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thebookplatypus91's review against another edition
5.0
Due to the mixed reviews, I wanted to see if I’d like this book since I bought a book box with this book in it with a special edition cover.
Despite the minor errors, which didn’t take away from book at all, I absolutely loved the story. I fell in love with the writing and prose.
This author, the way she writes a love story, is beautiful.
What critics complained about was the inner dialogue but that’s what helped me fall in love with these characters. Very unique writing that captured my attention till I was done reading.
I’m a mafia skank. I said it. I love my fictional mafia men and this will go down and one of my favorite mafia romances.
Yes to an HEA.
Despite the minor errors, which didn’t take away from book at all, I absolutely loved the story. I fell in love with the writing and prose.
This author, the way she writes a love story, is beautiful.
What critics complained about was the inner dialogue but that’s what helped me fall in love with these characters. Very unique writing that captured my attention till I was done reading.
I’m a mafia skank. I said it. I love my fictional mafia men and this will go down and one of my favorite mafia romances.
Yes to an HEA.
bookswritingandmore's review against another edition
4.0
I love mafia love stories especially when there are some suspense involved. Being the 1st book in the series, this book explains so much about the fictional world of the mafia. Both of these characters hit me in the heart from the 1st few chapters. I couldn't stop reading and was mesmerized by the author's language.
snf_83's review against another edition
4.0
I just by chance got this off amazon as what I was currently reading was a major DNF for me. Jesus am I delighted I read this. It has everything I look for in this genre. A brilliant
laurenreadthis's review against another edition
5.0
Loved it! Delivered on all of my personal mafia-romance checklist items.
bookgramsaga_'s review against another edition
4.0
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
''You still do something to me that has no word to define it''
Safety warnings:
- H 39 / h 21
- Slight OM drama
- Meaningless OW drama
- No cheating
- Loss of loved ones
- Violence/d*ath
- Mention of r*pe
- Mention of s*xual assault of a minor
- Attempted s*xual assault
- Mention of su*cide
- HEA
SPOILERS BELOW ⬇️
SPOILERS BELOW ⬇️
SPOILERS BELOW ⬇️
SPOILERS BELOW ⬇️
My first book by this author. I've had this book on my TBR for ages and for some reason never picked it up, but it is safe to say I instantly regret that decision as this was such an emotional rollercoaster. I was feeling everything under the sun.
I first thought it would end up being pretty much the same setup as most mafia books and do not get me wrong, I LOVE mafia books. My favorite trope and I will never get tired of them, so this was not a dig but more of my expectation. Oh boy was I proved wrong; this was an intense story with each layer being even more impactful than the next.
I will not give an entire recap of everything that happened but the parts that mattered to me. If you want to know the bits and pieces beyond their relationship in this book, then it won’t be found so I advise you to read the book to truly fully understand everything that happens.
I should also mention that I called him Mac throughout the entire review and not his birth name Vittorio or the first name he uses Capo.
We meet Mac and Mari who are both struggling with different issues that have plagues their life. Mac was only 23 when his arranged fiancée revealed she was pregnant but also sleeping with his brother (his kid not Mac's) and basically betrayed him with secrets/info. His brother Achille is known as the Joker as he is unstable and insane in his own right, orders Angelina to be r*ped and brutally killed right in front of Mac and then have Mac's throat slashed later dumped into the Hudson.
Why? Well, it all comes down to multiple layers that we each find out throughout the books.
1) Achille was insanely jealous of his brother
2) They are half-brothers and Mac's mother was the first wife who was brutally abused and later committed suicide
3) Achille wanted the throne to the empire but knew Mac being alive would never allow him to have it
4) This is found out AT THE END of the book - Achille plotted to have his father killed to take over but needed to get Mac's death approved by his father as well so he planted seeds
You see Mac's downfall was a beautiful precious butterfly who happened to be a 5-year-old little girl, Mac was tasked to kill her parents and kill her too but he never could do it and saved her instead, hiding her, changing her name and sending her to another family. He did it because her innocence was worth more to him than anything else and he gladly would have died for her.
This book is so complex that only reading it will truly show you the impact of all of his actions and how he truly sees her. She was the light he never knew he could have and when they met again by sheer chance 16 years later it only made him more understanding that what he did to save her was always going to be the right choice.
He saves her again when he marries her to give her security and a better life. They make an agreement concerning many different aspects of their marriage, but we also find out at the end it was all for HER, he never truly needed arrangements as she was his love and he had loved her for so long, when at first it was nothing romantic about it but once they meet again when she is an adult does his love for her grow into something more.
I loved them. I loved how every piece of information we uncover. I loved how he was dedicated to her and only her, and I appreciated how he never once tried to influence how she felt when she found the truth and accepted the fact, she would leave him.
