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denissereads's review
4.0
I’m torn between I like it or I hate it. Because I liked Bastiano, even though he was a jerk most of the time. Ariana was too much, I didn’t get her. In the end she was her legend or her true self? I don’t know, but I liked the story line. It worked for me, and I liked how in the end every little problem was solved by the person they all loved. ❤️ Family above all. We all know that family doesn’t mean only blood related, and in this book we can see how a true family should be like. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for the best family example we can get.
atrevi1211's review against another edition
5.0
I was lucky enough to receive an ARC... Holy smoke and a pancake!!! I don't want to do any spoilers because I hate that as a reader but I seriously can't believe how much I love this A-hole of a guy (he has his reasons). Parker creates characters the you seriously will love to hate. One min you can't believe Bastian is such a D*&% and then you are kinda like.. you know what Ari is lying she deserves it. I read this book in less than 24 hours. I couldn't stay asleep because I NEEDED to know what happened. If you haven't read any of Parker's books before this one will be a good one to start with.
alexis7's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
pattyfgd's review against another edition
5.0
Bastiano Romano
The Five Syndicates 4
By: Parker S. Huntington
Narrated by: D.C. Cole, Kylie Stewart
Oh my! Parker S Huntingon, I don't know how you do it, but every book in this series is so good! Every emotion, so much action, and the narration! The absolute best! Ariana DeLuca is an undercover FBI agent, sent into the Romano family to take them down. Little did she know that once she started her infiltration that she would fall for the dark prince, Bastiano Romano. Talk about a bully! This man has it down, but he has met his match with Ariana. The problem lies in the fact that as these two are at each other's throats, their feelings grow. This causes a whole new problem! After all, Ariana isn't who she says she is. She has more than one secret and when revealed, it could end in her demise. This is a fantastic, action packed, slow burn love story, pulling in our favorite characters from the previous books and giving one of the best anti-heroes I have had the pleasure of falling for. Huntington also adds in the feeling of family with kids and cooking, as well as sage advice from the experienced. I loved every minute of this book!
How could it be better you ask? Give it fantastic narrators! DC Cole is one of my all time favorite narrators, and as Bastiano, he pulls off that arrogant, alpha male with a broken side that is impossible not to love! He is a master a emotions and pulls off the feels through this strong willed man. Kylie Stewart has the pleasure of playing Ariana, and she has so many sides to this woman. From mafia daughter, to FBI agent, she holds in the secrets and with her voice is able to keep the feelings evident and real. Plus there is a cameo! I am not saying who shows up, but it's a wonderful surprise! This is a fantastic listen and if you love mafia romance, go grab it!
The Five Syndicates 4
By: Parker S. Huntington
Narrated by: D.C. Cole, Kylie Stewart
Oh my! Parker S Huntingon, I don't know how you do it, but every book in this series is so good! Every emotion, so much action, and the narration! The absolute best! Ariana DeLuca is an undercover FBI agent, sent into the Romano family to take them down. Little did she know that once she started her infiltration that she would fall for the dark prince, Bastiano Romano. Talk about a bully! This man has it down, but he has met his match with Ariana. The problem lies in the fact that as these two are at each other's throats, their feelings grow. This causes a whole new problem! After all, Ariana isn't who she says she is. She has more than one secret and when revealed, it could end in her demise. This is a fantastic, action packed, slow burn love story, pulling in our favorite characters from the previous books and giving one of the best anti-heroes I have had the pleasure of falling for. Huntington also adds in the feeling of family with kids and cooking, as well as sage advice from the experienced. I loved every minute of this book!
How could it be better you ask? Give it fantastic narrators! DC Cole is one of my all time favorite narrators, and as Bastiano, he pulls off that arrogant, alpha male with a broken side that is impossible not to love! He is a master a emotions and pulls off the feels through this strong willed man. Kylie Stewart has the pleasure of playing Ariana, and she has so many sides to this woman. From mafia daughter, to FBI agent, she holds in the secrets and with her voice is able to keep the feelings evident and real. Plus there is a cameo! I am not saying who shows up, but it's a wonderful surprise! This is a fantastic listen and if you love mafia romance, go grab it!
talya_12's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
lauren_soderberg's review
4.0
Grittier than the first two novels in the series, Bastiano Romano continues to build on the compelling characters previously introduced, and adds even more compelling characters to the mix.
laurenraereads's review
5.0
Perfect Mafia Romance
I've read quite a few mafia romance books, but man oh man does Parker S Huntington always have the best ones. This one was no exception.
