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The Imperfections
Brantley Morrison is a drinker of whiskey, a solver of problems, and a collector of mutts; the kind of loyal, hardworking guy you want on your side—and you’d best not get on the wrong side of.
Alyssa Walton never meant to find herself on Brant’s bad side—never even met the man until he showed up in her bedroom with a loaded gun and a plan to destroy her.
When Alyssa and Brant collide, his simple problem-solving mission gets a whole lot more complicated. Turns out, Alyssa is nothing like he expected, and she just might be everything he’s ever wanted. Sure, she’s a little afraid of him, but every relationship has its obstacles.
Brant’s never had anyone like Alyssa around, someone loyal and kind who smoothes over his rough edges like she was born to do it. Alyssa’s never met a man like Brant, either, and while she admires the way he looks out for those he loves, she can’t help wondering, who’s looking out for Brant?
Now, faced with wanting the girl he was never supposed to keep, Brant has to make an impossible choice. Does he give up the girl who has brought sunshine into his lonely life, or does he hold on tight, even if it might mean letting down the people he’s spent his whole life protecting?
***The Imperfections is a full-length standalone forbidden romance that includes dark themes. ***
Alyssa Walton never meant to find herself on Brant’s bad side—never even met the man until he showed up in her bedroom with a loaded gun and a plan to destroy her.
When Alyssa and Brant collide, his simple problem-solving mission gets a whole lot more complicated. Turns out, Alyssa is nothing like he expected, and she just might be everything he’s ever wanted. Sure, she’s a little afraid of him, but every relationship has its obstacles.
Brant’s never had anyone like Alyssa around, someone loyal and kind who smoothes over his rough edges like she was born to do it. Alyssa’s never met a man like Brant, either, and while she admires the way he looks out for those he loves, she can’t help wondering, who’s looking out for Brant?
Now, faced with wanting the girl he was never supposed to keep, Brant has to make an impossible choice. Does he give up the girl who has brought sunshine into his lonely life, or does he hold on tight, even if it might mean letting down the people he’s spent his whole life protecting?
***The Imperfections is a full-length standalone forbidden romance that includes dark themes. ***
438 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 22, 2019
About the author
Sam Mariano
48 books4,388 followersFollow Sam Mariano on Facebook, Instagram (@sammarianobooks), or check out her Blog! If you need to email her, she can be reached at [email protected] (but she is sometimes tardy about checking email. Mateo is very demanding).
Sign up for Sam's mailing list (to stay up to date on current projects--she won't spam you! Only for notification of new releases or book sales.)
All of Sam's books are available on Amazon! (And don't forget to follow Sam's Amazon Author page to get notified about the newest releases.)
Sam Mariano has been writing stories for as long as she can remember. She lives in Ohio and has a sweet and wonderful daughter.
Because of You was her first finished story (she started writing it when she was 18) and due to a full-time work and college schedule, it took her years to finish. She has also been telling people for years that there would never be a sequel (sorry, guys!)…which turned out to be a lie.
Sam Mariano is currently working on Dante’s book (if you’re a Morelli reader) and some other WIP.
Feel free to find her on Facebook, Goodreads, or her blog—she loves hearing from readers!
Sign up for Sam's mailing list (to stay up to date on current projects--she won't spam you! Only for notification of new releases or book sales.)
All of Sam's books are available on Amazon! (And don't forget to follow Sam's Amazon Author page to get notified about the newest releases.)
Sam Mariano has been writing stories for as long as she can remember. She lives in Ohio and has a sweet and wonderful daughter.
Because of You was her first finished story (she started writing it when she was 18) and due to a full-time work and college schedule, it took her years to finish. She has also been telling people for years that there would never be a sequel (sorry, guys!)…which turned out to be a lie.
Sam Mariano is currently working on Dante’s book (if you’re a Morelli reader) and some other WIP.
Feel free to find her on Facebook, Goodreads, or her blog—she loves hearing from readers!
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 217 reviews
October 24, 2022
2.5 stars (5 stars for the first 7 chapters, 2 — for the last 23).
I'm gonna go ahead and title this review as follows
THE IMPERFECTIONS BEHIND SAM MARIANO'S THOUGHT PROCESS: REASONS, CONCLUSIONS, SOLUTIONS, RESOLUTIONS
My visualization of dear Miss Mariano's writing process of this book:
— the first few chapters
— all the other chapters
I have a lot to say about this story, but the primary thing is that miss Mariano has to make absolutely sure that she never again runs out of her supply of crack while writing a book.
I VOLUNTEER TO BECOME HER DEALER. FBI, IT'S ABOUT TIME YOU CLOSE YOUR LITTLE EYES
In the case of this book, the shortage of hmh cracky inspiration really had disastrous consequences for those of readers who are full-blown weirdos and actually loved the ass-shattering, most non-romantic beginning in the history of the genre. 👉🏻👈🏻
And those readers who hated it already couldn't give a single flying fuck about how the story unfolds, so Sam might as well have not turned all shy and sappy on us by transforming this nonsensical mess into a sorta idyllic lovebirds' paradise. <3
The plot. Imagine hearing your brother-in-law, your sister's husband, 💀💀 bragging about the tightest hole he's ever fucked to you and also begging you to kill her pregnant ass in one breath only for the tightest hole girlie to end up being the love of your life. 🤣🤣🤣
Only a genius could have come up with this nonsensical scenario and also make it sound kinda hot in a dumb way. 🌚
I mean... I don't blame Brant (H) for getting horny after hearing his brother's-in-law epic speech about cheating on Brant's sis with that girl Alyssa (h). It was worded in such a specifically dumb and hot way that my mind was truly blown.💀💀 xD I was uncharacteristically bothered by the guy's vivid descriptions. 🤡👍🏻
I would have absolutely loved to give this book 5 stars if the author actually knew where she was going with her story. Sam's thoughts and ideas were all over the place, and it showed.
The math simply ain't mathing here, Miss Mariano:( and this is what I say as your most fervent advocate.
The characters' behaviour throughout the book didn't align with their psychological profiles that can be drown from the first few chapters.
It would have made more sense if the book got progressively wilder (we're already in a mental asylum so might as well delve deeper) instead of slowly descending into a normal romance. Set in the hero's basement. 🌚 Classy. 🌚🌚
ALYSSA (h)
THIS BITCH'S PERSONALITY MADE ZERO SENSE. AND THIS IS COMING FROM MARIANO'S HEROINES' APOLOGIST IN MY PERSON. 💀
Having read the whole book, I can now say that either everything that occured to the heroine in the first few chapters does make zero sense or everything that happened after.
