Shadowed Loyalty by Roseanna M. White is set during the Roaring Twenties. Sabina Mancari is the daughter of Chicago’s mob boss, but she never thought much about what he did. She’s engaged to Lorenzo Capecce, the son of her father’s lieutenant.

Lorenzo, known as Enzo,was one of the few in their families who took his faith seriously. Everyone thought he’d become a priest. But he chose law. He told Manny, Sabina’s father, that he didn’t want to go into the family business, and Manny agreed.

Lorenzo had seemed distant to Sabina for the last couple of years. So when another man, Roman, showed her some attention, she readily fell for him—until he led her into a gunfight and threatened her father with her life if she didn’t surrender. As it turned out, Roman was with the Prohibition Bureau and had just been using Sabina to get to her father.

Sabina called Lorenzo to help her father, putting him in a difficult position. Manny had agreed not to involve Enzo in their cases, but Sabina didn’t know that. Enzo couldn’t refuse her, so he took on Manny’s case, to the detriment of his own reputation.

Then Sabina and Enzo had to work out the situation between them. Did he still love her? Could he forgive her indiscretions with Roman? Did she still want to be engaged to him?

I’ve only read a couple of books from this era, and I don’t think any of them had to do with the mob. It was an interesting consideration—as Sabina’s conscience awakens, she becomes conflicted about what her father did. Yet she loved him as her papa, and didn’t know how to reconcile her feelings.

Unfortunately, this is the first book of Roseanna’s that I was a bit disappointed in. Usually her stories and characters grab me right off the bat, but that wasn’t the case this time. The writing was such that I thought this must be one of her earlier books, but it was published in 2022.

Some of the theology was a little wonky.

With this book dealing with a mob family, obviously they’d be involved in some gritty pastimes. I accepted that as part of the story. I didn’t mind that a couple of prostitutes were characters—prostitutes figure in a couple of Bible stories, as well. But there was one scene that went a little too far for my tastes, though nothing explicit was shown.

So, I have mixed feelings about this one. It’s still a good story overall, but I’d recommend discernment.