ebookreview | Entries tagged with author: j. snow

His for the taking by J. Snow

Series:
After Dark Taboo

Genre:
Incest, Mafia, Contemporary, Non-HEA, Taboo, Adult, Erotica, Smut, Short Story, Novella, Book Series, Standalone, Abuse, Age-Gap

Publication Date:
January 22, 2024

Pages Numbers:
??

Read Date:
January 8th, 2024

Date Finished:
January 8th, 2024

Rating:
3.5/5

Blurb:

I was arranged to marry a monster—the heir to the Italian mafia throne.

I didn’t want him, but he’d take what he wanted from me, regardless.

It wasn’t just for better or worse.

He was also my first cousin

Review:

If you are looking for a "they lived happily ever after" or "he fell in love with her the moment he saw her, " this book is not for you. Rather, this book is the opposite. There is incest, humiliation, degradation, and rape. Nina and Antonio are first cousins and have been arranged to wed. Antonio has no desire to marry her simply because her father is Russian trash and her mother he considers to be a traitorous bitch, but he does as he is told. From the moment of their interaction before the wedding to after it, Antonio is abusive towards his new bride, treating her as if she were nothing more than like her mother. There are moments when I feel sorry for Nina because she is innocent in all of this. She did not choose to be born nor was she given the choice in her marriage. She knows that, in the end, her new husband will make her life hell. There is no happily ever after in her future, and Antonio clarifies that.

While this book is part of a series called "After Dark Taboo", it is a short novella. So, if you are looking for plot development and character growth, you won't find it here. The plot is so small that you have to have a magnified glass to find it but this book is mostly "plot? what plot?" or "porn with (tiny) plot". The characters are cousins forced to marry by orders of Antonio's uncle and father because they found the perfect bride - his cousin, Nina. From what was gathered, Nina's mother married someone who they considered trash and I am guessing that Nina's mother wanted to return to her family. I am assuming they told her that Nina would have to marry her cousin to allow her to return. I am going to also assume that her mother either didn't care or knew she could not protest it. I am going with the former rather than the latter.

I was surprised that I liked this book. The premise was interesting but I did feel for Nina and her future. It does look like there might be a possibility we may see more of Antonio and Nina later on in other novels. I will be keeping a look out for those.