I'm going to take it back to the beginning before I review Empire. Cartel, book 1, drew me in completely. I was fascinated with Mariana & truth be told, Emilio too. Mariana straight away gets taken away by Emilio. He plans to kill her, then sell her, but his son, Dornan, makes him see she has other uses. Mariana basically falls for Dornan, as you would guess. They live crazy lives. She's part of a cartel & an MC; lives only you & I can dream of.. You guys already know this though! This is more to remind myself how freaking messed up these people are! Mariana is, in a word, nuts! In book 2, Kingpin, she's completely lost her marbles & ends up killing two people. I did, however, love her back & forth 'banter' with Murphy. Once he was no more, dare I say it, Mariana kind of bored me slightly. To me she lost her spark. Please don't go mental at me; I understand that after what she has been through, it's surprising she held onto her spark for so long! Now, I hate reading about love triangles, but the fact that Dornan & his best friend, John are two completely different people makes it more bearable. If Mariana was hooking up with two bad boys I really wouldn't understand her. I find her very hard to actually like & I'm not going to lie, I struggled a bit with Kingpin because of what/who she has turned into. I'm not blaming her; I think I need to check myself in after reading these books! Lili St. Germain is a fabulous writer so even though I began to dislike the characters & the storyline throughout Kingpin, there was no way I couldn't read the final instalment! That's where we are now.. book 3, Empire. Let's do this!! I'm going to start off with.. I was bored. I really hate to say it, but it's true. I felt like this story could've been told in maybe 2 books. It felt incredibly dragged on. The 'twists' & 'turns' I was able to see from a mile off & I hated that. Book 1 was the highlight for me. After that, I expected the people that died to die. Characters turned too weird or weak for me to handle. Things got repetitive. I'm so ashamed to admit, but I stopped at chapter 8 & found another book to read in between! I've never felt this way towards any of this authors books before & I'm more disappointed in myself than anything! Maybe I just wasn't in the mood? After everything I have said, I still think this series is worth a read, but if you're going into it hoping it'll have the same affect on you as the other books Lili has written - edge of your seat, panting, nail biting, stay up all night that you can't see straight the next day- I wouldn't hold your breath. Thank you for allowing me this early edition. 3/5*

Utterly mesmerizing from beginning to end, Empire is the wildly horrific yet completely engaging conclusion to the Empire trilogy. Lili St. Germain brings her A game with this one and I was literally holding my breath with each turn of the page.

Again told from multiple POV's it's a race against time to see who will still be standing when everything from the past 10 years threatens to end Mariana's dream of finally being free from Emilio, Dornan and all the filthy dealings they engage in. I was once again impressed by Mariana's sheer will to survive, even throwing in some sarcastic inner thoughts that actually had me chuckling during all the insanity that is her life. She is a true heroine, desperately trying to fight her love for Dornan, while her heart wanted another man in John, hoping against hope that she'd see her little boy again. It's a wonder she could actually function day to day. I looked at her with awe that she so wanted to right all the wrongs she had committed yet even admitted to herself at times that she was only human and could do just so much.

This prequel to the Gypsy Brothers saga had everything I crave from a story line such as this one. Everything is done with desperation and a passion so severe, you just know that there has to be a dire incidents to create some semblance of a happy ending. My heart hurt throughout most of Empire and I gasped more than once at how so much had gone so wrong in just a matter of days.

Hold on tight, this is one ride you won't want to miss. It packs a punch but overall I was completely satisfied even when I felt as loathsome as these characters did, mired deep in their journeys. Well worth every emotion.

5 huge stars!

Empire is the third book in the author's Cartel trilogy and it was shocking, but full of so much suspense, angst, feelings of love and betrayal and an ending you will not believe.

Dornan has gone off the rails and has done a few really crazy things in this book, and you will wonder how anyone could act like this, and with Mariana how her love can go to love/hate/and loathing.

On top of all of this John goes through some heavy things and toward the end Dornan does something to John that will cause only one outcome.

Who will live? Who will die? What happens with the cartel when the FBI finally finds the proof they need-or so they think. It is amazing what money can do. This book is one heck of a read and one heck of an ending and I loved it so much!

I gave this book 5***** outstanding stars and now am going to read the Gypsy Brother series!

Jason was sixteen and Jason had found his mother who had been murdered by his father, John;s daughter -Juliette was with John, Mariana, and Jason. Jason and Juliette were in the first stages of love. Mariana was now secretly in love with John. Jason hadn’t even known Dornan until a few months ago. John also loves Mariana and wants to run away but Mariana won’t leave Jason behind. Mariana had been Dornan’s lover for ten years. Dornan had stopped his father from selling Mariana as a sex slave. John had been Dornan’s best friend for about twenty years. Normally Mariana would be working at making sure Emilio”s hefty cartel profits were funneled into all the right places. But it was Emilio”s birthday with a big family celebration. Jason wasn’t taken as Dornan was sure how Jason would react around the people who murdered his mother. Mariana was sleeping with two men - one she loved and one she was terrified of. Mariana had once loved Dornan but now she hated him. Mariana knew she had to leave or she would be dead. Dornan had killed Stephanie- Jason’s mom- because she had run away from him but was also pregnant by Dornan. When Mariana questioned Dornan about Stephanie and had kept asking and the disbelief that Dornan could do that, he beat Mariana and she had miscarried their child she had not told Dornan about yet. Mariana had to deal with the fact the man she once loved no longer existed.
I am not sure how I feel about this final installment for this series . But i do now I cried in places while reading this story. I was sad that John never received the happiness he deserved. I did really like how Mariana found a way to play Marcus and Emilio. There was a lot in this story: love turned to hatred, more bloodshed, rape, corruption, murder, family, corruption, drama, plan for freedom. lies, federal involvement, betrayal and pain, and so much more. Maybe again a little too dark for me but I am sure there is people who will love this I was just tore. I did like the plot a lot, I liked the characters also and most of the ins and outs just not one of my favorite stories. However I still felt this was also a cliffhanger and didn’t like that even though there is The Gypsy Brothers MC series but I don’t plan on reading that. I would give this a 3.5 if i could. I don’t plan on reading anymore dark stories if i Can help it at least not this dark.