Based on the author's portrayal of this heroine, I have no idea how this nice and sweet girl let a slimy married man fuck her while she was basically looking after the guy's two little kids and having a great relationship with his wife?? I kid you not, if you just forget for a hot minute she kept fucking her married employer behind his wife's back for months, her sweetness almost doesn't feel forced. Which is kinda annoying.
I don't even judge her for what she's done.
17 year-olds perceive the world differently. Maybe I'd fuck someone's husband too at the tender age of 17 just for the thrill of it. if I had an affiliation for scumbags and leaftovers that is. 💔 Who knows?
I actually truly believe it's extremely misogynistic to call a female who's not a cheating spouse in the equation as a homewrecker.
This is mostly the definition applied to female mistresses for some very obvious reasons. It's not the so-called female "homewrecker" aka mistress who is breaking her vows of loyalty to another person. It's the male cheating scumbag husband who makes (unlike many "homewreckers") an informed decision to cheat on his wife.
When the wife cheats, it's always entirely her fault, but when it's the husband who cheats, somehow it's his mistress' evil seduction scheme and not his expression of his cheating will. 🙄 Don't tell me feminism is not dead in our progressive age.
But back to the heroine in question: I wish I could say that at least she had been brainwashed by this jaded older man into entering the slimy arrangement. I wish I could find a perfectly reasonable excuse to justify her actions. I wish she didn't treat all of her v-cards like trash to be disposed of in the most embarrasssingly skanky way lmfao. One great person said that there are two types of slutty behaviour: slutty hot and slutty dirty and this heroine certainly falls into the latter category.
Her sex scenes with that man were so fucking weird. 🤣🤣🤣
They just tear at each other's clothes with no preamble and have animalistic sex every once in a while (aka when the guy's wife has some business to attend to that keeps her out of the house). The guy just fucks the heroine with no foreword as if she were a call girl. 🌚🌚🌚
It took me out that when he suggests doing anal, this girl, who's supposedly an anal virgin, just turns around and presents her asshole on a silver platter. 😭😂 High as a kite I wouldn't be able to come up with this shit.
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME, BITCH? 🤡🤡🤡
..hold on for a second. You've just finished putting his and his wife's little kids to bed ... right? Like...
CHILL, SIS. Mind your surroundings. Rethink your actions.
At least ask for a motel room if you insist on behaving like the cheapest, skankiest bitch. Have some decorum. 😩
I would definitely have some respect for this heroine if at any point of the story she at least had the courage to confess to the guy's wife (the one that she purportedly likes so much and who also happens to be the hero's sister.. just a daily reminder 🍿👀) that she was getting railed in all of her holes and ended up preggos by the poor woman's husband two steps away from her kids' bedrooms.
Sam, you fucked up big time. I have no doubt you think this is one of the sweetest heroines you've ever written, but —
BRANT (H)
HOLY FUCK WHAT'S WRONG WITH THAT GUY. He literally goes from 0 to 10 and from 10 to zero again, and there's literally no in between on that scale of inadequacy.
Why did Brent choose to risk getting caught and sent to jail for HOMICIDE, HELLO?? Why was he so casual about the murder?? I fully expected him to turn out a serial killer with ten years experience, not your regular boy next door with severe anger issues.
Why did he randomly agree to kill a pregnant teenage girl?? With the dumbest reasoning too, such as saving his sister's marriage?? Wouldn't it make more sense for him, if we insist on making him a cold-blooded murderer, to kill a slimy cheating douchebag of his sister's husband instead and spare his sister the misery of living in a lie?
So many questions, so few answers.
Maybe his brother's-in-law sex stories had him so turned on that his brain switched off and somewhere in the back of his mind he had already formed the plan to sample the goods before killing her. 💀💀 Just another thing to wonder about while I'm suffering from insomnia.
But that's not even the worst part... in the chapters that follow his murder attempt, Brant acts like a very caring, normal and... dare I say... regular guy? Good soup.
More so, after he rapes and kidnaps the heroine (her tits were so perfect
he was tempted to sample them first and you know how these things go 💀💀)..
I know substituting rape for murder must have been miss Mariano's notion of showing her hero's "do better, be a better man" mentality. 🤡
Anyways, the sweet and normal progress of this wacky couple's relationship — a basement with breakfast and bed and all things romantic — sort of sucked.
The heroine really didn't care who got to fuck her and where as long as someone did. 😂 (The closest thing I can claim to be remotely certain about)
Honestly, most of the time the hero didn't live up to his murderer-to-be rapist mobster image, and the heroine's image wasn't befitting of a slimy, amoral little shit who needs no payment to fuck your dad and his dad and their dad and everyone's dad.
So, technically speaking, that's what the main characters really are, but the author turns them into fucking clowns whose actions and thoughts don't ever cross paths.
#writinggoals
P.S. but I loved that both men, the slimy bitch OM and the hero, were obsessed with the heroine each in their own way. Hot. 👄
P.s. p. S not safe for any sane person out there:
the heroine sleeps with someone's husband,
she gets pregnant with the OM's child,
the hero rapes her,
the OM rapes her too at the end 🤡🍿🤡
Happy end.
I'm gonna go ahead and title this review as follows
THE IMPERFECTIONS BEHIND SAM MARIANO'S THOUGHT PROCESS: REASONS, CONCLUSIONS, SOLUTIONS, RESOLUTIONS
My visualization of dear Miss Mariano's writing process of this book:
— the first few chapters
— all the other chapters
I have a lot to say about this story, but the primary thing is that miss Mariano has to make absolutely sure that she never again runs out of her supply of crack while writing a book.
In the case of this book, the shortage of hmh cracky inspiration really had disastrous consequences for those of readers who are full-blown weirdos and actually loved the ass-shattering, most non-romantic beginning in the history of the genre. 👉🏻👈🏻
And those readers who hated it already couldn't give a single flying fuck about how the story unfolds, so Sam might as well have not turned all shy and sappy on us by transforming this nonsensical mess into a sorta idyllic lovebirds' paradise. <3
He swallows audibly. “Before I know it, I’m balls-deep inside the tightest hole I’ve ever fucked,” he finishes miserably. “She was a fucking virgin. I didn’t know. It happened so fast, Brant, I don’t—I wasn’t even nice, didn’t even get her ready. I didn’t eat her pussy, barely fingered her. I was a fucking animal, devouring her like she was the first morsel of food I’d come across in ages. It felt so fucking good, I didn’t even feel like myself while I was with her. I came inside her, and I didn’t wear a condom or anything since it was so spontaneous.”
