New York State of Mafia (Mila Finelli) Books in Order

New York State of Mafia takes Mila Finelli's dark romance into a sleek, modern world where mob power moves through money, travel, family businesses, and carefully managed public images. The books are contemporary and connected, but they feel a little different from The Kings of Italy. The danger is still real, yet the surface is glossier. Think wineries, high-end deals, weekend trips, and family empires that look polished until you get close enough to see the cracks.

The series begins with Empire of Temptation, which pairs Luca Benetti with Valentina. Luca is powerful, secretive, and willing to do ugly things if he thinks it will protect his family. Valentina is drawn to him before she fully understands how much he is hiding. That first book builds the emotional template for the series: attraction mixed with suspicion, protection that can blur into control, and a heroine who keeps asking the questions the hero would rather avoid.

Desire is never the only problem.

Empire of Seduction takes a sharper, more openly combative path. Maggie Fiorentino heads off for a short escape and sleeps with a stranger, only to learn he is Vito D'Agostino, a mob boss who has also taken control of her family's winery. That setup tells you a lot about the series. Romance arrives through conflict. Business trouble becomes personal fast. And the women in these books are not written to nod along while powerful men rearrange their lives.

What links the books is family obligation. Characters are constantly pulled between blood ties, criminal legacies, personal desire, and the face they show the outside world. The series also shares a wider universe with The Kings of Italy, which makes the background feel larger than the current book count. You can read each romance for its central couple, but there is extra fun in seeing the alliances, grudges, and side characters move from one story to the next.

The tone is dark and dramatic, but it also has a polished contemporary feel. There are mob bosses here, yes, but also winery operations, poker games, travel, and the kind of wealth that lets people hide problems until they become impossible to hide. Mila Finelli likes putting emotionally stubborn people in beautiful places and then making them deal with ugly choices. That contrast is a big part of the appeal.

This is a strong place to begin if you want connected mafia romance without a huge backlog. Start with Empire of Temptation and then move to Empire of Seduction to see the world expand, the families collide, and the balance between desire and power get even messier.