Sara's Review: Taken Back: A Bad Boy Russian Mafia Romance by Alyna Amorosi
APC
PUBLISHER: SELF-PUBLISHED
RELEASED: July 18, 2016
GENRE: ROMANCE, ACTION ADVENTURE
LENGTH: 367 pages
FORMAT: EBOOK, PAPERBACK
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SYNOPSIS
Sonya Valentina is a struggling waitress who has recently lost her mother. She got hired as a hostess at a strip club owned by a mysterious foreigner. One of their regular customers is a cocky Russian mobster. Sonya has never gone for the bad boy type, but this brash and dangerous bad boy somehow makes her feel… safe. Dmitri Veselov has the looks of a model... well, except for his scars and prison tattoos. He's as heartless in dating as he is vicious in handling his business. And this Russian stud already has every stripper at Sultan's Palace squirming in their G-strings. But when he meets Sonya, he has feelings of comfort and trust like he hasn't felt since before his happy childhood took a tragic turn into a brutal life of death and violence. Yet with a mafia war raging, his mob boss uncle's massive fortune on the line, and more dark secrets than he can count, should Dmitri allow Sonya into his world? Taken Back has some steamy scenes (and they get a bit rough!) It also has a suspenseful plot, wild surprises, and characters I hope you'll love as much as I do.
TWO BOUNDLESS STARS
This is Amorosi first novel and while the concept is well thought out the delivery is where she had problems. She explained right from the beginning that the story was written in third person, yet the main character’s inner dialog was going to be in first person. I’ll be honest, this was disjointed and didn’t read smoothly. Amorosi would have been better served writing in first person and switching POV. The story also jumps from present tense to past tense, which again was confusing and very disjointed. I also found the dialogue crude and rudimentary and I don’t feel it did her characters or the story the justice they deserved.
The ending was also too abrupt, I think it would have been better served to have a climactic battle instead of just fizzling the way it did. I do like that we got an HEA.
However, like I said the overall concept of the story was sound and the characters were will developed and thought out. I didn’t DNF because I was legitimately interested in where the story went. I will be interesting to see how Amorosi develops as an author.