The plot. Imagine hearing your brother-in-law, your sister's husband, 💀💀 bragging about the tightest hole he's ever fucked to you and also begging you to kill her pregnant ass in one breath only for the
Only a genius could have come up with this nonsensical scenario and also make it sound kinda hot in a dumb way. 🌚
I mean... I don't blame Brant (H) for getting horny after hearing his brother's-in-law epic speech about cheating on Brant's sis with that girl Alyssa (h). It was worded in such a specifically dumb and hot way that my mind was truly blown.💀💀 xD I was uncharacteristically bothered by the guy's vivid descriptions. 🤡👍🏻
I would have absolutely loved to give this book 5 stars if the author actually knew where she was going with her story. Sam's thoughts and ideas were all over the place, and it showed.
The math simply ain't mathing here, Miss Mariano:( and this is what I say as your most fervent advocate.
The characters' behaviour throughout the book didn't align with their psychological profiles that can be drown from the first few chapters.
It would have made more sense if the book got progressively wilder (we're already in a mental asylum so might as well delve deeper) instead of slowly descending into a normal romance. Set in the hero's basement. 🌚 Classy. 🌚🌚
ALYSSA (h)
THIS BITCH'S PERSONALITY MADE ZERO SENSE. AND THIS IS COMING FROM MARIANO'S HEROINES' APOLOGIST IN MY PERSON. 💀
Having read the whole book, I can now say that either everything that occured to the heroine in the first few chapters does make zero sense or everything that happened after.
Based on the author's portrayal of this heroine, I have no idea how this nice and sweet girl let a slimy married man fuck her while she was basically looking after the guy's two little kids and having a great relationship with his wife?? I kid you not, if you just forget for a hot minute she kept fucking her married employer behind his wife's back for months, her sweetness almost doesn't feel forced. Which is kinda annoying.
I don't even judge her for what she's done.
17 year-olds perceive the world differently. Maybe I'd fuck someone's husband too at the tender age of 17 just for the thrill of it. if I had an affiliation for scumbags and leaftovers that is. 💔 Who knows?
I actually truly believe it's extremely misogynistic to call a female who's not a cheating spouse in the equation as a homewrecker.
This is mostly the definition applied to female mistresses for some very obvious reasons. It's not the so-called female "homewrecker" aka mistress who is breaking her vows of loyalty to another person. It's the male cheating scumbag husband who makes (unlike many "homewreckers") an informed decision to cheat on his wife.
When the wife cheats, it's always entirely her fault, but when it's the husband who cheats, somehow it's his mistress' evil seduction scheme and not his expression of his cheating will. 🙄 Don't tell me feminism is not dead in our progressive age.
But back to the heroine in question: I wish I could say that at least she had been brainwashed by this jaded older man into entering the slimy arrangement. I wish I could find a perfectly reasonable excuse to justify her actions. I wish she didn't treat all of her v-cards like trash to be disposed of in the most embarrasssingly skanky way lmfao. One great person said that there are two types of slutty behaviour: slutty hot and slutty dirty and this heroine certainly falls into the latter category.
Her sex scenes with that man were so fucking weird. 🤣🤣🤣
They just tear at each other's clothes with no preamble and have animalistic sex every once in a while (aka when the guy's wife has some business to attend to that keeps her out of the house). The guy just fucks the heroine with no foreword as if she were a call girl. 🌚🌚🌚
It took me out that when he suggests doing anal, this girl, who's supposedly an anal virgin, just turns around and presents her ass
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME, BITCH? 🤡🤡🤡
..hold on for a second. You've just finished putting his and his wife's little kids to bed ... right? Like...
CHILL, SIS. Mind your surroundings. Rethink your actions.
At least ask for a motel room if you insist on behaving like the cheapest, skankiest bitch. Have some decorum. 😩
I would definitely have some respect for this heroine if at any point of the story she at least had the courage to confess to the guy's wife (the one that she purportedly likes so much and who also happens to be the hero's sister.. just a daily reminder 🍿👀) that she was getting railed in all of her holes and ended up preggos by the poor woman's husband two steps away from her kids' bedrooms.
Sam, you fucked up big time. I have no doubt you think this is one of the sweetest heroines you've ever written, but —
BRANT (H)
HOLY FUCK WHAT'S WRONG WITH THAT GUY. He literally goes from 0 to 10 and from 10 to zero again, and there's literally no in between on that scale of inadequacy.
Why did Brent choose to risk getting caught and sent to jail for HOMICIDE, HELLO?? Why was he so casual about the murder?? I fully expected him to turn out a serial killer with ten years experience, not your regular boy next door with severe anger issues.
Why did he randomly agree to kill a pregnant teenage girl?? With the dumbest reasoning too, such as saving his sister's marriage?? Wouldn't it make more sense for him, if we insist on making him a cold-blooded murderer, to kill a slimy cheating douchebag of his sister's husband instead and spare his sister the misery of living in a lie?
So many questions, so few answers.
Maybe his brother's-in-law sex stories had him so turned on that his brain switched off and somewhere in the back of his mind he had already formed the plan to sample the goods before killing her. 💀💀 Just another thing to wonder about while I'm suffering from insomnia.
But that's not even the worst part... in the chapters that follow his murder attempt, Brant acts like a very caring, normal and... dare I say... regular guy? Good soup.
More so, after he rapes and kidnaps the heroine (her tits were so perfect
he was tempted to sample them first and you know how these things go 💀💀)..
I know substituting rape for murder must have been miss Mariano's notion of showing her hero's "do better, be a better man" mentality. 🤡
Anyways, the sweet and normal progress of this wacky couple's relationship — a basement with breakfast and bed and all things romantic — sort of sucked.
The heroine really didn't care who got to fuck her and where as long as someone did. 😂 (The closest thing I can claim to be remotely certain about)
Honestly, most of the time the hero didn't live up to his murderer-to-be rapist mobster image, and the heroine's image wasn't befitting of a slimy, amoral little shit who needs no payment to fuck your dad and his dad and their dad and everyone's dad.
So, technically speaking, that's what the main characters really are, but the author turns them into fucking clowns whose actions and thoughts don't ever cross paths.
#writinggoals
P.S. but I loved that both men, the slimy bitch OM and the hero, were obsessed with the heroine each in their own way. Hot. 👄
P.s. p. S not safe for any sane person out there:
the heroine sleeps with someone's husband,
she gets pregnant with the OM's child,
the hero rapes her,
the OM rapes her too at the end 🤡🍿🤡
Happy end.
