Review: Binding Rose by Ivy Fox (Mafia Wars Book One)
2 STARS || Standalone, Book One of the Mafia Wars series || Amazon + Goodreads
So, I’m not sure how what to say. . .I didn’t like this book. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t like it. This is not RH, more than halfway into the story the development of romantic attachment to the other two men was just stagnant and nothing, in my opinion.
The premise of this series of interwoven characters, mafia machinations, forced marriages, AND it all being Reverse Harem, yes, please. Binding Rose, personally I don’t think should have been the first book in this series, and yes, you can read them in whatever order you wish, they have a standalone quality while being in the same universe. . .but this, it wasn’t it.
Rosa comes from the Mexican Cartel and is the oldest of the forced brides, she’s a virgin, she’s kind and sweet, and a bit too naive and forgiving for my taste. Forced to marry her way into the Kelly family, the Irish Mafia, who already hate her just because of who she was born to.
It’s a mess. A total mess.
The sex was, mediocre at best. The first night after she marries Tiernan, who is a total jackass, he forces her to ‘drink’ alcohol by taking a drink and then kissing her and shoving the alcohol into her mouth, and making her swallow every drop. Then he tells her that her V card is safe, she takes a shower and conveniently doesn’t put on pajamas but sticks to nakedness and the hotel robe, he decides to punish her for – a kindness that her brother pays her at the wedding reception where her new husband ignored her and his brother Shay paid her the tiniest bit of kindness, he danced with her. . . – the jackass strips her of her robe and then proceeds to spank her and fondle her, even though he feels the scars on her skin from her father’s abuse, which side note – I really wish the author had expounded on Rosa’s life even a little bit more, that these scars would have mattered past this humiliation scene – anyways he spanks her, feels her up and then pushes her to the floor in humiliation.
Happy marriage to you Rosa, your husband is a dick.
If only his assholish ways made sense or even resolved to be yummy, they don’t FYI, they really don’t. He’s just an asshole married to a too sweet to be in a Mafia romance woman.
The RH aspects of this story are a joke. A hilarious, pitiful joke. There is Shay, the younger brother to Tiernan the asshole, and Colin, the cousin and a character that could have shined and yet, I had to remind myself what his name even was. . .
After having horrid, awful, sex with his wife, the asshole (Tiernan) decides to ice out our dear Rosa and so begins the setup for the wonderful disaster that will become our RH epicenter. He won’t give her a baby, Rosa wants a baby, so she makes demands that the asshole needs to knock her up, to which he comes up with the brilliant idea, that a Kelly baby doesn’t have to come from his dick, it can come from his brother Shay and/or his Cousin, Colin’s dicks.
It’s embarrassing what happens next. . .seriously.
There is a strange kidnapping moment in the end, that you could kind of see maybe something weird happening, but it was blah. The sex is weird, you have virgin Rosa being called a whore and a slut, etc. during her first time having sex. There is a double penetration scene that takes place, which was interesting considering all the dicks in this story are related. . .
The love story aspect of this story rang poorly, it didn’t grab me and make me believe in the love between these characters. I don’t love this book, I don’t like this book. I honestly can’t say that I’d even recommend it. And to be truthful, if I hadn’t already read another of this series from farther down the line because of the authors and LOVED it and bought the paperback for my shelf, Binding Rose would probably have put me off the series as a whole, it’s just not that good.
Synopsis:
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.
*Binding Rose is a full-length reverse harem novel in the dark and twisted Mafia Wars world.
*Recommended 18+ due to mature language, adult situations and sensitive content.
Review: Gunmetal Lily by Rebecca Royce (Mafia Wars) – Alice & Eyre
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