The world isn't always so black and white and this book captures all the grey so perfectly. I read the book in one day - I simply couldn't put it down. It had spice, it had angst, it had the perfect balance of being enemies and being in love. And I just really overall fell in love with Ari and Bastian and Uncle Vince. This book made me want to be a part of their messed up crime family.
Thank you, Parker, for yet another wonderful ride.
I've read quite a few mafia romance books, but man oh man does Parker S Huntington always have the best ones. This one was no exception.
The world isn't always so black and white and this book captures all the grey so perfectly. I read the book in one day - I simply couldn't put it down. It had spice, it had angst, it had the perfect balance of being enemies and being in love. And I just really overall fell in love with Ari and Bastian and Uncle Vince. This book made me want to be a part of their messed up crime family.
Thank you, Parker, for yet another wonderful ride.
readers_together's review
5.0
This is my first book by Parker S. Huntington and I can assure you it won’t be my last. It’s not only well written but captivating. The formatting is fantastic. I loved the chapter images and page breaks - they probably look even better on a device with colour (darn you, Paperwhite, darn you!) - I checked, and they totally do. I don’t read a lot of mafia-related books, I dunno why, I guess it’s just not something that appeals to me and since the morals are loose, I guess I always worry about the possibility of consent issues - since that’s something I don’t like reading, I just avoided them. That was a mistake. This book ticked all my boxes of favourite things so I decided to take a chance and WOW, I need more of these books in my life. It just shows that stepping out of your comfort zone every once in a while can be worthwhile. Often times the enemies to lovers aspect of the story doesn’t go on for long and then it’s all hearts and flowers, that is not the case here. It’s a slow burn. In that you get the enemies feel for much longer, a good half, if not more, of the book and I loved it. It kept me turning the page wondering when they were going to break!
I have to admit I cried at a couple of points, 1. The dedication - just read it and you’ll know why. 2. When Ari and Vince have a sit-down. I had my suspicions about him that turned out to be right - I didn’t guess the depth of it all, but some of it. I love being able to do that, that the author keeps you on your toes and guessing. Parker writes beautifully. I enjoyed every second of it. She gives you enough info to make you intrigued and then feeds you little bits to keep you interested until the big finale. It works so well. I was captivated throughout. These characters are so interesting that you can’t help but want to binge read them. I now need to dive in and read the others in the series…I know, I totally broke my ‘read in order’ rule, but, they are standalones, and I don’t think I ruined anything by reading this one first. I’m just more invested in the others. Why nobody has been shouting at me to read this series is beyond me. I’m not a huge mafia lover and I was in complete love with it. I love the world that Parker has created and although there are different families it is easy to keep track of who is who and their connections.
The chemistry between these two characters is off the charts. It’s almost palpable. They are clearly attracted to each other but they spar almost continuously. And it is fabulous. I couldn’t wait to see what they were going to do next. The fact that Ariana had Bastian’s little sister on her side was such a cute and hilarious aspect. The fact that this big bad guy couldn’t control that. It was perfect. Two words: Unicorn Chair! HAHAHA. The sex, oh my word! Somebody pass me a fan, or a new Kindle because I think mine just melted. Or maybe that was me? With chemistry like this couple had it wasn’t a surprise that the sex was explosive. And for my anal loving fans, they wasted no time getting to that. Which worked so well for the way they were. There was no way Bastian wasn’t going to want ALL of Ariana once he had her, ya know? With that said, each sex scene had a point, it furthered their relationship and the story. It wasn’t sex for sex sake.
Bastian is the type of guy that you love to hate. He’s such an a-hole, but he has his reasons. I think the first chapter was necessary to give insight into why he is the way he is now, and it worked really well because even when you’re mad at him, in the back of your mind you still can’t help but think, yeah, but he has his reasons. Without it, I think I would have liked him a little less…who am I kidding, I loved his a-hole ways! He is broken and watching him heal and become the man he truly is is wonderful. The relationship with his sister is fantastic and it really shows him in another light. I loved Ariana, I loved that she was vulnerable, yet strong and she was not going to take what Bastian was handing out without a fight. I loved seeing her relationship with Tessie. It was the sweetest. I hated how her only friend was a child. I wanted to be her friend. I think we’d be fast buddies. They were the perfect couple. It took them a while to see that you were perfect for each other, but they were. They worked as a counter-balance to each other and made each other think about things in a different way that allowed them to grow.