February 2, 2020
update: 1.75 stars
�� h had the audacity to be friends with the wife and act all trustworthy when she never apologized about sleeping with her husband and never told her the truth about carrying her husband's baby. so yes, she's also fake.
↠ h acted all bratty and selfish whenever H told her they can't be together because of the situation. again, she had the audacity to want to be with the H without even feeling remorseful about her actions.
↠ *trigger warning* there was a horrendous rape scene at the end where h gets sexually assaulted by the married man.
↠ H always stood up for the h and i hated him for that because i felt more sympathy towards his sister (the wife of the married man).
↠ the H's behavior was also so horrendous. i can't believe he agreed to kidnapped the h and planned to kill her. that's really fucked up. i mean, the h is a teenage girl and the fact that he took his brother in law's side rather than tell his SISTER the truth?? that's just wrong.
overall, i just couldn't like this because what the h did and how she handled/felt towards her affair with the married man dampened any enjoyment i could've ever felt and the H was just toxic.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
dnf 8%
aight i just read the first couple of chapters and i already hate the heroine. im sorry but i just can’t sympathize with a heroine who willingly slept with a married man.
she said "it just happened" and "it was an accident" but she slept with him multiple times, suggested to do anal with him (they ended up doing it), and even made a "video" of her for him (while knowing this man was out on a wedding anniversary date with the wife btw).
right...
"it just happened."
"there was no malicious intent."
uh, sleeping with a married man IS malicious intent but ok whatever.
but you know what bugs me the most? the fact that she never planned to tell the wife of their affair. so, she's not only selfish, horny, and an idiot, but she's also a coward and i don't fuck with that.
and in my opinion, she doesn't feel any remorse at all because if that little "fall out" at the end of their affair didn't happen, she would've continued sleeping with the married man and she even admitted that she would've gone into birth control if they continued. ugh.
i think i hate this heroine more than my most hated heroines: Olivia (Waking Olivia) and Violet (At Peace) and that's saying a lot.
this married man is the H’s brother in law by the way.
... and she's pregnant with his baby because, oh, right, they did it without condom.
how lovely.
�� h had the audacity to be friends with the wife and act all trustworthy when she never apologized about sleeping with her husband and never told her the truth about carrying her husband's baby. so yes, she's also fake.
↠ h acted all bratty and selfish whenever H told her they can't be together because of the situation. again, she had the audacity to want to be with the H without even feeling remorseful about her actions.
↠ *trigger warning* there was a horrendous rape scene at the end where h gets sexually assaulted by the married man.
↠ H always stood up for the h and i hated him for that because i felt more sympathy towards his sister (the wife of the married man).
↠ the H's behavior was also so horrendous. i can't believe he agreed to kidnapped the h and planned to kill her. that's really fucked up. i mean, the h is a teenage girl and the fact that he took his brother in law's side rather than tell his SISTER the truth?? that's just wrong.
overall, i just couldn't like this because what the h did and how she handled/felt towards her affair with the married man dampened any enjoyment i could've ever felt and the H was just toxic.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
dnf 8%
aight i just read the first couple of chapters and i already hate the heroine. im sorry but i just can’t sympathize with a heroine who willingly slept with a married man.
she said "it just happened" and "it was an accident" but she slept with him multiple times, suggested to do anal with him (they ended up doing it), and even made a "video" of her for him (while knowing this man was out on a wedding anniversary date with the wife btw).
right...
"it just happened."
"there was no malicious intent."
uh, sleeping with a married man IS malicious intent but ok whatever.
but you know what bugs me the most? the fact that she never planned to tell the wife of their affair. so, she's not only selfish, horny, and an idiot, but she's also a coward and i don't fuck with that.
and in my opinion, she doesn't feel any remorse at all because if that little "fall out" at the end of their affair didn't happen, she would've continued sleeping with the married man and she even admitted that she would've gone into birth control if they continued. ugh.
i think i hate this heroine more than my most hated heroines: Olivia (Waking Olivia) and Violet (At Peace) and that's saying a lot.
this married man is the H’s brother in law by the way.
... and she's pregnant with his baby because, oh, right, they did it without condom.
how lovely.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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November 26, 2019
Better people than me have said this before, but I'm so angry I'm going to say it again:
this is the STUPIDEST hero and heroine I have EVER read about.
And I've read a LOT of stupid characters, so this is a big claim.
I first started feeling rage when we learnt that the idiotic teenage heroine has been having an affair with the older, married father of the kids she babysits. And then we learnt that SHE GETS PREGNANT and WANTS TO KEEP THE BABY!! And claims to like the wife, not that that means anything. The heroine is a perky blonde 17-year-old and I wanted to shoot her myself.
Only the hero thinks he's going to go for it first. WHAT NORMAL PERSON thinks okay, my brother-in-law was cheating on my sister, let me kill his OW instead of him?!?! If anything he should have decided to shoot the BIL first and then the heroine. I could have gotten behind that. Also, he's clearly a moronic incompetent, because he made zero plans for how he'd actually properly get away with the murder.
What a waste of five minutes.
[Blog] - [Bookstagram]
I first started feeling rage when we learnt that the idiotic teenage heroine has been having an affair with the older, married father of the kids she babysits. And then we learnt that SHE GETS PREGNANT and WANTS TO KEEP THE BABY!! And claims to like the wife, not that that means anything. The heroine is a perky blonde 17-year-old and I wanted to shoot her myself.
Only the hero thinks he's going to go for it first. WHAT NORMAL PERSON thinks okay, my brother-in-law was cheating on my sister, let me kill his OW instead of him?!?! If anything he should have decided to shoot the BIL first and then the heroine. I could have gotten behind that. Also, he's clearly a moronic incompetent, because he made zero plans for how he'd actually properly get away with the murder.
What a waste of five minutes.
[Blog] - [Bookstagram]
December 31, 2019
What the fuck is this?
DNF!!!!
I’m at 18% into this and it’s probably the stupidest book I’ve read. I swear Dreams of 18 and this book are probably tied for the most cringe worthy book of 2019!
Meet Brant- a bar owner slash whatever the fuck else he is. He’s the guy who bullies first graders and goes to kill an 18 yr old pregnant girl because his brother in law fucked up and got her pregnant.
Meet- Alyssa, said 18 yr old who is probably the dumbest character I ever read. Someone comes to kill you, kidnaps you and rapes you all while he’s telling you that his brother in law sent him to kill you. Yet you get up and make him breakfast......He leaves you at home for an entire day and before you try to leave you clean his entire house and do laundry.
To top it off you willingly fuck him when he comes home with stars in your bloody eyes????
