Forced Promises ARCs

To escape an arranged marriage, I'll become the wife of a killer.

My twisted salvation lies with Laszlo Szász.
A beautiful mobster with silver eyes.
His secret desire for vengeance has him infiltrate the Vasilyev Bratva.
And I'm the witness that threatens to unravel his plot.

But I have no money, no ID, no family.
I had to flee the cult, or be forced to marry my own brother.
Hated by my mother, disowned by my father.
The ruthless assassin is the first person to see the heat burning in my core.

He publicly claims my innocence as a rite of initiation.
I’m touch-starved. Desperate for love.
After he fills me up, I can’t stand to be empty.

When he says 'til death do us part, he means it.
We’re surrounded by enemies.
The Bratva and the cult are closing in on us.
Our passion will ignite the flames that bring them all down.

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More About Forced Promises

Characters

Morally Grey Tattooed Bratva MMC
Religious Cult Escapee FMC
Touch Her & Die
Soft Only for Her
Stalking as Love Language
Age Gap (19/30) but not DDLG vibes
Forced Proximity
Fake Dating
Grumpy / Sunshine
Bad Boy / Good Girl
Ride or Die FMC
Opposites Attract
Trauma Bonding

Sex

Dual dubcon first time
Praise Kink
His Cock = Her Therapy
Cockwarming
Use of cock as a pacifier
Tantric Sex
Fuck the pain away

Microtropes

Forehead Kisses
He bathes her & washes her hair
He gives her everything she needs to start her own business
He knows her coffee / drink order without her telling him
He tends to her wounds
He gives her a library
She steals his hoodie

Safety Notes

No OW / OM Drama. FMC mentions being in an arranged child marriage and running away from home.
No cheating.
No third act breakup/miscommunication
HEA.
No pregnancy / motherhood plot.
No children are killed.

Trigger Warnings

I take trigger warnings very seriously, and want you to be informed if there's anything I can think of that might be potentially upsetting. This is a dark book, and while the romance is built on mutual trust and respect, it is a slow burn to get there. Neither the MMC nor the FMC wants to hurt their lover, but the world they live in is very gritty and cruel.

If you read the book and notice there's a trigger I've missed, please let me know.

Major Triggers

These impact the main character, or are on page scenes rather than memories.

Dubcon

Both characters are threatened and ordered to have sex in public while others watch. FMC is threatened by the other men, and MMC has to claim her to save her from them. MMC does not know FMC is a virgin, but she gives verbal consent. Chapter 11-12

Rough sex

Hair pulling, light spanking, deep penetration. She wraps her long hair around his neck to stay close to him. Chapter 12, 37, 38, 45

Child sexual abuse

No gratuitous details of the abuse, but the first chapter from the MMC's perspective has the MMC kill a child abuser in the act and rescue the victims. The MMC has a history of child sexual abuse that he doesn't discuss and rarely thinks about. Chapter 2

Sexual abuse

At a mafia party there are several women under the influence of drugs or alcohol that are stripping for the men and consent is murky. Chapter 5

Threats

Sexual violence against the FMC (never realized). Various Chapters

Virgin

It’s her first time, but she pretends like it isn’t, only telling him after the fact. Chapter 12, 14

Body shaming and objectification

A lot of discussion about conforming to masculine and feminine ideals, about him not being muscular enough, and insults about her small breast size, including likening her to a boy. There's further objectification of breast augmentation and large butts. Various Chapters.

Homophobia and transphobia

Slurs directed at the main character (faggot, homo, fairy) and suggestions of repressed sexuality within the Mafia. Various Chapters.

Disordered eating

MMC has trouble eating, especially when being watched, at the beginning of the book. It's detailed that he's lost a lot of weight due to guilt after the dubcon scene, and after the time skip, it's suggested that he's gotten better through therapy and a healthy relationship. Various Chapters.

Use of the morning after pill

After the dubcon scene, MMC provides FMC the morning after pill, and she takes it knowing what it is. She has cramping in the days after and is cared for. Chapter 15

Sexual difficulties

He has trouble getting aroused in one scene because of a medication side effect paired with his guilt over taking her virginity and they work around that. Chapter 36, 37

Violence

Stabbing / knife violence / gun violence / bombing. Torture using a cattle prod, gore including guts, splatter, cutting off a man's face and turning him into a pile of pulp. Other violence including fist fights, breaking bones, kidnapping including rope restraints, tasers. Various Chapters.

Mass Murder of Bad Guys

A building is blown up, but it's specified that all innocents have been evacuated first. Chapter 65, 66

Alcohol and drug use

Main characters drink socially, but side characters are portrayed at times as drunk or under the influence of drugs, consensually or not. There is smoking. Various Chapters.

Kinky Sex as Therapy

FMC enjoys cockwarming by sitting on his erection while doing non-sexual things, keeping him inside her after he's finished, as well as sucking him while he's not hard as an oral fixation to soothe her anxiety. Chapter 36, 37, 45, 68.

Minor Triggers

These are recounted as memories, happen to side characters, or are backstory related triggers. They will be eluded to throughout but not as fully detailed or lived.

Childhood Trauma

Memories of childhood neglect, emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse. MMC has a childhood history of being used in occult experiments, including being tattooed, and gas lit into believing his sister never existed, and it's alluded to that he was sexually abused as a child. FMC was raised in a patriarchal religious extremist group, and was emotionally neglected. She ran away from home to escape an arranged child marriage to her half brother. Sex in the cult the FMC escaped was a part of ritual and she was exposed to watching others have sex as something natural.

Child Sex Trafficking and Abuse

Mentioned as a reality, something that interlinks with poverty, and always talked about as the worst kind of crime against innocence.

Maternal death in childbirth

Brief mention that the patriarchal cult that FMC escaped approved of a woman dying while giving birth to a boy.

Patriarchal Violence

A theme explored throughout, and how the mafia and the religious cult both exploit women and masculinity to attain power and control.

Religious Trauma

FMC was raised in a cult that uses religion and God to control and manipulate. The cult is fictional and inspired by many other cults but no particular one.

Ableism

Discussion of paranoia and psychosis, MMC was involuntarily committed to a psych ward in his youth.

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