This was more than him seeking revenge against his family and their arranged marriage. To me this was about two people who were always meant for each other, it was such a deep connection that only the two of them could ever decipher.
I cannot even begin to explain everything that occurred but just know that once the truths come to light and not about his plots and his past but the connection between them then you'll know the true meaning of love. He never said the words to her ''I love you'' but he said them in hundreds of ways more, though he did have them engraved into her ring.
A while before the final plot to destroy his father and brother (plus their empire) we find out that Mari is pregnant - they find out it's going to be a boy.
He enacted his vengeance with the ultimate end game but despite it, he walks away from the throne he could have taken and spends the rest of his life living a normal (as normal as he can life) with his wife and children.
These two had a lot of hiccups along the way and many misunderstandings but in the end it was them against the world all along.
We get a nice glimpse of them into the future. Mari went back to school and became a lawyer (yay for her). They had 4 children.
The last page of the book reveals everything Mac feels for her, and I loved the last threat he gives out lol
There are a few reasons why I did not give the book 5 stars was because it dragged a bit in the middle, and I was not a fan of the fact he was looking for a wife amongst other women in the beginning but luckily found Mari and married her instead. I would have liked it more if he looked for her all along and married her and that whole process, he was going through never existed. We also do not get a lot of info about his life in the last 16 years (OW and sexual past is missing too).
Slight OM drama: She has a best friend (book 2 will be about her) and the best friends older brother loves Mari, confesses his feelings, and causes a bit of jealousy to Mac. Mari sees him as a brother, and nothing ever happens.
Misunderstood OW drama: When they go to Italy to prepare for their wedding, she sees a girl Gigi who is overly close to Mac and she misunderstands their relationship thinking its love and he should be with when he reveals she is his first cousin lol he enjoyed her being jealous even for a little but it was never anything as its incest and NOPE.
Quotes I loved in this book:
''She was my innocence, la mia farfala, but she had matured''
''Fools will go where even angels dare not to tread''
'' You named me, Mariposa, just like I named you''
''Her absence in my life felt like death''
''She'd be in heaven. I'd be in hell.''
''My stained glass, my mosaic''
''You still do something to me that has no word to define it''
Safety warnings:
- H 39 / h 21
- Slight OM drama
- Meaningless OW drama
- No cheating
- Loss of loved ones
- Violence/d*ath
- Mention of r*pe
- Mention of s*xual assault of a minor
- Attempted s*xual assault
- Mention of su*cide
- HEA
SPOILERS BELOW ⬇️
SPOILERS BELOW ⬇️
SPOILERS BELOW ⬇️
SPOILERS BELOW ⬇️
My first book by this author. I've had this book on my TBR for ages and for some reason never picked it up, but it is safe to say I instantly regret that decision as this was such an emotional rollercoaster. I was feeling everything under the sun.
I first thought it would end up being pretty much the same setup as most mafia books and do not get me wrong, I LOVE mafia books. My favorite trope and I will never get tired of them, so this was not a dig but more of my expectation. Oh boy was I proved wrong; this was an intense story with each layer being even more impactful than the next.
I will not give an entire recap of everything that happened but the parts that mattered to me. If you want to know the bits and pieces beyond their relationship in this book, then it won’t be found so I advise you to read the book to truly fully understand everything that happens.
I should also mention that I called him Mac throughout the entire review and not his birth name Vittorio or the first name he uses Capo.
We meet Mac and Mari who are both struggling with different issues that have plagues their life. Mac was only 23 when his arranged fiancée revealed she was pregnant but also sleeping with his brother (his kid not Mac's) and basically betrayed him with secrets/info. His brother Achille is known as the Joker as he is unstable and insane in his own right, orders Angelina to be r*ped and brutally killed right in front of Mac and then have Mac's throat slashed later dumped into the Hudson.
Why? Well, it all comes down to multiple layers that we each find out throughout the books.
1) Achille was insanely jealous of his brother
2) They are half-brothers and Mac's mother was the first wife who was brutally abused and later committed suicide
3) Achille wanted the throne to the empire but knew Mac being alive would never allow him to have it
4) This is found out AT THE END of the book - Achille plotted to have his father killed to take over but needed to get Mac's death approved by his father as well so he planted seeds
You see Mac's downfall was a beautiful precious butterfly who happened to be a 5-year-old little girl, Mac was tasked to kill her parents and kill her too but he never could do it and saved her instead, hiding her, changing her name and sending her to another family. He did it because her innocence was worth more to him than anything else and he gladly would have died for her.
This book is so complex that only reading it will truly show you the impact of all of his actions and how he truly sees her. She was the light he never knew he could have and when they met again by sheer chance 16 years later it only made him more understanding that what he did to save her was always going to be the right choice.
