Given: A Dark Mafia Romance

Having read the reviews, my hopes were rather high. But alas the reviews I initially read didn\’t mention how utterly confusing the author leaves the reader. The number of jumping in terms of thoughts in an attempt to give context honestly left me feeling motion sick. I couldn\’t finish this book only reaching 30% before the \”ouch my brain hurts\” finally won out and I gave up. The sad part is that I went ahead a bought Taken and Given at the same time a total waste of money.

This book is full of love, passion, and action!! What more could you need? I Will continue to read her stories.

I have read several books by Piper Stone and enjoyed them. This one, however, just didn\’t hit the mark. I loved Christian. Strong, driven, and resolute in his quest to destroy a cult of power-hungry men. Stephanie was a constant aggravation for me. She continued to blame Christian for her situation even though she knew he shared her hatred toward the forced marriage as well as wanting to destroy the cult. She also knows what is traditionally expected when a woman marries into the cult community yet she blames Christian as if he masterminded the rulses himself. He tells her repeatedly how he wants to change everything once he dissolves the current cult hierarchy. She\’s hot and cold. She ruined the story for me. After wading through 60% I couldn\’t take it anymore and closed the book.

I am generally a fan of Piper Stone but trying to read this book was an arduous endeavor. The plot is lacking in creativity and poorly executed, the writing is needlessly repitive and an amateurish attempt at a dark romance. The characters are extremely disingenuous and the story line is frenetic. I almost developed motion sickness from the constant to and fro of the timeline and from the ever vascillating convictions of the \”hero\” and \”heroine. \” It was as if this were written by an adolescent who just watched a film on the illuminati. I get it – – it\’s a secret society, not the mafia, but within its own sphere of influence, manipulating outcomes to secure its own existence. Must I literally be reminded of that every five lines? Did the author think it escaped my memory from the paragraph before, and the one before that? The rules of essays apply: show not tell. Use the power of illustration, description, and narrative to let me experience the power. With every telling, I grew less convinced. How is it the the protagonists know how powerful the Sect is and then are suddenly surprised about its actions, the same actions they knew of? To add insult to injury the sex scenes are just random, the \”romance\” neither dark nor sweet, and their origin story is desultory at best. I was so disappointed in this novel. I am happy this is not the first I\’ve read by this author or it definitely would be the last.

Christian was a family member of the Secret Sect, one of five families who controlled who had absolute power over several industries. He was told her had to marry who the sect told him to, which was the daughter of fellow sect member, Stephanie. She was a girl he saved from drowning when she was on a boat which blew up. He always loved her…but she always thought he was somehow responsible for her being in that predicament…but was given no choice in the marriage, as she found out on her birthday that there was a contract for Stephanie Michaelson and Christian Capodanno to marry…he told her she would be punished if she didn\’t obey and defer to his rules…which she didn\’t like as an independent woman. But things were not as they seemed, as there were rumors about a previous murder in the midst of the Sect, a meddling priest and some problems within Christian\’s businesses…but you will need to read this story to see what happens…I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

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