Shattered Vows by Shain Rose
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
USA Today Bestselling Author Shain Rose delivers a standalone arranged marriage romance where a grumpy mafia boss will wed a free-spirited surf girl and make sparks fly.
Shattered Vows
I’m signing over my hand in marriage for six months to save my city.
That’s it.
It should be easy, except Sebastian Armanelli is my sordid one-night fling turned husband. And I’ve just found out he’s the head of the Italian Mob too.
Bastian swears he’s set on reforming the mafia though. They’re accommodating when they used to be murderous. And he’ll be amicable instead of vicious.
Plus, he agrees that it’s only six months in public. In the dark of a private night, we can do as we please. Yet, I know just how he tastes and where each one of his hidden tattoos are. I know Bastian shapeshifts as that gentleman mobster, but in the dark, he’s commanding, ruthless, unyielding.
And possessive.
He refuses to share what he’s claimed as his.
And I’m realizing that includes me–
His lawfully wedded wife.
The suit and the surfer girl!
The following ratings are out of 5:
Narrator: 🎙🎙🎙🎙
Romance: 💚🖤💙💜
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📙📘
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌏
Character development: 😎☺️🙃😚
The heroine: Morina – she lives in a small beach town near Miami where she surfs every day and owns a food truck that sells smoothies at the beach. She is in to astrology and loves her grandma Mirabelle who has stage four lung cancer, has stopped all treatment and will die very soon.
The Hero: Sebastian Armanelli – He is the most infamous mafia boss in the country. His father was cruel, ruthless and Dirty. Bastian and his brother took out a hit on their father two years ago and has been cleaning up their businesses ever since. He is on the cusp of legalizing the last of their businesses when he meets Morina at a nightclub.
The Story: Bastian and Morina both know from the first that they are complete opposites. He is a wealthy man and a “Suit”, while she is a free spirited surfer girl. However, they have a one night stand together and both agree to not see each other again.
The book is told in dual points of view via dual narration. Mia Madison and Nelson Hobbs do the narration and both do a fine job. I like Nelson’s voice, it is masculine and clear and though his reading is a bit stilted at times, he is able to show emotion through his voice. Mia is very compatible with Nelson and also has a clear voice and shows sarcasm well through her voice.
I was a bit surprised when I saw that Shain Rose has written more than ten books, I would have guessed this was her first or second. The idea was good (opposites attract, mafia, legitimizing the business), but there were some things that weren’t explained well enough and some that just didn’t flow naturally. Also some of the conversations, especially in the first chapters were inane or a bit silly.
“Is he single?”
“You’re interested in him and not me?” He sounded completely shocked…
“Bastian, I’m much too simple for your tastes,” and he was much too complicated for mine. “Dante seems nice.”
“While I’ll be damned if a girl looks at my security team instead of me tonight”.
“I’m not hitting on you, I was admiring your face.”
“I’m more interested in your friend”
“What for?”
“Do you think I can’t show you a good time Morina? That I couldn’t show you something new?”
“Of course you can’t. You’re just another guy wearing a suit.”
“I’ve been with a lot of men like you before.”
“She might have been lost in her own ecstasy and dark dreams. But now I was lost to her, a siren of beauty in the dim light who had hooked me.”
How Bastian was legitimizing the business wasn’t explained clearly enough for my tastes. Also what exactly Morina’s Grandmother did wasn’t very clear to me. Though the story did keep my interest and got better as it moved forward and I did like the romance between Bastian and Morina. Though I hate in books when the couple finds some lame excuse not to get busy even though they both want it. In this case the fake engagement and the fact that their marriage only has to last six months is their reason even though they have already been together once before. It just seems counterproductive and needless to me.
I voluntarily read & reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts & opinions are my own.
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