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sagalreads · 2 years

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REVIEW: ‘By Virtue I Fall’ by Cora Reilly (★★½)

Dark Romance/Young Adult/Forbidden

*LOTS OF SPOILERS AHEAD*

Wow where to begin! I’ve anticipated this book since I read the born in blood series back in 2020 lockdowns, and I have many thoughts.

Let’s get down to the nitty gritty. Anna Cavallaro is definitely a force to be reckoned with. Her strong and wilful personality is definitely something I’d like to see more of in Cora’s writing. this was a far cry from most of the more timid characters, and personally I prefer this.

I genuinely enjoyed Anna’s career oriented lifestyle and her drive, she’s definitely a go getter. I also really liked the tight knit and HEALTHY family dynamic the Cavallaros have. It’s very endearing and something we rarely saw in the first generation!

I found Santino very funny and would’ve loved to see more of Santino and Arturo’s dynamic!

“I’d wanted to kill him in the cruelest way possible. I’d already imagined calling Arturo and making a weekend-getaway out of Cliffy’s dismemberment.” They definitely seem like a great cheeky duo together.

But of course there are dislikes within the book and personally I found one too many that were well… questionable.

Firstly, Anna being underage in 1/3 of the book yet Santino and Anna kids and he has inappropriate thoughts about her. That made me incredibly uncomfortable, I can’t lie. There are lines to be drawn and that is one that shouldn’t be crossed. I understand it’s ‘dark romance’ and I read that genre A LOT, however it’s simply unjustifiable to me. Then the whole borderline incestual comments on Leona’s behalf, directed at both Anna and Sofia? It was so ???

Second, I think anna and Santino’s sex life definitely progresses and while it’s all fun and interesting, I found the romance to be a bit underwhelming! The main characters didn’t have much chemistry between them or honestly I’d say equal mutual pining? I feel like especially with the ‘build up’ aspect of there relationship, Anna did most if not all the grovelling? Santino kinda just went immediately from hating her to ‘I want to sleep with her’ which was truthfully a snooze fest.

Then we have the love triangle aspect and that also felt underwhelming. I feel like for a love triangle we as readers need to be either confused on who we like or desperately leaning to one side as the other character is just terrible. However, Clifford was just kinda there...? Like I forgot he existed for many chapters, it was like he was an afterthought when the entire plot is based on a love triangle.

There were some grammatical errors and the time jumps were confusing and unannounced. I do wish we also got some clarity or insight into anna’s fashion career or studies, as that seemed like a rather big plot point initially.

I think Lily and Romero were definitely a hit for Cora’s forbidden romance story, and I was excited but there are some moments for improvement.

I look forward to reading the rest of the series!

#BVIF #romance #slow burn #corareilly #mafia #dark romance

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sagalreads · 2 years

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Hey guys! Long time no see.

I’ve found a new read: By Virtue I fall by Cora Reilly. Stay tuned for my review in here and goodreads 🫶🏽

About the book:

Love is an inconvenience Anna Cavallaro doesn’t have time for.

By Virtue I Fall, the highly anticipated and jaw-dropping dark mafia standalone romance from USA Today bestselling author Cora Reilly, is live now.

Love is an inconvenience Anna Cavallaro doesn’t have time for.

She only has one goal: to become a fashion designer. Chicago’s elite already copies her style religiously, not least because she’s the daughter of the city’s notorious mafia boss.

When she’s accepted at a world-famous fashion institute in Paris, her father’s condition is to take her bodyguard along.

Anna definitely wouldn’t mind a few weeks of no-strings-attached fun with her brooding protector.

Santino Bianchi became the Outfit’s enforcer because he liked the thrill of the hunt and kill.

Babysitting his capo’s daughter is an honorable assignment he can’t refuse. His thoughts about Anna? Not so honorable.

Santino’s ignored Anna’s persistent flirting for years. Now, far away from home boundaries begin to blur. But Santino doesn’t have any intention to be the reason for a failed engagement and the ensuing scandal.

A summer fling in Paris.

Only two things stand in Anna’s way.

Santino’s iron will.

And…her fiancé.

Fall in love today!

