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selbs2004's review
3.0
This book delivered in so many ways, but there were still parts that left me empty.
To start with aspects that I loved about the romance, I will say the yearning and sexiness that was promised was definitely given. I could feel the hunger Giovanna and Francesca had for each other seeping through every page, and it was delicious. But there still felt like there was something missing to the story. For one, I felt like Giovanna didn't stand up for Francesca as much as I would hope. I understand that there are hierarchies in the mafia, but there was times when in the book the Marino and Rossi family were so hurtful towards Francesca, and I was just waiting and waiting for Giovanna to go comfort her, or defend her and it just never happened. That saddened me because it not only took away from romance but it felt out of character for Giovanna, (because just seems like someone to stand up for those she loves the most as we see throughout the progression of the story)
Also, throughout the book, we had flashbacks to the past so we could better understand how the love that Francesca had for Giovanna was even built. (and some more sexual ones were uncomfortable, but also added to the story, so I have mixed feelings) but I wish the present story had more of Giovanna and Francesca building a new more mature love for eachother now that they are both adults and have different perspectives of life. There is a large age gap between these two characters, and we didn't have time to develop feelings from pure infatuation for a person that you looked up to when you were young to actually love. And I think that's because we never got to see these two characters alone in a non-sexual way. For instance Francesca says that her love for Giovanna has grown due to the moments they have had alone drinking tea at night, but we never actually see these moments, and I feel like they really could've added to the believability of the yearning and care these two love interests had for eachother. Like Imagine a scene where they are so desperate to have eachother but right now in this moment they will simply enjoy thier long talks at night and ravish in eachothers presence while trying to desperately fight back dirty thoughts, like that would've been amazing. And I just really would've enjoyed the story more if we had more romantic alone moments with these two that were purely non-sexual but still had longing and hunger.
Then, there were the characters.
Elio had a strong case of telling, not showing where it felt like Arrow didn't really know how to shape him. Like for instance were told over and over again that Elio is truly brilliant and kind and strong, but we are never shown this through his own actions and most of his actions are simply pathetic and gross and just downright hard to get through and I felt like I was being gaslighted about his charcater throughout the book and it was just disappointing.
Matty and Massimo, on the other hand, are wonderful, I was absolutely obsessed with Mattys and Giovannas sibling dynamic and banter and wish we got more of them together throughout the story because it was quite lovely.
Massimo was comedic relief and was quite the lighthearted charcater, but lacked a lot of depth to me. Giovanna was so hot, and domniant and again, I really wished for more of her perspective because it definitely would've added, but a lot of her actions felt out of charcaters for the direction you could tell the author was trying to take with her.
Francesca was quite complex, actually. I wished we got more from her perspective at the end to see how she truly has grown into herself as a mafia princess, but I was happy with her development overall.
Her father, on the other hand, confused me simply because we don't get a proper explanation on why he hates his daughter so much, to the point that he would defend his rapist brother. His brother doesn't give him any upper hand in the mafia, so why does he go so hard for him? Is it just misogyny? Does he have bad memories surrounding the topic of rape? I couldn't tell you
The story and the writing were quite the doozy, and I mean this positively and negatively.
I enjoyed the way exposition was handled, it was not too heavy fisted, and added to the suspense of the story.
The action was definitely there, and it was fun and hot, and exactly what Imagined it would be…..
in the beginning
but then the progression of the story relied heavily on the characters making stupid decisions. For example, Giovanna letting Francesca leave the house without security not once BUT TWICE, well being well aware of threat to her life. Like that was unbelievably irritating and so out of charcater, because we are supposed to believe that Giovanna is this intelligent mafia don that is the only one fit for the job, but you lose that message when you make her do dumb stuff for the plot!!!
All in all the plot wasn't terrible and I did enjoy the violence, as it maintained the sexiness of the story while being intriguing, but I wish we could've thought the characters actions out just a little more.