I’m sorry but that was my breaking point! This book makes no bloody sense and I have no idea how it got these amazing reviews.
My favorite thing about this book was Scout and he’s the fucking Dog!
DNF!!!!
I’m at 18% into this and it’s probably the stupidest book I’ve read. I swear Dreams of 18 and this book are probably tied for the most cringe worthy book of 2019!
Meet Brant- a bar owner slash whatever the fuck else he is. He’s the guy who bullies first graders and goes to kill an 18 yr old pregnant girl because his brother in law fucked up and got her pregnant.
Meet- Alyssa, said 18 yr old who is probably the dumbest character I ever read. Someone comes to kill you, kidnaps you and rapes you all while he’s telling you that his brother in law sent him to kill you. Yet you get up and make him breakfast......He leaves you at home for an entire day and before you try to leave you clean his entire house and do laundry.
To top it off you willingly fuck him when he comes home with stars in your bloody eyes????
I’m sorry but that was my breaking point! This book makes no bloody sense and I have no idea how it got these amazing reviews.
My favorite thing about this book was Scout and he’s the fucking Dog!
Read
November 25, 2019Not planning to read a book where so called “heroine” has no morals or integrity!
February 26, 2023
REVIEW: 3.5 STARS
"Some choices can't be undone and some roles can't be recast."
This book was soooo good. So good but with.....a caveat. In all fairness, this one didn't start out as my favorite, but it quickly became a book I couldn't put down. I say that because I did put this down TWICE and I walked away, intent on DNF'ing it. This storyline with all its crazy actions, literally and figuratively, made NO sense to me. Not one. "I’m conflicted. But I’m hooked." <-- That's what I kept telling myself while I was reading. But, by the time I was...coerced? totally the wrong word, but by the time I was actually talked through the fact that this is a different side of Sam Mariano and that there were reasons for everything, I continued on. I'm so glad I did but that was a very long and rough initial 30% to get through.
With one eye open, squinting at that opening chapter, I knew that I was in for something. Sam Mariano is a shock starter in the beginning - with good intentions. After the first few chapters, I knew she was going to make me say what the f^&k!! So I settled in, and lo and behold - a story surfaced and I was hooked! Was it immediate? Uh, NO. Capital N. Capital O. Not even close. But once I made it a significant way into this book, it unfolded crazily good. Because, make no mistake, this whole story was crazy, right down to the very ending.
If you want logical, you might have to look the other way.
If you want common sense, that might not be very common.
If you want real, this might pass for real - with a side-to-side head wobble or shoulder shake.
To be honest, this almost read more like a parody: what not to do when...
While this was well written, it made me cringe in some places, but I smiled throughout. Once I got to the crux of the story, I couldn't stop reading - I was hooked. I suppose if I shelved logic, eschewed normality, lived in an alternate universe, this would be a simply laid out love story. But I'm ever so thankful it was not that simple or straightforward. I'm almost sorry I questioned the track I was meandering down when I first started this book, but the reward was definitely mine for the taking. I learned that sometimes it's hard to push aside what I think would be considered "the right way" and realized that I need to make sure I allow myself to live in the author's head as she's telling me a story. This was light and airy for a 'dark read', but it possessed an underlying sense of comedy of sorts. This has a cult classic/comedy vibe to it. It’s like a Quentin Tarantino movie in romance book form - but gosh, I really enjoyed it. It had plenty of humor - so go in knowing it's a darkish comedy, but also know that this is where Mariano shines.
I was glad I had the option of "phoning a friend" to help me out in the beginning - I was so dumbfounded at first. I had to be reminded that this was Sam in her element. She doesn't write the dictionary definition of normal in a character - and that was my reminder to keep going. Can I recommend it? Will I? Oh, yeah!! Totally. Totally will and happily so. But I also figure, if I can tell you why I had a hard time and why I kept going, you'll understand my rating and review a little better after you've read it. I really, truly did enjoy this book.
Mariano is not a "clean" writer and she likes her love stories "messy" - yes, necessary quotation marks utilized. What I mean by that is, her writing floats, it soars, and she's such an easy read, but I love that the love she writes isn't cookie-cutter-clean. There are truths, deep within, and there are realities that aren't in mainstream love stories because not always is the 'disturbed' written about finding love. That is most definitely something Mariano excels at - a messy love. There was almost a coldness - a certain detached voice or emotion present as the scenes originally played out. The fear and emotion on the page was second to the curiosities that caused quite a few eyebrow scrunches from me. It’s almost.....eerie. Brant is ruthless and cold - zero fucks given. Buuuuut......if you make it far enough in, you are rewarded with a crazy love that plays out in the most fantastical of ways. Fitting for Brant and Alyssa, I should say.
"You need a therapist. That was meant to scare you, not turn you on."
Alyssa definitely showed her age throughout the book and I could appreciate the fact that she was a teenager in every sense of the word - true to her age even. I saw Brant getting caught up in his thoughts of her, which made me fall a little harder for him. But, Alyssa? That girl was fixated. He may have been the voice of reason - in a chaotically paced way, but she put the "crazy" in crazy. Without having a conceptualized understanding of who Brantley was originally, I had a hard time placing him in the role he was playing in the very beginning. But knowing what the synopsis said, I knew I was supposed to meet this hard ass that was hell bent on taking care of a "problem." There were so many variables I had to recognize and accept, but also question as their story unfolded just to try and make sense of it all.
There's a reason I follow Sam on every social media outlet I have. She really does write super interesting characters and off the cuff stories that give me a whole new perspective on a love that is so different, but doesn't have any less meaning than the next. I'm usually left thinking harder about how their loved worked instead of why it shouldn't have.
Don't mind me....I'll just be sitting over here wondering when her next story is coming out. I've decided her brand of crazy is exactly what I've signed up for with her books. I'll need that ASAP. Kthxbye.
"I'd rather be with a man thoroughly intent on keeping me than one who's okay with losing me."
~BEE
Purchase - Amazon Kindle Unlimited: https://amzn.to/35JgJOr
Affiliate Link
ENTER HERE FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN AN ECOPY: http://bit.ly/2L1SZgz
"Some choices can't be undone and some roles can't be recast."
This book was soooo good. So good but with.....a caveat. In all fairness, this one didn't start out as my favorite, but it quickly became a book I couldn't put down. I say that because I did put this down TWICE and I walked away, intent on DNF'ing it. This storyline with all its crazy actions, literally and figuratively, made NO sense to me. Not one. "I’m conflicted. But I’m hooked." <-- That's what I kept telling myself while I was reading. But, by the time I was...coerced? totally the wrong word, but by the time I was actually talked through the fact that this is a different side of Sam Mariano and that there were reasons for everything, I continued on. I'm so glad I did but that was a very long and rough initial 30% to get through.
