Updated on October 9, 2026
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Verdict: A predator-versus-predator sapphic mafia romance with a sharp hook, a promised twist and a confident opening voice, held back by the fact that, nearly eight months after release, not a single reader has written a word about it.
Best for: Readers who want two morally corrupt women circling each other, stalking and power games as foreplay, and very high heat, and who are willing to be among the first to find out whether the book delivers.
Heat level: ★★★★★ (5/5 — the publisher’s claim, unverified; marketed as high-spice and not on romance.io)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3.2/5 — rests on almost no reader evidence: two ratings on Goodreads, two on Amazon and no written review anywhere, so this number reflects the premise and the sample rather than a crowd)
Tropes: Predator versus predator, stalker and surveillance, obsession, enemies to lovers, morally corrupt heroines, rival crime territories, power games, twist ending.
The Leash Goes Both Ways is a standalone dark sapphic romance by Vesper Black, published by Obsidian Rose Press on February 21, 2026: a mafia story in which Dominika Voronova, who runs New York’s underworld with surgical boredom, starts watching Seraphina Marchetti, a calm, connected Italian newcomer moving through her territory, and mistakes herself for the only hunter in the room.
We have to be upfront about the evidence, because there is almost none. Goodreads shows a 3.00 average from two ratings and no reviews. Amazon shows 4.0 from two ratings, one five-star and one three-star, and no written reviews. romance.io does not list it. What follows is a review of the premise, the publisher’s own claims and the opening pages, with every reader-dependent question marked as unanswered. If you read it, you will know more than anyone we could find.
What Is The Leash Goes Both Ways About?
This is dark mafia romance of the stalker variety, and the publisher is unusually specific about what it is selling: a genuinely dark book, women with real criminal power, surveillance that turns into intimacy, and two morally corrupt heroines who are both apex predators. The promise is not redemption. It is a contest, and the romance is what happens when neither side will lose.
Dominika narrates, at least in the opening pages, in a clipped first person that treats New York as something she owns rather than lives in. Seraphina is the unknown: untouchable, impossible to read, and, according to the title and the blurb, not the prey Dominika thinks she is. The publisher promises a twist ending that recontextualises what came before, and says outright that the title is the clue.
What Makes This Dark Sapphic Mafia Romance Work
- The premise: Two dangerous women, one of whom believes she is in control, is a better engine than the usual innocent-and-monster setup. The publisher calls it predator versus predator, and the title promises the reversal.
- The opening voice: The free preview opens in Dominika’s head with a cool, precise image of owning the city the way a surgeon owns a body on the table. It is stylised, but it establishes her quickly.
- Power games as foreplay: The publisher says every intimate scene is a negotiation. That is a specific promise, and the right one for this pairing.
- A planned twist: A recontextualising reveal is rare in sapphic mafia romance and could make the book reward a second read. No reader has yet said whether it lands.
- Women with real power: Both heroines are criminals in their own right, not the daughters or wives of criminal men, which is a draw the publisher leans on and readers of this subgenre often look for.
Book Synopsis
Dominika Voronova runs New York’s night with the precision of someone who has stopped finding it interesting. She is merciless, efficient and bored enough to be dangerous to herself as well as everyone else. Nothing in her territory moves without her knowing it.
Then one of her people, Maren, mentions a name: Seraphina Marchetti. Italian, connected, and operating quietly at the edge of Dominika’s empire. Dominika tells herself her interest is professional, a threat assessment and nothing more. She watches. Watching becomes following, following becomes a fixation, and every time the two women meet it turns into a test of nerve laced with heat and threat.
What unsettles Dominika is not that Seraphina is dangerous. It is that she does not react. She does not flinch, she does not beg, and she never gives Dominika the fear she is used to getting from anyone she pursues. Dominika believes she is the one holding the leash. The question the book poses, and promises to answer, is who has actually been hunting whom.
