2 Stars

I read the first book a while back and didn't finish it. Couldn't it was so dumb. But I came across this series again and I thought well... I know what I'm getting into so I want to try another book by this author. My expectations were much lower this time.

It admittedly took me a little bit to piece together who was who as I only made it to halfway through book one. So the events that happened at the end of that book were lost to me.

Eventually I finally remembered enough to understand what was going down when the book starts.

Overall it was an OK read. Not great by any means. I can see the author was trying and had potential but the execution is super unpolished and clunky. The scenes didn't transition well at all. At the end of the day I've read far more interesting stories. Definitely better written. But...

The highlight for me and probably the reason I stuck with it till the end was the relationship between Michael and Carmela. Michael genuinely cared about her and fell deeply in love with her very easily. Carmela was traumatized by what love could do to a man, especially obsessive love. But he was patient with her. Surprisingly alot of the time he didn't come across any sort of cold or unfeeling type. Not even any kind of mafia man either.

His relationship with Carmela though was a highlight. His fascination with rough sex and kink aside. I was worried at first because Carmela was traumatized and that was how he liked having sex. But eventually Carmela realizes what he's into isn't about pain but pleasure and control. Because Michael never would have hurt her. Thankfully the kink aspect was as hugely involved as I expected because honestly it's such a tired trope now.

I liked them together. I loved how he felt for her tbh. All the scenes of domesticity and his need to slay all her dragons was extremely sexy.  And his absolute love in being a father was cute.

Things that bothered me though...

- How Carmela's past sexual assault and abuse was handled. More like it wasn't. It was treated like some vague shadow hanging over her through the first thirty percent of the book. She didn't particularly acknowledge it and she certainly didn't think it was important to be upfront with her new husband Michael about it. Though he wasn't exactly open to that sort of confession nor did they have that type of relationship in the beginning. Regardless it really freaking bothered me when later on the night of their wedding, after they had sex, she wakes from a nightmare about her abusive ex. And the way Michael handled it was all so wrong. He seemed amused and entertained even by her attempts to fight him and threaten him to stay away from her. Even forcefully restrained her until she calmed down. Not once did he piece together she was having a PTSD episode or panic attack and she damn well didn't explain. I was so mad. That was an awful scene tbh.

Specifically because her past abuse was awful. Really bad. And then when she got away from the asshole he still hunted her down and would break into her home and rape her which led to her moving around frequently and trying to hide from him. She never told anyone about his continued assaults either.

So the fact it was handled so badly and as if it was a small part of her past and how it effected her bugged me.

- The author couldn't decide if Carmela had ebony hair or brunette with gold highlights. Honest to God from one chapter to the next it changed. Within a page Michael called her his gorgeous brunette to then describing how she was wearing her ebony hair in a certain style. Color me confused y'all but there was no consistency here.

- Michael's kids were little plot devices. Honest to God they had no real purpose to the story itself and barely featured in it either. They were used to show how much Michael supposedly loved his children and to feed on Carmela's desire to be a mother. Other than that they were either not used in scenes or felt out of place in the scenes they were used in. More background noise than anything. They didn't behave all that well and the fact Michael's oldest daughter was old enough to mourn her mother but wasn't really allowed a chance to do so because Michael hated her didn't seem a big deal. Neither child had any sort of unique presence nor did they offer anything to the story itself. So, essentially props.

- The author had this really terrible habit of using the word "howl" or "howling" to describe extreme emotion. Like, Michael's kids who were four and seven would supposedly howl when upset and running through a room when unhappy. Even the heroine Carmela claimed something "howled" inside of her when she was kidnapped by her ex and was dealing with scary situations.

I'm sorry, but I've been reading romance  over 15 years now and aside from paranormal romance I never once heard anyone howl anything for any reason unless it was an actual baby howling because of hunger. My goodness what a ridiculous choice of word.