Binding Rose: A Dark Mafia Romance (Mafia Wars) by ivy fox
Blurb
I was sold to my enemies.
You would think that being forced into a loveless marriage to ensure an alliance would be unheard of in this day and age. And in most cases, you would be correct in that assumption.
But not for me.
A cartel princess has no vote on who she can or cannot marry—much less love.
Any decision in my life was forfeited just by being born into the most powerful Mexican cartel there is.
Still, it does sting that I’m to be hand-delivered to the Irish mob and marry into the Kelly family, who my own brother has coined to be nothing more than bloodthirsty savages.
They’re animals, Rosa. Filthy, unscrupulous, vicious animals.
Those were his exact words, yet he still followed our father’s orders to walk me down the aisle, making sure I didn’t run from my obligation.
As if that was even an option.
All my choices were stolen away from me the minute I became another pawn to be used and abused at the hands of evil men.
Which leaves me to question…
Can a rose blossom in the dark?
Or will I have to rely on my thorns to protect me against the fate that’s been bestowed upon me?
Only time will tell if I’ll survive this cursed life or become another lost soul in these cruel and merciless Mafia Wars.
my review
The CDC now recommends authors stop writing scenes with just spanking as the introduction to aMaZiNg steam. Also, when the woman blushes constantly because she is so innocent and when she keeps inadvertently turning on the man just by biting her lip. How is this all still a thing??
It's been like 10 years since the spanking kink first hit. I can't believe it's still around and I stumbled into it. I stopped reading this type of stuff years ago. I cringed so hard when Tiernan bent Rosa over his knee and spanked her for the first steamy scene. His dirty talk, cringe again. It was degrading not hot.
The author took 2 of my top favorite genres and destroyed them. This wasn't mafia and this wasn't a reverse harem. I feel bad for the person that has never read a reverse harem and this is their first. I'd love to point you in the right direction. Please!
Besides the opening scene when the 6 notorious families meet to call a peace treaty, that's about all the mafia there is in this book. There's no violence, no grit, no intense action. You get one scene at the very end with a deranged Priest losing it because he thinks Rosa is committing a huge sin being with 3 men at the same time. But that has nothing to do with the mafia. Just a crazy man.
Why make it a mafia book if you aren't going to write any mafia related action? Just because there is a cease fire between the families, does that mean there are no other enemies in your territory?? Tiernan could have been an accountant with all the computer work he did. All rainbows and sunshine here. At least, that's how the epilogue depicts it. And they all lived happily ever after...
Oh, mafia life.
I say this wasn't a reverse harem because it wasn't decided before hand. Meaning, a lot a reverse harems, it's already established that they share and there is no problem with it. Or, they become a reverse harem because they all agree that this is what they all want.
Neither of those happened.
The peace treaty includes that the women need to get pregnant to carry on the line of that family. Well, Tiernan tells Rosa that it doesn't specifically state it has to be him, just any Kelly will do. So he decides that she can sleep with his brother and cousin to get pregnant. He does this out of anger because he says he doesn't want to have a baby with her. It disgusts him to even think about it. Rosa goes along with it because she's a ding dong. There really is no other way to describe her at this point. She wants a baby because she wants someone to unconditionally love her. What an idiot. Shay, Tiernan's brother, basically tells her that's not a reason to have a baby. But Shay and I both agree how stupid that reason was. He just won't call her an idiot or a ding dong like me.
Anyway, let's wrap this up. Tiernan has an epiphany that he loves Rosa, tells her that she can have him, Rosa decides she wants all three of them because she loves them all, Tiernan says no not going to happen, Rosa gets mad, she gets pregnant and Tiernan concedes. They all live happily ever after with their kids and all the other families.
The End.
The steam is cringe, it's not a mafia story, and it's not a reverse harem.