Reviews

Burned Dreams by Neva Altaj

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sueread2030's review against another edition

4.0

When your hate consumes you for a long time, you are blinded by the truth in front of you

this is the 7th book in the Perfectly Imperfect series, and I think it is the best one in terms of writing style. '
The level of complex internal dilemma and struggle is shown throughout Alessandro's and Ravenna's thoughts
Also, this book has more Mafia elements than the rest of the series where the Romance is focused on more
So, we first hear about Alessandro "Az" in previous books. We know that Him and Sergio were part of a secret military organization called Z.E.R.O but he disappeared on them almost a decade ago. Why?

Alessandro was looking for the man who killed his wife. after years of searching, he finds out he's the son of a capo in the Cosa Notra organization. So he works himself to infiltrate it and become Rocco's wife's bodyguard.
Ravenna was blackmailed into marrying Rocco and suffers physical abuse by him.

Alessandro's plan of revenge is "an eye for an eye". Rocco took his wife, so he plans on killing Ravenna. He goes into this thinking she's just a typical spoiled Mafia wife.
Meanwhile, Ravenna has her own plan of escape
slowly, the two start noticing each other and plans change

so by now, you have your typical "bodyguard" enemies to lovers-ish kinda trope. It reminded me a lot of Turkish drama which is usually full of cliches, however, you cannot help yourself but fall in love with the characters.

The story was also very well build and told from two points of view. We, as readers, get an inside look into Alessandro's deep hate and desire for revenge. We also see Ravenna's struggle and how brave and resourceful she is. We root for these two to be together.
And when Alessandro falls, he falls like a boulder splashing into a lake. Fast, Hard and with a loud Splash. The "i'll kill anyone who touches her" was truly strong with this one once he got over the idea of killing her.

I liked the concept that it took Az a while to warm up to the idea of him being with Ravenna. When you were obsessing over your revenge for eight years to the point that nothing else matters in your life, it's not easy to give up on your plans immediately.

I also loved how Ravenna was not portrayed as this helpless Mafia wife who accepted her fate and was waiting for someone to save her. When she knew no one will help her, she used her wits to plan her escape.

but here are my issues

1- Most of the time, we are reading the internal thoughts of the two protagonists. As readers, we get their reasoning and their suffering. However, there was very little interaction and talk between Ravenna and Az that the romance did not make sense to me. It felt like it was the physical appearance that drew them together not their common goal and personalities.

2- The reason for revenge was weak. Az's wife was killed during an accident when Rocco was driving drunk. and it was a helluva coincidence that Rocco was part of the Mafia. It would have made more sense if Natalie's death was intentional.

3- up until 70% of the book, there were no spice scenes because the build-up was slow. But once Az and Ravi did it, oh boy! they were humping like rabbits and the plot lost its taste. The decisive Ravi is gone to be replaced by this wanton chick who melts with one touch.

4- The ending felt missing. What happened to Ravi's family? all the time she was doing what she was doing to help her family, but then what? she left them?

but all in all, I enjoyed reading this book so much. The writing is so much improved and it is obviously a lot of research was involved.