With one eye open, squinting at that opening chapter, I knew that I was in for something. Sam Mariano is a shock starter in the beginning - with good intentions. After the first few chapters, I knew she was going to make me say what the f^&k!! So I settled in, and lo and behold - a story surfaced and I was hooked! Was it immediate? Uh, NO. Capital N. Capital O. Not even close. But once I made it a significant way into this book, it unfolded crazily good. Because, make no mistake, this whole story was crazy, right down to the very ending.
If you want logical, you might have to look the other way.
If you want common sense, that might not be very common.
If you want real, this might pass for real - with a side-to-side head wobble or shoulder shake.
To be honest, this almost read more like a parody: what not to do when...
While this was well written, it made me cringe in some places, but I smiled throughout. Once I got to the crux of the story, I couldn't stop reading - I was hooked. I suppose if I shelved logic, eschewed normality, lived in an alternate universe, this would be a simply laid out love story. But I'm ever so thankful it was not that simple or straightforward. I'm almost sorry I questioned the track I was meandering down when I first started this book, but the reward was definitely mine for the taking. I learned that sometimes it's hard to push aside what I think would be considered "the right way" and realized that I need to make sure I allow myself to live in the author's head as she's telling me a story. This was light and airy for a 'dark read', but it possessed an underlying sense of comedy of sorts. This has a cult classic/comedy vibe to it. It’s like a Quentin Tarantino movie in romance book form - but gosh, I really enjoyed it. It had plenty of humor - so go in knowing it's a darkish comedy, but also know that this is where Mariano shines.
I was glad I had the option of "phoning a friend" to help me out in the beginning - I was so dumbfounded at first. I had to be reminded that this was Sam in her element. She doesn't write the dictionary definition of normal in a character - and that was my reminder to keep going. Can I recommend it? Will I? Oh, yeah!! Totally. Totally will and happily so. But I also figure, if I can tell you why I had a hard time and why I kept going, you'll understand my rating and review a little better after you've read it. I really, truly did enjoy this book.
Mariano is not a "clean" writer and she likes her love stories "messy" - yes, necessary quotation marks utilized. What I mean by that is, her writing floats, it soars, and she's such an easy read, but I love that the love she writes isn't cookie-cutter-clean. There are truths, deep within, and there are realities that aren't in mainstream love stories because not always is the 'disturbed' written about finding love. That is most definitely something Mariano excels at - a messy love. There was almost a coldness - a certain detached voice or emotion present as the scenes originally played out. The fear and emotion on the page was second to the curiosities that caused quite a few eyebrow scrunches from me. It’s almost.....eerie. Brant is ruthless and cold - zero fucks given. Buuuuut......if you make it far enough in, you are rewarded with a crazy love that plays out in the most fantastical of ways. Fitting for Brant and Alyssa, I should say.
"You need a therapist. That was meant to scare you, not turn you on."
Alyssa definitely showed her age throughout the book and I could appreciate the fact that she was a teenager in every sense of the word - true to her age even. I saw Brant getting caught up in his thoughts of her, which made me fall a little harder for him. But, Alyssa? That girl was fixated. He may have been the voice of reason - in a chaotically paced way, but she put the "crazy" in crazy. Without having a conceptualized understanding of who Brantley was originally, I had a hard time placing him in the role he was playing in the very beginning. But knowing what the synopsis said, I knew I was supposed to meet this hard ass that was hell bent on taking care of a "problem." There were so many variables I had to recognize and accept, but also question as their story unfolded just to try and make sense of it all.
There's a reason I follow Sam on every social media outlet I have. She really does write super interesting characters and off the cuff stories that give me a whole new perspective on a love that is so different, but doesn't have any less meaning than the next. I'm usually left thinking harder about how their loved worked instead of why it shouldn't have.
Don't mind me....I'll just be sitting over here wondering when her next story is coming out. I've decided her brand of crazy is exactly what I've signed up for with her books. I'll need that ASAP. Kthxbye.
"I'd rather be with a man thoroughly intent on keeping me than one who's okay with losing me."
~BEE
Purchase - Amazon Kindle Unlimited: https://amzn.to/35JgJOr
Affiliate Link
ENTER HERE FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN AN ECOPY: http://bit.ly/2L1SZgz
June 25, 2020
Unbelievable!!!!
Shelved as 'abandon-dnf'
November 24, 2019I’m not sure what it says about me when I’m more accepting of a Hero who kills people when asked than I am a heroine who feels bad for sleeping with a married man....repeatedly 🤷♀️
I’ll never buy a “Mary sue” act when the heroine was fully aware the man she had sex with was married AND she liked the wife. She didn’t get in over her head....she willingly choose to have sex.
DNF @ chapter 4
I’ll never buy a “Mary sue” act when the heroine was fully aware the man she had sex with was married AND she liked the wife. She didn’t get in over her head....she willingly choose to have sex.
DNF @ chapter 4
September 17, 2021
I think this was better on the reread!
Not gonna lie, this story has a rough start. Even on my reread my finger was hovering over the DNF button. Brant and Alyssa are difficult to like at first. But, if you can handle the dark aspects, I’m telling you that you’ll be rewarded if you hold off on judgement and read til the end. And this is coming from someone who knee-jerk DNFs, with abandon, for fictional offenses as petty as an H (badass mafia dude) claiming The Notebook is his favorite movie. 👀😬🤪
Anyhoo.
What I loved?
- Brant (34?) is a typical Mariano Hero with a broken moral compass - he’s a crazy mix of sociopath and fiercely loyal family man - he definitely grows on you - I think he’s one of the most demonstrably jealous/possessive H Sam has written
- Alyssa (18) also shares some traits with past heroines - she’s neglected by her family and is basically always in survival mode. This suits her H, as it makes her much more likely to roll with what he serves up. She’s a well-spring of forgiveness and understanding. She’s a little more feisty, but that sort of grows as we get further in the book. Be patient with her
- the banter is top shelf, of course - the dry gallows humor had me giggling through the whole book - I adore the mix of irreverent humor and dark content. - these two are straight nuts 🤣
- the smexx is smexxy - yes, at first it’s consensually-challenged 👀 … but it doesn’t stay that way for very long (if that’s an issue for you, you probably should run away from this author. 🤷🏼♀️)
- I loved the OM drama - typically I do not like it when an h is with someone besides the H, but the way this is written works for me. We only get details second hand. And the details make our Hero crazy. Which is DELISH. 😈
- Sam is known for limiting the H’s perspective, if she includes it at all, but in this case we spend quite a bit of time in Brant’s head. And I loved it. Sometimes a male perspective can come off sounding like a whiney navel-gazing woman. But Sam hits it just right, IMO. 💕
- Alyssa has been terribly wronged and she gets a chance to take back her power and get some sweet revenge. Normally, I prefer the H to save the day, but I really liked how this was written.
