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A review by shanayaareads
Luca Vitiello by Cora Reilly
4.0
I have a lot of feelings about this novel, most of them not good. Cora Reilly is a good writer and the story was compelling enough to keep me invested and reading but Aria’s character was positively lackluster and left quite a lot to be desired, compared to the other characters in this story.
I loved Luca, I absolutely adored the man, all his broodiness and bad boy appeal. The dark and twisted bits of his character. I love a good morally grey man, truly. But he could not have been married off to a woman more goddamn annoying than Aria Scuderi. There was not a moment during which I was reading this book that I was not annoyed with her. Frankly, with how often I rolled my eyes, it’s a wonder they’ve still remained in my head.
If I had to rate this book based on how much I hated Aria and not the actual story, I’d give it a bloody two, maybe even a one star rating, honestly. The girl grinds my gears and I disliked literally everything about her.
The only small consolations here for me was Luca and how much I love him, Matteo and how absolutely hilarious and twisted the guy is and the hope that Matteo and Gianna will offer me more than Aria did. Frankly, those two had more chemistry in their pinkies than Luca and Aria had this entire damn book. Gianna looks like a fighter, so I hope I won’t have to deal with the meekness and the incessant fear for three hundred pages, because this was absolutely tiresome.
I had wholeheartedly intended to read Luca’s POV of Bound by Honor and then move on to the actual book itself but if Aria was as annoying in a book not even being narrated by her, I know I’ll tear my bloody hair out if I have to read her droning on and on about how much Luca scares her or whatever she’d whimper about. And I’m not willing to endure that frustration the way Luca was here. I can’t.
I don’t think I’ve ever hated a female character the way I hated Aria and I’ve said this before about a lot of women in books. She takes the cake though, that’s for certain. I absolutely abhor this girl and her weakness. Even at the end, when she finally seemed to “come into herself” it never felt like enough. My dislike for her ran too deeply. Considering that I read Sweet Temptation, which is a novel set in this world, before actually having read this series, I had expectations about what the female character would be like, I was throughly disappointed. Aria has nothing on Giulia who is literally a spitfire at heart despite her initial fear of her husband. I had hoped that eventual the girl would develop a spine of some sorts but even in the end, there wasn’t much there.
Maybe it’s because I don’t like the weakness in Aria’s character, that I can’t see the appeal but aside from her overly described beauty, this girl doesn’t have an interesting bone in her body. Not an intelligible worthwhile thought exiting her mouth, so really, I’m compelled to question, what exactly is Luca Vitiello actually in love with because damn, I’m not seeing it at all. Maybe I should go ahead and read Bound in Honor, maybe it’ll give me some insight, something I’m missing because the pieces are certainly not connecting for me right now.
The four star rating here really comes as a result of my interest in Luca’s story itself, his rise the new Capo in this world and literally nothing more. The romance between him and Aria as I’ve said before was sorely lacking and I was not very impressed. I wanted so badly to love this book the way I did Sweet Temptation, but I just can’t. Overall though, the novel itself wasn’t bad. The writing was good but it left a lot to be desired for me. I know that I would have loved this book had Aria not been so weak willed a great majority of it.
Hopefully, the others in the series are not like this.
I loved Luca, I absolutely adored the man, all his broodiness and bad boy appeal. The dark and twisted bits of his character. I love a good morally grey man, truly. But he could not have been married off to a woman more goddamn annoying than Aria Scuderi. There was not a moment during which I was reading this book that I was not annoyed with her. Frankly, with how often I rolled my eyes, it’s a wonder they’ve still remained in my head.
If I had to rate this book based on how much I hated Aria and not the actual story, I’d give it a bloody two, maybe even a one star rating, honestly. The girl grinds my gears and I disliked literally everything about her.
The only small consolations here for me was Luca and how much I love him, Matteo and how absolutely hilarious and twisted the guy is and the hope that Matteo and Gianna will offer me more than Aria did. Frankly, those two had more chemistry in their pinkies than Luca and Aria had this entire damn book. Gianna looks like a fighter, so I hope I won’t have to deal with the meekness and the incessant fear for three hundred pages, because this was absolutely tiresome.
I had wholeheartedly intended to read Luca’s POV of Bound by Honor and then move on to the actual book itself but if Aria was as annoying in a book not even being narrated by her, I know I’ll tear my bloody hair out if I have to read her droning on and on about how much Luca scares her or whatever she’d whimper about. And I’m not willing to endure that frustration the way Luca was here. I can’t.
I don’t think I’ve ever hated a female character the way I hated Aria and I’ve said this before about a lot of women in books. She takes the cake though, that’s for certain. I absolutely abhor this girl and her weakness. Even at the end, when she finally seemed to “come into herself” it never felt like enough. My dislike for her ran too deeply. Considering that I read Sweet Temptation, which is a novel set in this world, before actually having read this series, I had expectations about what the female character would be like, I was throughly disappointed. Aria has nothing on Giulia who is literally a spitfire at heart despite her initial fear of her husband. I had hoped that eventual the girl would develop a spine of some sorts but even in the end, there wasn’t much there.
Maybe it’s because I don’t like the weakness in Aria’s character, that I can’t see the appeal but aside from her overly described beauty, this girl doesn’t have an interesting bone in her body. Not an intelligible worthwhile thought exiting her mouth, so really, I’m compelled to question, what exactly is Luca Vitiello actually in love with because damn, I’m not seeing it at all. Maybe I should go ahead and read Bound in Honor, maybe it’ll give me some insight, something I’m missing because the pieces are certainly not connecting for me right now.
The four star rating here really comes as a result of my interest in Luca’s story itself, his rise the new Capo in this world and literally nothing more. The romance between him and Aria as I’ve said before was sorely lacking and I was not very impressed. I wanted so badly to love this book the way I did Sweet Temptation, but I just can’t. Overall though, the novel itself wasn’t bad. The writing was good but it left a lot to be desired for me. I know that I would have loved this book had Aria not been so weak willed a great majority of it.
Hopefully, the others in the series are not like this.