kenznelz's review
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
reading_rainy's review
emotional
funny
tense
fast-paced
5.0
Merikan’s descriptions are out of this world fantastic, here are some of my favorites from this story:
like a warm duvet on a cold day
like a brown diamond under the long curl of eyelashes
like a sip of warm cocoa on a winter day
like a warm blanket on his shoulders
like a rabid dog about to tear his throat open
like a young bull too brave for his own good
like a human-shaped pudding
like a dense spider web
like a garotte swung over his head
like a pomegranate filled with maggots
like a cauliflower rotting from the bulbous middle
like a rabid panther locked behind thick bars
like a pin in the body of a butterfly
like a virtuoso might a fiddle he’d owned all his life
like a snake, fragrant from the dancing and arousal
like a chair that lost two of its legs
like a gunshot without a silencer
like a giant spider creeping up on an unsuspecting victim
like a shell crumbling around the thick bundle of emotions
like a zombie trying to find that last living, breathing human
like a wolf after a winter of starvation
like an aroused stud
like a cat happy to see its owner
like a stud dog holding his bitch in place
like a vacuum in his chest
It reads like poetry, an ode to Mark and Griff.
I really enjoyed this 10th in the series and second book with Griff and Mark. It was so fun watching Mark slowly turn into a miniature Dom. And that ending scene when Griff firmly stepped into his future was perfect.
*Side thought, why are Charlotte and Dana so annoying?
like a warm duvet on a cold day
like a brown diamond under the long curl of eyelashes
like a sip of warm cocoa on a winter day
like a warm blanket on his shoulders
like a rabid dog about to tear his throat open
like a young bull too brave for his own good
like a human-shaped pudding
like a dense spider web
like a garotte swung over his head
like a pomegranate filled with maggots
like a cauliflower rotting from the bulbous middle
like a rabid panther locked behind thick bars
like a pin in the body of a butterfly
like a virtuoso might a fiddle he’d owned all his life
like a snake, fragrant from the dancing and arousal
like a chair that lost two of its legs
like a gunshot without a silencer
like a giant spider creeping up on an unsuspecting victim
like a shell crumbling around the thick bundle of emotions
like a zombie trying to find that last living, breathing human
like a wolf after a winter of starvation
like an aroused stud
like a cat happy to see its owner
like a stud dog holding his bitch in place
like a vacuum in his chest
It reads like poetry, an ode to Mark and Griff.
I really enjoyed this 10th in the series and second book with Griff and Mark. It was so fun watching Mark slowly turn into a miniature Dom. And that ending scene when Griff firmly stepped into his future was perfect.
*Side thought, why are Charlotte and Dana so annoying?
pinkeyes's review
3.0
3/5
This scene made my jaw drop: Charlotte crossed her arms on her chest, giving Mark a defiant look. “Go on Mark, tell him where the money’s from.” Mark spread his arms in an aggressive motion and bared his teeth. “Your family fortune dates back to sugar plantations, so don’t fucking school me on blood money!” She stared back at him. Clearly not the answer she’d expected. Neither had Griffith. “T-that was centuries ago!” “And I no longer do what I used to! Can’t see you giving all your cash, all your family assets, to the needy to start fresh. Why should I?”
--
It was overall entertaining but I dnfed a couple of times because the characters were both annoying most of the times. I like the premise so much though and it helped me go through with finishing it.
I liked how Mark glorifies Griff and how he compares himself and his relationship to his dad's. It's obvious that he looks up to Domenico yet he's aware how he can't and won't be like him.
Griff's reasoning for not leaving Mark's crazy ass? "I will never find someone who will love me like he does" it's convincing and sad.. consistent with the kind of happy ending they got. (He was trembling while proposing in front of the mafia family lmfao).
This scene made my jaw drop: Charlotte crossed her arms on her chest, giving Mark a defiant look. “Go on Mark, tell him where the money’s from.” Mark spread his arms in an aggressive motion and bared his teeth. “Your family fortune dates back to sugar plantations, so don’t fucking school me on blood money!” She stared back at him. Clearly not the answer she’d expected. Neither had Griffith. “T-that was centuries ago!” “And I no longer do what I used to! Can’t see you giving all your cash, all your family assets, to the needy to start fresh. Why should I?”
--
It was overall entertaining but I dnfed a couple of times because the characters were both annoying most of the times. I like the premise so much though and it helped me go through with finishing it.
I liked how Mark glorifies Griff and how he compares himself and his relationship to his dad's. It's obvious that he looks up to Domenico yet he's aware how he can't and won't be like him.
Griff's reasoning for not leaving Mark's crazy ass? "I will never find someone who will love me like he does" it's convincing and sad.. consistent with the kind of happy ending they got. (He was trembling while proposing in front of the mafia family lmfao).
haletostilinski1's review
5.0
I loved this tenth, and penultimate installment.
This was what I was looking for in the first book between Mark and Griffith (Griffith finding basically the whole truth) and now that I've read this one, it makes sense that the authors waited for a second book for Griffith to find out. The eighth book was them falling in love, and this one was seeing their relationship could survive being put through the wringer.
