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bitchie's review
3.0
I know this one got some great reviews, but I just didn't feel it. I loved the premise of two total opposites, a cop and a gang leader falling for each other, but this one just felt to pat, too easy. They meet across an interrogation table, and BAM! that's it, twu wuv. Never mind that the cop was straight and never even thought about a man in that way, or that the gang leader was being questioned for murder.
I found these two supposedly tough guys to be too sweet, and they cried too much. The sex was hot, and there was a LOT of it. I actually found myself skimming the scenes, something I rarely do.
All in all, a really great idea, really well written, but it just missed the mark for me.
I found these two supposedly tough guys to be too sweet, and they cried too much. The sex was hot, and there was a LOT of it. I actually found myself skimming the scenes, something I rarely do.
All in all, a really great idea, really well written, but it just missed the mark for me.
drez80's review
4.0
I must say that Avril Ashton is quickly becoming one of my fave authors. I've only read two books by her so far, but they have been so ungodly hot! I did enjoy the actual plot in Watch Me (Break You) better, but this one was still good.
soily26's review
There was so much smut it became so repetitive, also the insta love was a bit much for me.
tricia03053's review against another edition
4.0
This story has two of my pet peeves, instant love and too heavy in sex scenes. However, it's so well written and darn interesting, I found myself unable to abandon it.
wildfaeriecaps's review against another edition
5.0
This book has so many mixed reviews and it leaves me wondering what folks expected. I wasn't looking for realism, just entertainment. I got that. Was the relationship over the top? Yes. Were conflicts resolved too easily? Absolutely. Was plot an afterthought for much of the book? Kind of, yeah. Do I care? Not even a little.
ofbooksandromance's review against another edition
3.0
0 stars for the first 60% of this book and 5 stars for the last 40%, which evens out to 3 stars rounded up
This was a buddy read with Candy. Candy and I really want to read [b:Call the Coroner|33975583|Call the Coroner (Staniel, #1)|Avril Ashton|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1485215960l/33975583._SY75_.jpg|54962366] and we know it is better if we read all the Avril Ashton books in order, so we had the brilliant idea to do just that (we definitely do not regret it or anything). I was ready for this book to not be very good and unpolished, but I did not expect to hate it as much as I did, well for the first 60% of it anyway.
I honestly do not have any idea what happened. Up until 67% I was hating this book so much it was giving me nightmares and then the end of chapter 10 happened, and I fell in love with the book. I enjoyed the last part of this book, so much.
Candy and I went through so many emotions while reading this. This was such a ride. We started kind of hopeful, thinking it couldn’t be THAT bad, then we were shocked at how bad it was and we hated everything about the book, then we miraculously got invested in the book and couldn’t put it down and then we fell deeply in love with the book.
Brief summary
Gabriel is 35 and he is a detective. Angelo is 32 and he’s a gang leader. They meet because Gabriel is interrogating Angelo because they are trying to find who killed Angelo’s sister. They started lusting after the other and then get together and have an insane amount of sex and fall in love.
Since my feelings about this book changed so much through the book, I will do my review in different chapters and my feelings during those chapters.
Chapter 1 to 10
When it comes to the insta love
I’m not even sure if we can call this book insta love, it’s even faster than insta love. At the end of chapter 2 after one interrogation, one bullet in the arm of Gabriel, shot by Angelo, one kiss, and one blowjob during which Gabriel, a straight man who’s an anal virgin, got fingered by tree fingers, without any lube, these people were already planning a life together. All this totaled out to about 2 hours spent together. Oh and after that, they called on the phone once, for about 5 minutes, and they were in love.
When it comes to how realistic the cop and gang aspect of the book were
This book felt like a comedy of a cop and a gang leader because there is no way everyone would act this way in real life, if they did, they would have died from their own stupidity 20 years ago. They were bad at their job. Angelo was an awful gang leader, who’s actions didn’t make any sense and he was way too soft for the job. And Gabriel was such a bad cop, I don’t think he did his job properly once in the entire book. It’s truly shocking they’re still alive and didn’t get killed in their line of work yet.
When it comes to the gang aspect of the book
None of the descriptions of the gang Angelo led made sense or were realistic. At one point he killed someone and touched him before killing him, without gloves on. How is this supposed to make any sense? Why do you want to be caught? Also, why are you doing your own killing, you are the gang’s leader, can’t you find a hitman? No gang leader would ever act this way unless they want to end up in prison for life.
