★★★★½ 4.3 / 5 (calculated from Amazon & Goodreads reader ratings)
| Overall | 8.7 | Romance | 9.0 |
| Characters | 9.1 | Writing | 9.0 |
| Emotion | 8.9 | Heat | 7.0 |
| Ending | 8.6 | Re-read value | 8.4 |
A statue of marble and silence meets the grieving daughter of the man she loved — and neither of them survives the collision unchanged.
If you love sapphic mafia romance where the tension lives in the pauses and the danger is as much emotional as it is physical, MATELDA: In Silence We Forgive by Jossef S. belongs on your list. It’s a slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers, age-gap story set inside a crumbling criminal empire — and it treats its readers as people capable of feeling deeply.
Our take: This is a literary, atmospheric debut in the Matelda world that trades gunfire for glances. The romance between forty-year-old Matelda and twenty-something Mia builds with agonizing restraint, and the prose is genuinely lovely. It won’t be for readers who want a fast, plot-driven mafia thriller — the pleasure here is in the silences.
Quick Facts
| Author | Jossef S. |
| Series | Matelda (Book 1 — reads as a standalone) |
| Published | March 23, 2026 |
| Length | 436 pages |
| Genre | Contemporary sapphic mafia romance |
| Tropes | Slow burn · Enemies-to-lovers · Age gap · Forced proximity · Ice queen |
| Heat level | Medium — sensual and charged rather than explicit |
| Ending | Guaranteed HEA |
You’ll Love This If…
- ✓ You want a mafia romance where the women hold the power and dictate the terms
- ✓ Slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers tension is your catnip
- ✓ You enjoy an age-gap dynamic with a guarded older “ice queen” heroine
- ✓ You appreciate lyrical, atmospheric, character-driven writing
- ✓ You want a standalone with a guaranteed happy ending
Avoid If…
- You prefer fast, action-heavy plots over slow emotional build
- You want explicit, high-heat spice on every other page
- Organized crime, stylized violence, or heavy grief themes are hard passes for you
- Large age gaps in romance aren’t your thing
Book Synopsis
Mia Salvatore never wanted to return to the sun-drenched villa of her childhood. Three years of self-imposed exile — driven by pride and a burning resentment of her father’s beautiful, untouchable companion — end abruptly when Gabriel’s sudden death reshapes her world. Mia comes home to an unstable empire, forced to step into the role of the Architect, only to find herself locked down in a high-stakes security crisis with her ultimate enemy: Matelda.
Matelda has survived eighteen years under the heel of a monster by turning silence into a shield. She never expected the fierce, grieving daughter of Gabriel to breach her defenses. Mia is dangerous, calculating, and more than twenty years younger — an impossible variable in a lethal game of survival. As the criminal underground tears itself apart from within, the two women must confront a question with no clean answer: can you love the daughter without betraying the ghost of the father?
My Review
MATELDA is a book that understands the power of what goes unsaid. Jossef S. builds the romance almost entirely in negative space — the hallway collisions, the unhurried glances, the words two women refuse to give each other — and the restraint is the whole point. By the time the tension finally breaks, it lands with real weight because you’ve felt the cost of every step toward it.
The two leads carry the novel. Matelda is a beautifully drawn “ice queen”: composed, guarded, shaped by years of survival, and quietly devastating once her armor starts to crack. Mia is her opposite — fierce, grieving, and volatile — and watching raw resentment fracture into something protective is the best thing here. Reviewers keep using the same words: layered, complicated, real. I agree. The age gap is handled as a genuine collision of experience and trauma rather than a gimmick.
The prose is the other star. It’s lyrical and sensory — jasmine, spring rain, marble, the temperature of a room just before it shatters — and it leans literary in a way that’s rare for the mafia-romance shelf. If there’s a caveat, it’s pacing: this is a deliberately slow burn, so readers craving relentless plot momentum may find the middle meditative. But for the intended audience, that slowness is a feature. It’s a confident, atmospheric standalone, and it earns its happy ending.
