Reviewed by Caitiebelle on

5 of 5 stars

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Edited after reading the WHOLE series: Stick with it guys! I still stand by what I felt about this book, I really liked the 2nd one, but this series is so so full of twists and turns it's actually a masterpiece. So stick with it, just read them all - in the correct reading order, I ended up loving the Irreparable Damage duet. All I can say is read my other reviews for this series - but yes, really stick with it, it's a slow start - but my gosh does it get dark, it gets twisty and Matteo? OMFG he just will find his way to you because he gives 0 fucks and never turns into a marshmallow haha. He is BAD and DARK and I LOVE IT! So the series as a WHOLE is a definite 5-star from me. Things really start picking up in books 2 and 3 but read the story knowing that this whole series is basically Mia and Matteo's story, and everyone else is just his minions haha. And Vincent whom I felt wasn't bad enough? Oh...he'll surprise you haha. He's still a little shit, but he gets his own book again way later, and even that book is good. Again...the shit Matteo does... nothing...nothing...gets past him or happens without his say-so. It's actually an amazingly written series and in the end, it all comes together.


Ok...as I write this I have also read the 2nd book in the series, which is [b:Surviving Mateo|34519156|Surviving Mateo (Morelli Family, #2)|Sam Mariano|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1490499121l/34519156._SY75_.jpg|55650846].
Sadly this first book just did not do it for me. I mean I really liked the start of the book, and the book had really good elements, but I could not get on with Vincent.
I also realized at the end, that this was actually a series I have tried to read before - but didn't read past the 1st book, because of the ending.

Vincent doesn't want anything to do with this crime syndicate life, he's very very young (and I say that because I'm..well..older. I find that I find books with H/h the same age as my oldest child to be less fantastic to read, but again..that's personal opinion hehe), I mean both him and Mia are only 18 and a lot of the book setting is in High School.

This is very much a book where you FEEL the age of the main couple, and especially how naive they both are. Vince is not as naive as Mia, for obvious reasons, but still - he's just not a bad boy.

Don't get me wrong, he does bad things here and there, and their relationship is def., not easy.

There are some dark scenes here and Mia has some really triggering experiences, so this series is a DARK romance - most definitely, but them as a couple in this book...yeh they had a couple of dark issues, but in general, I read the book but nothing really sat with me.

I didn't feel connected to them, on the contrary, I really don't like their life choices (hahaha). But that's a personal preference. Things like pregnancy and children, marriages etc is something that I enjoy in this sort of book category and I kind of look for - and Mia doesn't want to get Married and Vince never wants to have children. Now we can say that this is because they are so young, but ... it puts a downer on the book for me.

Who knows, maybe later on in the series this changes. But we see them in book 2 a fair bit as cameo - and I still didn't really like them. They are just too...tame for me.

However, fair not - book 2 definitely brought more to the table - since that is our dear boss man himself: Mateo
His book has def. brought the series more into my kind of book - and yes that book also has darkness.

In general, this series in total is quite dark - I haven't made it to book 3 yet, because at the end of the book 2 I'm told I NEED TO read the [b:Irreparable Damage|61441920|Irreparable Damage (Irreparable, #1)|Sam Mariano|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1657830959l/61441920._SY75_.jpg|42486555] & [b:Irreparable Lives|61441926|Irreparable Lives (Irreparable, #2)|Sam Mariano|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1657831058l/61441926._SY75_.jpg|43083321] duet if I don't want spoilers for those books, because apparently book 3 will spoil the hell out of that duett.
Which...is kind of offputting? Because I've never heard of them, and they aren't mentioned at all anywhere in book 1...I did put them on my TBR list though, but I still felt like more info had to be given about this duet and why I should read it before I read book 3.
After reading the bio for the duett, I'm thinking that possibly - this PI is the same PI we have a super short meet within Accidental Witness, but I can't be sure as he only introduces himself with a first name and he's such a brief encounter, I had to actually do a search in the book when reading this - to find this out.

So yeh...def. would have liked more info here. *shrug*

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  • Started reading
  • 8 October, 2021: Finished reading
  • 8 October, 2021: Reviewed
  • Started reading
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  • 8 October, 2021: Reviewed