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3uu60Gz

Amazon Worldwide: https://mybook.to/virtuefall

Apple Books: https://apple.co/39TXFF1

Nook: Coming Soon

Kobo: https://bit.ly/3HXVEEf

Add to Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3kNXlct

#byvirtueifall #slow burn #romance #corareilly #sinsofthefathers #BVIF #SOTF #cavallaro #annacavallaro #santinobianchi #review #promotion

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sagalreads · 2 years

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REVIEW: 'Shatter Me' by Tahreh Mafi (★★★½)

Romance/Young Adult/Fantasy

**(LOTS OF SPOILERS)**

For my final review, I reread ‘Shatter Me’ by Tahreh Mafi, the first book in her Shatter Me series. This books stars 19-year-old hero Aaron Warner and 17-year-old heroine Juliette Ferrars. The story follows a dystopian earth, in which humanity is gone and the population declines. Now with the earth being controlled by the reestablishment, a system of government determined to keep a surveillance state, Juliette must escape to survive

Juliette Ferrars has always been ‘gifted’ with powers that make her touch lethal to almost everyone. Three years ago, she was jailed for accidentally killing a young boy in a store with her touch by ‘the reestablishment’. Since then, Juliette has tried nothing but to escape her forced isolation.

Enter Aaron Warner, the son of the commander of the reestablishment. He offers Juliette the option to flee her prison sentence, but still allowing access the reestablishment access to her lethal powers.

Despite the growing tension and obvious romance between Juliette and Aaron, Juliette still falls in love with Adam, a soldier of the reestablishment that’s been jailed and is immune to her touch. Juliette escapes, nonetheless, without sharing her powers with the reestablishment, garnering her as a wanted fugitive.

My personal favourite part of the book is when Juliette seduced Aaron and shot him, to escape.

“His lips find my lips, his hands slip under my shirt and he’s breathing hard, tightening his grip around me, and I practically rip open his jacket in desperation. I can’t let this go on much longer. I have no idea how far Warner wants to push things, but I can’t keep encouraging his insanity.

I need him to lean forward just an inch more— My hands wrap around the gun.

I feel him freeze. Pull back. I watch his face phase through frames of confusion/dread/anguish/horror/anger.

He drops me to the floor just as my fingers pull the trigger for the very first time.

The power and strength of the weapon is disarming, the sound so much louder than I anticipated. The reverberations are vibrating through my ears and every pulse in my body.

It’s a sweet sort of music.

A small sort of victory.

Because this time the blood is not Adam’s.”

Overall, I found the plot of this book very interesting as I don’t really read any action/fantasy/dystopian books at all, so this was a first for me. The plot of the book was well thought out, and the characters were all very multi-dimensional/complex which made for an enjoyable experience. However, the writing style was a letdown. It was confusing as it was written in a passage/diary style and had crossed lines at times. Most readers would find this hard to read. Due to this, I give this book 3.5 stars.

#shatter me #warnette #tahereh mafi #juliette ferrars #aaron warner #book review #slow burn #books #young adult

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sagalreads · 2 years

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REVIEW: 'Kiss The Sky' by Krista & Becca Ritchie (★★★★)

Romance/Young Adult

**(LOTS OF SPOILERS)**

This week we read my absolute favourite enemies to lovers’ romance book ‘Kiss The Sky’, also known as book 1 in the Calloway Sisters series. The novel stars hero Richard ‘Connor’ Cobalt and heroine Rose Calloway.

Rose Calloway has always been a competitive and ferocious person, even in girlhood. Connor Cobalt has been the only person who can keep up academically and personality wise. When the two’s romance buds in ‘The Addicted’ series, it comes as a shock to readers. But their dynamic quickly changes our mind, as the pair are evidently meant to be.

When Rose’s younger sister Lily’s and boyfriend Loren’s addiction is exposed to the world, she embarks on a journey to fix her family’s reputation and ultimately save her clothing brand ‘Calloway Couture’ from getting dropped. Again.

Rose proposes that her family stars in a Reality TV show, showcasing that they aren’t stuck up sex and alcohol addicted ‘freaks’ that the media deems them.

