like I was with these characters as I listened along with reading the KU version of the books.


I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

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