Rubies and Revenge: A Cardinal Families Novel

In the first installment of the Cardinal Families Series, Lexie A. Lynn drops you into the criminal underworld of Louredo, a city full of dirty hands grasping for power. Follow a cast of queer mobsters as they carve out a seat at the table and re-draw the map in this four book series featuring queer pairings in each installment.

The Cardinal Families Series is meant for adult readers. Find a full list of content warnings at lexiealynnbooks.com.

Zarina Gallo has been a good mafia princess her whole life. Since she was a teen, she's schemed with her parents, flirted her way into favorable terms, and learned the shape of power at their knee. She never imagined they'd turn that power against her.

And then her parents announce her betrothal to Marcus Accardi, the brutal prince of another Cardinal Family and a man. Zarina slams her foot down. She's gay. Her parents know this, but they refuse to listen. Desperate, she proposes a fake engagement to the only queer gangster in town, Andrea Tamayo, to buy her enough time to take her power back, with or without her parents.

Andrea Tamayo has been a good gangster for most of her life. She's led a band of queer misfits, brokered contracts with the Cardinal Families, put her head down and worked hard. But it's a facade she's cultivated to hide her true intentions-revenge on the family that betrayed her and left her for dead.

When the princess and sole heir of that family, Zarina Gallo, gets down on one knee and asks for help only Tamayo can give, she can't let the chance for revenge pass her by. Tamayo accepts, a thousand times yes. For the next three months, she'll force Zarina to her knees, make her beg, and then ruin her and the Gallo name for good.

Together, Zarina and Tamayo enter a game of politics and violence that threatens to make or break them. And Marcus Accardi is aiming to do more than break.