“Villains by Choice.”
Betrayed. Melody is nowhere to be found, Liam is in jail, and the Callahan family is cracking, just as Avian Doers, the FBI Director and puppet master behind their downfall, planned.
But just because they’re down doesn’t mean they’re out. To fight back, Liam and Melody will have to put everything on the line. The kid gloves are coming off, and no one is getting out alive. Nothing will compare to the reign of terror that is about to envelope the entire country. First they were Ruthless, now they are pure Savages. The end is here, and no one is safe…
18+ Adults Only for violence and sex.
Don’t cross the mob and you get to live. How many more mafia movies does Robert De Niro have to be in before people get that?
Let me preface my review by saying that clearly I’m in the VAST minority with my opinion. Most of my friends absolutely loved this book. So please take what I say with a grain of salt and keep in mind that it’s just my opinion. While it may not have worked for me, it may just work for you.
I realize that I’m reading fiction and I’m reading for enjoyment. However, I’m also an extremely analytical reader that finds it next near to impossible to shut my brain off and I tend to be picky. If you can take this book for what it is, you’ll most likely enjoy it. As for me? I felt that it took me completely out of the realm of reality. It was way too OTT for my tastes. Additionally there were quite a few plot issues that clearly had not been properly researched. Having knowledge of these particular things, made them stand out to me like a freaking neon sign. I’m of a mind that if you’re going to be writing about a particular culture, government agency, etc, you need to know what you’re writing. Getting even the most minute detail wrong can take something great and shoot it into something not so great in the span of a second.
Now here’s the thing, I loved the first book. Like five starred loved it. While book 2 wasn’t quite as good for me, I was really anticipating this conclusion to this epic story. I couldn’t wait to dive back into the ruthless world of Mel and Liam, especially after that cliff hanger in The Untouchables.
I’m a romance reader at heart, and there’s nothing better for me than a dark and gritty one. BUT and this is a big but, the romance has to be the predominant part of the story. I have to be able to like the characters I’m reading about and sadly I fell completely out of love with Mel and Liam in this book. Clearly these characters are not heroes, or even anti-heroes. They’re the villains, and they’re cutthroat. But just because I know that they’re not the good guys and obviously are not going to do good things, doesn’t mean that I want front row seat to the show. I don’t want to read (in detail) about the torture and death of innocent victims at their hands (highlight to view spoiler)The cop’s mistress and wife, FBI agents (end spoiler)That was the beginning of the end for me. As soon as that happened, I was so bothered that I began to nitpick practically every other thing that I didn’t like.
What can I say?
I should have just DNF’d, but I wanted to see how it ended…so I pushed myself through.
Fine. I won’t touch on the errors of ^^^ that. However, when said mafia comes to said president asking for EXTREMELY confidential list of undercover FBI agents, the president, no matter being the head of the United States does NOT have the power to get that information overnight. It doesn’t matter if he’s going to be going to the head of the FBI…
Then you have a ‘terrorist threat’ making a demand that the head of FBI and the president both stand down or else they’re going to (highlight to view spoiler) kill the undercover FBI agent they capture. Agent. As in one. (end spoiler)and the president says this?
Really? Where’s the NSA during this kerfuffle? How about Homeland Security? Or the fact that the president is not going to be the sole decision maker here.
Then there was the epilogue where we leave the realm of possibility so far, I felt I was in a different universe. (view spoiler)[Mel becomes governor and is on her way to running for presidency while Liam is the head of the Irish Mob. (hide spoiler)] I mean FFS. Really? Le sigh.
Maybe if the over abundance of gratuitous violence didn’t initially turn me off I could have looked past the rest of the issues I had, but it did and I couldn’t. I wouldn’t really categorize this as a romance, or at least it wasn’t for me. This was more suspense and thriller with a erotic sex scenes. But when it started getting so OTT, I quickly lost touch with the romantic aspect of this book (as in I couldn’t even remember it)
I told you all I’m a picky bitch.
Sadly, as much as I was looking forward to this book, it really didn’t work for me. While I enjoyed the first 30%, I had to push myself through to the end. It just wasn’t my cuppa. So many people loved it though, so please take my review for what it is: just one opinion. Read it yourself and form your own.
THE REST OF THE TRILOGY
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