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Deadly Vows
Marriage--it's all about love and understanding and being with each other for the rest of your days. For Elise, it means something entirely different.
Thrown into a marriage on her father's orders, Elise isn't prepared to be married to the man known as Luca Pasquino. Luca is the next capo in line to take over his father's empire with an iron fist. He's cruel, he's evil, and he's ready to destroy anything and anyone that gets in the way of his plans for complete control.
Elise has no idea what is in store for her. All she knows is that she can try to survive her life for the rest of her days with Luca.
Update from I'm listening! In my zeal to tell my story, I relied on the expertise of others to ensure it went from my head to the printed page, which didn't go exactly as planned. Deadly Vows has now been re-edited to ensure the grammar and punctuation are now as they should be. Enjoy!
Thrown into a marriage on her father's orders, Elise isn't prepared to be married to the man known as Luca Pasquino. Luca is the next capo in line to take over his father's empire with an iron fist. He's cruel, he's evil, and he's ready to destroy anything and anyone that gets in the way of his plans for complete control.
Elise has no idea what is in store for her. All she knows is that she can try to survive her life for the rest of her days with Luca.
Update from I'm listening! In my zeal to tell my story, I relied on the expertise of others to ensure it went from my head to the printed page, which didn't go exactly as planned. Deadly Vows has now been re-edited to ensure the grammar and punctuation are now as they should be. Enjoy!
410 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 17, 2018
134 people are currently reading
2921 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 353 reviews
March 17, 2022
edited to please Luca's #1 fan (and pay tribute to my own character development over the past few years too 🤡): the hero of this book... Luca... is one of the bestest fictional man out there. His charisma knows no boundaries, and once you meet him... that's the moment when you reach the point of no return. 🤌🏻
You ever hear anyone state otherwise? The bitches be lying and slandering this innocent man for nothing! You've got your fair warning now. 🥺
*edited because I've got a reputation to maintain*💅🏻
HA-HA-HA. 😭 Nothing foreboded this little reality slap, but today I woke up to the comment on this old-ass review that encouraged me to reread the oldie goldie and guess what? I couldn't believe my own fucking eyes. What a hypocritical and lying bitch face I was 2 years ago. 🗿🚬
To cut a long story short: my lil conforming ass pretended that I hated this book passionately due to the psychopathic hero who:
💄beat the heroine viciously
💄cut her hair
💄raped her repeatedly
💄mutilated her
...in other words, did every trick in the psychopath's user manual. 🤷🏼♀️
Also, one of the biggest and fakest concerns I had expressed amounted to the fact that the heroine stayed with her abusive husband at the end.
As if she had a fucking choice in the matter. 🤡
I can only imagine the facial expression I had while I was writing down the following deep, indignation-soaked thought:
The hero was plain disgusting, a sadist who physically and mentally hurt the spineless heroine and her beloved ones throughout the whole book.
I still remember the real reasoning behind my single star rating. Lucky me. 🤡
✳️The heroine had no personality whatsoever, which made me bored to death. Where is the fun in watching someone break the broken. Her entire existence revolved around being a perfect whipping girl for her lovely husband Luca 😔
✳️Wattpad can boast of stories with better writing (claiming that the story didn't have a weirdly addictive quality to it would be a lie, though)
✳️The heroine got raped by the villainous another man 🥲
ANOTHER MAN DARED TO FUCKING QUESTION LUCA'S HARD-EARNED PLACE AT THE ALTAR OF VILLAINY. 😭
If it was the author's half-assed attempt at redemption arc for Luca, I have bad news for her dsjsjsjsjsj.
Anyway, I didn't expect such a turn of events and I was pissed the fuck off.
I would reread the story if only to see whether my perception is subject to change or not, but I know the rape by random villainous dude would most likely ruin the experience for me. The hero should have protected his plaything better. 💋
You ever hear anyone state otherwise? The bitches be lying and slandering this innocent man for nothing! You've got your fair warning now. 🥺
*edited because I've got a reputation to maintain*💅🏻
HA-HA-HA. 😭 Nothing foreboded this little reality slap, but today I woke up to the comment on this old-ass review that encouraged me to reread the oldie goldie and guess what? I couldn't believe my own fucking eyes. What a hypocritical and lying bitch face I was 2 years ago. 🗿🚬
To cut a long story short: my lil conforming ass pretended that I hated this book passionately due to the psychopathic hero who:
💄beat the heroine viciously
💄cut her hair
💄raped her repeatedly
💄mutilated her
...in other words, did every trick in the psychopath's user manual. 🤷🏼♀️
Also, one of the biggest and fakest concerns I had expressed amounted to the fact that the heroine stayed with her abusive husband at the end.
As if she had a fucking choice in the matter. 🤡
I can only imagine the facial expression I had while I was writing down the following deep, indignation-soaked thought:
The hero was plain disgusting, a sadist who physically and mentally hurt the spineless heroine and her beloved ones throughout the whole book.
I still remember the real reasoning behind my single star rating. Lucky me. 🤡
✳️The heroine had no personality whatsoever, which made me bored to death. Where is the fun in watching someone break the broken. Her entire existence revolved around being a perfect whipping girl for her lovely husband Luca 😔
✳️Wattpad can boast of stories with better writing (claiming that the story didn't have a weirdly addictive quality to it would be a lie, though)
✳️The heroine got raped by the villainous another man 🥲
ANOTHER MAN DARED TO FUCKING QUESTION LUCA'S HARD-EARNED PLACE AT THE ALTAR OF VILLAINY. 😭
If it was the author's half-assed attempt at redemption arc for Luca, I have bad news for her dsjsjsjsjsj.
Anyway, I didn't expect such a turn of events and I was pissed the fuck off.
I would reread the story if only to see whether my perception is subject to change or not, but I know the rape by random villainous dude would most likely ruin the experience for me. The hero should have protected his plaything better. 💋
December 21, 2020
This review popped up again since I recommended this to a friend, but I think this warrants more details, because it really be dark.
Y'all know I love assholes, right? Right. But Luca is not an asshole. He's an abusive, psychotic, absolutely irredeemable character. I don't think I've ever read about a character as obsessed as him. Elise was practically doomed the day she was promised to him LOL.
Some of the things he does to the heroine :
✨he beats her
✨hacks off her hair as punishment
✨rapes her
✨carves his name into her chest with a knife then rapes her bc she smiled at a waiter
✨tortures her for weeks bc she ran away from him
✨tortures her some more for trying to kill him (twice, i think)
✨stops her suicide attempt and threatens to kill her only living relative if she ever tries to commit suicide again
✨forces her to get pregnant (changes her medication without her knowledge)
All of this is only some of the things that happen in this book.
It gets darker, and darker, and darker still. What I mentioned isn't even the worst stuff to happen to the Elise (the h), so please, if you have any triggers, stay away from this.
Basically :
Original Review
ETA :if you're triggered by rape, non-con, abuse, if you have any trigger, run as far as you can from this book.
I'm an awful person. There you go, I said it.
What sane person can read this book and 5 star it? Personally, I think sanity is overrated. So there's that.
Luca Pasquino is the most AWFULhero villain monster I've ever read about.
If I ever come across a Luca Pasquino in my life, I'd *insert the most extreme thing one can do to get away from someone*.
In fiction, though, this girl enjoyed it (don't look at me like that, we've already established I'm a terrible person).
Y'all know I love assholes, right? Right. But Luca is not an asshole. He's an abusive, psychotic, absolutely irredeemable character. I don't think I've ever read about a character as obsessed as him. Elise was practically doomed the day she was promised to him LOL.
Some of the things he does to the heroine :
✨he beats her
✨hacks off her hair as punishment
✨rapes her
✨carves his name into her chest with a knife then rapes her bc she smiled at a waiter
✨tortures her for weeks bc she ran away from him
✨tortures her some more for trying to kill him (twice, i think)
✨stops her suicide attempt and threatens to kill her only living relative if she ever tries to commit suicide again
✨forces her to get pregnant (changes her medication without her knowledge)
All of this is only some of the things that happen in this book.
It gets darker, and darker, and darker still. What I mentioned isn't even the worst stuff to happen to the Elise (the h), so please, if you have any triggers, stay away from this.
Basically :
Luca Pasquino? Monster
Book? Dark
Mina? Sick
You? Proceed at your own risk
Hotel? Trivago
•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅✦❅✧──────❅•
Original Review
ETA :
I'm an awful person. There you go, I said it.
What sane person can read this book and 5 star it? Personally, I think sanity is overrated. So there's that.
Luca Pasquino is the most AWFUL
If I ever come across a Luca Pasquino in my life, I'd *insert the most extreme thing one can do to get away from someone*.
In fiction, though, this girl enjoyed it (don't look at me like that, we've already established I'm a terrible person).
February 27, 2024
✧ 5 'D A R K' stars ✧
what is the darkest book you’ve ever read? one with all the triggers possible? yea, now multiply it by 1000 and there, my angels, you have this book.
if you have any triggers, any at all, i would not recommend this book. but for ya’ll sick girls like me, giddy up!
some of the things he does to her:
these things are just a taste of the darkness of Luca. he has done far worse things to her, but um..
✧ beats her
✧ rapes her
✧ cuts off her hair as punishment
✧ tortures her because she tried to run away
✧ threatens to kill her only living relative if she ties to commit suicide again (she’s already tried once but he saves her)
✧ did i mention that he repeatedly beat and tortured her?
✧ physical mutilation– carves his name into her
✧ changes her medication without her permission and gets her pregnant
✧ did i mention the beatings? because those happened on a daily basis
even after all of this, my ass:
Luca is the most monstrous, irredeemable hero i have ever seen. but he did have somegood not so bad qualities like the fact that he was loyal to Elise, he never cheated and never even hinted at it. if anything, he did everything he could to keep the other girls at bay.
see, he was obsessed with Elise, and trust me when i say that her death certificate had been signed the moment he saw her in that room. and boy did i enjoy the fuck out of the book due to all of it.
but he did change. a lot. no wait, not a lot, but he did significantly change. after Elise gets kidnapped and shit, he is softer. he doesn’t treat her the way he used to and i loved that. i couldn’t possibly see how they’d fall in love, but i think somewhere in the end, i understood what she was feeling and how she fell in love. she had to go through something worse than Luca which made her stronger and made her see Luca in a slightly different light. and then ofc, their baby boy, his coming along changed things too.
"The big bad capo crying about his wife’s fate?"
i know rating this book 5 stars possibly makes me deranged and sick, but i honestly don’t care. i never claimed to be sane.
overall, i loved this book and would recommend it to people with no triggers.
'People say that when you die, your whole life flashes before your eyes. My life does. my love, my wife, my life. Elise'
what is the darkest book you’ve ever read? one with all the triggers possible? yea, now multiply it by 1000 and there, my angels, you have this book.
if you have any triggers, any at all, i would not recommend this book. but for ya’ll sick girls like me, giddy up!
some of the things he does to her:
these things are just a taste of the darkness of Luca. he has done far worse things to her, but um..
✧ beats her
✧ rapes her
✧ cuts off her hair as punishment
✧ tortures her because she tried to run away
✧ threatens to kill her only living relative if she ties to commit suicide again (she’s already tried once but he saves her)
✧ did i mention that he repeatedly beat and tortured her?