Why not 5 stars?
- at the end of the day the scenario with Theo is hard to swallow. I think Sam does a great job at making the situation nuanced, and understandable from Alyssa’s perspective, but it still makes it hard for me to give this book 5-stars.
- while I think Brant ends up j/p, it takes him a minute to get there. I got frustrated with how long it took for him to come around. I didn’t like how much convincing and coaxing Alyssa had to do. Once he’s in, he’s REALLY in, but yeah..
Bottom Line? This is classic Sam Mariano, and I am an unabashed rabid fan girl. 🤷🏼♀️ I can’t resist her flavor of romance and this was no exception. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
⚠️SAFETY SQUAD SPOILERS⚠️
- no cheating or sharing between the H and h
- no OW drama
- the h lost her v-card to the H’s married brother in law when she was 17. We get some 2nd hand details of that.
- the h is pregnant by the brother in law and Brant is sent to kill her
- the h is sexually assaulted by someone who isn’t the H
- dubcon/noncon
- there is a very bloody revenge scene
Not gonna lie, this story has a rough start. Even on my reread my finger was hovering over the DNF button. Brant and Alyssa are difficult to like at first. But, if you can handle the dark aspects, I’m telling you that you’ll be rewarded if you hold off on judgement and read til the end. And this is coming from someone who knee-jerk DNFs, with abandon, for fictional offenses as petty as an H (badass mafia dude) claiming The Notebook is his favorite movie. 👀😬🤪
Anyhoo.
What I loved?
- Brant (34?) is a typical Mariano Hero with a broken moral compass - he’s a crazy mix of sociopath and fiercely loyal family man - he definitely grows on you - I think he’s one of the most demonstrably jealous/possessive H Sam has written
- Alyssa (18) also shares some traits with past heroines - she’s neglected by her family and is basically always in survival mode. This suits her H, as it makes her much more likely to roll with what he serves up. She’s a well-spring of forgiveness and understanding. She’s a little more feisty, but that sort of grows as we get further in the book. Be patient with her
- the banter is top shelf, of course - the dry gallows humor had me giggling through the whole book - I adore the mix of irreverent humor and dark content. - these two are straight nuts 🤣
- the smexx is smexxy - yes, at first it’s consensually-challenged 👀 … but it doesn’t stay that way for very long (if that’s an issue for you, you probably should run away from this author. 🤷🏼♀️)
- I loved the OM drama - typically I do not like it when an h is with someone besides the H, but the way this is written works for me. We only get details second hand. And the details make our Hero crazy. Which is DELISH. 😈
- Sam is known for limiting the H’s perspective, if she includes it at all, but in this case we spend quite a bit of time in Brant’s head. And I loved it. Sometimes a male perspective can come off sounding like a whiney navel-gazing woman. But Sam hits it just right, IMO. 💕
- Alyssa has been terribly wronged and she gets a chance to take back her power and get some sweet revenge. Normally, I prefer the H to save the day, but I really liked how this was written.
Why not 5 stars?
- at the end of the day the scenario with Theo is hard to swallow. I think Sam does a great job at making the situation nuanced, and understandable from Alyssa’s perspective, but it still makes it hard for me to give this book 5-stars.
- while I think Brant ends up j/p, it takes him a minute to get there. I got frustrated with how long it took for him to come around. I didn’t like how much convincing and coaxing Alyssa had to do. Once he’s in, he’s REALLY in, but yeah..
Bottom Line? This is classic Sam Mariano, and I am an unabashed rabid fan girl. 🤷🏼♀️ I can’t resist her flavor of romance and this was no exception. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
⚠️SAFETY SQUAD SPOILERS⚠️
- no cheating or sharing between the H and h
- no OW drama
- the h lost her v-card to the H’s married brother in law when she was 17. We get some 2nd hand details of that.
- the h is pregnant by the brother in law and Brant is sent to kill her
- the h is sexually assaulted by someone who isn’t the H
- dubcon/noncon
- there is a very bloody revenge scene
Read
November 24, 2019Don’t think I can root/like a heroine who sleeps with a married man and gets pregnant with his child. Nasty!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 15, 2019
This is what we've come to expect from Sam Mariano!
"You're my favorite abductor."
Sam never ceases to amaze me with how she can spin the unique and unbelievable story lines that she comes up with in that brilliant mind of hers. Story lines that should NEVER work out. Relationships that are unimaginable in the real world, but totally plausible and realistic within the book world that she's created. Ones that have me wishing for a happily ever after, no matter how unconventional their relationship is. Stories that she makes BELIEVABLE in the end! THE IMPERFECTIONS was that type of story. Brant & Alyssa were that type of couple. They are PERFECT together.
I think it's safe to say, I might have an unhealthy love with Sam's writing. And you know what, I ain't no quitter, so I will continue to read all her words and embrace this addiction wholeheartedly. I have learned, after all the books I've read from Sam (which is a LOT), that every one of them has a level of craziness that cannot be defined or matched. A uniqueness that you just have to welcome with an open mind and heart. You have to have faith that Sam will take you on a journey worth while. A love story worth spending time on. A couple worth rooting for, no matter what. And THIS story was just that. I loved every minute of this epic craziness! I didn't want it to end! Brant was the right amount of alpha. He was utterly protective and loyal. Alyssa was his perfect match in every sense of the word. She made his lonely world, not so lonely. Their relationship truly came out of nowhere and was unexpected, but was exactly what they each needed. Sam made their characters flawed but their flaws complemented each others, so TOGETHER, they were perfect. "Alyssa is the resin, smooth and colorful and pretty, and I'm the cracked old wood, knotted and split and ugly as hell without the beauty she brings to the table." -Brant.
The only way I can adequately label this story is by calling it a "dark comedy". It was a dark romance with comedic undertones. There were parts in the story that I wouldn't of found funny in any other book, but the way in which Sam wrote THIS story and THESE characters, it made those moments downright comical and had me giggling at times. Not at the ridiculous of it, but at how it worked! How that vibe and that moment WORKED within THIS story line. And I think that's probably my favorite thing about Sam's work, she ALWAYS stays true to character in her stories, no matter HOW absurd of outlandish some of their thought processes and/or actions are. She doesn't stray from WHO they are no matter what. She embraces her characters wholeheartedly and that's what you need to do with this story. You'll finish reading and think to yourself, "How did Sam get me to love these characters???" I can tell you that it's a true gift she has! Idk how she does it, but every time, I love every one of her dysfunctional characters and their turbulent stories!