The story coming towards the end felt very fast-paced and kinda rushed like we were just trying to make a happy ending without the work. Like again, it was very out of character for everyone to simply be so accepting of Giovanna's and Francesca's relationship and Giovanna being the leader of the Mafia when there was so much blacklash made evident in the beginning. I felt like there could have been a scene of Giovanna or Francesca speaking out about their love and how important it was to them. So we could really see a clear ending that felt like they fought for it, and them standing against the traditions and views together as a unit. But I feel like they never really had to stand against anything. The ending was so easy that it made you wonder why we even went through all of this conflict in the first place.
But it was sweet, and I liked the growth that Giovanna had when it came to fully realizing that love is something you fight for, even if it feels hard. And that you shouldn't be scared to say the truth even if others may be uncomfortable with it.
In general, there was a lot I enjoyed, even though there were aspects that frustrated me. The book definitely knew how to keep me reading, and (despite some spelling and grammatical errors) I enjoyed the ride I was taken on
I love the way the domniant/submissive dynamic between Francesca and Giovanna is written, as it's something I've been looking for when it comes to sapphic novels.
And I think any future sapphic novels that Arrow writes I will be looking out for.
Thank you Booksirens and the author for giving me a virtual copy of this book for free. This is my voluntary and honest review of this book.
To start with aspects that I loved about the romance, I will say the yearning and sexiness that was promised was definitely given. I could feel the hunger Giovanna and Francesca had for each other seeping through every page, and it was delicious. But there still felt like there was something missing to the story. For one, I felt like Giovanna didn't stand up for Francesca as much as I would hope. I understand that there are hierarchies in the mafia, but there was times when in the book the Marino and Rossi family were so hurtful towards Francesca, and I was just waiting and waiting for Giovanna to go comfort her, or defend her and it just never happened. That saddened me because it not only took away from romance but it felt out of character for Giovanna, (because just seems like someone to stand up for those she loves the most as we see throughout the progression of the story)
Also, throughout the book, we had flashbacks to the past so we could better understand how the love that Francesca had for Giovanna was even built. (and some more sexual ones were uncomfortable, but also added to the story, so I have mixed feelings) but I wish the present story had more of Giovanna and Francesca building a new more mature love for eachother now that they are both adults and have different perspectives of life. There is a large age gap between these two characters, and we didn't have time to develop feelings from pure infatuation for a person that you looked up to when you were young to actually love. And I think that's because we never got to see these two characters alone in a non-sexual way. For instance Francesca says that her love for Giovanna has grown due to the moments they have had alone drinking tea at night, but we never actually see these moments, and I feel like they really could've added to the believability of the yearning and care these two love interests had for eachother. Like Imagine a scene where they are so desperate to have eachother but right now in this moment they will simply enjoy thier long talks at night and ravish in eachothers presence while trying to desperately fight back dirty thoughts, like that would've been amazing. And I just really would've enjoyed the story more if we had more romantic alone moments with these two that were purely non-sexual but still had longing and hunger.
Then, there were the characters.
Elio had a strong case of telling, not showing where it felt like Arrow didn't really know how to shape him. Like for instance were told over and over again that Elio is truly brilliant and kind and strong, but we are never shown this through his own actions and most of his actions are simply pathetic and gross and just downright hard to get through and I felt like I was being gaslighted about his charcater throughout the book and it was just disappointing.
Matty and Massimo, on the other hand, are wonderful, I was absolutely obsessed with Mattys and Giovannas sibling dynamic and banter and wish we got more of them together throughout the story because it was quite lovely.
Massimo was comedic relief and was quite the lighthearted charcater, but lacked a lot of depth to me. Giovanna was so hot, and domniant and again, I really wished for more of her perspective because it definitely would've added, but a lot of her actions felt out of charcaters for the direction you could tell the author was trying to take with her.
Francesca was quite complex, actually. I wished we got more from her perspective at the end to see how she truly has grown into herself as a mafia princess, but I was happy with her development overall.