✧ physical mutilation– carves his name into her
✧ changes her medication without her permission and gets her pregnant
✧ did i mention the beatings? because those happened on a daily basis
even after all of this, my ass:
Luca is the most monstrous, irredeemable hero i have ever seen. but he did have some
see, he was obsessed with Elise, and trust me when i say that her death certificate had been signed the moment he saw her in that room. and boy did i enjoy the fuck out of the book due to all of it.
but he did change. a lot. no wait, not a lot, but he did significantly change. after Elise gets kidnapped and shit, he is softer. he doesn’t treat her the way he used to and i loved that. i couldn’t possibly see how they’d fall in love, but i think somewhere in the end, i understood what she was feeling and how she fell in love. she had to go through something worse than Luca which made her stronger and made her see Luca in a slightly different light. and then ofc, their baby boy, his coming along changed things too.
"The big bad capo crying about his wife’s fate?"
i know rating this book 5 stars possibly makes me deranged and sick, but i honestly don’t care. i never claimed to be sane.
overall, i loved this book and would recommend it to people with no triggers.
'People say that when you die, your whole life flashes before your eyes. My life does. my love, my wife, my life. Elise'
March 10, 2021
as of now....... all i’ll say is-
STAY AWAY FROM THIS TRIGGERING MESS OF A BOOK — literally, if you have any triggers at ALL and think this can’t possibly be thaaat bad..
Listen, i have my own triggers too but i went into this being well aware of all the crazy psychotic dark shit that takes place in this book so believe me when i say i took months to mentally prepare myself for this (don’t ask why i bothered bc i don’t have an answer to that. i guess 2021 me has ‘fuck IT’ written on her forehead)
mental state before reading:
mental state throughout reading:
mental state after reading:
NOTE! (trust me it’s necessary):
but if you’re a masochist, be my guest~
𝗥𝗧𝗖 𝗙𝗢’𝗦𝗛𝗢
**********x***********x**********
just wanna see how many times my body will flinch
STAY AWAY FROM THIS TRIGGERING MESS OF A BOOK — literally, if you have any triggers at ALL and think this can’t possibly be thaaat bad..
Listen, i have my own triggers too but i went into this being well aware of all the crazy psychotic dark shit that takes place in this book so believe me when i say i took months to mentally prepare myself for this (don’t ask why i bothered bc i don’t have an answer to that. i guess 2021 me has ‘fuck IT’ written on her forehead)
mental state before reading:
mental state throughout reading:
mental state after reading:
NOTE! (trust me it’s necessary):
❤︎ H violently and aggressively tortures h
❤︎ H rapes h numerous times
❤︎ H carves his name onto h’s skin
❤︎ H messes w her birth control shots
but if you’re a masochist, be my guest~
𝗥𝗧𝗖 𝗙𝗢’𝗦𝗛𝗢
**********x***********x**********
just wanna see how many times my body will flinch
September 27, 2021
2.5 stars.
i really said, fuck it, and went ahead and just did that—subjected myself to one of the sickest, most depraved, arranged marriage novels ever. to the whims of one of the cruelest, vilest and villainous villains ever. one whose morals are non-existent. a mob leader whose obsession knows no limit. a bona fide psycho. and his innocent, if not naïve, wife.
and i have a terrible proclivity for terrible anti-heroes who do terrible things all in the name of lust, love and obsession.
exhibit a : *one-clicking this shit so fast my fingers jarred*
exhibit b, c, d, e, and f ᵁ ᶜ ᴷ ᴹ ᴱ : finishing my reading it.
inherently, it is d a r k.
no, scratch that, it is p i t c h f u c k i n g b l a c k.
it is born and written of a nature so naturally—incredibly realistically—brimful of abuse, murder, rape, torture, violence, etc. it is something else entirely and, by all means, a brand of dark erotica perpetually stuck in its darkest blackest hour. it is gruesome and gut-wrenching. made of the worst nightmares.
i vacillated between feeling so utterly disturbed by it, drowning in the craziest adrenaline rush because of it, and wanting to just up and quit the entire thing because it fast got boring, dull, and the the writing? just…nope, no, thank you.
‘We don’t have that tender, timid, lovey-dovey kind of love. Our love is a compulsion. A need. A dark and twisted obsession between us that no one can understand but us.’
i, uh, never liked that timid, lovey-dovey kind of love anyway.
i really said, fuck it, and went ahead and just did that—subjected myself to one of the sickest, most depraved, arranged marriage novels ever. to the whims of one of the cruelest, vilest and villainous villains ever. one whose morals are non-existent. a mob leader whose obsession knows no limit. a bona fide psycho. and his innocent, if not naïve, wife.
“I’m a terrible person.”
and i have a terrible proclivity for terrible anti-heroes who do terrible things all in the name of lust, love and obsession.
exhibit a : *one-clicking this shit so fast my fingers jarred*
exhibit b, c, d, e, and f ᵁ ᶜ ᴷ ᴹ ᴱ : finishing my reading it.
inherently, it is d a r k.
no, scratch that, it is p i t c h f u c k i n g b l a c k.
it is born and written of a nature so naturally—incredibly realistically—brimful of abuse, murder, rape, torture, violence, etc. it is something else entirely and, by all means, a brand of dark erotica perpetually stuck in its darkest blackest hour. it is gruesome and gut-wrenching. made of the worst nightmares.
i vacillated between feeling so utterly disturbed by it, drowning in the craziest adrenaline rush because of it, and wanting to just up and quit the entire thing because it fast got boring, dull, and the the writing? just…nope, no, thank you.
‘We don’t have that tender, timid, lovey-dovey kind of love. Our love is a compulsion. A need. A dark and twisted obsession between us that no one can understand but us.’
i, uh, never liked that timid, lovey-dovey kind of love anyway.
March 13, 2022
2.75 stars 🔪
This book was one of the most brutal and traumatizing books I've ever read. The way the heroine was treated by her husband was horrifying yet I couldn't put this book down? It's a very confusing feeling
Elise (h) is the daughter of the capo of the South that is arranged to marry Luca (H) the capo of the North. Luca has a reputation to be one of the most brutal men in America. He doesn't care if you're a man or a woman...he will torture and kill you all the same 🥰 #equalrights
spoilers below 🤧
At first, Luca has Elise convinced that he's not the worst man possible. He's sweet to her and gentle...until Luca's OW (Jessica) makes an appearance. Elise saved this women's life at their engagement part when she showed up unannounced, but Jessica doesn't care about her life. She shows at Luca and Elise's house after Elise got Luca to spare her life YET again.
Despite, Luca allowing her to live, Elise doesn't go unpunished. Why this girl Elise is trying to save the life of some girl that attacked her I will never know. Luca did NOT appreciate this open defiance, so he rapes Elise and chops her hair off knowing she's literally obsessed with it.
How does Elise respond to Luca hitting and raping her you may ask??? Oh... SHE'S ONLY UPSET ABOUT HIM CUTTING HER HAIR OFF! GIRL TELL ME YOU ARE JOKING RIGHT NOW?!
Can you believe this only gets worse 💀 Well Elise and Luca got out to the restaurant. For whatever reason I don't care to remember, Elise runs into this waiter after leaving the bathroom crying. Well the waiter was very sweet to her so she smiled at him which is a very normal human response to someone being sweet to you, I imagine. Well, Luca OF COURSE doesn't like this so he drags her out of there and home.
Luca wants to now remind Elise who she belongs to so he carves his name into her skin. This relationship is so healthy 😍
But I must admit, Luca has his moments where he's really sweet. In his inner thoughts, he constantly acknowledges Elise's beauty and how he would do anything for her. He even tells her sometimes—
OOPS WRONG QUOTE HOLD UP–
OKAY WAIT THAT'S STILL NOT IT–
Yanno what, I'll just leave it at that because I realized I did not mark a single moment where Luca said anything sweet or nice. I'm sure he did, but whatevs.
Elise also discovers that Luca murdered her mom when she was 4 years old and beat her unconscious body so he could become a 'made man' 🤠
I must mention that Luca had really good character development and so did Elise. Elise at one point is kidnapped and sold to the highest bidder. And well...you can imagine how that goes. She realizes that even though Luca is cruel to her, he knows when to stop because he loves her. The "man" that bought her didn't give a shit about her.
Elise's kidnapping changed both of them. Elise becomes strong, whereas before, she couldn't even stand the site of blood. One of my favorite scenes of hers is when Elise decided to kill the man that bought her 🥰
Luca becomes super sweet to Elise. He always tells her he'll be there to protect her no matter what and he doesn't hit her anymore or rape her (bare minimum ofc). Unknowing to Luca and Elise, Elise was pregnant at the time of her kidnapping, with Luca's baby. Elise knew the baby was his, but Luca was skeptical. Still, Luca acknowledged that he loved Elise with everything and if that meant raising another "man's" baby, it's a sacrifice he's willing to take.
I realized I did nothing to justify giving this book 3 stars rather than the 1 it deserves but yanno, I love messy and irredeemable heroes that somehow redeem themselves 😈
This book was one of the most brutal and traumatizing books I've ever read. The way the heroine was treated by her husband was horrifying yet I couldn't put this book down? It's a very confusing feeling
Elise (h) is the daughter of the capo of the South that is arranged to marry Luca (H) the capo of the North. Luca has a reputation to be one of the most brutal men in America. He doesn't care if you're a man or a woman...he will torture and kill you all the same 🥰 #equalrights
spoilers below 🤧
At first, Luca has Elise convinced that he's not the worst man possible. He's sweet to her and gentle...until Luca's OW (Jessica) makes an appearance. Elise saved this women's life at their engagement part when she showed up unannounced, but Jessica doesn't care about her life. She shows at Luca and Elise's house after Elise got Luca to spare her life YET again.
Despite, Luca allowing her to live, Elise doesn't go unpunished. Why this girl Elise is trying to save the life of some girl that attacked her I will never know. Luca did NOT appreciate this open defiance, so he rapes Elise and chops her hair off knowing she's literally obsessed with it.
Luca throws me down on the ground, and my face collides with the carpet. I can feel as he pulls on my strands, a giant wad, and as the echo of the scissors cutting sounds, the grip he has on my hair loosens. Strands fall on each side of my face. Long strands.
How does Elise respond to Luca hitting and raping her you may ask??? Oh... SHE'S ONLY UPSET ABOUT HIM CUTTING HER HAIR OFF! GIRL TELL ME YOU ARE JOKING RIGHT NOW?!
Can you believe this only gets worse 💀 Well Elise and Luca got out to the restaurant. For whatever reason I don't care to remember, Elise runs into this waiter after leaving the bathroom crying. Well the waiter was very sweet to her so she smiled at him which is a very normal human response to someone being sweet to you, I imagine. Well, Luca OF COURSE doesn't like this so he drags her out of there and home.
“You want someone else, is that it? You want to belong to someone else? Would you rather go and fuck that waiter than me?” he shouts at me.
Luca wants to now remind Elise who she belongs to so he carves his name into her skin. This relationship is so healthy 😍
But I must admit, Luca has his moments where he's really sweet. In his inner thoughts, he constantly acknowledges Elise's beauty and how he would do anything for her. He even tells her sometimes—
“I want to kill you so badly.”
OOPS WRONG QUOTE HOLD UP–
“You want to know what I love more than your tears?...Your screams.”
OKAY WAIT THAT'S STILL NOT IT–
Yanno what, I'll just leave it at that because I realized I did not mark a single moment where Luca said anything sweet or nice. I'm sure he did, but whatevs.
Elise also discovers that Luca murdered her mom when she was 4 years old and beat her unconscious body so he could become a 'made man' 🤠
I must mention that Luca had really good character development and so did Elise. Elise at one point is kidnapped and sold to the highest bidder. And well...you can imagine how that goes. She realizes that even though Luca is cruel to her, he knows when to stop because he loves her. The "man" that bought her didn't give a shit about her.
