Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Mafia Target by Mila Finelli

1 review

galleytrot's review against another edition

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  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

READ: Sep 2023 
FORMAT: Audio 

BRIEF SUMMARY: 
In this contemporary romance, Giulio has stepped away from his role as the heir to a mafia empire in order to strike out on his own and investigate a deadly attempt on his life that took his lover from him. There is another hit out for him that he has to handle in the meantime, and Alessio’s reputation precedes him – he is a man who does not miss. But the hitman is playing a confusing game of cat and mouse with Giulio, stalking him for weeks, making appearances, following him from country to country; the man is dangerous, sexy, and completely unshakeable, but their attraction to one another is undeniable. 

ENTERTAINMENT VALUE: 4 / 5⭐ 
This isn’t my typical sort of read, as I don’t actively seek out books that glorify criminal doings and a lack of respect for human life, but I do get the taste for it very once in a while and it just so happened I wanted a little bit of darkness in my life. This book provided, without taking an especially dark tone; in fact, a lot of the book was pretty hopeful and upbeat considering the content. 

Years earlier, Giulio watched the man he loved die right in front of his eyes, and the inconclusive investigation into the matter has always rankled. He’s been running into dead ends trying to take things into his own hands, but he is intent on tackling it without the aid of his father, who considers the case closed and the perpetrator dealt with, anyway. Unfortunately, Alessio’s presence forces Giulio into hiding and strips his resources away for a while. 

Alessio’s latest job is a bit more personal than what he normally would take on, but his reputation his and his life are at stake on this one. Giulio’s death is Alessio’s penance for missing his shot on Fausto several years earlier, with Guilio being the reason Alessio missed the shot in the first place. The son of the mafia Don is gorgeous, magnetic, distracting, and alluring, and Alessio’s fascination is causing delays in finishing the contract. Approaching the unsuspecting target in a nightclub is playing a dangerous game, but he can only resist the pull for so long. 

TECHNICAL / PRODUCTION: 3.75 / 5⭐
On the author’s part, I didn’t really catch much of anything from this book that I disliked. The content itself was occasionally a little distasteful for me, but I had a good idea of what I was getting into from the start and that’s by no means the author’s problem. This is the first of Finelli’s works that I’ve read, and it holds up very well as a standalone within the series, which is how I read it. There are a couple of things I would have liked more context over which might have made the previous books worth having read, but nothing so critical that I’ll be seeking them out. 

I think if anything could have been written better, it would have been the moments between Giulio exacting out his brand of retribution and getting Alessio alone afterwards. While his shift is certainly a believable one, I think the nuances surrounding the change in his state-of-mind could have been better portrayed. As it’s written, Giulio sort of just jumps from one activity to the next like flicking a light switch, and I found it to be abrupt. Some stronger indication of how Giulio was being affected by his activity might have gone a long way towards making the transitions feel a bit more natural. 

Both narrators Amato and Duran are new voices to me, and I think both did an excellent job. Duran, I felt, had a bit of an issue sticking with his accents and would occasionally fault towards sounding American. He puts in a decent effort, but it is noticeable when he loses it. Beyond that, there were a couple of editing issues in the production that I picked up on, the first of which being fairly common in audiobooks: 1) at one point there are two takes at a sentence, but the first take was not edited out; and 2) at another point, two voices are talking at once, as if one of the narrator’s Siri or Alexa might be going off in the background and the mic picked it up, making for a garbled and confusing mess of words. 

FINAL THOUGHTS - OVERALL: 4 / 5⭐ 
This book’s high-point is the chemistry and the spice between the two leads. The world-building is also very well done, especially as a potential standalone within a greater series. It does include the sort of content you would expect from a romance between the well-trained son of a crime boss and an ex-military assassin-for-hire, so if you’re looking for this too, you shouldn’t be disappointed. 

This book has representation for gays and bisexuals. There are a number of European nationalities portrayed, but this book is still largely Caucasian as far as diversity goes.
 
The following elaborates on my content warnings. These may be interpreted as spoilers, but I do not go into deep detail. 
This book contains: gun violence (bullet wounds, deaths); stalking; murders, attempted murders; mentions of child abandonment; pregnancy; mentions of fatal car bombing; drug trafficking, drug use; alcohol use; mentions of death of parent (murder); weapon violence (knife); torture, mutilation, dismemberment, death; mention of human trafficking and sexual exploitation of minors; and, homophobia.
 
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