Mafia Romance: Overhated, Misunderstood, and Still Addictive
Mafia romance has one of the worst reputations in contemporary romance and honestly, I get why. But I also think it is misunderstood. In a nutshell, the biggest complaint usually boils down to this: too much “down and dirty” time and not enough actual plot. And while that criticism isn’t entirely wrong, it’s also not the full story. Mafia romance isn’t bad by default, it’s just been done badly far too often. Contemporary romance has countless subgenres, and the one I’ve defended the most is mafia romance. Unfortunately, a large portion of books in this space feel like recycled versions of a handful of masterpieces. For every mafia romance done well, there are twice as many done poorly, and triple that I wouldn’t touch again. A lot of the time, I can’t help but think: if this book had gone through a stronger editing phase, it could’ve actually been good . Planning a story is easy. Executing it well is not. I’ve never written a novel, puh-lease, I’d probably accidentally pla...
