Ex’s and Oh’s. Book Edition

 

Spontaneous. This is an unplanned, unfiltered, spontaneous post. If you check out my 2023 Book & Life Wrap Up post then you’ll know I decided it whilst writing that one. This isn’t a 'disrespecting authors' post or me diminishing their work. Think of it as I picked something different from the food menu instead of the usual but didn’t up liking it. Not for me. Definitely for someone else. It’s the new year so I’m limiting myself to two authors.

2023 was my introductory year to the Mafia/Made Men series. Plenty of authors write them but as we’ll discover later, not all of them get it right for my palette. To be completely fair I blame H.D. Carlton. Despite the Cat & Mouse duo not being a mafia romance, it was the darkest level of dark. Reading that, then a mafia series that tries to be grungy just gives me the ick.

Core Reilly. If I had to choose only two words to describe the books, I would say inconsistent and overbearing. I believe I’ve read 3 series – she’s known to write about the next generation profoundly. Not necessarily a bad thing. At times can be a bit much. Like I lose count of how many generations I have read about whilst miscalculating the ones that I have yet to discover.

The first couple I was introduced to was Dante Cavallaro and Valentina aka ‘Bound by Duty’. I then spiralled which led me to reading all the books from that series. The common sequence visible is that all books are based around one thing and one thing only; virginity. Aria’s virginity. The secret behind Valentina’s. The whole 400 pages was Valentina trying to lure Dante into popping her cherry but he was too stuck up on his ex-wife’s death. The plot was just so there but the delivery was so not. Then came Luca & Aria which again started of piquing my interest but then tapered off again. As the series went on, it got progressively more and more rushed.

For example, I didn’t see the point in relaying the whole fiasco between Dante and Valentina in ‘Bound by The Past’. There was no need to go from start to end. Just put a dual POV in the first one that continues the story on in the second instalment. That whole book was based around the kidnapping of Serafina (niece). It was not the most pleasurable read. So much so that the end was the most anti-climactic ending I have read. To be honest, I was kind of glad it ended when it did because if I had to read another page about them discussing their children's wedding, whilst barley being able to manage their own, I would personally write to Core Reilly.  Don’t even ask me about ‘Bound by Hatred’. Again, the characters were constructed to excellence. Even before hitting the 50% mark, the story just started to taper off.

Now the ‘Camorra Chronicles’ series was significantly better. I used that term loosely because like I literally just mentioned some books started of great then disappointment hit me like a truck. ‘Twisted Pride’ was the most anticipated and it lived it up its hype 100%. It didn’t flatline in the middle, it was a slow-burn, understandably, carrying the series. In addition to that, ‘Twisted Loyalties’ was also a wonderful read. There was room for improvement when it came to the rest. I’m not planning on reading Adamo’s book. Gemma, Savio, Nino and Kiara could have had more to them. The MCs were gripping but again something when these books were getting edited lacked. It jumped from point a to point b too quickly. There was potential for heaps more.

Now it’s time to confuse the hell out of you lot. I couldn’t stop reading the series. Call it a kink if you will but there was something comforting in the quality of them that pulled me back. I may have sounded like it was the worst of the worst; I’m a bit dramatic. Okay a lot. What I spoke about amounted for 20% of the overall books. The rest of it was actually thrilling. I don’t know. It just hit the spot sometimes when my physical TBR is too far to reach so my phone does the job. Treat them like a placeholder if you will. Keeping my entertained until the next big read (that deserves its own post) came along my way.

Moving swiftly on.

I tried. I really tried to get into the whole Aaron Warner hype after I saw one page on that one TikTok; 'I felt it in my bones. Aaron Warner was back' with music by The Weekend playing in the back. Something along those lines anyways. I'd have to read the books to actually know. So, I read a couple of pages of the first one and safe to say not my style of writing. Nope. I want to hype about it so maybe I will pick it up again in the future but this time I'm jumping off the bandwagon. 

See. Balance. I didn’t ramble on this time. 

Actually. There’s one more. Ella Maise. ‘Charlie, Love and Clichés’ was the unexpected release that blessed (kind off) my TBR this year. I feel like a broken record at this point but at the beginning I already put it in my top 5 vanilla romance books. It would have been my most loved read of this year. Then I read more. Repetition was taken to another level. The same thing was said in different fonts. Still cute though. However, ‘Marriage for One´ was her best work. Truly. I’m not going to go on too much about it because I’m writing reviews for these books anyways. I just don’t like even numbers so 3 or nothing.

I’m not anti any of these authors but certain books were a bit of a let-down. TikTok is really good at its job of selling however not everything is always spot on. Sometimes even the best mess up at analysing a book.

Wishing that this didn’t dampen your 2023. Probably not the most optimistic post of the year but I thought I’d give you a break before rambling on about Justin Baldoni again. Fear not. I have more 4- or 5-star reviews on the way.

Until next time. Don’t forget to – let’s say it all together now – read some more paper pages. Despite their quality.

Vivian.

Don’t forget to keep reading, because as long as you do, it’s making a struggling authors day that much better. Reach for the starts of success.