Elise's kidnapping changed both of them. Elise becomes strong, whereas before, she couldn't even stand the site of blood. One of my favorite scenes of hers is when Elise decided to kill the man that bought her 🥰
She places the garden shears over his penis and, in one swift movement, pushes the blades close, severing the organ.
...I stare at Elise in horror. She is still watching him. Her head is tilted slightly to the side, and I swear I can see the ghost of a smile cross her lips as she watches the bastard writhe in pain.
→IM SCREAMING EVEN LUCA WAS LIKE DAMN THIS GIRL IS SCARY AF 🤣
Luca becomes super sweet to Elise. He always tells her he'll be there to protect her no matter what and he doesn't hit her anymore or rape her (bare minimum ofc). Unknowing to Luca and Elise, Elise was pregnant at the time of her kidnapping, with Luca's baby. Elise knew the baby was his, but Luca was skeptical. Still, Luca acknowledged that he loved Elise with everything and if that meant raising another "man's" baby, it's a sacrifice he's willing to take.
I realized I did nothing to justify giving this book 3 stars rather than the 1 it deserves but yanno, I love messy and irredeemable heroes that somehow redeem themselves 😈
January 28, 2021
Ok here are the pros:
I will say this was entertaining in a white trashy soap opera kind of way. Like that train wreck you just can’t look away from. I thought the growth of both the H, h and their relationship was interesting. And Luca is a fantastic multidimensional character. I’m not sure why people were baffled to like and/or fall in love with Luca. If it wasn’t for the sadistic psychotic cold blooded violence, he’s actually kinda perfect. If nothing else, he’s carrying this whole book on his shoulders.
Now here’s the bad, I went back and forth on my stars for this. I settled on three because even though I found so much wrong with this story, it kept my attention until the end.
I hate to do this and I’m sorry to my lovely friends that thoroughly enjoyed (even if they hate to admit it lol) but I’m about to tear it apart.
I’m assuming this writer is young because it shows. Not to nitpick, but they did say this book had been re-edited. By who? A monkey? Because I’m three chapters in and it’s riddled with mistakes. Just saying.
Where in gods name is your self preservation? God she’s an idiot, figure it out sweetheart. I’m sorry but I can’t feel sorry for a moron. I know I’m all for a strong woman with a backbone but this man is insane. There is no standing up for yourself. There is no fighting back. There is only survival.
Don’t be afraid of the dark. Be afraid of the monster in the dark. You know, the one you’re clinging to?
This writer really needs to start doing research. First I’m pretty sure most people know what a silencer is. Second, it’s not a type of gun, it’s a piece you can add to a gun.
“What can possibly make a man like Luca cry? I have no idea.” -Are we serious right now? Did we not go into how much he adored his father? Did he not just return from his father’s funeral? Are you really asking that question? Does the writer have the memory of a goldfish?
Honestly this showed hints of goodness in the writing when it was violent. Those were the best parts, they had the most clarity.
If there’s one nice thing you can say about Luca, it’s that he’s not sexist. He proves it based on his disgust with sex trafficking but also he never treated her any different than a man. In fact while reading this it almost felt like he was training her to be made.
Well honey, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.
I will say this was entertaining in a white trashy soap opera kind of way. Like that train wreck you just can’t look away from. I thought the growth of both the H, h and their relationship was interesting. And Luca is a fantastic multidimensional character. I’m not sure why people were baffled to like and/or fall in love with Luca. If it wasn’t for the sadistic psychotic cold blooded violence, he’s actually kinda perfect. If nothing else, he’s carrying this whole book on his shoulders.
Now here’s the bad, I went back and forth on my stars for this. I settled on three because even though I found so much wrong with this story, it kept my attention until the end.
I hate to do this and I’m sorry to my lovely friends that thoroughly enjoyed (even if they hate to admit it lol) but I’m about to tear it apart.
I’m assuming this writer is young because it shows. Not to nitpick, but they did say this book had been re-edited. By who? A monkey? Because I’m three chapters in and it’s riddled with mistakes. Just saying.
Where in gods name is your self preservation? God she’s an idiot, figure it out sweetheart. I’m sorry but I can’t feel sorry for a moron. I know I’m all for a strong woman with a backbone but this man is insane. There is no standing up for yourself. There is no fighting back. There is only survival.
Don’t be afraid of the dark. Be afraid of the monster in the dark. You know, the one you’re clinging to?
This writer really needs to start doing research. First I’m pretty sure most people know what a silencer is. Second, it’s not a type of gun, it’s a piece you can add to a gun.
“What can possibly make a man like Luca cry? I have no idea.” -Are we serious right now? Did we not go into how much he adored his father? Did he not just return from his father’s funeral? Are you really asking that question? Does the writer have the memory of a goldfish?
Honestly this showed hints of goodness in the writing when it was violent. Those were the best parts, they had the most clarity.
If there’s one nice thing you can say about Luca, it’s that he’s not sexist. He proves it based on his disgust with sex trafficking but also he never treated her any different than a man. In fact while reading this it almost felt like he was training her to be made.
Well honey, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.
January 17, 2021
"Interfere with my affairs ever again, and I will break your pretty little jaw. Understood?”
YOU GUYS ARE NOT READY FOR LUCA FUCKING PASQUINO!!!!
I PROMISE.....WHATEVER BOUNDARIES YOU THINK YOU HAVE HE WILL DECIMATE IT! HE IS THE MOST PSYCHOTIC ANTI HERO I EVER READ ABOUT!
TRIGGER WARNING::
THE ENTIRE FUCKING BOOK!
Now we got that out of the way let’s jump into this masterpiece!
"Luca is the epitome of perfection. His face is beautiful, as is his body. But his mind and psyche are not."
This book is Dark and I’m not talking about the regular dark romance. I’m talking about the type of dark that pushes you pass your comfort zone and makes you question your morals. It’s not for everyone and that’s fine, If you’re not into DR or have any triggers regarding any type of Abuse then this book is not for you so save yourself some time and skip this one. However, if you’re one of the dark ones like myself who enjoys being uncomfortable while reading then I highly recommend!!!
Meet Elise.
She was forced into marriage to the notorious Luca Pasquino, the next capo of the North Mob and soon to be the most powerful man in America.
From the first moment they interacted I knew that this was going to be good. Then the fist time she disobeyed him.......I was at the edge of my fucking seat.
Elise was very very naive in the fist 50% of the book but her development in the later half was done extremely well. She was no longer the lamb being led to slaughter and I loved that she was finally able to fight back! It was done slowly but her character was developed really well and I was able to appreciate it more than if it was rushed. I think that she displayed strength at the perfect time to add to the overall story.
"You … shot … me …” He looks at me and still has no emotion on his face. I can feel my heavy tears running down the side of my face, over my temples, soaking my hair. “I only shot through you. I made sure to miss any main arteries.”
Meet Luca:
He’s fucking deranged, unhinged, unstable, demented, certifiable, disturbed and every other word to describe how insane he is!
He was also forced into the marriage with Elise so he resents it and her.
He holds all the cards for 70% of the book and oh does he know how to use them. He plays with Elise like he’s a puppet master. He’s brutal in his love for her and you spend half the time wondering if he truly loves her because of the level of abuse he’s willing to inflict. Not until you get his POV do you get to see a....not softer because there’s nothing soft about him, but a different side to his madness.
This story follows the North Mob and how outside forces are trying to eradicate them. Elise’s family also has a lot to do with it but I’m trying to keep it spoiler free so I’m choosing to not go into details about the plot.
It’s been SO LONG since I’ve read an actual dark romance. This book made me remember why I love DR so much.
"Luc—ahhh!” I am cut off as agonizing pain rips through my side. Luca is dragging his blade down the side of my body. I can feel the blood trickling down my side. I try to move, but Luca is holding me down. He finally picks up the blade. “Whom do you belong to?”
The only reason I’m not giving this a 5 star is because I could not get pass the grammatical errors, spelling, incomplete sentences and the wording. This is the author debut novel and I got the re-edited version but it’s still a mess.
Also the sex.....if you’re writing a book that’s so dark then you need to make the sex scenes extremely hot to be able to balance it all out. The disconnect for me happened when I was reading the sex scenes because of the wording. This book literally contains mutilation and murder but your can’t add filthy words or use the correct names for sex organs? Every sex scene was "he thrusted into me and I peaked with pleasure”. I’m sorry but what is this?????
After all the shit Luca did I don’t think you should of held back in this aspect. It took so much away from the story.
So that’s it guys, I did enjoy the book and it’s deliciously dark and extremely entertaining but my rating stands 4/5.
I think this author is talented and I think she can be a force in the DR world because she’s not afraid to push boundaries. I hope she continues writing so raw and unfiltered. She just needs to work with more experienced editors and get some honest betas.
I think you guys should definitely check it out but PLEASE READ THE WARNINGS!
"Love is a strange thing. It makes you do strange things. In my case, it makes you kill."
YOU GUYS ARE NOT READY FOR LUCA FUCKING PASQUINO!!!!
I PROMISE.....WHATEVER BOUNDARIES YOU THINK YOU HAVE HE WILL DECIMATE IT! HE IS THE MOST PSYCHOTIC ANTI HERO I EVER READ ABOUT!
TRIGGER WARNING::
THE ENTIRE FUCKING BOOK!
Now we got that out of the way let’s jump into this masterpiece!
"Luca is the epitome of perfection. His face is beautiful, as is his body. But his mind and psyche are not."
This book is Dark and I’m not talking about the regular dark romance. I’m talking about the type of dark that pushes you pass your comfort zone and makes you question your morals. It’s not for everyone and that’s fine, If you’re not into DR or have any triggers regarding any type of Abuse then this book is not for you so save yourself some time and skip this one. However, if you’re one of the dark ones like myself who enjoys being uncomfortable while reading then I highly recommend!!!
Meet Elise.
She was forced into marriage to the notorious Luca Pasquino, the next capo of the North Mob and soon to be the most powerful man in America.
From the first moment they interacted I knew that this was going to be good. Then the fist time she disobeyed him.......I was at the edge of my fucking seat.
Elise was very very naive in the fist 50% of the book but her development in the later half was done extremely well. She was no longer the lamb being led to slaughter and I loved that she was finally able to fight back! It was done slowly but her character was developed really well and I was able to appreciate it more than if it was rushed. I think that she displayed strength at the perfect time to add to the overall story.
"You … shot … me …” He looks at me and still has no emotion on his face. I can feel my heavy tears running down the side of my face, over my temples, soaking my hair. “I only shot through you. I made sure to miss any main arteries.”
Meet Luca:
He’s fucking deranged, unhinged, unstable, demented, certifiable, disturbed and every other word to describe how insane he is!
He was also forced into the marriage with Elise so he resents it and her.
He holds all the cards for 70% of the book and oh does he know how to use them. He plays with Elise like he’s a puppet master. He’s brutal in his love for her and you spend half the time wondering if he truly loves her because of the level of abuse he’s willing to inflict. Not until you get his POV do you get to see a....not softer because there’s nothing soft about him, but a different side to his madness.
This story follows the North Mob and how outside forces are trying to eradicate them. Elise’s family also has a lot to do with it but I’m trying to keep it spoiler free so I’m choosing to not go into details about the plot.
It’s been SO LONG since I’ve read an actual dark romance. This book made me remember why I love DR so much.
"Luc—ahhh!” I am cut off as agonizing pain rips through my side. Luca is dragging his blade down the side of my body. I can feel the blood trickling down my side. I try to move, but Luca is holding me down. He finally picks up the blade. “Whom do you belong to?”
The only reason I’m not giving this a 5 star is because I could not get pass the grammatical errors, spelling, incomplete sentences and the wording. This is the author debut novel and I got the re-edited version but it’s still a mess.
