1 Star...

Ughh... As much as this kills me because I was really looking forward to reading this series this weekend...just NO!

I will say, as I have said before on here, the mafia genre, especially Italian mafia, is one of my very favorites, in both film and books. So I am really picky when it comes to it, and I am expecting a lot when I read a book where the blurb claims that it is like The Sopranos...one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE mafia shows! Right away you've set yourself up to meet some very high expectations!

In short, I found this book to be completely insulting to Irish and Italians everywhere. Do your research if you're going to try to write about modern day Italian and Irish mob life. Mel and Liam act like immature, uneducated assholes. They make mobsters look like they belong on Jerry Springer. They are basically running around and screaming, insulting each other, and/or shooting each other the whole time.

The story is completely OTT. This was BY FAR my largest problem with it. This combined with crappy show-vs-tell lacking writing, bad grammar, unbelievable dialogue, and don't even get me started on the <s>enemies to lovers</s> insta-love! Many of the plot lines were poorly developed as well. For example, <spoiler>the attraction that DECLAN supposedly had for Mel</spoiler> that was so overwhelming that it caused Coraline to confront Mel about it. She must've known about it too because she was quick to respond about it like it was common knowledge. Where the fuck did this come from? These characters had had multiple scenes together by this point where, this was in no way alluded to. Just very ametuer for me. :(

I HATED Mel with a vengeance. There is "ruthless" and then there is an unhinged fucking psychopath. I'll let you take a gander as to which one I found Mel to be. There was nothing good or redeeming about her. If I could murder her myself, I would.

As for Liam, well I liked him in the beginning. He seemed sexy, enigmatic, and intriguing. But unfortunately, soon he started acting like an immature, spoiled little pussy-whipped bitch <spoiler>(what alpha male is fighting back the urge to tell his bitch of a wife that he loves her after just nine days of even knowing her??). Also, what alpha male asks his brother to shoot him in order to get some attention out of said bitch wife so that she will maybe admit that she loves him too? (<----- Yeah, that was the scene that ended it all for me.)</spoiler> I was half expecting for Mel to actually be the one with the dick when these two dropped trou but, I digress...

And speaking of dick, one word about the supposed hot and steamy sex scenes here....<b>RECYCLED!!</b>
This is like a BAD wannabe rendition of 50 Shades and the Crossfire series, wrapped up under a mafia pretense. Nope, sorry...I actually wanted to read a REAL mafia book!

The majority of the Italian translations included throughout the book were incorrect. (Authors - STOP USING GOOGLE TRANSLATE!!!! It's inaccurate!) If you don't respect the language that you are trying to include in your book enough to make an effort for authenticity then I have no desire to support your work! Ughh! This is a pet peeve of mine.

A few specific examples of the OTT stuff that bothered me: <b>*WARNING* Spoilers from here to the end of the review</b>

1) I already had to suspend some reality in order to believe that Mel (a woman) would be regarded as a mob boss. But, she had pretty much been doing it behind the scenes in place of her ailing father so, that I can believe, and I liked. However, to believe that an Irish and Italian mob boss would arrange a marriage of this sort for power unification is a BIG suspend belief request. These two cultures have loathed each other for decades. Again, I knew this going in so I am not faulting the book for this because it is part of the premise, and completely revealed in the blurb. But for her father to later admit that the driving force was actually so that she wouldn't be alone in life because he knows how lonely the life of a mob boss is? Yeah, I'm sorry no. Totally unrealistic.

2) The scene where Mel shoots and kills a pregnant woman for the sake of trying to get information out of someone. Ok, I am not in the mob myself so I am not going to claim to be some expert BUT, based on every single film, book, and documentary that I have ever seen, they preserve women, children, and the innocent at all costs. For a woman herself to do this? This didn't make me think that Mel was a bad ass. This made me despise her and made me want to shoot her in the face myself for being such a horrible, despicable, piece of shit individual. I am all for blood, gore, and darkness. This was not that. This was OTT shock factor bullshit.

3) The way that Liam speaks to the police Superintendent was completely OTT and unrealistic. In fact, that whole visit seemed unbelievable and cheesy to me. Basically he came over to say, hi, I'm the new guy and I am watching you, and you are going down, bitch! To which Liam's response was to once again scream, yell, threaten and throw a tantrum like a three-year-old.

4) The scene where Liam orders the take down of a commercial jet filled with smuggled drugs, once again, loaded with innocent women and children. Oh hey, btw...since when does the mafia and drug cartels smuggle cocaine and heroin via commercial jet liners?? I guess this amount of drugs just popped on right through security too, right? Because, absolutely nothing was explained there except for that the Valero had half a million dollars worth of coke and heroin stashed under their seats.

5) And the biggest bunch of bullshit of all - The scene where Mel shoots through a wall at a party filled with people to get to the men that were having a meeting without her, where she then SHOOTS a fucking mob boss???!!!???!!!????? I had to read this a few times to make sure that I didn't hallucinate it. ANYONE that ever takes a shot at a mob boss would be taken down, DEAD, in half a second, no questions asked. Sorry, that's where I completely checked out on hoping for any type of events that even remotely resembled realistic mob life. And yes, I know this is fiction and like I said before, I was willing to suspend a certain amount of reality to "go there" with the author but, The Sopranos was fiction. The Godfather was fiction. If you are going to put out a public work on a way of life, on a culture, I believe that you have a certain moral obligation towards research and on creating somewhat of an accurate portrayal. This was not that. This was like mafia gone white trash, trailer park, CRAZY!!!

I did love the concept behind this story and it is a shame that it wasn't executed properly. Again, I had super high hopes and am really upset as I know I am in the minority and many loved this series. I never ever DNF a book. I think this will be my third one, like ever. That's how much this one irked me. I feel used, insulted, and ripped off. Maybe it gets better but at his point, I am too pissed of and insulted to continue.

My friends and those who follow my blog and my reviews will know that I am terrible at reading books in order especially series, it's not like I go out of my way to read them this way it just happens. I am trying to get better, but this series is one of those exceptions as I read Book #2 back in 2015 and Book #3 in 2017. Lately I have been trying to clear my kindle of my old books and came upon this morning Ruthless People and was like I might as well finally read it. Since I knew this series as from reading the latter books, I felt like this was a reunion of sorts as Ruthless People was based on the meeting and arranged marriage of Melody Giovanni and Liam Callahan. This was the start of their partnership which as we know they were both hot-heads and impatient, they definitely clashed. I enjoyed the first part of this book and I liked the interaction between Olivia, Cora and Melody and Ruthless People reminded me how much I hated Olivia's character. The part I didn't like much in Ruthless People was how long it took Melody to bounce back from the accident as this didn't mesh with her personality and I understood how the author wanted her female side to come through but it didn't sit too well with me as what we knew about Melody she would have gone for revenge immediately not sat their wallowing in bed with her pity party and that ending - that sparked some excitement as it made me remember how much I enjoyed the next two book stories in the series. Now that I have finished Ruthless People, I can move onto the others on my kindle which is Declan + Coraline's story, A Bloody Kingdom and the Children of Vice series. If you love mobster stories then JJ McAvoy's Ruthless People series is the books for you as reading Ruthless People made me remember how much I loved JJ McAvoy's writings and how she found her way on my auto-read list and also that we haven't had a new book from her in a while.

I tried this book but it didn't work for me. Too much violence and sex,. I found it difficult to relate to the characters.