Brutal Prince

Sophie Lark’s Brutal Prince (2022) is a contemporary mafia romance and the first novel in the Brutal Birthright series. Lark is a USA Today best-selling author of romance, also known for works such as the Sinners Duet. To avert a war between their rival Chicago crime families, the impulsive Aida Gallo and the calculating Callum Griffin are forced into an arranged marriage. Their hostile union evolves into a volatile power struggle and a passionate, dangerous alliance. The novel explores themes of Navigating Identity Within the Confines of Family Legacy, The Intersection of Personal and Political Power, and Vulnerability as the Foundation of Trust.

The central conflict between the Italian Gallo and Irish Griffin families is grounded in the historical context of organized crime rivalries in Chicago, particularly those that intensified during the Prohibition era. By setting the story within this framework, the novel explores the power dynamics and cultural tensions between these two groups within the city’s distinct social landscape.

This guide references the 2023 Bloom Books paperback edition.

Content Warning: The source text and guide feature depictions of graphic violence, physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual content, illness or death, and cursing.

Plot Summary

The story opens at the home of the Gallo family, a powerful Italian mafia organization in Chicago. The youngest sibling, Aida, dines with her father, Enzo, and her three older brothers, Dante, Nero, and Sebastian. Noticing fireworks from the rival Irish mafia family, the Griffins, Aida and her brothers decide to crash the birthday party of the youngest Griffin, Nessa. At the party, Aida sneaks into the Griffin mansion to explore. In the library, she pockets an old watch from the mantelpiece just before Callum Griffin, the eldest son and heir, enters. To create a diversion and escape, Aida attempts to set a curtain smoldering in the fireplace, but accidentally ignites the entire curtain, starting a large fire. She flees the mansion with her brothers as Callum discovers the blaze.

The narrative shifts to Callum’s perspective. Before the party, he discusses his political campaign for alderman with his parents, Fergus and Imogen. The Gallo family backs his main rival. After extinguishing the fire, Callum notices Sebastian and Aida escaping and realizes his grandfather’s precious pocket watch is missing. Callum calls his enforcer, Jack Du Pont, and intercepts Aida and Sebastian on a pier. When Aida refuses to return the watch, Jack, a former UFC fighter, brutally beats Sebastian. In defiance, Aida throws the watch into the lake. An enraged Callum dives in after it while Jack stomps on Sebastian’s knee, causing a severe, career-ending injury to the promising basketball player.

To prevent an all-out war, the Griffin and Gallo patriarchs, Enzo and Fergus, arrange a meeting. They agree to end the feud by forging a permanent alliance through the arranged marriage of Aida and Callum. Both Aida and Callum are furious but feel compelled to comply. Their parents explain the strategic benefits: The marriage will secure the Italian vote for Callum’s election and unite their families against a rising threat from the Polish mafia led by Tymon “the Butcher” Zajac.

At their engagement party, Aida learns that Callum has a severe strawberry allergy, information she files away for later. Furious after a spa day arranged by Callum that includes an unexpected Brazilian wax, she purposely eats strawberries before the ceremony and kisses Callum at the altar, causing him to collapse from a severe anaphylactic reaction. Aida moves into the Griffin mansion while Callum spends their wedding night in the emergency room. After Callum recovers, Aida finds him in the family’s indoor pool. Callum grabs Aida and holds her underwater in the pool to reassert his control after the strawberry incident that left him unable to breathe. The act of aggression stokes their mutual rage, and their continued argument in the shower leads to their first passionate sexual encounter.

At a campaign fundraiser, Aida impresses Callum with her savvy political insight, and his opinion of her begins to shift. He feels violent jealousy when Aida’s ex-boyfriend, Oliver, accosts her. Callum attacks Oliver—a public brawl that leads to an aggressive sexual encounter between Aida and Callum in their limousine. Later, when Aida pulls a gun on Jack in retaliation for Sebastian’s injury, Callum is grazed by the bullet when he intervenes. The confrontation culminates in a sexual encounter in which Callum introduces elements of BDSM into their relationship, such as bondage, impact play, and aggressive commands that make both of them feel extreme arousal.

The conflict with the Polish mafia escalates when Zajac’s men set fire to a major Gallo construction site and orchestrate a drive-by shooting targeting both families. Callum and Aida’s families agree to retaliate together. Callum’s jealousy deepens when Jack reports seeing Oliver kiss Aida on her college campus, but Aida’s perspective reveals that the kiss was not consensual. While investigating Zajac, Aida and Callum visit a club to get information on his mistress. They question a waitress who drugs their drinks. Callum drinks his, but Aida, suspicious, does not. Callum passes out, and Aida pretends to do the same before they are both abducted.

Callum wakes up in a warehouse, suspended from a meat hook, where Zajac begins to torture him. Aida, having only feigned unconsciousness, escapes from a locked room, creates a diversion with Molotov cocktails, and frees Callum. They escape by jumping through a floor grate into a drainage pipe that leads to the Chicago River. In the water, they admit their growing feelings for each other. A few days later, Callum wins the election.

Shortly after, an unhinged Oliver, who has been stalking Aida, kidnaps her. She manages to leave one of her sneakers behind under the Jeep she was driving as a clue. Callum correctly interprets the clue, realizing it refers to a past conversation where she compared Oliver to “a shoe on the wrong foot” (196). He tracks them to Oliver’s isolated family beach house, which Oliver has set on fire. Callum fights Oliver and rescues a dazed and bound Aida. As they attempt to escape from the collapsing, burning house, Oliver falls through the floor into the blaze, pulling Callum with him, but Aida saves Callum, and they both escape the fire.

On the drive back to Chicago, Aida and Callum learn that Zajac was killed in a separate confrontation with Dante, who was critically injured. With their enemies eliminated, they begin their new life together. They buy an apartment, and Callum gives Aida a new engagement ring, allowing them to exchange vows sincerely. Aida then presents Callum with a gift: the original pocket watch, which she had hired a specialized diver to recover from the lake. They confess their love for each other.