Twisted Hearts (The Camorra Chronicles #5)

I had been waiting for Savio’s story mainly because the Camorra are my favorite crime family with their edgy males and family dynamics including cute kids. Unfortunately neither was present much in Twisted Hearts. It was mostly about Gemma’s puppy eyed infatuation about Savio and the latter treating her like dirt. Savio’s continued promiscuity even after his engagement to Gemma and the way she just tolerates it is very off putting and frankly insulting. The way the so called traditional families oppress their women and let the men do anything, is too outrageous in this day and age especially since the concept goes so unchallenged. Gemma had great potential since she showed interest in physical combat. But that turned out to be just a side gig. She doesn’t really do anything productive with her skill or use it for independence, but lets her family oppress her into an obedient meek thing. Maybe given her upbringing it is not hard to see why she tolerates and so easily forgives Savio like a classic psychologically abused woman. But her predictable behavior makes her unremarkable and frankly not a heroine material. Twisted Hearts has a jerk for a hero and a very pretty pushover for a heroine. Not a fun read. It will be the last Cora Reilly book I waste my money on.

So I have loved all previous books in this series but like…. This one is so much no. We have Savio here who decided to get engaged to Gemma on a complete whim. She has a adolescent crush on him so she\’s thrilled and etc etc. Ok fine, not a bad beginning. Savio cheats like .. ALL the way through the engagement. At the beginning ok maybe some character development will happen but no…. Like 70% of the book through and he\’s happy banging other girls and she is hoping that he will magically become faithful after marriage. Like… Is she an idiot? She has like no respect for herself and honestly her \”love\” for Savio was never really explained beyond a crush. There is 0 emotional connection between the leads and both of them had 2d personalities. Where was the chemistry?? Man, literally the side couple in this book had more chemistry/emotional connection. I wish I could have read that instead. Also, I get that not every female character has to be like badass Serafina (Aria was great), but Gemma was depressingly dull. First she finally gets fed up of Savio sleeping with everyone and generally saying to her face that he can cheat on after marriage. She wises up and decides not to marry him. Then her family\’s finances go down the drain yada yada and what does she do? She marries Savio to bail them out. Like…. Huh? She could have tried to go to college, asked for a loan… but nooo. And where was the whole infidelity thing from before? * Poof * no longer exists as a problem in this book. Then a little while later Savio convinces her to play hide the snake in the cave and what do you know, it\’s True Love. Really, it\’s bad guys. Just go re-read Reno\’s book or something.

Ugh, no for most of this. I love the writing and the mafia world here but the characters are bleh. I so wanted more for Savio, but he’s just a STD-laden manwhore for 80 percent of the book. How he doesn’t have a social disease is beyond me. And I like manwhores, but Savio’s not ready to settle down and this book tries to push him. He’s a hurt boy who hides behind sex -okay but he needs to cook up some more. The characters are both too young. Gemma is one level up from a too stupid to live heroine. Her naïveté was just too much. Come on, you go to school and have access to the internet; you know about sex. She’s 16 for the majority of the book. Ewww. I wanted her to end up with Mick. She pines after Savio who basically takes a ride on every woman in Nevada. There’s another female character who is 11 or 12 who is introduced as a potential love interest in a future book- she described as beautiful and alluring – ugh, she’s 11! Yuck. Stop. 2.5 stars because I love the other stories in this series.

Spoilers Gem was nothing but a sad pathetic doormat who gives women a bad name. After they are engaged, he screws women for all to see including her. I mean he even tells her about the women he screws. He has no respect for her, she will be his private w.h.o.r.e. over half the book is her in love with him for no reason because he was just rude to her. He humiliated her for over 60 percent of the book. But then a quick tragedy happens, he then made us her but oh because She made him wait for sex, we are to respect her. . Please, can you give her a little pride or self respect. But then all over, she screws him, he says I love you and it is over. He will cheat, he doesn\’t love her and she has no idea love is because she is brainwashed by his look. You don\’t fall in love in 5 minutes, it\’s was a crush. Her brother was a joke, protected please, he stayed best friends with the fiance who cheats, humiliate and just plain being down right mean to. He cared nothing of his sister.This just really makes women act like w.h.o.r.e.s. we should be fine with men cheating and she opens her legs when he said a nice word to her. Very sad.

This wasn\’t like Cora\’s usual writing at all. I am a huge fan of all her other books and writing style, but this book seriously just felt rushed. Savio and Gemma had so much potential, but she lingered too much on the bad and just rushed through their relationship the last 80% of the book. Savio was a JERK, Gemma was a pushover that had so much potential… but i couldn\’t stand her. She randomly felt guilty at the worst moments, and some of the things she said were just straight up dumb. I almost couldn\’t finish. I would have loved to read more about how Savio grew to love Gemma once she was of age. This whole \”sleeping around\” with other women thing didn\’t have to go on for more than half of the book. The book had a lot of potential, but i just feel like it missed the mark. Still a big fan of this series and it\’s characters, but Twisted Hearts is on the bottom of the list for me

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