I love when authors include in their writing things about a bond and love not having to be blood. That’s a subject that comes up in this story and I loved it. I was doing ALL the fist pumps. And I might have made my husband jump with my shout of ‘hell yeah’ - I regret nothing! It was worded so perfectly and you better believe my highlight function was used.
This book has such a good balance of content. It's angsty, but also has lighthearted humourous moments too. It's steamy as all get-out, but emotional too. It has characters you'll love and characters you'll love to hate or hate to love. It'll also make you swoon all the swoons. And that makes for an unputdownable book. This is going on my list of favourite books from 2019 for sure.
I have to admit I cried at a couple of points, 1. The dedication - just read it and you’ll know why. 2. When Ari and Vince have a sit-down. I had my suspicions about him that turned out to be right - I didn’t guess the depth of it all, but some of it. I love being able to do that, that the author keeps you on your toes and guessing. Parker writes beautifully. I enjoyed every second of it. She gives you enough info to make you intrigued and then feeds you little bits to keep you interested until the big finale. It works so well. I was captivated throughout. These characters are so interesting that you can’t help but want to binge read them. I now need to dive in and read the others in the series…I know, I totally broke my ‘read in order’ rule, but, they are standalones, and I don’t think I ruined anything by reading this one first. I’m just more invested in the others. Why nobody has been shouting at me to read this series is beyond me. I’m not a huge mafia lover and I was in complete love with it. I love the world that Parker has created and although there are different families it is easy to keep track of who is who and their connections.
The chemistry between these two characters is off the charts. It’s almost palpable. They are clearly attracted to each other but they spar almost continuously. And it is fabulous. I couldn’t wait to see what they were going to do next. The fact that Ariana had Bastian’s little sister on her side was such a cute and hilarious aspect. The fact that this big bad guy couldn’t control that. It was perfect. Two words: Unicorn Chair! HAHAHA. The sex, oh my word! Somebody pass me a fan, or a new Kindle because I think mine just melted. Or maybe that was me? With chemistry like this couple had it wasn’t a surprise that the sex was explosive. And for my anal loving fans, they wasted no time getting to that. Which worked so well for the way they were. There was no way Bastian wasn’t going to want ALL of Ariana once he had her, ya know? With that said, each sex scene had a point, it furthered their relationship and the story. It wasn’t sex for sex sake.
Bastian is the type of guy that you love to hate. He’s such an a-hole, but he has his reasons. I think the first chapter was necessary to give insight into why he is the way he is now, and it worked really well because even when you’re mad at him, in the back of your mind you still can’t help but think, yeah, but he has his reasons. Without it, I think I would have liked him a little less…who am I kidding, I loved his a-hole ways! He is broken and watching him heal and become the man he truly is is wonderful. The relationship with his sister is fantastic and it really shows him in another light. I loved Ariana, I loved that she was vulnerable, yet strong and she was not going to take what Bastian was handing out without a fight. I loved seeing her relationship with Tessie. It was the sweetest. I hated how her only friend was a child. I wanted to be her friend. I think we’d be fast buddies. They were the perfect couple. It took them a while to see that you were perfect for each other, but they were. They worked as a counter-balance to each other and made each other think about things in a different way that allowed them to grow.
I love when authors include in their writing things about a bond and love not having to be blood. That’s a subject that comes up in this story and I loved it. I was doing ALL the fist pumps. And I might have made my husband jump with my shout of ‘hell yeah’ - I regret nothing! It was worded so perfectly and you better believe my highlight function was used.
This book has such a good balance of content. It's angsty, but also has lighthearted humourous moments too. It's steamy as all get-out, but emotional too. It has characters you'll love and characters you'll love to hate or hate to love. It'll also make you swoon all the swoons. And that makes for an unputdownable book. This is going on my list of favourite books from 2019 for sure.