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A review by bookish_kristina
The Boss by Melanie Moreland
Did not finish book.
DNF
This is maudlin, melodramatic, overwritten garbage.
I’ve read the first three chapters and already we have:
> the heroine running for her life from an abusive boyfriend who beats her and is planning on bringing her to sex parties to share her with his friends.
> heroine is chased into an abandoned warehouse by street thugs looking to rape her and she hides out in a grimy office where she passes out from hunger.
> hero and his goons - who call him ‘boss’ repeatedly a la bad NYC mobster (we are in Toronto btw) - enter this warehouse and proceed to execute a hit on some random goombas tied up on the floor.
> heroine wakes up in time to witness the murder and throws up, alerting the goons to her presence.
> ‘Boss’ grabs heroine with his hands covered in blood and starts to interrogate her.
> heroine begs for ‘Boss’ to kill her quickly and take the money she has in her pockets to donate to a charity for abused women (wtf?!?).
> ‘Boss’ is intrigued by this selfless beauty and mesmerized by her, he puts down his gun, and his goons ask if they can ‘deal with her’ because they want to ‘play with her a bit before’ (this will be the third rape attempt on said heroine in under an hour, mind you)
> heroine grabs ‘Boss’s’ gun and puts it under her chin, again making ‘Boss’ promise to donate her money to charity...of course he will, he is a murdering crime boss of some sort, they can always be counted on to keep their words. (I can’t even at this point).
> gun misfires and ‘Boss’ charges heroine and presses her safely to his strong masculine chest...heroine is instantly calmed and trusting (wtf again).
> goon repeats his offer to ‘take care of heroine’ but ‘Boss’ has inside info about this goon. You see this goon has been running a child pornography ring in secret. ‘Boss’ confronts goon by bringing goon’s wife out to confess. ‘Boss’ offs both goon and goon’s wife.
> heroine throws up again.
> ‘Boss’ assures heroine that he is not a bad guy but in fact a good guy working amongst the bad guys to get vigilante type justice, or something. It’s vague, not really sure what the author thought up here.
> ‘Boss’ then informs heroine that they are now going to his house so she can be seen by a doctor and then they will be married because she ‘knows too much and can’t be let go’.
That’s the first three chapters folks. I’m dizzy from all this overblown nonsense. It feels like the author may have been high when she wrote this. It is in no way like anything I’ve read from Moreland before. Is she trying to veer away from small town saccharine sweet love stories into dark mafia but thought she needed to write every possible terrible scenario into her first few chapters?
Also this is set in Toronto but reads like she is in some war torn third world Gotham with rapists galore and abandoned warehouses. I live in Toronto and the real estate here is crazy expensive, no one is leaving a multi million dollar warehouse abandoned. And seriously, if this woman was in so much trouble why didn’t she just go to the front desk at the hotel where her boyfriend held her captive and ask for police to be called? This is Canada ffs.
This is maudlin, melodramatic, overwritten garbage.
I’ve read the first three chapters and already we have:
> the heroine running for her life from an abusive boyfriend who beats her and is planning on bringing her to sex parties to share her with his friends.
> heroine is chased into an abandoned warehouse by street thugs looking to rape her and she hides out in a grimy office where she passes out from hunger.
> hero and his goons - who call him ‘boss’ repeatedly a la bad NYC mobster (we are in Toronto btw) - enter this warehouse and proceed to execute a hit on some random goombas tied up on the floor.
> heroine wakes up in time to witness the murder and throws up, alerting the goons to her presence.
> ‘Boss’ grabs heroine with his hands covered in blood and starts to interrogate her.
> heroine begs for ‘Boss’ to kill her quickly and take the money she has in her pockets to donate to a charity for abused women (wtf?!?).
> ‘Boss’ is intrigued by this selfless beauty and mesmerized by her, he puts down his gun, and his goons ask if they can ‘deal with her’ because they want to ‘play with her a bit before’ (this will be the third rape attempt on said heroine in under an hour, mind you)
> heroine grabs ‘Boss’s’ gun and puts it under her chin, again making ‘Boss’ promise to donate her money to charity...of course he will, he is a murdering crime boss of some sort, they can always be counted on to keep their words. (I can’t even at this point).
> gun misfires and ‘Boss’ charges heroine and presses her safely to his strong masculine chest...heroine is instantly calmed and trusting (wtf again).
> goon repeats his offer to ‘take care of heroine’ but ‘Boss’ has inside info about this goon. You see this goon has been running a child pornography ring in secret. ‘Boss’ confronts goon by bringing goon’s wife out to confess. ‘Boss’ offs both goon and goon’s wife.
> heroine throws up again.
> ‘Boss’ assures heroine that he is not a bad guy but in fact a good guy working amongst the bad guys to get vigilante type justice, or something. It’s vague, not really sure what the author thought up here.
> ‘Boss’ then informs heroine that they are now going to his house so she can be seen by a doctor and then they will be married because she ‘knows too much and can’t be let go’.
That’s the first three chapters folks. I’m dizzy from all this overblown nonsense. It feels like the author may have been high when she wrote this. It is in no way like anything I’ve read from Moreland before. Is she trying to veer away from small town saccharine sweet love stories into dark mafia but thought she needed to write every possible terrible scenario into her first few chapters?
Also this is set in Toronto but reads like she is in some war torn third world Gotham with rapists galore and abandoned warehouses. I live in Toronto and the real estate here is crazy expensive, no one is leaving a multi million dollar warehouse abandoned. And seriously, if this woman was in so much trouble why didn’t she just go to the front desk at the hotel where her boyfriend held her captive and ask for police to be called? This is Canada ffs.