"Meet Me in the Margins" by Melissa Ferguson

Savannah Cade is a low-level editor at Pennington Publishing, a prestigious publisher producing only the highest of highbrow titles, but she has a secret: she’s writing a romance novel. After leaving her manuscript behind one afternoon in her secret room off the ARC room, she returns to the nook only to discover someone has written notes in the margins. Savannah’s first response to the criticism is defensive, but events transpire that force her to admit that she needs the help of this shadowy editor after all. As the notes take a turn for the romantic, and as Savannah’s madcap life gets more complicated than ever, she uses the process of elimination to identify her mysterious editor—only to discover that what she truly wants and what she should want just might not be the same.

This was an entertaining rom-com--my favorite story by the author so far. It's perfectly predictable, but it didn't detract from the fun. I did disagree with editor's recommendation of putting Savannah's story (and, for that matter, this actual book) in present tense; it always takes me a few chapters to get used to it, but at least the story was fun enough that I pushed through. It's cute, clean, and humorous. Nothing heavy about it, and the Nashville setting was fun and different, especially without a music focus (not that country music was completely neglected).

"Shadowed Loyalty" by Roseanna M White

Sabina Mancari never questioned her life as the daughter of Chicago’s leading mob boss until bullets tear apart her world and the man she thought she loved turned out to be an undercover Prohibition agent. Now she sees how ugly the underworld can be. Ambushes, bribes, murder, prostitution—she thought her beloved Papa was above all that, but clearly he isn’t. What does that mean, though, for her and their family? Maybe Lorenzo, the fiancé who has barely paid her any attention in the last two years, has the right idea by planning to escape their world. Despite his morals, Lorenzo knows at the core he isn’t so unlike his father and brothers, which terrifies him. Has he, in trying to protect Sabina from his flaws, in fact harmed her? It sure seems that way when he realizes he all but forced her into the arms of the Prohibition Agent now bent on tearing her family apart. But how can they rebuild what has so long been neglected…and do it in the shadow of the dark empire of the Mafia? 

This was an interesting romance set between two people trapped by familial bonds and cultural heritage within the mafia. I know that the early 1920's were quite a bit different than the mid- and late 20's, but I hadn't realized that applied to the mafia too, particularly in the codes they followed. It was very interesting to learn how the Italian mafia once worked and why it developed as it did, before it evolved with the rise of crime syndicates that refused to play by the rules (Al Capone).

The lines between good guys and bad guys are really blurred in this story, reflecting how messy real life can be. Roman, the prohibition agent, is ostensibly on the side of good, trying to take down crime and uphold the law. But he's hypocritical (and delusional) as all get out, and obsessed with his mission. You want to love Manny, Sabina's father, who adores his family and will do anything for them, yet he's also a crime boss with very little conscience when it comes to everything outside that nucleus (and almost nothing is too low for him). Do you hope--for Sabina's sake, and because Roman is such a jerk about it all--that Enzo can acquit Manny of his crimes? Or hope that he gets put away forever, but would mean the antagonist (Roman) wins and hero (Enzo) fails?

I enjoyed the complexity of the relationships, and Enzo was wonderful. It was quite a bit shorter than I was expecting, and it didn't feel as full and intricate plot-wise as some other books by the author, but it was an entertaining and thoughtful read.