Also the sex.....if you’re writing a book that’s so dark then you need to make the sex scenes extremely hot to be able to balance it all out. The disconnect for me happened when I was reading the sex scenes because of the wording. This book literally contains mutilation and murder but your can’t add filthy words or use the correct names for sex organs? Every sex scene was "he thrusted into me and I peaked with pleasure”. I’m sorry but what is this?????
After all the shit Luca did I don’t think you should of held back in this aspect. It took so much away from the story.
So that’s it guys, I did enjoy the book and it’s deliciously dark and extremely entertaining but my rating stands 4/5.
I think this author is talented and I think she can be a force in the DR world because she’s not afraid to push boundaries. I hope she continues writing so raw and unfiltered. She just needs to work with more experienced editors and get some honest betas.
I think you guys should definitely check it out but PLEASE READ THE WARNINGS!
"Love is a strange thing. It makes you do strange things. In my case, it makes you kill."
March 24, 2021
This was so entertaining. I mean fucked up (obviously) but also, entertaining. I'm pretty sure Elise didn't have a personality aside from playing the violin, but that's okay bc Luca was BURSTING with it. I knew this trainwreck of a book was gonna be a fun time when Luca called her into a room he was torturing someone in and manically told her to play any song she wanted on her violin, and if the man he was torturing recognized it he got to live, so Elise awkwardly started playing Mary Had a Little Lamb and Luca just stopped what he was doing and turned to look at her like
AND I WAS JUST *wheezing* like
When it comes to evil characters, I always like it when they're happy psychopaths instead of broody psychopaths. The villain was the love interest in this and what makes an entertaining villain? Zero fucks to be had and a whole bunch of flagrant glee as he dishes out misery like he's never had a better time in his entire life.
“Don’t move, baby. You could rupture something if you keep moving.”
I take deep, quick breaths. “You … shot … me …”
“I only shot through you. I made sure to miss any main arteries.”
Luca as he says this:
The man is... insane
“You have a pattern, Elise. Every morning after you shower, you brush your hair. Twenty-three times on the left and twenty-three strokes on the right. Before you go to bed, you brush your hair. Fifteen strokes on the left and fifteen strokes on the right.” He raises the scissors, and my brain finally connects the dots. “I love your hair. So thick and soft and long. But you know who else loves it? You do.”
I actually liked Elise. She is prob how someone would realistically act if stuck in that situation. Talking back or acts of heroism are not in the cards w Luca, just put your head down and stay alive. I also liked her frank assessments on Luca's mental state, and the fact that when these other women come at her bc they want him she's just like.... are you bitches okay?? he's a psychopath. take him. pls.
In the end she was kind of just the channel in which we viewed Luca, he was the star and he carried the show. So while I didn't feel that connected to Elise, I was glad she wasn't annoying and her inner commentary was on point. I'm also pretty disappointed in myself for thinking it was cute he tattooed her name over his heart. He honestly had a lot of cute qualities (faithfulness, devotion) and there was something almost childlike about him but also.... he should've died 😂 He was just so goddamn awful. The fact that she had to be kidnapped by someone somehow worse than him in order to love him truly disturbs me. The poor girl had no fucking chance
Overall, this book was not good (and got progressively worse as it went on), but in the end, this is not the kind of book you pick up when you're in the mood for quality. It's the book you pick up when you're in the mood to shock your system through sheer unholiness. Like if you mixed the Real Housewives, Fatal Attraction, and I Spit on Your Grave, you'd get this book. It became very repetitive and there were a lot of inconstancies and stupid shit going on plot-wise that I'm choosing to skip over mentioning bc honestly, this book isn't that deep and I don't want to spend my time elaborating, so really, just read this at your own risk
AND I WAS JUST *wheezing* like
When it comes to evil characters, I always like it when they're happy psychopaths instead of broody psychopaths. The villain was the love interest in this and what makes an entertaining villain? Zero fucks to be had and a whole bunch of flagrant glee as he dishes out misery like he's never had a better time in his entire life.
“Don’t move, baby. You could rupture something if you keep moving.”
I take deep, quick breaths. “You … shot … me …”
“I only shot through you. I made sure to miss any main arteries.”
Luca as he says this:
The man is... insane
“You have a pattern, Elise. Every morning after you shower, you brush your hair. Twenty-three times on the left and twenty-three strokes on the right. Before you go to bed, you brush your hair. Fifteen strokes on the left and fifteen strokes on the right.” He raises the scissors, and my brain finally connects the dots. “I love your hair. So thick and soft and long. But you know who else loves it? You do.”
I actually liked Elise. She is prob how someone would realistically act if stuck in that situation. Talking back or acts of heroism are not in the cards w Luca, just put your head down and stay alive. I also liked her frank assessments on Luca's mental state, and the fact that when these other women come at her bc they want him she's just like.... are you bitches okay?? he's a psychopath. take him. pls.
In the end she was kind of just the channel in which we viewed Luca, he was the star and he carried the show. So while I didn't feel that connected to Elise, I was glad she wasn't annoying and her inner commentary was on point. I'm also pretty disappointed in myself for thinking it was cute he tattooed her name over his heart. He honestly had a lot of cute qualities (faithfulness, devotion) and there was something almost childlike about him but also.... he should've died 😂 He was just so goddamn awful. The fact that she had to be kidnapped by someone somehow worse than him in order to love him truly disturbs me. The poor girl had no fucking chance
Overall, this book was not good (and got progressively worse as it went on), but in the end, this is not the kind of book you pick up when you're in the mood for quality. It's the book you pick up when you're in the mood to shock your system through sheer unholiness. Like if you mixed the Real Housewives, Fatal Attraction, and I Spit on Your Grave, you'd get this book. It became very repetitive and there were a lot of inconstancies and stupid shit going on plot-wise that I'm choosing to skip over mentioning bc honestly, this book isn't that deep and I don't want to spend my time elaborating, so really, just read this at your own risk
February 10, 2025
If you’re thinking of taking a risk reading this book think twice. Especially if you can’t handle dark “romance” cause this one was heavy on the dark and light on the romance.
August 27, 2023
9/26/2023 UPDATE: Deadly Vows series is being rewritten and polished Kindle Vella (!?)
I subscribed to Haley's Patreon this month to try to read the next Deadly Vows book but immediately gave up after it took me too long to figure out how to read the chapters, and was getting a little letdown by the hero being immediately infatuated with the quirky dressing grouchy heroine who, of course, is working at a bakery.
However, I would get Vella just to soldier on. Reading on Patreon is hard to get used to.
2/5/2022 UPDATE: FULL REVIEW.
I enjoyed Deadly Vows so here's a review with more thoughts :)
I was skimming Danielle Lori's The Sweetest Oblivion, which I DNF as it was too sweet for me, but I started Deadly Vows at around the same time but also put it down because I was worried this was going to be another "big bad mafia don" with "good girl mafia princess" and I don't generally vibe with the "picture-perfect good girl" heroines. Similar to the ice queen society girl. What can I say, perfection just doesn't interest me.
However, I gave it an honest go and it picks up *fast* In fact, Deadly Vows is like a periodical or a serial. The first half of the book is Elise witnessing or experiencing violent acts by Luca, each act worsening in horror. Luca reminds me of a bodice ripper villain. There was no humanizing of Luca by Elise's POV or his own POV, and I liked that. There is no blurry edge between obsessive love and hate. Luca sees no conflict in his actions and his love for Elise.
At times, it does seem as though he may be emotionally stunted, because Elise constantly reels back with confusion about Luca. She wants to be loved but doesn't see in Luca's actions any love, despite his obsession for her. She doesn't understand how Luca can love her, want to protect her, but then backhand her, intimidate her into submission.
If Deadly Vows was just violence against the heroine, it would have been a bit repetitious, but the political intrigues gets twisty.By the time Elise is abducted, I was Team Deadly Vows. I completely gave in to the story. Elise begins to move on past the sheltered girl. She develops from her idealistic innocence to becoming stronger, thoughtful, even as her mental health deteriorates from her trauma.
She is stronger in that she saves herself.
She is thoughtful and her POV becomes more interesting:
On Luca, she thinks, "He is fucked up. And that is the fault of this family we have both been born into. It is his job to be fucked up. Being the capo, you can't be soft and sane. You have to be hard and maniacal. Being with Alexander, I've seen firsthand the type of people he deals with. Luca has been protecting me from people like that. i know he has been way overboard with me for no justifable reason, but with everything that I have been through, just the thought of being near him, near safety, makes me feel comforted."
And... "Luca isn't a good man, that I know, but he has good tendencies... But I know the good tendencies must be something his mother has instilled in him. He is a mix of both of his parents, and he's been with his father the majority of his life. But now that his father is gone, he has moments when he looks at me with so much love that I almost forget the hell that he has dragged me through. Almost. And I have his mother to thank for that."
Her ruminations on her survival as a mafia wife are also poignant.
Luca doesn't necessarily become more thoughtful, but his loyalty to Elise is never in question, even as he backhands/chokes her at times. But he never loses faith or is persuaded to go against her. Major points for this.
Truth is, Haley Stuart never redeems Luca, but shows a realistic portrayal of what it must be like to live a criminal life. I really liked this argument they had where he tells Elise:
"Elise, you act like I chose to be this way." He finally looks over to me, and I am shocked to see the hurt in his eyes. "You act like I was born into a normal family, with normal parents, with normal jobs, and i just chose to grow up and be this way. You act like the world is filled with nothing but love and rainbows."
He gives a bitter chuckle before continuing.
"Well, I hate to be the one to bear the bad news, babe, but it's not. We live in a world where such a thing called the Mafia exists, and I was the lucky bastard born into leading it. And you were born into it also. Except you led a nice little life where your biggest problem was your father not paying attention to you. my biggest problem was shooting someone in the neck instead of the head because if I kept them alive, it was my life on the line. My biggest problem was learning to interrogate people, hurt people, kill people because it was my duty to my family. And if I didn't, I was beat and starved by my father."
They have great arguments like this.
And Luca's POV also becomes humourous towards the end. Understandably, Elise is traumatized from her experiences and sticks to Luca:
"I literally have to give her a pep talk for three minutes just so she'll let me use the bathroom. She hates being alone, and she trusts no one but me."
I'm always a sucker for a doormat turned strong(ish) heroine. And I respect that Luca is a complete villain. The romantic logic of their romance, twisted absolutely, made sense to me. Very satisfying love story.
RTC. 4.5 rounded up. As other reviewers said, about halfway through, this just clicks. I was surprised by how invested I got into the plot and cared about how the characters were going to get out of the next jam. It is romance. It might not be cuddly but there is introspection on the relationship where both characters mature and have HEA.
I have a lot more to share about this but the big question is - their kid is having their own book, right?! That bonus chapter got me wanting the next book now!
I subscribed to Haley's Patreon this month to try to read the next Deadly Vows book but immediately gave up after it took me too long to figure out how to read the chapters, and was getting a little letdown by the hero being immediately infatuated with the quirky dressing grouchy heroine who, of course, is working at a bakery.
However, I would get Vella just to soldier on. Reading on Patreon is hard to get used to.
2/5/2022 UPDATE: FULL REVIEW.
I enjoyed Deadly Vows so here's a review with more thoughts :)
I was skimming Danielle Lori's The Sweetest Oblivion, which I DNF as it was too sweet for me, but I started Deadly Vows at around the same time but also put it down because I was worried this was going to be another "big bad mafia don" with "good girl mafia princess" and I don't generally vibe with the "picture-perfect good girl" heroines. Similar to the ice queen society girl. What can I say, perfection just doesn't interest me.