He saves her again when he marries her to give her security and a better life. They make an agreement concerning many different aspects of their marriage, but we also find out at the end it was all for HER, he never truly needed arrangements as she was his love and he had loved her for so long, when at first it was nothing romantic about it but once they meet again when she is an adult does his love for her grow into something more.
I loved them. I loved how every piece of information we uncover. I loved how he was dedicated to her and only her, and I appreciated how he never once tried to influence how she felt when she found the truth and accepted the fact, she would leave him.
This was more than him seeking revenge against his family and their arranged marriage. To me this was about two people who were always meant for each other, it was such a deep connection that only the two of them could ever decipher.
I cannot even begin to explain everything that occurred but just know that once the truths come to light and not about his plots and his past but the connection between them then you'll know the true meaning of love. He never said the words to her ''I love you'' but he said them in hundreds of ways more, though he did have them engraved into her ring.
A while before the final plot to destroy his father and brother (plus their empire) we find out that Mari is pregnant - they find out it's going to be a boy.
He enacted his vengeance with the ultimate end game but despite it, he walks away from the throne he could have taken and spends the rest of his life living a normal (as normal as he can life) with his wife and children.
These two had a lot of hiccups along the way and many misunderstandings but in the end it was them against the world all along.
We get a nice glimpse of them into the future. Mari went back to school and became a lawyer (yay for her). They had 4 children.
The last page of the book reveals everything Mac feels for her, and I loved the last threat he gives out lol
There are a few reasons why I did not give the book 5 stars was because it dragged a bit in the middle, and I was not a fan of the fact he was looking for a wife amongst other women in the beginning but luckily found Mari and married her instead. I would have liked it more if he looked for her all along and married her and that whole process, he was going through never existed. We also do not get a lot of info about his life in the last 16 years (OW and sexual past is missing too).
Slight OM drama: She has a best friend (book 2 will be about her) and the best friends older brother loves Mari, confesses his feelings, and causes a bit of jealousy to Mac. Mari sees him as a brother, and nothing ever happens.
Misunderstood OW drama: When they go to Italy to prepare for their wedding, she sees a girl Gigi who is overly close to Mac and she misunderstands their relationship thinking its love and he should be with when he reveals she is his first cousin lol he enjoyed her being jealous even for a little but it was never anything as its incest and NOPE.
Quotes I loved in this book:
''She was my innocence, la mia farfala, but she had matured''
''Fools will go where even angels dare not to tread''
'' You named me, Mariposa, just like I named you''
''Her absence in my life felt like death''
''She'd be in heaven. I'd be in hell.''
''My stained glass, my mosaic''
amberloverful's review against another edition
2.0
- it’s interesting
- interesting but a little slow. It feels like mostly fluff
- ahhh interesting twist. I like it
- omg. I didn’t think this girl was stupid till now.
- it wasn’t bad but felt dragged out
- interesting but a little slow. It feels like mostly fluff
- ahhh interesting twist. I like it
- omg. I didn’t think this girl was stupid till now.
- it wasn’t bad but felt dragged out
smutbook_cami's review against another edition
4.0
Pretty Decent
First time reader. I really enjoyed this story. It wasn't super dark and gruesome. It had nice sex descriptions. Good love story that had mystery and danger.
First time reader. I really enjoyed this story. It wasn't super dark and gruesome. It had nice sex descriptions. Good love story that had mystery and danger.
chatterbookbabe's review against another edition
4.0
3.5
I've been hearing great things about Machiavellian and its author since its release. All of that praise made me incredibly curious. The cover alone had the cover whore in me salivating, and the fact that it's a mafia romance intrigued me even more so. I've been wanting a good one for a while now.
Overall, I'm glad I read it. It was nice to get a taste of the author's writing. The story is interesting, and I love the hero and the heroine. Bella Di Corte certainly has my attention. I won't hesitate to pick up any of her work in the future.
I just I wish I would have read it at a different time. I'm in a huge book slump, and I feel like it affected my overall reading experience. Like I said though, I still enjoyed it, so if it peaks your interest, I recommend you give it a try!
Mafia romance fans, this one's for you!
I've been hearing great things about Machiavellian and its author since its release. All of that praise made me incredibly curious. The cover alone had the cover whore in me salivating, and the fact that it's a mafia romance intrigued me even more so. I've been wanting a good one for a while now.
Overall, I'm glad I read it. It was nice to get a taste of the author's writing. The story is interesting, and I love the hero and the heroine. Bella Di Corte certainly has my attention. I won't hesitate to pick up any of her work in the future.
I just I wish I would have read it at a different time. I'm in a huge book slump, and I feel like it affected my overall reading experience. Like I said though, I still enjoyed it, so if it peaks your interest, I recommend you give it a try!
Mafia romance fans, this one's for you!