To say that Griffith doesn't take finding out more about Mark well would be an understatement. For a lot of these two are not in a good place, and their love and trust in each other is put to the test.
This book opens with things going well, and it's Halloween, and Griffith is planning to propose, but when he and Mark almost get abducted and Mark has to kill three men in front of Griffith to stop that from happening, things change in their relationship irrevocably.
Griffith, understandable, doesn't take it well. He was frustrating a few times throughout this, even as I understood his behavior and thoughts. But it was pretty black & white thinking for most of this and it was frustrating. But Griffith grew up in a pretty insulated world, where everything was handed to him on a silver platter and nothing all that bad - at least not the bad like what happens in Mark's world - happened to him.
But now Griffith is very much confronted with it in this. With death bodies, a lot of blood, and scare people - maybe even Mark himself. So he has to come to terms with Mark's work and who Mark sometimes has to become to deal with that world, or live in it.
As for Mark, he has been keeping most everything about the world he lived in with Dom and Seth a secret, that it's a hard habit to break, and he tries to continue to lie in this, and only give up as much as he can without giving everything away. But Griffith is no longer taking that, and doesn't give up his questioning, and Mark has to make the decision of telling him the whole truth or losing him.
Add to the fact that some men are after Mark (and Griffith by association) because of his connection to Dom and Seth, and things are tense, to say the least.
But through it all, there is no denying their connection to each other, and how much Mark and Griffith love each other.
Griffith just needs to ask himself if that love is enough to stay by Mark's side, and Mark has to ask himself if he's willing to let Griffith go if that's what Griffith wants.
I loved this book, I couldn't put it down. Mark and Griffith are different than Dom and Seth and I love that. I love Dom and Seth above all, but it's nice to get a different romantic dynamic in this series, and to see a relationship deal with one being in the Mafia by proxy and the other being "normal" and how a relationship gets through that, if they can.
I was happy how this ended, and I was happy to see Dom and Seth once again. I can't wait for the last installment in this amazing series (although I'm stills cared Federico will rape Dom once again with everything come to a head...I hope that doesn't happen because that would just be awful. I want to see Dom and Seth totally annihilate their enemies, whoever that may be. Here's hoping!)
Highly recommend this, especially if you enjoyed Mark and Griffith from the eighth installment. Two thumbs up from me!
This was what I was looking for in the first book between Mark and Griffith (Griffith finding basically the whole truth) and now that I've read this one, it makes sense that the authors waited for a second book for Griffith to find out. The eighth book was them falling in love, and this one was seeing their relationship could survive being put through the wringer.
To say that Griffith doesn't take finding out more about Mark well would be an understatement. For a lot of these two are not in a good place, and their love and trust in each other is put to the test.
This book opens with things going well, and it's Halloween, and Griffith is planning to propose, but when he and Mark almost get abducted and Mark has to kill three men in front of Griffith to stop that from happening, things change in their relationship irrevocably.
Griffith, understandable, doesn't take it well. He was frustrating a few times throughout this, even as I understood his behavior and thoughts. But it was pretty black & white thinking for most of this and it was frustrating. But Griffith grew up in a pretty insulated world, where everything was handed to him on a silver platter and nothing all that bad - at least not the bad like what happens in Mark's world - happened to him.
But now Griffith is very much confronted with it in this. With death bodies, a lot of blood, and scare people - maybe even Mark himself. So he has to come to terms with Mark's work and who Mark sometimes has to become to deal with that world, or live in it.
As for Mark, he has been keeping most everything about the world he lived in with Dom and Seth a secret, that it's a hard habit to break, and he tries to continue to lie in this, and only give up as much as he can without giving everything away. But Griffith is no longer taking that, and doesn't give up his questioning, and Mark has to make the decision of telling him the whole truth or losing him.
Add to the fact that some men are after Mark (and Griffith by association) because of his connection to Dom and Seth, and things are tense, to say the least.
But through it all, there is no denying their connection to each other, and how much Mark and Griffith love each other.
Griffith just needs to ask himself if that love is enough to stay by Mark's side, and Mark has to ask himself if he's willing to let Griffith go if that's what Griffith wants.
I loved this book, I couldn't put it down. Mark and Griffith are different than Dom and Seth and I love that. I love Dom and Seth above all, but it's nice to get a different romantic dynamic in this series, and to see a relationship deal with one being in the Mafia by proxy and the other being "normal" and how a relationship gets through that, if they can.
I was happy how this ended, and I was happy to see Dom and Seth once again. I can't wait for the last installment in this amazing series (although I'm stills cared Federico will rape Dom once again with everything come to a head...I hope that doesn't happen because that would just be awful. I want to see Dom and Seth totally annihilate their enemies, whoever that may be. Here's hoping!)
Highly recommend this, especially if you enjoyed Mark and Griffith from the eighth installment. Two thumbs up from me!
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