However, I gave it an honest go and it picks up *fast* In fact, Deadly Vows is like a periodical or a serial. The first half of the book is Elise witnessing or experiencing violent acts by Luca, each act worsening in horror. Luca reminds me of a bodice ripper villain. There was no humanizing of Luca by Elise's POV or his own POV, and I liked that. There is no blurry edge between obsessive love and hate. Luca sees no conflict in his actions and his love for Elise.
At times, it does seem as though he may be emotionally stunted, because Elise constantly reels back with confusion about Luca. She wants to be loved but doesn't see in Luca's actions any love, despite his obsession for her. She doesn't understand how Luca can love her, want to protect her, but then backhand her, intimidate her into submission.
If Deadly Vows was just violence against the heroine, it would have been a bit repetitious, but the political intrigues gets twisty.By the time Elise is abducted, I was Team Deadly Vows. I completely gave in to the story. Elise begins to move on past the sheltered girl. She develops from her idealistic innocence to becoming stronger, thoughtful, even as her mental health deteriorates from her trauma.
She is stronger in that she saves herself.
She is thoughtful and her POV becomes more interesting:
On Luca, she thinks, "He is fucked up. And that is the fault of this family we have both been born into. It is his job to be fucked up. Being the capo, you can't be soft and sane. You have to be hard and maniacal. Being with Alexander, I've seen firsthand the type of people he deals with. Luca has been protecting me from people like that. i know he has been way overboard with me for no justifable reason, but with everything that I have been through, just the thought of being near him, near safety, makes me feel comforted."
And... "Luca isn't a good man, that I know, but he has good tendencies... But I know the good tendencies must be something his mother has instilled in him. He is a mix of both of his parents, and he's been with his father the majority of his life. But now that his father is gone, he has moments when he looks at me with so much love that I almost forget the hell that he has dragged me through. Almost. And I have his mother to thank for that."
Her ruminations on her survival as a mafia wife are also poignant.
Luca doesn't necessarily become more thoughtful, but his loyalty to Elise is never in question, even as he backhands/chokes her at times. But he never loses faith or is persuaded to go against her. Major points for this.
Truth is, Haley Stuart never redeems Luca, but shows a realistic portrayal of what it must be like to live a criminal life. I really liked this argument they had where he tells Elise:
"Elise, you act like I chose to be this way." He finally looks over to me, and I am shocked to see the hurt in his eyes. "You act like I was born into a normal family, with normal parents, with normal jobs, and i just chose to grow up and be this way. You act like the world is filled with nothing but love and rainbows."
He gives a bitter chuckle before continuing.
"Well, I hate to be the one to bear the bad news, babe, but it's not. We live in a world where such a thing called the Mafia exists, and I was the lucky bastard born into leading it. And you were born into it also. Except you led a nice little life where your biggest problem was your father not paying attention to you. my biggest problem was shooting someone in the neck instead of the head because if I kept them alive, it was my life on the line. My biggest problem was learning to interrogate people, hurt people, kill people because it was my duty to my family. And if I didn't, I was beat and starved by my father."
They have great arguments like this.
And Luca's POV also becomes humourous towards the end. Understandably, Elise is traumatized from her experiences and sticks to Luca:
"I literally have to give her a pep talk for three minutes just so she'll let me use the bathroom. She hates being alone, and she trusts no one but me."
I'm always a sucker for a doormat turned strong(ish) heroine. And I respect that Luca is a complete villain. The romantic logic of their romance, twisted absolutely, made sense to me. Very satisfying love story.
RTC. 4.5 rounded up. As other reviewers said, about halfway through, this just clicks. I was surprised by how invested I got into the plot and cared about how the characters were going to get out of the next jam. It is romance. It might not be cuddly but there is introspection on the relationship where both characters mature and have HEA.
I have a lot more to share about this but the big question is - their kid is having their own book, right?! That bonus chapter got me wanting the next book now!
July 26, 2020
This book deserves to be in a trash pile.
I'm always up for a good dark theme book. But this? This was a rough draft that should be in the dumpster and rest there. Not only was the story poorly written, it was very dull, and full of overused cliches.
I practically had to drive myself to keep reading this book as many a times I wanted to DNF it. I slog through this book. I really struggle with this read because it was hard so hard to overlook the poor sentence structure and play on words. It was defective, so so bad that it didn’t retain my attention. Both characters were flat and uninteresting, and they failed to captivate me whatsoever.
The concept of the book is an interesting one, however the author clearly couldn’t figure out how to structure this correctly. It was really dull and hard to follow most of the time, and it was also repetitive. The composition, characterization and world-building was really bland and too simplistic for my penchant.
I would have liked it more if it wasn’t so obviously written by someone who doesn’t know the English language or know how to write a book. She failed miserably trying to make each paragraph makes sense. Everything was a syntax, with a noticeable grammatical error every which direction.
I can’t see how this book would appeal to anyone, Luca the male character was a sick, narcissistic, cruel bastard who the reader hardly got his POV. He handled his wife like crap, but the direction the author just made him evil in just a span of two seconds made it hard for me as a reader to believe that he is this way. And the heroine was mostly narrating and reading her thoughts were like listening to a toddler telling their side of a story after getting caught being mischievous.
For the price of this book I anticipated it to be a literature masterpiece sprinkled with golden dust. However the book was plagued with a sheer amount of errors, and for a debut book, it clearly didn’t not worth the price.
Instead of me spouting about the plot, I ended up questioning the author’s writing ability. This book reads like a first draft that the author turned in without looking over her work. I can overlook small typos if they don’t affect the substance, but mistakes like everything being told and not shown, left me struggling to piece together exactly what was happening in most of the book.
Ordinarily I’m a fan of dark reads, but this book just did not fit that threshold. Because the flow of the book was not forthcoming, and it lacked visually descriptions of people, situations and things; I did not care at all what was going on. After the realization that it doesn’t get any better I wanted to be done with book.
I did not like either the main character, even so, I found that I detested Luca more, because of how unbearably selfish he was. He became very vicious to his wife until he pushed her to hate him because he ruined her life. And Elise was no better, her sole purpose it seemed in this book was to be assaulted, verbally, physically and sexually by her husband and Alexander.
The concept should’ve been an interesting one, because it’s about a mafia don and a very gullible heroine. However the book itself was a disaster with bad scenarios after the other, with unrealistic elements involving the female character.
After slugging this one, like a snail who has nothing else to do with his/her time I came to the conclusion that I just cannot finish this one. It was all over the place as it desperately cram all the horrors that are ordinarily associated with book that are deemed too dark into it.
So yeah, overall there was basically nothing about this book proven that is worthy of that price. I would not urge anyone to spend their money on this water down wannabe mob/dark book.
Not even if it’s free I’ll recommend.
I'm always up for a good dark theme book. But this? This was a rough draft that should be in the dumpster and rest there. Not only was the story poorly written, it was very dull, and full of overused cliches.
I practically had to drive myself to keep reading this book as many a times I wanted to DNF it. I slog through this book. I really struggle with this read because it was hard so hard to overlook the poor sentence structure and play on words. It was defective, so so bad that it didn’t retain my attention. Both characters were flat and uninteresting, and they failed to captivate me whatsoever.
The concept of the book is an interesting one, however the author clearly couldn’t figure out how to structure this correctly. It was really dull and hard to follow most of the time, and it was also repetitive. The composition, characterization and world-building was really bland and too simplistic for my penchant.
I would have liked it more if it wasn’t so obviously written by someone who doesn’t know the English language or know how to write a book. She failed miserably trying to make each paragraph makes sense. Everything was a syntax, with a noticeable grammatical error every which direction.
I can’t see how this book would appeal to anyone, Luca the male character was a sick, narcissistic, cruel bastard who the reader hardly got his POV. He handled his wife like crap, but the direction the author just made him evil in just a span of two seconds made it hard for me as a reader to believe that he is this way. And the heroine was mostly narrating and reading her thoughts were like listening to a toddler telling their side of a story after getting caught being mischievous.
For the price of this book I anticipated it to be a literature masterpiece sprinkled with golden dust. However the book was plagued with a sheer amount of errors, and for a debut book, it clearly didn’t not worth the price.
Instead of me spouting about the plot, I ended up questioning the author’s writing ability. This book reads like a first draft that the author turned in without looking over her work. I can overlook small typos if they don’t affect the substance, but mistakes like everything being told and not shown, left me struggling to piece together exactly what was happening in most of the book.
Ordinarily I’m a fan of dark reads, but this book just did not fit that threshold. Because the flow of the book was not forthcoming, and it lacked visually descriptions of people, situations and things; I did not care at all what was going on. After the realization that it doesn’t get any better I wanted to be done with book.
I did not like either the main character, even so, I found that I detested Luca more, because of how unbearably selfish he was. He became very vicious to his wife until he pushed her to hate him because he ruined her life. And Elise was no better, her sole purpose it seemed in this book was to be assaulted, verbally, physically and sexually by her husband and Alexander.
The concept should’ve been an interesting one, because it’s about a mafia don and a very gullible heroine. However the book itself was a disaster with bad scenarios after the other, with unrealistic elements involving the female character.
After slugging this one, like a snail who has nothing else to do with his/her time I came to the conclusion that I just cannot finish this one. It was all over the place as it desperately cram all the horrors that are ordinarily associated with book that are deemed too dark into it.
So yeah, overall there was basically nothing about this book proven that is worthy of that price. I would not urge anyone to spend their money on this water down wannabe mob/dark book.
Not even if it’s free I’ll recommend.
March 22, 2020
3.5 ish stars.
This was hard to rate. This is not a dark romance at all. It’s more of a dark suspense, something along the lines of the Stronger series by Jay Marie.
Luca, the H, is more a villain. He’s a cruel, selfish, sadistic, psychopath that enjoys inflicting pain and murdering people. He has an arranged marriage with the 18 year old daughter of the opposing mafia family, who’s called Elise.
Elise, the h, is innocent, naive and sheltered. She’s weak. Unfortunately for most of the book she remains so. I think it was this aspect that really grated on me. Even at the end, she did not change much although she showed some strength going through all that she did. But it wasn’t as much as I was hoping.
This book is triggers-galore.
There’s rape; abuse; suicide attempt; gory violence; tricking the h into pregnancy etc- all by or because of the H.
Overall, the story was intriguing. It’s been a while since I read such an anti-hero who’s totally obsessed and in love with the heroine.
This was hard to rate. This is not a dark romance at all. It’s more of a dark suspense, something along the lines of the Stronger series by Jay Marie.
Luca, the H, is more a villain. He’s a cruel, selfish, sadistic, psychopath that enjoys inflicting pain and murdering people. He has an arranged marriage with the 18 year old daughter of the opposing mafia family, who’s called Elise.
Elise, the h, is innocent, naive and sheltered. She’s weak. Unfortunately for most of the book she remains so. I think it was this aspect that really grated on me. Even at the end, she did not change much although she showed some strength going through all that she did. But it wasn’t as much as I was hoping.
This book is triggers-galore.
There’s rape; abuse; suicide attempt; gory violence; tricking the h into pregnancy etc- all by or because of the H.
Overall, the story was intriguing. It’s been a while since I read such an anti-hero who’s totally obsessed and in love with the heroine.
February 10, 2019
2.5 ⭐️ for the h and only the h
This is more of a thriller than a dark romance.
The H is part of an opposing mafie and the h is part of another mafia, in order to unite the mafias, the respective parents arrange their marriage. The H makes it clear he wants a real marriage and he has a dangerous obsessive love for the h. This is a roller coaster ride and not the good kind.
