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kat_2024's review
5.0
I started and finished Cartel in one sitting! I could not believe Dornan was ever a "decent" person. I believed it but it was shocking at the same town and I want more....even though I will have to wait a little bit to see what happens next it will be worth it!
hollaback77's review
5.0
How much is a life worth? The USA Today bestseller and first scorching novel in the Cartel trilogy.
I grew up in Columbia, the daughter of a wealthy drug lord. I lived a life of extravagance, until one day a drug run went horribly wrong and everything came crashing down around me.
I was given away. A payment for a debt. The Gypsy Brothers motorcycle club became my owners, and I did everything I could to survive.
But falling in love with the man who owned me wasn't part of the plan ...
This was a great start to the new trilogy by Lili St. Germain. My heart broke for Mariana and I felt so sorry for her. I fell in love with Dornan Ross in this book but I know in the other books that he's a cruel, murderous, evil man who has no redemptive properties. He's just evil incarnate and you think that it's because of his father but he chooses to be the way he is. He doesn't have to be that way. He could change and throughout all of the series, you see him make decisions and the turning points to all those decisions where he could make a different decision. Mariana is a woman who's in a tight spot. She can't leave, so she's making the best of what she has with what she's got. She's probably got Stockholm syndrome and she's using Dornan as a means to an end.
In the end, she knows what her fate will be and she can't change it. She knows she's going to probably be killed by his family but she still fights back to some extent. This book also ends in a cliffhanger but it's so worth it and I would read it without having the other 2 books.
There should be warnings on all the books regarding sex and violence but I think that people who read the reviews and the authors bibliography will get that when she says she writes "disturbing dark romance" that means exactly that. Is it worth it to read knowing that? Yes, if you can take the language and explicit sex and violence.
I was given a copy of this ARC from the publisher on Netgalley for a honest review. All of the above comments are my express opinions and no one else's.
I grew up in Columbia, the daughter of a wealthy drug lord. I lived a life of extravagance, until one day a drug run went horribly wrong and everything came crashing down around me.
I was given away. A payment for a debt. The Gypsy Brothers motorcycle club became my owners, and I did everything I could to survive.
But falling in love with the man who owned me wasn't part of the plan ...
This was a great start to the new trilogy by Lili St. Germain. My heart broke for Mariana and I felt so sorry for her. I fell in love with Dornan Ross in this book but I know in the other books that he's a cruel, murderous, evil man who has no redemptive properties. He's just evil incarnate and you think that it's because of his father but he chooses to be the way he is. He doesn't have to be that way. He could change and throughout all of the series, you see him make decisions and the turning points to all those decisions where he could make a different decision. Mariana is a woman who's in a tight spot. She can't leave, so she's making the best of what she has with what she's got. She's probably got Stockholm syndrome and she's using Dornan as a means to an end.
In the end, she knows what her fate will be and she can't change it. She knows she's going to probably be killed by his family but she still fights back to some extent. This book also ends in a cliffhanger but it's so worth it and I would read it without having the other 2 books.
There should be warnings on all the books regarding sex and violence but I think that people who read the reviews and the authors bibliography will get that when she says she writes "disturbing dark romance" that means exactly that. Is it worth it to read knowing that? Yes, if you can take the language and explicit sex and violence.
I was given a copy of this ARC from the publisher on Netgalley for a honest review. All of the above comments are my express opinions and no one else's.
gerireads's review
4.0
4 stars!
My very first Lili St. Germain book, and definitely not my last.
Cartel is the prequel to St.Germain's Gypsy Brothers series. It's about a girl who was given as a payment for his father's debts. It also follows Dornan Ross's rise to power and descent into darkness.
I was a bit nervous starting this book. I don't consider myself a dark reader especially when it comes to my romance, and I'm picky when it comes to my dark reads. Fortunately, I enjoyed this book very much. I enjoyed the writing and got sucked into the world that Lili built.
What made Cartel tick for me was Dornan. And no, I'm not nominating him for the best book boyfriend award. If you've read the Gypsy Brothers series, you'd know how awful this person is. And for those of you who are curious, this wasn't some story about a good guy who became bad.
No. To me, Dornan already has that darkness in him. He tried to tamp it down but working for his sick fuck of a father brought it out of him. I thought that even if he didn't work for his dad, it would have just delayed his descent into madness and not stop it. Why? Well, Dornan is broken. He thinks he has a conscience and some passages show he has some but his sadistic self is king.
But his character was well fleshed out and you can't help but be fascinated by his journey. I have no sympathies for his character but the author did a good job writing his evolution from a gray character into a very dark one.
Now Marianna is another story. She's a bit inconsistent to me to be honest, in her actions and thoughts. I couldn't quite put my finger into it butI don't understand how she could fall in love with someone like Dornan when he's not even that good to her. He didn't do anything special. In fact, apart from "saving" him from her father, he went out of his way of terrorizing her. So to me, this wasn't much a case of Stockholm Syndrome but a case of a woman who was attracted to her captor because he's hot.
I did like that Marianna's isn't acowering virgin. And I thought that she also has a bit of darkness in her which made Dornan even more attractive to her. That is the only explanation I could think of.
Other than that, this book captured my attention from beginning to end. And unlike most series these days, this ended on anHFN. Although, I don't think we'll ever get HEA for Marianna and Dornan, I appreciated how the author ended things in this book. There are loose ends that probably won't be tied up until the end of the series but relationship-wise, it's HFN.
Edit:I haven't read the Gypsy Brothers series yet, but I was told that it might be better to read this one then GB. Either way, I can't wait to sink my reading teeth into GB along with this series.
An ARC was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.
For more reviews, visit my blog...
My very first Lili St. Germain book, and definitely not my last.
Cartel is the prequel to St.Germain's Gypsy Brothers series. It's about a girl who was given as a payment for his father's debts. It also follows Dornan Ross's rise to power and descent into darkness.
I was a bit nervous starting this book. I don't consider myself a dark reader especially when it comes to my romance, and I'm picky when it comes to my dark reads. Fortunately, I enjoyed this book very much. I enjoyed the writing and got sucked into the world that Lili built.
What made Cartel tick for me was Dornan. And no, I'm not nominating him for the best book boyfriend award. If you've read the Gypsy Brothers series, you'd know how awful this person is. And for those of you who are curious, this wasn't some story about a good guy who became bad.
No. To me, Dornan already has that darkness in him. He tried to tamp it down but working for his sick fuck of a father brought it out of him. I thought that even if he didn't work for his dad, it would have just delayed his descent into madness and not stop it. Why? Well, Dornan is broken. He thinks he has a conscience and some passages show he has some but his sadistic self is king.
But his character was well fleshed out and you can't help but be fascinated by his journey. I have no sympathies for his character but the author did a good job writing his evolution from a gray character into a very dark one.
Now Marianna is another story. She's a bit inconsistent to me to be honest, in her actions and thoughts. I couldn't quite put my finger into it but
I did like that Marianna's isn't a
Other than that, this book captured my attention from beginning to end. And unlike most series these days, this ended on an
Edit:I haven't read the Gypsy Brothers series yet, but I was told that it might be better to read this one then GB. Either way, I can't wait to sink my reading teeth into GB along with this series.
An ARC was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.
For more reviews, visit my blog...
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