When it comes to the relationship between the main characters
Angelo is a gang leader and Gabriel is a cop. They hadn’t even spent an entire day together yet and Gabriel was pissed out that Angelo was keeping really private things from him. But like Gabriel is a cop and could have put Angelo in jail if he knew those things, so it made sense for Angelo to not want to tell him. How are you meant to trust someone after so little time? You are not, no one trusts that fast. Especially not in this situation.
Gabriel and Angelo have no chemistry. It was painful reading about them talking to each other and being with each other because they just painfully did not fit together. These people were unable to have a conversation. They always went from super serious conversation to sex. One time Angelo was saying how he was raped as a teen and two seconds after, without ending the conversation, they were having sex. I had so much whiplash. If only the sex scenes were good, but they were awful, so it was not even interesting to read about. Also, the dirty talk was worst than bad porn from the 60s.
Also, Angelo and Gabriel were always mad at each other for no reason, they were always rude to each other, they never had a regular conversation, which always turned into rage.
When it comes to the plot of the book
This book was so confusing that even if Candy and I talked about the plot, I am not sure I understood anything that was happening. Everything about this book is ridiculous. None of it makes any sense or was enjoyable to read about, up to this point.
When it comes to the vibe of the book
There was so much casual misogyny in this. The only women who were the main character's sister and mother were shown as only being useful for sex or catty exes. Angelo was a gay man who got blowjobs from women and said how he had to imagine Gabe so he could get off. Couldn’t he… I don’t know… jerk off? The book doesn’t mention that he is missing his hands, so it would have been easier for him to jerk off. Instead of using women, for no reason at all.
Also, this book had a really strange homophobic vibe to it. There were so many stereotypes, in everything they did. I do not really know how to explain it, but it was there in everything the characters did.
Also, there were Spanish words randomly used everywhere because Angelo also speaks Spanish. No one just says one random Spanish word in the middle of a sentence, it made no sense to do it this way.
Chapter 11 to the epilogue
I have no clue what happened here but it took me about 5 minutes to fall in love with Gabriel and Angelo, so much. Everything in this part worked for me. There were finally real feelings and emotions. I could finally feel how much Angelo and Gabriel love each other. The story started making sense, for once. The sex got really damn good. Every just did a 180 and turned a story I hated into a story I love.
When it comes to the story
Everything started making sense here. It wasn’t about their jobs anymore, it mostly was just about Angelo and Gabriel and their feelings about each other, which I preferred way more.
When it comes to the main characters and their connection
I started loving these two so much. I connected with them and their struggles so much. I finally understood why they love each other and why they are perfect for each other. I went from hating everything about Gabriel and Angelo to loving them, dearly, in this part of the book.
When it comes to the vibe
The weird homophobia totally disappeared, so did the misogyny and the weird use of Spanish words everywhere. It was definitely a nice change.
When it comes to the emotions
I cried for most of this part of the book, it was so damn emotional.
When it comes to the sex scenes
The sex scenes got so good in this part. They were actual feelings between the characters, and you could feel it in all the sex scenes. The sex scenes were really damn hot and were perfect to me. Also, Angelo had nipples piercings and those are just so damn hot.
When it comes to the break up at 80% and the reunion
I’m not the biggest fan of breakups at the end of books but I really enjoyed the one here. It made so much sense with the story and I loved everything that had to do with the breakup, all of it was realistic and made perfect sense. The reunion in this book was so fucking perfect, there were so many emotions and a good amount of groveling.
I still have no clue what happened, how I went from hating this book so much and wanting the two main characters to disappear, to loving them so much I was cheering for them to get their happily ever after. But now I’m so invested in this series and I cannot wait to read more of it. In fact, Candy and I already started book 2 because we were too curious and just had to read it.
This was a buddy read with Candy. Candy and I really want to read [b:Call the Coroner|33975583|Call the Coroner (Staniel, #1)|Avril Ashton|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1485215960l/33975583._SY75_.jpg|54962366] and we know it is better if we read all the Avril Ashton books in order, so we had the brilliant idea to do just that (we definitely do not regret it or anything). I was ready for this book to not be very good and unpolished, but I did not expect to hate it as much as I did, well for the first 60% of it anyway.
I honestly do not have any idea what happened. Up until 67% I was hating this book so much it was giving me nightmares and then the end of chapter 10 happened, and I fell in love with the book. I enjoyed the last part of this book, so much.
Candy and I went through so many emotions while reading this. This was such a ride. We started kind of hopeful, thinking it couldn’t be THAT bad, then we were shocked at how bad it was and we hated everything about the book, then we miraculously got invested in the book and couldn’t put it down and then we fell deeply in love with the book.