Not really sure how I feel about this. My cousin loved it and she had read this on Wattpad or Raddish and then bought it when it was fully published, she knows I love mafia and moc stories and she recommended this but I liked it upto the point where the h gets kidnapped and abused/raped by another man, it made me feel really really upset. I know its a dark novel but it was just too much and a bit too depressing.
H was ruthless and at times raped and hit the h when she didn’t want sex or when she was not obedient. ( So a lot of triggers are there and I only kept reading because of the need to know what happens at the end).
I absolutely hated the H. He was truly a psychopath. But more than him, I hated the other mafia men including the h’a father and the one who kidnapped her. The H did have a conscience at times, he was faithful to the h, loved her in his own way and was very possessive, and that is where his good traits end— his need to dominate and hurt her didn’t sit well with me— he didn’t hurt in the bdsm way (he really hurt her like marring her skin by carving his name across her abdomen with no anesthesia!)
The h was meek in the beginning, scared of the ruthless H and I understood her feelings. But she tried to escape him and had managed to get into a car crash where she left him behind in the car, he was conscious but couldn’t get out and knew she ran away but he found her a few months later, he’s the head of a strong mafia so it was inevitable.
H loved the h in his own way, he would never allow her freedom and he was obsessed! Freakishly obsessed with her.
The ending of the novel was nice so it was an okay read for me only in the end.
But my feelings are still a lot wobbly, I cried so much for what the h went through. And the h was strong the only way she could be strong.
For a newbie author, this was okay but I’m not sure if I will read any other novel by her but I might give her other books a try if she publishes maybe in the future (I’ve heard from my cousin she has written quite a few on wattpad, I read on wattpad for one month when I was in college but not anymore). Although I think I’ll allow my cousin to read her books first and let me know of any trigger before she lends me these books to read.
Also this is a trend that I have seen among new authors and readers, especially the younger generation and that really worries me that what kind idea of romance do the young girls have, I hope their ideas stay in books and not real life because I would be very worried if anyone has gone through what most of these h’s in such books have gone through.
Safety- this may not be, actually it is not safe for some/many readers, there is a lot of violence and rape scenes in this novel, some of the violence is absolutely unbelievable and very very upsetting, to be truthful I skimmed most of the violent scenes but I did look at them quickly so I did read the entire novel.
So a lot of caution is advised, I wouldn’t really recommend this. But I won’t dissuade anyone, if you like thrillers with a bit of wierd romance, I think this is just right. And now I’m off to read a fluffy sweet Regency or HP romance! I need to lighten my chest.
This is more of a thriller than a dark romance.
The H is part of an opposing mafie and the h is part of another mafia, in order to unite the mafias, the respective parents arrange their marriage. The H makes it clear he wants a real marriage and he has a dangerous obsessive love for the h. This is a roller coaster ride and not the good kind.
Not really sure how I feel about this. My cousin loved it and she had read this on Wattpad or Raddish and then bought it when it was fully published, she knows I love mafia and moc stories and she recommended this but I liked it upto the point where the h gets kidnapped and abused/raped by another man, it made me feel really really upset. I know its a dark novel but it was just too much and a bit too depressing.
H was ruthless and at times raped and hit the h when she didn’t want sex or when she was not obedient. ( So a lot of triggers are there and I only kept reading because of the need to know what happens at the end).
I absolutely hated the H. He was truly a psychopath. But more than him, I hated the other mafia men including the h’a father and the one who kidnapped her. The H did have a conscience at times, he was faithful to the h, loved her in his own way and was very possessive, and that is where his good traits end— his need to dominate and hurt her didn’t sit well with me— he didn’t hurt in the bdsm way (he really hurt her like marring her skin by carving his name across her abdomen with no anesthesia!)
The h was meek in the beginning, scared of the ruthless H and I understood her feelings. But she tried to escape him and had managed to get into a car crash where she left him behind in the car, he was conscious but couldn’t get out and knew she ran away but he found her a few months later, he’s the head of a strong mafia so it was inevitable.
H loved the h in his own way, he would never allow her freedom and he was obsessed! Freakishly obsessed with her.
The ending of the novel was nice so it was an okay read for me only in the end.
But my feelings are still a lot wobbly, I cried so much for what the h went through. And the h was strong the only way she could be strong.
For a newbie author, this was okay but I’m not sure if I will read any other novel by her but I might give her other books a try if she publishes maybe in the future (I’ve heard from my cousin she has written quite a few on wattpad, I read on wattpad for one month when I was in college but not anymore). Although I think I’ll allow my cousin to read her books first and let me know of any trigger before she lends me these books to read.
Also this is a trend that I have seen among new authors and readers, especially the younger generation and that really worries me that what kind idea of romance do the young girls have, I hope their ideas stay in books and not real life because I would be very worried if anyone has gone through what most of these h’s in such books have gone through.
Safety- this may not be, actually it is not safe for some/many readers, there is a lot of violence and rape scenes in this novel, some of the violence is absolutely unbelievable and very very upsetting, to be truthful I skimmed most of the violent scenes but I did look at them quickly so I did read the entire novel.
So a lot of caution is advised, I wouldn’t really recommend this. But I won’t dissuade anyone, if you like thrillers with a bit of wierd romance, I think this is just right. And now I’m off to read a fluffy sweet Regency or HP romance! I need to lighten my chest.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 9, 2021
Dnf at 69%
My rating has absolutely nothing to do with the lack of morals or abuse btw👀 but simply to do with how absolutely terrible the writing is😬 I like depraved books just as much as the next person, but I don't really count this as depraved when I was literally bored everytime the hero tortured someone🙃 he is just so immature and his threats and insults are repetitive and childish. Everyone saying how "smart" and "scary" he is, is completely laughable. His abuse and murdering sprees are also laughable, like I can't even take him or any of this book serious. It was just way too repetitive and OTT🤦
The lack of a vocabulary made it feel like whoever wrote this was definitely a teenager, and me saying that I would have liked this in my Wattpad days is enough said😬 The heroine was annoying and weak and all she did was scream or cry🙄 and there was zero chemistry or romance. It was just boring sex, torture, killing someone, threats, or almost dying. Legit that's it. And this book is WAY TOO MOTHEREFFING LONG HOLY SHT. Nothing even happens!! Why is this book also so freaking expensive? It's pure trash, and I hate saying that about books that even I dislike, but I can't believe I just wasted so much time reading this😭
Me side-eyeing the people who rec'd this to me telling me to "go in open minded"👀👀👀👀👀
My rating has absolutely nothing to do with the lack of morals or abuse btw👀 but simply to do with how absolutely terrible the writing is😬 I like depraved books just as much as the next person, but I don't really count this as depraved when I was literally bored everytime the hero tortured someone🙃 he is just so immature and his threats and insults are repetitive and childish. Everyone saying how "smart" and "scary" he is, is completely laughable. His abuse and murdering sprees are also laughable, like I can't even take him or any of this book serious. It was just way too repetitive and OTT🤦
The lack of a vocabulary made it feel like whoever wrote this was definitely a teenager, and me saying that I would have liked this in my Wattpad days is enough said😬 The heroine was annoying and weak and all she did was scream or cry🙄 and there was zero chemistry or romance. It was just boring sex, torture, killing someone, threats, or almost dying. Legit that's it. And this book is WAY TOO MOTHEREFFING LONG HOLY SHT. Nothing even happens!! Why is this book also so freaking expensive? It's pure trash, and I hate saying that about books that even I dislike, but I can't believe I just wasted so much time reading this😭
Me side-eyeing the people who rec'd this to me telling me to "go in open minded"👀👀👀👀👀
June 19, 2024
4.9 stars ⭐️
If you enjoyed this book, please get some help 😍
If you have any triggers, skip this review. If you're insane like me, hop in 😌
Was the writing perfect? No. But was it entertaining? HELL YES.
I've been looking for weeks for an EXTREMELY dark romance that would scratch that itch in my brain, and I finally found one 🥰 The romance in this book is so messed up that it’s now at the top of my darkest reads of all time ☺️
Some of the messed-up things Luca did to Elise:
- Beats her on a daily basis
- Carved his name into her body
- Cut her hair short as punishment
- Almost killed her because he wasn’t himself after coming back from a killing spree, still blinded by bloodlust
- Shot her
- Repeatedly raped her
- Threatened to kill her only living relative if she tried to commit suicide again
- Tortured her after she tried to run away
- Changed her birth control to prenatal drugs without her consent so she could get pregnant
And I was just reading these scenes like 🤡🤡🤡:
Luca has done some seriously messed up things to his wife, but I can't help but find it adorable how loyal and in love he is with her 🤭 He's constantly in awe of Elise that he even got a tattoo of her name on his chest. I melt every time he calls her "my wife" or "my beautiful wife" 🤌🤭
He’s obsessively possessive and extremely irredeemable. It's like reading about a villain falling in love and getting his happy ending. This truly is a "villain gets the girl" trope done right. I’m surprised he didn’t die in the end, considering all the awful things he did 🤣
But in the end, he did get "soft" on his wife after she was rescued from her abduction. But he was stil irredeemable. Alexander really made Luca run for his money 😭 I can't believe Elise needed to be with someone even more evil before she fell in love with Luca.
Y'all can say whatever you want about Elise, but my girl is not spineless. She might be innocent and scared all the time, but she is not weak. Her actions are justifiable, better to keep your head down if you’re married to a psychopath.
I love this book lmaooo an easy 5 stars for me 😇
If you enjoyed this book, please get some help 😍
If you have any triggers, skip this review. If you're insane like me, hop in 😌
Was the writing perfect? No. But was it entertaining? HELL YES.
I've been looking for weeks for an EXTREMELY dark romance that would scratch that itch in my brain, and I finally found one 🥰 The romance in this book is so messed up that it’s now at the top of my darkest reads of all time ☺️
Some of the messed-up things Luca did to Elise:
- Beats her on a daily basis
- Carved his name into her body
- Cut her hair short as punishment
- Almost killed her because he wasn’t himself after coming back from a killing spree, still blinded by bloodlust
- Shot her
- Repeatedly raped her
- Threatened to kill her only living relative if she tried to commit suicide again
- Tortured her after she tried to run away
- Changed her birth control to prenatal drugs without her consent so she could get pregnant
“𝗗𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗶𝘁?” 𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗺 𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗲. “𝗜 𝗵𝗮𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂.” 𝗛𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗱, 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝘄𝗮𝗹𝗸𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀.get you a husband who's considerate before he tortures you 😍
“𝗢𝗳 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲, 𝗜 𝗴𝗼𝘁 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱-𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂. 𝗪𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱𝗻’𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀 𝗜 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝘆 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝗳𝗲.”
And I was just reading these scenes like 🤡🤡🤡:
Luca has done some seriously messed up things to his wife, but I can't help but find it adorable how loyal and in love he is with her 🤭 He's constantly in awe of Elise that he even got a tattoo of her name on his chest. I melt every time he calls her "my wife" or "my beautiful wife" 🤌🤭
He’s obsessively possessive and extremely irredeemable. It's like reading about a villain falling in love and getting his happy ending. This truly is a "villain gets the girl" trope done right. I’m surprised he didn’t die in the end, considering all the awful things he did 🤣
But in the end, he did get "soft" on his wife after she was rescued from her abduction. But he was stil irredeemable. Alexander really made Luca run for his money 😭 I can't believe Elise needed to be with someone even more evil before she fell in love with Luca.
Y'all can say whatever you want about Elise, but my girl is not spineless. She might be innocent and scared all the time, but she is not weak. Her actions are justifiable, better to keep your head down if you’re married to a psychopath.