Now on to the good stuff! My absolute favourite scene was finding out that the wedding Lily was meant to have was actually Rose’ surprise wedding. She had planned Lily’s ‘wedding’ thinking her sister was simply too lazy to do it, but this entire time it was her own one.

“In the open courtyard stands Lily, Daisy and Poppy, wearing pale pink bridesmaids’ dresses, simple and light, unlike the one I’m smothered in. Almost like something I used to wear at ballet recitals.

“I don’t…” I shake my head as I take in their bright, glowing features. Lily is crying. And smiling.

Then I see Poppy’s husband and Ryke and Loren, all in tuxes, dapper and handsome. And then…

“Mother?”

My mom wipes a couple tears as she smiles. She has her hands to her chest, choked with emotion, her pearls gone for the day. I almost start crying at the sight. My father stands by her side with an equally heartfelt reaction towards me.

Connor gently leads me closer to them. I add together all the pieces and I shake my head quickly. “Connor, Connor we can’t hijack my sister’s wedding.”

“I didn’t,” Connor says.

“We gave it to him a month ago,” Loren explains with a growing smile.

“What?” I look between all of them, incensed that they kept a secret from me at first, but then I absorb each face, each family member and friend.

Everyone is happy.”

And while I do have a few personal favourite scenes in the book, namely the banter between Connor and Rose, I also have a bone to pick with a few unrealistic parts of the book. In the addicted series Rose was always portrayed as the perfectionist, with an innate amount of attention to detail – and while it’s expected that all characters have their flaws, some of these were just flat out unbelievable. For instance;

“Rose,” my father says, his voice turning gentle. “Honey, how many lawyers looked over the contract before you signed it?”

Everyone stares at me, waiting for the answer. I already sense their judgment. I stroke Sadie who purrs again. She’s my only ally. “Just me,” I say.

“What…the fuck?” Ryke says, his mouth falling.

Loren groans, leaning back into the couch like a wave crashed into him. “Why did we trust you?”

Connor rubs his eyes and shakes his head. Lily looks petrified. Daisy’s face is frozen solid.

“I’ve taken multiple law classes at Princeton,” I refute. “I understood every line of that contract.” I’ve always shared Achilles’ fatal flaw. Hubris. Excessive pride. I couldn’t look weak in front of Scott, so I decided to do everything myself. I needed no one’s help.

And if I misread any line in that contract, it’s going to cost me. And Connor.”

It seemed very off brand for Rose to have this much trust that she would be able to overlook signing contracts with real lawyers. But alas, she is human.

Overall, I think the story has great storylines and thankfully isn’t solely focused on just the romance aspect. However, based on my prior knowledge of the characters, I can’t bring myself to accept the unrealistic behaviours introduced. I give this book 4 stars.

#kiss the sky #calloway sisters #rose calloway #connor cobalt #daisy calloway #loren hale #lily calloway #ryke meadows #books #romance #addicted series #book review #reality tv

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sagalreads · 2 years

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REVIEW: 'From Lukov with Love' by Mariana Zapata (★★★★)

Romance/Young Adult

**(LOTS OF SPOILERS)**

This week we are back with another Mariana Zapata classic, ‘From Lukov with Love’. This book stars our hero; All-Star ice skater Ivan Lukov and heroine Jasmine Santos, who has a promising career in ice skating.

Ivan and Jasmine have hated one another since they met at 13 and 16 years old at the Lukov Centre, home to Houston’s best Ice Skaters. 10 years on, when Ivan’s skating partner Mindy decides to take a break for the season, he comes to Jasmine with a proposition; to skate for a year together and win a gold medal at World’s. After this year spent, he and his coach, Lee would find Jasmine another partner.

More than anything, Jasmine is committed to do well as she believes her skating career has failed, and at 26 she’s lagging behind her peers.

The pair form an unforgettable passionate friendship that turns to romance as they navigate through the trials and tribulations. Jasmine manages through her tense relationship with her father, public scrutiny, and her almost failed career due to a lack of partners.

My favourite part of this novel was the beginning stages when Jasmine was scared to do a photoshoot, that would picture both potentially nude and Ivan helping her through her anxiety.

“Sometimes, you almost make me laugh. But I don’t want to do this with you naked. It feels too personal now. We’re too… close.”