Romance Profile
| Pairing | Matelda (40) & Mia (20s) — F/F |
| Trope engine | Enemies-to-lovers + forced proximity |
| Burn speed | Very slow — tension over gratification |
| Conflict | Loyalty vs. desire; grief; the ghost of Gabriel |
| Payoff | Earned, protective, guaranteed HEA |
Emotional Profile
- Grief & longing — the emotional engine of the whole book
- Slow-building tension — anticipation stretched to the edge
- Danger & dread — the mafia backdrop keeps stakes high
- Catharsis — the release, when it comes, hits hard
Content Warnings
- Organized crime and stylized violence
- Grief and loss (death of a parent)
- Age-gap relationship
- Emotional trauma and past abuse
Book DNA
| Atmosphere | Sun-drenched Italian villa, jasmine, spring rain, marble |
| Tone | Literary, moody, cinematic |
| Pace | Slow and deliberate |
| POV | Dual — Mia & Matelda |
| Steam | Medium — charged and sensual |
| Vibe | “The most lethal weapon isn’t a gun — it’s desire” |
Similar Books You Might Enjoy
- The Brutal Truth by Lee Winter — ice-queen boss energy and slow-burn tension
- Truth and Measure by Roslyn Sinclair — age-gap workplace enemies-to-lovers
- Breaking Character by Lee Winter — another guarded, untouchable heroine to thaw
- Codename: Lotus by Yiliana Ferran — high-stakes sapphic intrigue and danger
- Late to Love by Laura Conway — emotional, character-driven WLW romance
For more like this, visit our dark sapphic romance and age-gap lesbian romance roundups.
About the Author
Jossef S. is a voice in atmospheric sapphic fiction, specializing in stories where the intensity of the landscape matches the complexity of the heart — from the sun-drenched, blood-soaked villas of Italian mafia romance to quiet coming-of-age drama. The work is defined by lyrical prose, forbidden longing, and the “ice queen” archetypes readers can’t help but chase, with a focus on age-gap dynamics and enemies-to-lovers arcs that explore “the space between.” Beyond the Matelda series, Jossef is also the author of The Girl Who Collected Moths.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is MATELDA: In Silence We Forgive a standalone?
Yes. It’s Book 1 of the Matelda world and reads as a complete standalone with a guaranteed happy-ever-after, so you can enjoy it without committing to a series.
Does MATELDA have a happy ending?
Yes — the author confirms a guaranteed HEA. It’s an earned, hard-won ending given the dangerous world the characters live in, but the romance resolves happily.
How steamy is MATELDA?
Medium heat. The book is sensual and charged, but it prioritizes slow-burn tension and emotional intimacy over explicit, frequent on-page spice.
What tropes does MATELDA include?
Slow burn, enemies-to-lovers, age gap, forced proximity, and an “ice queen” heroine, all set against an organized-crime backdrop.
How big is the age gap?
Matelda is about forty and Mia is in her early twenties — roughly a sixteen-to-twenty-year gap that the story treats as a real collision of experience and trauma.
Is MATELDA more romance or more mafia thriller?
It’s romance-forward and literary. The mafia setting raises the stakes and atmosphere, but the heart of the book is the relationship, not the crime plot.
Is there a lot of violence?
There is organized crime and stylized violence, but it’s atmospheric rather than gratuitous. The tension is largely emotional and psychological.
Who will enjoy MATELDA the most?
Readers who love atmospheric, character-driven sapphic romance with slow-burn tension, an age gap, and an ice-queen heroine — and who don’t mind a deliberate pace.
Final Verdict
MATELDA: In Silence We Forgive is a confident, lyrical sapphic mafia romance that wins on atmosphere, character, and restraint. Its slow burn and literary prose make it a standout for readers who want tension over pyrotechnics — and its guaranteed HEA rewards the patience it asks for. 4.3 / 5.
Where to Buy
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What sets Truth and Measure apart from other boss/employee slow burns is its premise: instead of the usual fake dating or forced-proximity setup, Roslyn Sinclair uses an unplanned pregnancy to collapse the distance between her leads, and it works far better than it has any right to. The comedy of Vivian’s controlled world falling apart is genuinely funny, while the vulnerability underneath it lands with real weight.
Those Who Wait earns its length by refusing to rush the parts that matter. Cass spends real time on Sutton and Charlotte’s friendship before either woman touches the word romance, and that groundwork is what makes the eventual shift so effective. The dialogue is a particular strength, teasing, specific, and revealing of character rather than generic romance-novel banter, and the push-pull between an unpolished, still-learning Sutton and a composed, controlling Charlotte gives the courtship a genuine sense of discovery on both sides.