“𝗪𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿, 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗱, 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲𝘆-𝗱𝗼𝘃𝗲𝘆 𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲. 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘂𝗹𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻. 𝗔 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱. 𝗔 𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗸 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝘄𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗯𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝘂𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗻𝗼 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘂𝘀. 𝗜 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝘄𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗿𝗮𝘇𝘆, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻’𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗟𝘂𝗰𝗮 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗻𝗼, 𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗼 𝗱𝗲𝗶 𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗶 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝗠𝗮𝗳𝗶𝗮. 𝗜 𝗮𝗺.”
I love this book lmaooo an easy 5 stars for me 😇
April 14, 2020
This book was dark and disturbing. This is not romance, its thriller for me.
Luca is abusive, he is totally obsessed with Elise. It was disturbing. He rapes her, beats her, and makes fun of her weakness. Elise is weak, afraid of everything and endures Luca's abuse. But how long one can endure such obsession and control over them? Elise also has a breaking point. She tries to run away but Luca finds her, she tries to kill herself but she was again saved by Luca. Every time she tries to get away from him he finds her. He threatens her if she tries to harm herself he will kill her half brother.
If you think this is only dark, wait, you didn't see the rest.
Elise gets kidnaped and raped by another man. Luca is unable to find her and she escapes on her own. She becomes somewhat strong. Before the kidnap she hated Luca but after her rescue, she is in love with Luca because even though Luca abuses her, he loves her. She understands that.
This book had a plot, lots of things were going on. Luca is the one that kills Elise's parents and her half brother's mother. Elise's cousin uses Elise for information and betrays her. Elise's father uses her daughter to gain power and betrays Luca. This book was a page-turner. I was constantly was the edge. Towards the end, both Elise and Luca changed. Luca became more understanding and Elise became strong but she was still dependent on Luca. But this makes sense with the plot.
Instead of a romance novel, I think the author tried to show how real mafia men behave. She mixed the cruelty of mafia life and romance in this book. Luca loves Elise in his own way because that's what he knows all his life. Most of the book Elise hated Luca, it changes almost towards the end that she started to love him. I am sure mafia men aren't the lovesick puppy most books portrays them. Even though this book is really disturbing, I read it because I needed to know what happens.
Would I recommend this book? Probably "NO". This book has rape, marital rape, pregnancy ( Luca suddenly decided to be a father and changes her medication to make her fertile and didn't give her birth control shot without her knowledge), physical abuse, mental abuse, gruesome murder and so on.
Luca is abusive, he is totally obsessed with Elise. It was disturbing. He rapes her, beats her, and makes fun of her weakness. Elise is weak, afraid of everything and endures Luca's abuse. But how long one can endure such obsession and control over them? Elise also has a breaking point. She tries to run away but Luca finds her, she tries to kill herself but she was again saved by Luca. Every time she tries to get away from him he finds her. He threatens her if she tries to harm herself he will kill her half brother.
If you think this is only dark, wait, you didn't see the rest.
Elise gets kidnaped and raped by another man. Luca is unable to find her and she escapes on her own. She becomes somewhat strong. Before the kidnap she hated Luca but after her rescue, she is in love with Luca because even though Luca abuses her, he loves her. She understands that.
This book had a plot, lots of things were going on. Luca is the one that kills Elise's parents and her half brother's mother. Elise's cousin uses Elise for information and betrays her. Elise's father uses her daughter to gain power and betrays Luca. This book was a page-turner. I was constantly was the edge. Towards the end, both Elise and Luca changed. Luca became more understanding and Elise became strong but she was still dependent on Luca. But this makes sense with the plot.
Instead of a romance novel, I think the author tried to show how real mafia men behave. She mixed the cruelty of mafia life and romance in this book. Luca loves Elise in his own way because that's what he knows all his life. Most of the book Elise hated Luca, it changes almost towards the end that she started to love him. I am sure mafia men aren't the lovesick puppy most books portrays them. Even though this book is really disturbing, I read it because I needed to know what happens.
Would I recommend this book? Probably "NO". This book has rape, marital rape, pregnancy ( Luca suddenly decided to be a father and changes her medication to make her fertile and didn't give her birth control shot without her knowledge), physical abuse, mental abuse, gruesome murder and so on.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 22, 2020
Luca is the male lead. He’s more like the villain than an anti-hero. He’s a mean and sadistic bastard who torments and does terrible & cruel things to his wife. He’s obsessed with her, he loves her but he breaks her and puts her together again.
Soooo why am I not disgusted by him? I’m not coz I’m weird but I was terrified and apprehensive about meeting fictionalised Luca and if I see a real life Luca, I’ll break out in hives, cower and run away as fast as Usain Bolt or The Flash. And also why did I give this book 5 stars? Coz it’s an amazing book!! The author gave us an irredeemable, bat shit crazy, abusive and violent SOB for an anti-hero and somehow made me root for him and hoping he gets his HEA with Elise. The writing was engaging, I couldn’t swipe the pages fast enough and the sleep deprivation was worth it. My heart went out to the heroine, Elise, I wish I could have spared her all the abuse, violence and heartache that she had to go through but once naive and clueless, she grew a set of lady balls, and she fiercely fights to survive!!
This was a new to me author and I definitely want to read more from her.
Bloody Vows er I meant Deadly Vows is certainly not safe and not everyone’s cup of tea, heed the warnings, don’t go into this book lightly but if you’re a fan of pitch black dark romance like me, I highly recommend this book!!
Soooo why am I not disgusted by him? I’m not coz I’m weird but I was terrified and apprehensive about meeting fictionalised Luca and if I see a real life Luca, I’ll break out in hives, cower and run away as fast as Usain Bolt or The Flash. And also why did I give this book 5 stars? Coz it’s an amazing book!! The author gave us an irredeemable, bat shit crazy, abusive and violent SOB for an anti-hero and somehow made me root for him and hoping he gets his HEA with Elise. The writing was engaging, I couldn’t swipe the pages fast enough and the sleep deprivation was worth it. My heart went out to the heroine, Elise, I wish I could have spared her all the abuse, violence and heartache that she had to go through but once naive and clueless, she grew a set of lady balls, and she fiercely fights to survive!!
This was a new to me author and I definitely want to read more from her.
Bloody Vows er I meant Deadly Vows is certainly not safe and not everyone’s cup of tea, heed the warnings, don’t go into this book lightly but if you’re a fan of pitch black dark romance like me, I highly recommend this book!!
January 17, 2021
DNF. I’m not going to waste my time on this one.
I can’t write, that’s why I don’t. But even I could’ve written this book.
Author commented on a one star review, that pointed out the awful grammar, saying that it was fixed. My god, if this is your finished product, then I don’t know what to say. Maybe sign up for some writing classes? Harsh you say? So is me being put through this car wreck of a book.
The story did not evoke any type of emotions, other than frustration that it didn’t. Tons of awkward and just weird sentences, that made it hard to get into the story.
“My heart literally dropped out of my chest,”
Really? Literally?
“At five foot four, I am no model. I am tiny. My hair is black and falls to my waist, and my eyes are a bright brown on my face.”
First, she said that she never once cut her hair. Shouldn’t it be dragging on a floor after 18 years?
Second, on your face? Where else should your eyes be, that you feel the need to point that out?
“I walk toward the table that has champagne bottles on it and hear a sound that makes me want to run come from the hall near the table”
No.
“Tears are still falling out of my eyes like a waterfall.”
We all have seen that gif, with waterfalls shooting out of someone’s eyes.
They did consummated the wedding. No no, not the marriage, the wedding. Like, how? The whole wedding party joined in?
Ugh!
I can’t write, that’s why I don’t. But even I could’ve written this book.
Author commented on a one star review, that pointed out the awful grammar, saying that it was fixed. My god, if this is your finished product, then I don’t know what to say. Maybe sign up for some writing classes? Harsh you say? So is me being put through this car wreck of a book.
The story did not evoke any type of emotions, other than frustration that it didn’t. Tons of awkward and just weird sentences, that made it hard to get into the story.
“My heart literally dropped out of my chest,”
Really? Literally?
“At five foot four, I am no model. I am tiny. My hair is black and falls to my waist, and my eyes are a bright brown on my face.”
First, she said that she never once cut her hair. Shouldn’t it be dragging on a floor after 18 years?
Second, on your face? Where else should your eyes be, that you feel the need to point that out?
“I walk toward the table that has champagne bottles on it and hear a sound that makes me want to run come from the hall near the table”
No.
“Tears are still falling out of my eyes like a waterfall.”
We all have seen that gif, with waterfalls shooting out of someone’s eyes.
They did consummated the wedding. No no, not the marriage, the wedding. Like, how? The whole wedding party joined in?
Ugh!
July 30, 2021
Torture porn. No love shining through at all. The H is just a brutally abusive terrible human. Nothing about this was sexy.
December 26, 2020
No. This book is a big no.🤭
January 14, 2021
3.5 🌟
Let me explain this book with a quote :
"He is evil. He is sick. And he is heartless. And I belong to him. Till death do us part."
Except the death part doesn't come. I would have loved it if it would have but it didn't. I'll come back to this.
1) This is not a dark romance....more like a dark suspense thriller. It involves choosing the lesser of two evils instead of what readers will like to believe is "love". Also, don't expect a redeemable hero. At all.
2) The hero is a sadistic bastard and the heroine is a naive, sheltered girl who develops a backbone for all of 2 seconds before she loses it again. I loved how cruel the hero (or should I say antihero) was and how inventive he was with his mental and physical torture. Yeah yeah, don't tell me I am horrible person , I already know. ;)
3) My heart broke for what the heroine had to go through and what she endured. It's painful, uncomfortable and makes your heart skip a beat cuz it's straight up cruel. I loved this dark and deranged part of the book.
4) The storyline was good and twisty. I loved that too. However, i am a detail person....one who likes to connect all the dots. And there were some parts that were not explained properly. Like how did Luca and the guys 'infiltrate' a top secret agency. They were investigating Luca and would have known the faces of the mob members. How did their undercover stuff pan out?! A bit unbelievable there, mate. 😬
5) What I didn't like....was the ending. The girl gets together with her sadistic husband. It was one part stockholm syndrome, part protection needs, and part gratitude for saving her even though he was the one who put her in that position. I would have preferred him killing her, or her killing him.....or them killing each other. I mean, just get killed, dude. Needless to say, the ending wasn't satisfactory for me.
6) One thing I did like about the ending was...Luca mentioning that he still had those sadistic urges towards Elise but he was trying to control them. Usually, authors end up just eradicating their sadistic part even though that isn't realistic. So I loved Haley for this part.
7) Random stuff- It dragged a bit in the middle. I loved Eli , the mountain person.....he makes you believe in humanity a bit. *Sigh* I realllyyyyy wanted the heroine to turn into a psycho bitch but unfortunately, we don't get everything we want.
💀Will I recommend it? Yes....if you like stockholm trope and/or irredeemable psychopaths. Go for it.
Let me explain this book with a quote :
"He is evil. He is sick. And he is heartless. And I belong to him. Till death do us part."
Except the death part doesn't come. I would have loved it if it would have but it didn't. I'll come back to this.
1) This is not a dark romance....more like a dark suspense thriller. It involves choosing the lesser of two evils instead of what readers will like to believe is "love". Also, don't expect a redeemable hero. At all.
2) The hero is a sadistic bastard and the heroine is a naive, sheltered girl who develops a backbone for all of 2 seconds before she loses it again. I loved how cruel the hero (or should I say antihero) was and how inventive he was with his mental and physical torture. Yeah yeah, don't tell me I am horrible person , I already know. ;)
3) My heart broke for what the heroine had to go through and what she endured. It's painful, uncomfortable and makes your heart skip a beat cuz it's straight up cruel. I loved this dark and deranged part of the book.