Brief summary
Gabriel is 35 and he is a detective. Angelo is 32 and he’s a gang leader. They meet because Gabriel is interrogating Angelo because they are trying to find who killed Angelo’s sister. They started lusting after the other and then get together and have an insane amount of sex and fall in love.
Since my feelings about this book changed so much through the book, I will do my review in different chapters and my feelings during those chapters.
Chapter 1 to 10
When it comes to the insta love
I’m not even sure if we can call this book insta love, it’s even faster than insta love. At the end of chapter 2 after one interrogation, one bullet in the arm of Gabriel, shot by Angelo, one kiss, and one blowjob during which Gabriel, a straight man who’s an anal virgin, got fingered by tree fingers, without any lube, these people were already planning a life together. All this totaled out to about 2 hours spent together. Oh and after that, they called on the phone once, for about 5 minutes, and they were in love.
When it comes to how realistic the cop and gang aspect of the book were
This book felt like a comedy of a cop and a gang leader because there is no way everyone would act this way in real life, if they did, they would have died from their own stupidity 20 years ago. They were bad at their job. Angelo was an awful gang leader, who’s actions didn’t make any sense and he was way too soft for the job. And Gabriel was such a bad cop, I don’t think he did his job properly once in the entire book. It’s truly shocking they’re still alive and didn’t get killed in their line of work yet.
When it comes to the gang aspect of the book
None of the descriptions of the gang Angelo led made sense or were realistic. At one point he killed someone and touched him before killing him, without gloves on. How is this supposed to make any sense? Why do you want to be caught? Also, why are you doing your own killing, you are the gang’s leader, can’t you find a hitman? No gang leader would ever act this way unless they want to end up in prison for life.
When it comes to the relationship between the main characters
Angelo is a gang leader and Gabriel is a cop. They hadn’t even spent an entire day together yet and Gabriel was pissed out that Angelo was keeping really private things from him. But like Gabriel is a cop and could have put Angelo in jail if he knew those things, so it made sense for Angelo to not want to tell him. How are you meant to trust someone after so little time? You are not, no one trusts that fast. Especially not in this situation.
Gabriel and Angelo have no chemistry. It was painful reading about them talking to each other and being with each other because they just painfully did not fit together. These people were unable to have a conversation. They always went from super serious conversation to sex. One time Angelo was saying how he was raped as a teen and two seconds after, without ending the conversation, they were having sex. I had so much whiplash. If only the sex scenes were good, but they were awful, so it was not even interesting to read about. Also, the dirty talk was worst than bad porn from the 60s.
Also, Angelo and Gabriel were always mad at each other for no reason, they were always rude to each other, they never had a regular conversation, which always turned into rage.
When it comes to the plot of the book
This book was so confusing that even if Candy and I talked about the plot, I am not sure I understood anything that was happening. Everything about this book is ridiculous. None of it makes any sense or was enjoyable to read about, up to this point.
When it comes to the vibe of the book
There was so much casual misogyny in this. The only women who were the main character's sister and mother were shown as only being useful for sex or catty exes. Angelo was a gay man who got blowjobs from women and said how he had to imagine Gabe so he could get off. Couldn’t he… I don’t know… jerk off? The book doesn’t mention that he is missing his hands, so it would have been easier for him to jerk off. Instead of using women, for no reason at all.
Also, this book had a really strange homophobic vibe to it. There were so many stereotypes, in everything they did. I do not really know how to explain it, but it was there in everything the characters did.
Also, there were Spanish words randomly used everywhere because Angelo also speaks Spanish. No one just says one random Spanish word in the middle of a sentence, it made no sense to do it this way.
Chapter 11 to the epilogue
I have no clue what happened here but it took me about 5 minutes to fall in love with Gabriel and Angelo, so much. Everything in this part worked for me. There were finally real feelings and emotions. I could finally feel how much Angelo and Gabriel love each other. The story started making sense, for once. The sex got really damn good. Every just did a 180 and turned a story I hated into a story I love.
When it comes to the story
Everything started making sense here. It wasn’t about their jobs anymore, it mostly was just about Angelo and Gabriel and their feelings about each other, which I preferred way more.
When it comes to the main characters and their connection
I started loving these two so much. I connected with them and their struggles so much. I finally understood why they love each other and why they are perfect for each other. I went from hating everything about Gabriel and Angelo to loving them, dearly, in this part of the book.
When it comes to the vibe
The weird homophobia totally disappeared, so did the misogyny and the weird use of Spanish words everywhere. It was definitely a nice change.
