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lovelyinnature's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
While a slow start for me to connect, I so throughly loved this book. It was intense. It was crazy. The chemistry was fantastic. I loved the actual mafia plot, and while the twist was a little predictable, the reveal was well done. Enzo was a fun character right off the bat and I seriously loved how willing he was to do for Tex (as long as he stayed). Tex my boy wow. He was a little relatable so I did find him incredibly frustrating at times; but god he made me laugh, and he's trying his damnedest. He's actually so accommodating of Enzo's autism and is a really grounding force for him. I love the Vitale brothers. They love each other a lot. Chelsea was an icon and a good friend. Penelope the best cat. I will say there was one torture scene I was like truly "damn that was insanely intense and gross. It was really gross." Over all a thousand penchant get the hype.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Torture, Vomit, Police brutality, and Murder
whatthefridge's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I’m torn about how I feel because on one hand I did enjoy the story and chemistry but on the other hand it felt a bit too saccharine for the subject matter.
Enzo being autistic is explicitly stated. He’s mainly got the OCD flavor of it, but it was nice to see other symptoms of autism with him, including overstimulation and nonverbal meltdown. Admittedly this has made me crave seeing the positive aspects to autism too, but beggars can’t be choosers.
I wish Enzo’s domination of Tex was more thorough. It felt almost vanilla how their dynamic mellowed out the longer they were together.
Other, more minor issues I had:
Enzo being autistic is explicitly stated. He’s mainly got the OCD flavor of it, but it was nice to see other symptoms of autism with him, including overstimulation and nonverbal meltdown. Admittedly this has made me crave seeing the positive aspects to autism too, but beggars can’t be choosers.
I wish Enzo’s domination of Tex was more thorough. It felt almost vanilla how their dynamic mellowed out the longer they were together.
Other, more minor issues I had:
- For someone like Tex, who has secret cameras in his apartment, he’s not paranoid at all about cameras in Enzo’s apartment.
- Enzo has a thing about not letting people sleep on his couch, but he has a whole ass guest room. Why do Tex or Gin even consider the couch? Hell if I know.
- One would consider that Gin would eventually come by Enzo’s apartment and discover that Tex lives there now. Terrible way to keep a secret relationship.
Anyway I know I’m mostly nagging. This story was dark but also not at the same time. Sex scenes were hot. Good romp.
Anyway I know I’m mostly nagging. This story was dark but also not at the same time. Sex scenes were hot. Good romp.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Torture, and Murder
Moderate: Vomit
Minor: Child abuse
galleytrot's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
READ: Oct 2023
FORMAT: Digital
BRIEF SUMMARY:
In this contemporary romance, Tex has been driven by a singular pursuit: to make Detective on the police force. When his Sargeant is stirred into reopening investigatory efforts against the Vitale brothers (an untouchable trio of New York mobsters who run the seedy underbelly of the city), Tex sees his opportunity to get an arrest that couldn’t possibly be ignored and earn the promotion he deserves. Information leads him to a bar the brothers are known to operate from, where he catches the attention of Enzo Vitale and sets off an attempt to get close to the man and find any evidence that might stick and get him behind bars.
ENTERTAINMENT VALUE: 3.75 / 5⭐
This is the story of the worst cop imaginable being extremely lucky that he’s both attractive and sexually-compatible with a monster. Tex operates on the assumption hat he’s innately got what it takes to do what no cop before him has managed to accomplish. I lost track of how many times I was stunned by Tex’s complete lack of self-preservation and willingness to just toss himself into a situation he has no understanding of. No game plans, no direction; just, “I’m here, where’s the evidence?”
Tex is acting in the pursuit of upstaging his retired detective father, who is venerated for taking down a crime family in the prime of his career. Unfortunately, he’s playing a game of snakes & ladders while everyone else around him is playing 3D chess. He walks in to the Vitale’s bar with no game plan, just grit and determination and bluster. When Enzo pops out to buy him a drink, it’s all systems go and Tex will gladly give his body over in order to get close to the man. It isn’t until his own safe haven is breached that he begins to understand how dangerous the situation he’s gotten himself into might be.
TECHNICAL / PRODUCTION: 3.25 / 5⭐
I want to be clear upfront: I did not hate this story, but I was extremely baffled by a lot of the choices made about Tex’s character and his motivations. When I take a step back, he is a suitable and complex enough main character, but he is such a departure from what I was expecting in a story featuring a cop/mobster romance that for a while, I couldn’t accept that he wasn’t poorly written. From this book’s premise, I anticipated a battle of wits, two characters evenly matched, alternating between being one step ahead of each other; but this story really is about a silly little guy throwing himself blindly into a situation that he cannot grasp the breadth of and floundering around while things progress.
Tex is acting in the pursuit of upstaging his retired detective father, who is venerated for taking down a crime family in the prime of his career. Unfortunately, he’s playing a game of snakes & ladders while everyone else around him is playing 3D chess. He walks in to the Vitale’s bar with no game plan, just grit and determination and bluster. When Enzo pops out to buy him a drink, it’s all systems go and Tex will gladly give his body over in order to get close to the man. It isn’t until his own safe haven is breached that he begins to understand how dangerous the situation he’s gotten himself into might be.
TECHNICAL / PRODUCTION: 3.25 / 5⭐
I want to be clear upfront: I did not hate this story, but I was extremely baffled by a lot of the choices made about Tex’s character and his motivations. When I take a step back, he is a suitable and complex enough main character, but he is such a departure from what I was expecting in a story featuring a cop/mobster romance that for a while, I couldn’t accept that he wasn’t poorly written. From this book’s premise, I anticipated a battle of wits, two characters evenly matched, alternating between being one step ahead of each other; but this story really is about a silly little guy throwing himself blindly into a situation that he cannot grasp the breadth of and floundering around while things progress.
The book could have used an additional pass for editing, as there were a number of mistakes I clocked. Poor punctuation, sentences missing words, redundancies, misspellings. The authors do forewarn in a disclaimer that they don’t know how cops work, and it shows; don’t expect a prime-time procedural level of crime solving from this book. It is a romance primarily, and one that is set in a crime world.
FINAL THOUGHTS - OVERALL: 3.5 / 5⭐
I liked this book well enough, even though I don’t typically seek out romances where characters are killers, sociopaths, or psychopaths who clearly aren’t here to learn any lessons. Sometimes the mood strikes for something dark, and it takes something along these lines to hit the spot. It did what it was set out to do, although I wouldn’t have minded seeing things pushed a bit further in the bedroom and reined back in a bit more in the field, since this book’s strength was its romance in the first place.
This book has representation for gays, lesbians, and pansexuals. One of the main characters is neurodivergent. Multiple characters are described as non-white.
The following elaborates on my content warnings. These may be interpreted as spoilers, but I do not go into deep detail.
This book contains: drugs, mentions of drug use; mentions of trafficking (sex, drugs, weapons); alcohol use; past child abandonment; mild dubious consent, sexual violence (knife play); weapon violence (knives, scalpel, guns, cane); injuries, blood, gore (dislocated shoulder, cuts, bullet wounds, blunt force trauma, body/genital mutilation); murder, death; domestic violence, emotional and physical; child abuse; vomiting; torture; past infidelity; gaslighting; very realistic representation of ACAB; toxic masculinity; and, police brutality.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Vomit, Police brutality, Gaslighting, and Alcohol
Minor: Addiction, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Trafficking, and Abandonment
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