My Review
The premise is the best thing here, and it is a good one. Sapphic dark romance often pairs an obsessive villain with a softer heroine and asks the reader to enjoy the imbalance. This book promises two villains and makes the imbalance the trick. If the twist works, it changes how the stalking reads, which is exactly the kind of structural idea this subgenre rarely attempts.
The second strength, as far as we can judge it, is control of voice. The sample opens in a tight, deliberate first person, with short fragments and a confident central image. It is mannered, and some readers will find the clipped rhythm tiring over 329 pages, but it sounds like the character the blurb describes rather than a generic narrator.
Where it struggles is the thing we cannot see. With no written reviews anywhere, we do not know whether the heat matches the high-spice label, whether the middle sags, whether the twist is earned or merely announced, or whether the ending is happy. The two Amazon ratings split between five stars and three, and the two Goodreads ratings average three, so the people who have read it were not uniformly won over. That is all the evidence there is.
The expectation to reset is the word “romance.” The publisher sells this as genuinely dark, with morally corrupt leads and obsession that escalates. If dark is what drew you, the marketing is promising you the real thing. If dark is what worried you, believe it: there is no suggestion in the copy that either woman is softened by the end.
My honest note: A promising premise with a confident voice and no track record at all. If you need reader proof before you buy, there is none yet; if a predator-versus-predator mafia romance is exactly your trope, this is a gamble with an interesting hook.
| Element | In The Leash Goes Both Ways |
|---|---|
| Central relationship | Dominika Voronova & Seraphina Marchetti — a New York crime boss and the Italian rival she starts watching |
| Core tropes | Predator versus predator, stalker and surveillance, obsession, enemies to lovers, morally corrupt heroines, twist ending |
| Setting | New York’s criminal underworld |
| Heat level | 5/5 — the publisher’s high-spice claim, unverified by any reader |
| Series | Standalone; 329 pages, Obsidian Rose Press, February 2026 |
| Content notes | Stalking and surveillance, obsession, criminal violence implied by the premise, morally corrupt leads; no reader has listed specific warnings |
How Spicy Is The Leash Goes Both Ways?
The publisher says very: the subtitle calls it a high-spice sapphic mafia dark romance, and the copy promises that every intimate scene is a power negotiation. We list it as 5 out of 5 on that basis and mark it unverified. romance.io has no entry, no reader has described the sex scenes, and the four ratings across two sites tell us nothing about heat.
The element worth knowing in advance is the stalking. Surveillance turning into intimacy is a selling point here, not a side effect, and the publisher says plainly that both women are morally corrupt. For a possessive mafia romance with readers who have vouched for it, try My Mafia Princess; for verified top-band heat in the same subgenre, Broken Vows.
Who Should Read This Book?
You’ll likely love it if: you want two equally dangerous women rather than a villain and a victim, stalking and power games are a draw rather than a dealbreaker, you like a twist that changes what came before, and you enjoy discovering a book before anyone else has.
You may want to skip it if: you rely on reviews to decide, stalking or morally corrupt leads are hard limits, you need a confirmed happy ending, or a stylised, clipped first-person voice tires you quickly.
In short: a high-concept dark romance nobody has vouched for yet.
What Readers Are Actually Saying (October 2026)
Nothing, and that is the finding. The Leash Goes Both Ways has two ratings on Goodreads, averaging 3.00, and two on Amazon, one at five stars and one at three. There are no written reviews on either site, no romance.io listing, no Reddit thread and no blog or trade coverage that we could find. Goodreads shows a handful of readers marking it as currently reading or want to read. Its Amazon rank sat in the mid-hundreds of thousands in the Kindle store when we checked, which suggests occasional sales without any discussion.
Why readers love it (according to the discourse): We cannot say. No reader has written about what they liked. The one five-star rating on Amazon is the only positive signal, and it comes without words.
What readers argue about and complain about: We cannot say that either. The three-star ratings on both sites suggest at least some readers found it middling, but none left a reason. Any claim about pacing, prose, heat or the twist would be invention, and we will not make one.