When it comes to the emotions
I cried for most of this part of the book, it was so damn emotional.
When it comes to the sex scenes
The sex scenes got so good in this part. They were actual feelings between the characters, and you could feel it in all the sex scenes. The sex scenes were really damn hot and were perfect to me. Also, Angelo had nipples piercings and those are just so damn hot.
When it comes to the break up at 80% and the reunion
I’m not the biggest fan of breakups at the end of books but I really enjoyed the one here. It made so much sense with the story and I loved everything that had to do with the breakup, all of it was realistic and made perfect sense. The reunion in this book was so fucking perfect, there were so many emotions and a good amount of groveling.
I still have no clue what happened, how I went from hating this book so much and wanting the two main characters to disappear, to loving them so much I was cheering for them to get their happily ever after. But now I’m so invested in this series and I cannot wait to read more of it. In fact, Candy and I already started book 2 because we were too curious and just had to read it.
teresab78's review against another edition
3.0
2.5 . The relationship was very unbelievable and though the sex was hot at first (despite articles of clothing mysteriously disappearing) it became repetitious and I found myself skimming the last few scenes. I did like Angelo though I found Gabe a little useless. I really didn't get why these two were together.
kristinafh's review against another edition
5.0
Okay WOW - where do I begin. First, I'm very lucky to have GR friends who recommend books to me. This was one of those. When I found it on audible, I snatched it up and hoped for the best.
The two main characters - Detective Gabe and the mostly ethical criminal, Angelo are just two guys who should have never meshed well together. Aside from the fact that Gabe isn't gay, he's an upstanding officer of the law and to become involved with a well-known criminal isn't anything that will have him rising in the ranks anytime soon.
And Angelo - what the heck? A criminal master lord type who is a walking package of oozing sexuality...what could he possibly see in a straight laced police officer?
Like I said - it shouldn't have worked but it did. Their chemistry was off the charts!
I loved their story - and I loved the story running concurrently which could have broken them in two.
I will admit that initially, I was a wee bit worried that this would be a Cut and Run type of knock off but heck no - this author can really write. Twists and turns but she still leaves me in a good place at the end.
The narrator - well this is my first experience with Renard Pasquale. He definitely ranks up in my top 5 voices for books now.
The two main characters - Detective Gabe and the mostly ethical criminal, Angelo are just two guys who should have never meshed well together. Aside from the fact that Gabe isn't gay, he's an upstanding officer of the law and to become involved with a well-known criminal isn't anything that will have him rising in the ranks anytime soon.
And Angelo - what the heck? A criminal master lord type who is a walking package of oozing sexuality...what could he possibly see in a straight laced police officer?
Like I said - it shouldn't have worked but it did. Their chemistry was off the charts!
I loved their story - and I loved the story running concurrently which could have broken them in two.
I will admit that initially, I was a wee bit worried that this would be a Cut and Run type of knock off but heck no - this author can really write. Twists and turns but she still leaves me in a good place at the end.
The narrator - well this is my first experience with Renard Pasquale. He definitely ranks up in my top 5 voices for books now.
alyric6438's review against another edition
2.0
I loved the first two books of Ashton's Watch Me series. I was hoping, with the criminal and the cop, this story would have some of the same aspects as (Watch Me) Break You which is one of my favorite M/M novels of all time. Unfortunately, this book felt rushed from the start. There was little to no introduction to any of the character's lives before they got together. In Watch Me Break You, seeing X and Dima's live before and after they met showed me how their relationship made their lives better and worse. This book had no foundation to build on, perhaps that is why the story felt a little weak. Gabe was kind of an asshole. He held his love over Angelo's head to make him do what he wanted. He forced Angelo to tell him his secrets and then cursed him for getting Gabe involved. Gabe refused to take any responsibility for his actions which made him seem like an annoying little kid.
The beginning and middle of their relationship was so rushed that by the time it ended I wasn't invested enough to care. I like the premise and Angelo's character was okay but, overall, the book seemed like something that Ashton was forced to write but didn't really want to .
The beginning and middle of their relationship was so rushed that by the time it ended I wasn't invested enough to care. I like the premise and Angelo's character was okay but, overall, the book seemed like something that Ashton was forced to write but didn't really want to .
triplebriiii's review against another edition
3.0
Look I'm not reading this for its literary value 😅😅😅
That said, Gabe was kind of insufferable with his wishy washy bullshit like bruh.
That said, Gabe was kind of insufferable with his wishy washy bullshit like bruh.