4) The storyline was good and twisty. I loved that too. However, i am a detail person....one who likes to connect all the dots. And there were some parts that were not explained properly. Like how did Luca and the guys 'infiltrate' a top secret agency. They were investigating Luca and would have known the faces of the mob members. How did their undercover stuff pan out?! A bit unbelievable there, mate. 😬
5) What I didn't like....was the ending. The girl gets together with her sadistic husband. It was one part stockholm syndrome, part protection needs, and part gratitude for saving her even though he was the one who put her in that position. I would have preferred him killing her, or her killing him.....or them killing each other. I mean, just get killed, dude. Needless to say, the ending wasn't satisfactory for me.
6) One thing I did like about the ending was...Luca mentioning that he still had those sadistic urges towards Elise but he was trying to control them. Usually, authors end up just eradicating their sadistic part even though that isn't realistic. So I loved Haley for this part.
7) Random stuff- It dragged a bit in the middle. I loved Eli , the mountain person.....he makes you believe in humanity a bit. *Sigh* I realllyyyyy wanted the heroine to turn into a psycho bitch but unfortunately, we don't get everything we want.
💀Will I recommend it? Yes....if you like stockholm trope and/or irredeemable psychopaths. Go for it.
April 17, 2022
I don't know what to say about this one except that it was never boring for me.
July 7, 2021
Why did I even read this book??? I don't know. Maybe that sick fascination you have when you see a gory accident and even though you know you don't have to watch, eventually you fix your eyes on it and watch all the horrible details.
Maybe I wanted to know how a writer redeems a complete sociopath, a murderer, a tramuatized and abused child who grows up without an ounce of empathy and becomes a monster.
The answer is: she can't.
Because a psycopath is a psycopath and it's impossible that he can change. Impossible.
People with knowledge of the matter, i.e. psychiatrist or psycologists would never write that a man like that becomes a loving husband and father.
Read Darkly Dreaming Dexter if you want an example of how a psycopath's mind works.
This book is not psycologically reliable.
The hero is a mob boss, a psycopath who murders, tortures, threatens people without empathy, and beats, tortures, debases the heroine for most part of the book.
The only way this book should have a happy ending is that the hero and all his clan died.
I don't want to be judgemental because I think that people read books for entertainment and so every one is free to have their favourite genre, but since it's my job, I can say that this personality characterization is very far from reality.
Anyway this is not a romance, of course, it's a dark story about crime and mob, with plenty of gory scenes and every type of abuse. For those who like this kind of stuff.
I don't find that an abusive man who tortures his wife, beats her, debases her and lock her is sexy or exciting.
Not my cup of tea, definitely not.
I couldn't even feel any angst because it is all too over the top but it lacks suspence and it turns out as a cold description of murder and torture scenes all over the place with an heroine who eventually finds out that the monster you know is better than the one you don't, that is: hard s**t is better than liquid s**t, isn't it. But s**t it is.
Sorry I couldn't enjoy it.
Maybe I wanted to know how a writer redeems a complete sociopath, a murderer, a tramuatized and abused child who grows up without an ounce of empathy and becomes a monster.
The answer is: she can't.
Because a psycopath is a psycopath and it's impossible that he can change. Impossible.
People with knowledge of the matter, i.e. psychiatrist or psycologists would never write that a man like that becomes a loving husband and father.
Read Darkly Dreaming Dexter if you want an example of how a psycopath's mind works.
This book is not psycologically reliable.
The hero is a mob boss, a psycopath who murders, tortures, threatens people without empathy, and beats, tortures, debases the heroine for most part of the book.
The only way this book should have a happy ending is that the hero and all his clan died.
I don't want to be judgemental because I think that people read books for entertainment and so every one is free to have their favourite genre, but since it's my job, I can say that this personality characterization is very far from reality.
Anyway this is not a romance, of course, it's a dark story about crime and mob, with plenty of gory scenes and every type of abuse. For those who like this kind of stuff.
I don't find that an abusive man who tortures his wife, beats her, debases her and lock her is sexy or exciting.
Not my cup of tea, definitely not.
I couldn't even feel any angst because it is all too over the top but it lacks suspence and it turns out as a cold description of murder and torture scenes all over the place with an heroine who eventually finds out that the monster you know is better than the one you don't, that is: hard s**t is better than liquid s**t, isn't it. But s**t it is.
Sorry I couldn't enjoy it.
November 13, 2020
This has to be one of my favorite books of ALL time. It was long, but engaging, never a dull moment.
It has every element that kept me engaged the entire time -- over the top possessive, alpha hero -- and yes, he was crazy and takes care of business; dub-con; meek, sweet heroine (can't stand sassy, usually TSTL heroines); mafia themes that weren't sugar coated; and DARK. Not the feabile attempt at dark, but dark af.
The grammar starting from the second half of the book until the end was terrible. Author needs to hire an editor. Over, and inappropriate use of past tense vs present and past perfect, conditional tenses were off as well. Despite the rampant grammatical errors, the story was superbly good. Haven't come across anything close since reading this book. Costly but worth every dollar.
It has every element that kept me engaged the entire time -- over the top possessive, alpha hero -- and yes, he was crazy and takes care of business; dub-con; meek, sweet heroine (can't stand sassy, usually TSTL heroines); mafia themes that weren't sugar coated; and DARK. Not the feabile attempt at dark, but dark af.
The grammar starting from the second half of the book until the end was terrible. Author needs to hire an editor. Over, and inappropriate use of past tense vs present and past perfect, conditional tenses were off as well. Despite the rampant grammatical errors, the story was superbly good. Haven't come across anything close since reading this book. Costly but worth every dollar.
April 5, 2022
two chapters in and he's already beat her and there's likely SA coming soon.
Nope.
Big nope.
Nope.
Big nope.
January 7, 2022
3⭐️ what the fuck did I just read 😐
So basically he beats her for more than half the book and then the other half they just ignore the fact that it even happens and she’s has Stockholm syndrome. 😡
So basically he beats her for more than half the book and then the other half they just ignore the fact that it even happens and she’s has Stockholm syndrome. 😡
July 12, 2022
4 stark and dark stars!
I know I should hate this book but wow!
Many, many, many triggers here and so only a true dark mafia romance fan should tread here. And TBH, I'm not one but something kept me glued page after page of this horrifying, fiendish ordeal.
Overall, what makes it palatable is that despite the horrors, the author decided to keep out details and only gives you the atmospherics to soak in. And through the dark stuff, the commune with the characters and the story is not broken.
I know I should hate this book but wow!
Many, many, many triggers here and so only a true dark mafia romance fan should tread here. And TBH, I'm not one but something kept me glued page after page of this horrifying, fiendish ordeal.
Overall, what makes it palatable is that despite the horrors, the author decided to keep out details and only gives you the atmospherics to soak in. And through the dark stuff, the commune with the characters and the story is not broken.
Read
June 22, 2020DNF
YYIIIIKKKEEESSS.
I draw the line at cutting off someone's hair as punishment. There's no coming back from that. And beyond that line lies physical mutilation, rape, flagellation, and so many other abusive offenses inflicted on the heroine by the "hero" in this story. And in case you were wondering, all of which are considered assault in a court of law. Yes, giving someone an unwanted hair cut is not only a dick move, it's illegal.
Consider this a warning. This takes an unhealthy relationship and throws it off the deep end into the pits of hell. No thank you, please.
YYIIIIKKKEEESSS.
I draw the line at cutting off someone's hair as punishment. There's no coming back from that. And beyond that line lies physical mutilation, rape, flagellation, and so many other abusive offenses inflicted on the heroine by the "hero" in this story. And in case you were wondering, all of which are considered assault in a court of law. Yes, giving someone an unwanted hair cut is not only a dick move, it's illegal.
Consider this a warning. This takes an unhealthy relationship and throws it off the deep end into the pits of hell. No thank you, please.
December 28, 2020
His the Villian, but his her Villian
I don't think anyone should ever read this if they have certain triggers in regard to Dark romance, this book compromises of all the bad, and if you're looking for a redeemable Hero, you would not be able to find him here.
There is no Hero in this story, only the Villian.
The H and h were arranged to be married by their mob families, once the H had seen her, he was obsessed, psychotically and crazily obsessed.
The H was through and through a Villian of his own, he was the monster in the h's reality.
Unlike most dark romance, there is no thinly-veiled morality with the H when it concerns the h, he has no sense of right or wrong,men or women, they are all treated the same ruthless manner, there is no exception made.
The H had done things to the h that are just straight up unspeakable, he abuses her, cut her hair( in a rough manner), carved his name on her skin, whips her, rapes her etc.
Maybe it's because of the fact that his moral codes were literally non-existent despite being our main character, or that his character was never skidding along the lines of right or wrong and has a personality more closer to an antagonist than a Anti-Hero in dark romance, or maybe that despite his messed up non-existant moral code, the only vow he seems to honour is his devotion and loyalty to the h, maybe it's the combination of all of that that contributed in the reason of why I enjoyed reading about his character so much
The h was described as a naive and innocent heroine, she wanted to help people, which was a huge contrast to who her husband was, and because of that, she interferes in his affairs and gotten a hell of punishment out of it.
I felt that with the situation that she was put in, she had stayed strong in her own manner while dealing with her reality.
I enjoyed her character development as much as I had enjoyed the Hero's character.
This is a fast-paced story, there was a lot of mobs and political fighting going on in this story that was equally as entertaining as the ''romance'' in the story. There were so many things happening that you DO NOT want to look away for even a second, it's like watching a trainwreck that is about to happen
By the end of it, you will want to root for this couple despite how dysfunctional their relationship is.
I highly recommend this book if you don't mind a Hero with 0 morality, even when it comes to the h, and just enjoy this book as it is.
I can't wait for their son's book, he seems to be showing certain tendencies that he is as fucked up as his dad
I don't think anyone should ever read this if they have certain triggers in regard to Dark romance, this book compromises of all the bad, and if you're looking for a redeemable Hero, you would not be able to find him here.
There is no Hero in this story, only the Villian.
The H and h were arranged to be married by their mob families, once the H had seen her, he was obsessed, psychotically and crazily obsessed.
The H was through and through a Villian of his own, he was the monster in the h's reality.
Unlike most dark romance, there is no thinly-veiled morality with the H when it concerns the h, he has no sense of right or wrong,men or women, they are all treated the same ruthless manner, there is no exception made.
The H had done things to the h that are just straight up unspeakable, he abuses her, cut her hair( in a rough manner), carved his name on her skin, whips her, rapes her etc.
Maybe it's because of the fact that his moral codes were literally non-existent despite being our main character, or that his character was never skidding along the lines of right or wrong and has a personality more closer to an antagonist than a Anti-Hero in dark romance, or maybe that despite his messed up non-existant moral code, the only vow he seems to honour is his devotion and loyalty to the h, maybe it's the combination of all of that that contributed in the reason of why I enjoyed reading about his character so much
The h was described as a naive and innocent heroine, she wanted to help people, which was a huge contrast to who her husband was, and because of that, she interferes in his affairs and gotten a hell of punishment out of it.
I felt that with the situation that she was put in, she had stayed strong in her own manner while dealing with her reality.
I enjoyed her character development as much as I had enjoyed the Hero's character.
This is a fast-paced story, there was a lot of mobs and political fighting going on in this story that was equally as entertaining as the ''romance'' in the story. There were so many things happening that you DO NOT want to look away for even a second, it's like watching a trainwreck that is about to happen
By the end of it, you will want to root for this couple despite how dysfunctional their relationship is.
I highly recommend this book if you don't mind a Hero with 0 morality, even when it comes to the h, and just enjoy this book as it is.
I can't wait for their son's book, he seems to be showing certain tendencies that he is as fucked up as his dad
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