The standalone question worth asking first: It appears to be a standalone; neither Amazon nor Goodreads lists a series, and the blurb tells a complete story with a promised reveal at the end. Whether that ending is happy is not stated anywhere. If you need an HEA guaranteed, this is not the book to gamble on.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is The Leash Goes Both Ways a standalone?
It appears to be. No series is listed on Amazon or Goodreads, and the blurb describes a complete arc with a twist ending.
How spicy is The Leash Goes Both Ways?
The publisher markets it as high-spice, so we list it at 5 out of 5, but that is unverified. It is not on romance.io and no reader has described the sex scenes.
Does The Leash Goes Both Ways have a happy ending?
Unverified. The publisher promises a twist ending that recontextualises the story, but neither the blurb nor any reader says whether it ends happily.
Is The Leash Goes Both Ways a stalker romance?
Yes. The publisher lists stalker, obsession and surveillance-to-intimacy as core tropes, with Dominika watching Seraphina before the romance begins.
Why are there so few reviews of The Leash Goes Both Ways?
It is a small-press release from February 2026 with only four ratings across Goodreads and Amazon and no written reviews as of October 2026.
If You Loved The Leash Goes Both Ways, Read These Next
For an obsessive mafia heir with a readership that vouches for the heat and a guaranteed HEA, read My Mafia Princess. For a captive who turns out to be the most dangerous woman in the room, try A Guard for the Princess. For explicit mafia romance with a long track record, Broken Vows. More in our possessive and obsessive sapphic romance list, our sapphic mafia romance list and across our book reviews.
The Bottom Line
The Leash Goes Both Ways sets out to do something sapphic mafia romance rarely tries: two predators, a stalking plot that turns on itself, and a twist that rewrites the book. The premise is strong, the opening voice is controlled, and the publisher’s promises are specific. But there are no written reviews anywhere, the four ratings are lukewarm on average, and the heat and the ending are unverified. It is worth it for readers who want this exact premise and do not mind going first. Check The Leash Goes Both Ways on Amazon →
The Eikna Overall Ranking
On the Eikna scale, The Leash Goes Both Ways ranks as an untested small-press dark mafia romance — a sharp predator-versus-predator hook, limited by a complete absence of reader evidence, and best approached as an experiment rather than a sure thing.
The Evidence Scorecard
Overall ★★★☆☆ 3.2/5
- ✓ 3.00 average from two Goodreads ratings
- ✓ 4.0 from two Amazon ratings
- ✓ Strong, specific premise
- ✓ No written reviews anywhere
Romance ★★★☆☆ 3.4/5
- ✓ Predator-versus-predator engine
- ✓ Enemies to lovers between equals
- ✓ Every intimate scene framed as a negotiation
- ✓ Chemistry unassessed by any reader
Characters ★★★☆☆ 3.3/5
- ✓ Both heroines hold real criminal power
- ✓ Dominika’s voice established in the sample
- ✓ Seraphina deliberately unreadable
- ✓ Development unknown beyond the opening
Writing ★★★☆☆ 3/5
- ✓ Controlled first-person opening
- ✓ Clear central imagery in the sample
- ✓ Clipped style may tire some readers
- ✓ Prose unassessed beyond the preview
Emotional Impact ★★★☆☆ 3/5
- ✓ Obsession as the emotional engine
- ✓ Twist could reframe the stakes
- ✓ Morally corrupt leads by design
- ✓ No reader has said whether it lands
Heat Level ★★★★★ 5/5
- ✓ Marketed as high-spice
- ✓ Power games promised in every scene
- ✓ Subtitle leads with the heat
- ✓ Publisher’s claim only; unverified
Ending ★★★☆☆ 3/5
- ✓ Twist ending promised by the publisher
- ✓ Title presented as the clue
- ✓ Appears to be a standalone
- ✓ HEA unverified
Re-read Value ★★★☆☆ 3/5
- ✓ A reveal could reward a second read
- ✓ Power dynamics invite rereading
- ✓ 329 pages is a real commitment
- ✓ No audiobook found
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