On my quest to find out the hidden gems of Mafia Romance, there has really only been one book that I highly recommend that you pick up––and it is none other than Twisted Emotions, by Cora Reilly.
I feel like everyone who starts out reading Mafia Romance almost always starts out with Cora Reilly––I honestly don’t really understand why, because most of her books are terrible (am I wrong?).
When I first dipped my toes into the world of Mafia Romance, I started off by reading a few of the books from her Born in Blood series, which I mostly hated; there is no way to describe them, other than bad; the men are total assholes, the women are treated like garbage, and the writing is just not very good. At the time, I was convinced Mafia Romance was just really not for me, but a lot of people told me to pick up its spinoff series, The Camorra Chronicles. And, well, I can for sure say that it was a lot better.
I’m not obsessed with the series, nor will I say that it is incredible, but it does include probably my favorite Mafia Romance that I have read, to date.
Twisted Emotions follows Nino and Kiara––Nino is the brother of the capo of the Camorra, and in order to prevent a war with New York Famiglia, he is arranged to marry Kiara, the cousin of the capo of the New York Famiglia. This is not a love marriage––Nino is unable to feel emotions, and Kiara is weighed down by the trauma of her past.
I really liked Twisted Emotions so much, probably because I felt that Kiara was Cora Reilly’s most well written heroine. She has struggled with sexual abuse in her past, and although this story is her romance with Nino, it also details her journey of recovery. I thought that Nino was very sweet and patient with her, and even though he had his whole “I don’t feel anything” thing going on, it was obvious he really did care for her, and I thought that the whole romance overall was really well written.
Kiara’s journey from constantly feeling afraid, to finally growing into herself and who she was, I thought, was handled really well, and I think that is what made me enjoy this book so much.
So far, in the Mafia Romances that I have read, most of the time the heroine has no backbone, or is a complete bad bitch, with no in between. I liked the way that Kiara had depth, and nuance, and despite not being completely in your face about it, she was a total badass.
Even though this is probably the best Mafia Romance that I have read to date, it still wasn’t my perfect romance––whilst I thoroughly enjoyed it, I thought that ending was sort of rushed, and everything wrapped up way too quickly. I also wished there had been more chapters told from Nino’s point of view, since the majority of the chapter’s were told from Kiara’s point of view.
Still, in spite of this, I really did enjoy this book, and I highly recommend you all pick it up.
Rating ➳ 4/5 stars
(tw: rape, pedophilia)
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