I heard more than saw him exhale. But what I felt was him taking another step closer to me.

“The only reason I give you so much sh*t is because you were a pain in the ass, and then you were the only one who dished it back to me. You know you’re beautiful.”

This was surprising to me, as the pair mostly bickered with one another. To see a moment of tenderness shared between them was incredibly rare – especially so early into the book.

Another personal favourite scene is towards the end when Ivan reveals that Mindy and he were no longer partners and he intended to keep Jasmine around permanently:

My heart squeezed, squeezed, squeezed.

“I made up Mindy taking the season off when really our agreement had ended, and I hadn’t planned on going back to skate with her. Because even though you drove me crazy, I wanted to skate with you.”

In conclusion, I enjoyed this book as it shows characters that are determined to do anything it takes to win, and that even failure means they’re closer to achieving their goals. I give this book 4 stars, as I found it a little bit slow in the beginning (even though it was slow burn), however, I still feel like the first 200 pages could’ve included more of the pair’s dynamic to make it a better experience.

#from lukov with love #mariana zapata #slow burn #romance #ice skating #figure skating

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sagalreads · 2 years

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REVIEW: 'Kulti' by Mariana Zapata (★★★★★)

Romance/Young Adult

**(LOTS OF SPOILERS)**

If you’re into slow burn and enemies to lovers’ tropes then ‘Kulti’ by Mariana Zapata is the book for you. The book stars heroine Sal Casillas, an aspiring female soccer star and hero Reiner Kulti, a 39-year-old German football legend. A fair warning though: don’t be alarmed by the title, the book is more focused on Sal’s career and ambitions, than their budding romance

Taking place in Houston Texas, Kulti is set to coach local female club ‘The Pipers’ to fulfil a court ordered mandate for his anger management classes. Reiner is nothing like what Sal imagined, the fiery and passionate man of her dreams was very irate and hostile.

Kulti pushes Sal to new lengths, picking on her doing practice, challenging outside of any team meetings in order to make sure she is the best of the best. However, unfortunately, this does not bode well with the rest of the Pipers. This begins an onslaught of rivalry, more so against Sal herself.

My personal favourite part of the book was finding out Sal had a massive crush on Kulti back when she was teen, she would repeatedly send letters out to him, confessing her undying love for him. Unlike Sal’s usual tenacity and fierceness, she did not peg me as the fan-girl type, and as she navigated through adulthood, she was under the impression he had never known it was her sending those letters out.

“Before the posters and the marriage announcements, there had been the letters I remembered writing him as a kid. ‘I’m your #1 fan,’ written on construction paper with markers and crayons. They never got a response.

But I kept that crap to myself.”

But what really shocked me, was Reiner keeping the letters and framing them – officiating Sal as his ‘first fan’.

“I was nineteen when that showed up to the club’s offices. It was my third fan letter ever and the other two were topless pictures,” he said in his low, steady voice. “That letter stayed in every locker I used for the next ten years. It was the first thing I looked at before my games, and the first thing I saw after I played. I framed it and put it in my house in Meissen once it started to wear out. It’s still there on the wall of my bedroom.”

Oh my God.

“You didn’t put a return address on the envelope, you know. It only had your street’s name and Texas on it. I was never able to write you back because it wouldn’t have made it, but I would have, Sal,” he said.”

It gets cuter:

“Did I know you’d been my number one fan once?” he asked, nudging my rib enough so that I looked up at him. A gentle look replaced his harsh, usually brooding features. “Yes, I knew. If I would have paid attention the first day of practice, I would have figured it out sooner. And then you cussed me out—”

I definitely enjoyed the other aspects in the book which focused more on Sal’s budding career and how she navigates through rivalry against other teams (like her nasty former teammate), jealousy from her other teammates due to the extra attention from Kulti and dealing with almost getting traded to avoid any more hostility within the team.

Overall, I really liked the banter, bickering and competitiveness of the characters. Lots of ‘stepping on each other’s toes’, pettiness and stubbornness! There definitely wasn’t much that I didn’t like about this book, which is not enough for me to lower the rating so I give Kulti a solid 5 stars.

#kultisal #reiner kulti #mariana zapata #books #book review

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