Her father, on the other hand, confused me simply because we don't get a proper explanation on why he hates his daughter so much, to the point that he would defend his rapist brother. His brother doesn't give him any upper hand in the mafia, so why does he go so hard for him? Is it just misogyny? Does he have bad memories surrounding the topic of rape? I couldn't tell you
The story and the writing were quite the doozy, and I mean this positively and negatively.
I enjoyed the way exposition was handled, it was not too heavy fisted, and added to the suspense of the story.
The action was definitely there, and it was fun and hot, and exactly what Imagined it would be…..
in the beginning
but then the progression of the story relied heavily on the characters making stupid decisions. For example, Giovanna letting Francesca leave the house without security not once BUT TWICE, well being well aware of threat to her life. Like that was unbelievably irritating and so out of charcater, because we are supposed to believe that Giovanna is this intelligent mafia don that is the only one fit for the job, but you lose that message when you make her do dumb stuff for the plot!!!
All in all the plot wasn't terrible and I did enjoy the violence, as it maintained the sexiness of the story while being intriguing, but I wish we could've thought the characters actions out just a little more.
The story coming towards the end felt very fast-paced and kinda rushed like we were just trying to make a happy ending without the work. Like again, it was very out of character for everyone to simply be so accepting of Giovanna's and Francesca's relationship and Giovanna being the leader of the Mafia when there was so much blacklash made evident in the beginning. I felt like there could have been a scene of Giovanna or Francesca speaking out about their love and how important it was to them. So we could really see a clear ending that felt like they fought for it, and them standing against the traditions and views together as a unit. But I feel like they never really had to stand against anything. The ending was so easy that it made you wonder why we even went through all of this conflict in the first place.
But it was sweet, and I liked the growth that Giovanna had when it came to fully realizing that love is something you fight for, even if it feels hard. And that you shouldn't be scared to say the truth even if others may be uncomfortable with it.
In general, there was a lot I enjoyed, even though there were aspects that frustrated me. The book definitely knew how to keep me reading, and (despite some spelling and grammatical errors) I enjoyed the ride I was taken on
I love the way the domniant/submissive dynamic between Francesca and Giovanna is written, as it's something I've been looking for when it comes to sapphic novels.
And I think any future sapphic novels that Arrow writes I will be looking out for.
Thank you Booksirens and the author for giving me a virtual copy of this book for free. This is my voluntary and honest review of this book.
kberlow's review
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
🔥🔥🔥
Sapphic mafia books might just be my new favorite thing.
Sapphic mafia books might just be my new favorite thing.
angelica_96's review
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
cozy_reads_for_carmen's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
ezrazoe4's review
Needs editing badly. The plot seemed interesting enough but I couldn’t get through it due to the bad writing. I was really excited for a sapphic mafia romance but this is a let down.
Also the age gap is quite large and doesn’t feel quite right to me. The love interest meets the main character when she was a full on adult and the mc was just a kid.
Also the age gap is quite large and doesn’t feel quite right to me. The love interest meets the main character when she was a full on adult and the mc was just a kid.
browniydgrl1's review
5.0
Sex and violence and bloodshed, oh my! This was not my usual read so I wasn't sure how it would be for me, but wow was it...I'm not even sure how to describe. The premise was very interesting to start. Lots of mafia politics that were hard to relate to and had me frustrated throughout, right there with the MCs. Lots of lust and power dynamics. precarious situations, action, murder, attempted murder, assault...Oh, that reminds me, be sure to read the trigger warnings. I read this book pretty quickly. I was invested right away. I really enjoyed the alternating perspectives. The variety of characters were well defined. The author did not shy away from the spicy stuff. The second half of the book had me up all night to finish. I think this kind of story isn't for everyone but if the description sounds like your thing, I highly recommend.
I received an advance review copy from BookSirens for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I received an advance review copy from BookSirens for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
michaelabone's review
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
ali_gaytor's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
FF mafia