Dance of Defiance | MM Romance Novel with Mafia Background

I watched a reel where they recommend reading Dance of Defiance if you liked God of Fury and Hunt the Villain. They said Dance of Defiance is the same as those novels. Apparently, they meant only the background, because the characters were different, which is alright, but not when they were bland and didn’t have any charm.

Well, overall, I am here to leave a review on Dance of Defiance with a little summary, whether people should read it, and some other details. If interested in BL (MM novels), read ahead.

(For people who can't read ahead, here's the link: **Full Story**)

Book Details:

• Novel Name: Dance of Defiance (Darkest Dance #5)
• Author Name: Jagger Cole
• Publish Date: 09 Oct, 2025
• Genre: Dark Romance, Mafia Romance, MM Romance
• Ratings: 4.2/5 on Goodreads, 4.5/5 on Amazon
• My Ratings: 4.0/5

Dance of Defiance Book Cover Downloaded From Google

Overview of Dance of Defiance

To be honest, it has been around 1–2 months since I read the novel, and I have totally forgotten the characters’ names. Let me go and browse through it again.

Yeah, now I am back here.

Firstly, the main character is Roman Nikitin; I kept reading his name as Nikolai. The male lead is Val Bancroft, a ballet dancer, but also the brother of a powerful group leader.

The story is exactly what you are thinking of. Two mafia princes, from different groups, are attracted to each other and fall in love.

But no, the story wasn’t as good as I made it look in the previous line. I couldn’t feel any chemistry between them, and really, I couldn’t even get why they were going around with their actions.

Overall, the villain was Roman’s dad, who couldn’t handle that his son was gay. There was also Roman’s coming-out crisis, because he couldn’t accept being gay. The story had potential but wasn’t executed well. For a deep summary, read below.

Dance of Defiance Summary:

This novel starts with Roman sneaking into a mansion where a party or some kind of meeting was going on. He was there just to check out what this secret meeting was all about.

And honestly, I never understood how these people can sneak inside such meetings and parties so easily when the mafia team has surveillance everywhere.

It’s like the author is saying: reality? What is that bitch?

The first chapter was from Roman’s point of view as he was telling us about the other mafia group that Vaughn is leading. Vaughn, whose little brother is a ballet partner of Roman’s sister. At this point, I was excited that this novel must be about both Mafia princes falling for each other, aka Roman and Vaughn pairing.

However, turned out the pairing was of Roman and Val, Vaughn’s brother. Val was at the mansion to take care of people who dared to sneak around. He caught Roman, and both of them had a bit of a hot sensation; then Val let Roman go and also hid about Roman sneaking from his brother Vaughn.

On the other side, Roman reported to his father how Vaughn’s group is trying to win the heart of some big man, a person who is kinda funding the underworld. This scene was written to focus on how his father and other people were laughing over Val’s sexuality. They also called him slurry names like fairie and fag. At that time, we could feel Roman standing on thin ice as he acted all right in front of his father, but in truth we could feel he was hiding his sexuality.

In the third chapter, we got Val’s point of view, where he goes into full detail of his childhood, how he was an orphan, only just recently he found out he had a brother who looks the same as him but isn’t his twin; moreover, after meeting his brother, he had to change his name because apparently Val thought his name is Vaughn.

And…

Seriously, writers, please follow the don’t tell, only show rule.

They gave us all details about Val in this chapter; all the mystery and the anticipation I had about slowly finding out about him, together with Roman, was gone. Why would you let us know about the male lead right off the bat?

Remembering this frustration again, I don’t want to go into details. Just know that Val literally introduces us to all the girls there are in his dance place. We also got to know Roman’s sister. And again I never understand how these novel protagonists are so in love (not that kind) with their siblings. Real siblings fight with each other.

Roman was so protective of his sister that he went through her phone, saw the sus app, something about meeting strangers for kinky sex. His sister had messaged someone, calling them sir in a masochistic way, ready for some bdsm sex.

And of course, the big brother deleted the app, never confronted her, and went to the location by himself. And again, of course, Val was there. Coincidence, coincidence.

I only have one question from his scene: that sister was ready for the night; how come she forgot about it all? Was she dumb?

Next, Roman and Val keep meeting through these coincidences, feel the heat for each other, but Roman was not ready because he couldn’t admit to being gay. So, most of the novel went by in them chasing and running, not the fun kind, but only the frustrating kind, where you want to rip the pages and yell at the characters: what is wrong with you?

Eventually they both accepted each other, even comes out to everyone by throwing a party, and again there were questions I wanted to ask the writer.

There was a flashback where a girl and Roman had gone to commit suicide by a river; I don’t remember correctly. The girl saved Roman and even saw the Grindr app on his phone. How come she never approached him again to help him? Then, when the party scene comes, she’s all like I am so happy for you. Dear Jagger Cole, don’t show that they are friends and all buddy-buddy when not a single buddy has done anything.

It seems I am always complaining about this stuff from today’s novels. Because all of them will show that the protagonists have thousands of friends, but none of them are actually there to help them.

The same was true for Val’s brother. Throughout the novel, the writer is showing how these two want to mend things, help each other, and grow closer. But again, throughout the novel, Vaughn came of no use.

For god’s sake, he was a mafia group leader, so how come, at the climax, his brother got kidnapped, he didn’t show up? What was even the point of focusing so much on him and their other friends?

Yes, this was the climax, where once Roman and Val accept each other and start dating, they are kidnapped by Roman’s father, who wants to kill both of them. And who helps them escape? Just Roman’s father’s assistant, or whatever you call him.

And that’s it; the novel ends- nothing much to feel sad over.

Though at the end Roman takes over the mafia leader position now that his father is dead. And again I have no idea how every one of them agreed.

What Did I Like About Dance of Defiance?

Nothing. Seriously, I liked nothing about this novel. I started reading this with a hope for dark romance, slow burn, extreme sexual scenes, or at least chaotic characters.

What I got was bland. Everything was bland.

I can see that Jagger Cole had an idea; he was doing great for 2 chapters. Even sometimes in the middle, I thought, finally it’s going well, but no, wrong execution.

I know I am focusing more on the negative points, but there wasn’t much for the positive. I have read many books of many genres. I’ve found underrated books more fun and have read many highly rated books and found them a flop.

So, it’s not like I have some personal grudge with Jagger Cole; it’s just that throughout this novel I felt like he was trying to make us like other characters more than the protagonists. It was like he was saying, Do you find Vaughn interesting? Now read his novel. So many characters yet for no plot points? What was the point of Val being a mafia leader’s brother?

Should You Read This Novel?

You can read it if you are bored, but I wouldn’t recommend reading it highly. There was not even much romance and passion between the characters. But again, I know everyone has their different perspectives. I have seen many reels about how good this novel is.

So, maybe it wasn’t my cup of tea, but it can be your cup of coffee.

But if you do want my recommendation, read **God of Fury, [You & Me](https://medium.com/@gsgeeta10/you-me-a-gem-bl-novel-by-tal-bauer-b866afb608c9), [Kiss the Villain](https://medium.com/@gsgeeta10/kiss-the-villain-another-mm-novel-by-rina-kent-a51bd9ef44a3), or [Heaven Official’s Blessing](https://medium.com/@gsgeeta10/yin-yu-quan-yizhen-characters-who-have-my-respect-in-heaven-officials-blessing-7125dd25297f)**.