"You need a counselor,"he informs me. "That was meant to scare you, not turn you on."
I shrug, grinning at him. "Maybe I'm just the right kind of crazy for you."
While reading THE IMPERFECTIONS, you have to shut off your moral compass, so to speak. You need to just go with the flow of the story and where the characters are taking it. Trust that they will get you to that HEA that you will so desperately want for them, no matter what their journey looks like. Brant & Alyssa's story is like no other and neither is their relationship. I adored these two and the craziness! I sure hope to see more from them, maybe in some future spin off books. *begging*
If you're new to Sam Mariano, give this book a chance! It's a complete standalone and it showcases who she is as an author.
5 stars
"You're my favorite abductor."
Sam never ceases to amaze me with how she can spin the unique and unbelievable story lines that she comes up with in that brilliant mind of hers. Story lines that should NEVER work out. Relationships that are unimaginable in the real world, but totally plausible and realistic within the book world that she's created. Ones that have me wishing for a happily ever after, no matter how unconventional their relationship is. Stories that she makes BELIEVABLE in the end! THE IMPERFECTIONS was that type of story. Brant & Alyssa were that type of couple. They are PERFECT together.
I think it's safe to say, I might have an unhealthy love with Sam's writing. And you know what, I ain't no quitter, so I will continue to read all her words and embrace this addiction wholeheartedly. I have learned, after all the books I've read from Sam (which is a LOT), that every one of them has a level of craziness that cannot be defined or matched. A uniqueness that you just have to welcome with an open mind and heart. You have to have faith that Sam will take you on a journey worth while. A love story worth spending time on. A couple worth rooting for, no matter what. And THIS story was just that. I loved every minute of this epic craziness! I didn't want it to end! Brant was the right amount of alpha. He was utterly protective and loyal. Alyssa was his perfect match in every sense of the word. She made his lonely world, not so lonely. Their relationship truly came out of nowhere and was unexpected, but was exactly what they each needed. Sam made their characters flawed but their flaws complemented each others, so TOGETHER, they were perfect. "Alyssa is the resin, smooth and colorful and pretty, and I'm the cracked old wood, knotted and split and ugly as hell without the beauty she brings to the table." -Brant.
The only way I can adequately label this story is by calling it a "dark comedy". It was a dark romance with comedic undertones. There were parts in the story that I wouldn't of found funny in any other book, but the way in which Sam wrote THIS story and THESE characters, it made those moments downright comical and had me giggling at times. Not at the ridiculous of it, but at how it worked! How that vibe and that moment WORKED within THIS story line. And I think that's probably my favorite thing about Sam's work, she ALWAYS stays true to character in her stories, no matter HOW absurd of outlandish some of their thought processes and/or actions are. She doesn't stray from WHO they are no matter what. She embraces her characters wholeheartedly and that's what you need to do with this story. You'll finish reading and think to yourself, "How did Sam get me to love these characters???" I can tell you that it's a true gift she has! Idk how she does it, but every time, I love every one of her dysfunctional characters and their turbulent stories!
"You need a counselor,"he informs me. "That was meant to scare you, not turn you on."
I shrug, grinning at him. "Maybe I'm just the right kind of crazy for you."
While reading THE IMPERFECTIONS, you have to shut off your moral compass, so to speak. You need to just go with the flow of the story and where the characters are taking it. Trust that they will get you to that HEA that you will so desperately want for them, no matter what their journey looks like. Brant & Alyssa's story is like no other and neither is their relationship. I adored these two and the craziness! I sure hope to see more from them, maybe in some future spin off books. *begging*
If you're new to Sam Mariano, give this book a chance! It's a complete standalone and it showcases who she is as an author.
5 stars
Shelved as 'avoid-and-run-away'
November 29, 2019note to myself... heroine is a skank ass dumpster pussy and homewrecking whorebag
November 16, 2022
2.5✨
at first i was oh no he did not just get hard while his brother in law’s confessing his sins bout cheating on his sister with the tightest hole he ever fucked
at first i was oh no he did not just get hard while his brother in law’s confessing his sins bout cheating on his sister with the tightest hole he ever fucked
November 24, 2019
I can't believe this book was rated 5 stars!
It starts out like this:
The H's brother in law cheats on his wife (H's sister) with the teenage nanny in a moment of weakness. He blames it all on the heat of the moment. This moment of weakness is followed by a few more. The h then finds out she's pregnant and wants to keep it. The H's brother in law doesn't, because he realises it would ruin his picture perfect life with his wife. So he sends her off with some money to abort the baby.
You know when you should've aborted? When you started taking your clothes off in your stupidity! Your mind should have yelled ABORT during your moment of weakness.
After all that, the cheating scumbag narrates the whole incident to the H and begs him to 'take care of it'. He also promises that he really loves his wife and DOESN'T EVEN KNOW WHY IT HAPPENED..
I was already mad at this point, but this made it worse:
By 'take care of it' they meant 'kill her' which is what the H sets out to do. He breaks into her house, goes to her room and holds a gun to her head...at which point I gave up on reading the rest of the book.
Seriously? If you want to shoot someone, how about the guy married to your sister (whose name I don't care to remember)? He gets an easy way out of the whole mess: he stays with his family and the h never speaks again....cause she's been shot dead.
Nope. I can't take any more of this.
It starts out like this:
The H's brother in law cheats on his wife (H's sister) with the teenage nanny in a moment of weakness. He blames it all on the heat of the moment. This moment of weakness is followed by a few more. The h then finds out she's pregnant and wants to keep it. The H's brother in law doesn't, because he realises it would ruin his picture perfect life with his wife. So he sends her off with some money to abort the baby.
You know when you should've aborted? When you started taking your clothes off in your stupidity! Your mind should have yelled ABORT during your moment of weakness.
After all that, the cheating scumbag narrates the whole incident to the H and begs him to 'take care of it'. He also promises that he really loves his wife and DOESN'T EVEN KNOW WHY IT HAPPENED..
I was already mad at this point, but this made it worse:
By 'take care of it' they meant 'kill her' which is what the H sets out to do. He breaks into her house, goes to her room and holds a gun to her head...at which point I gave up on reading the rest of the book.
Seriously? If you want to shoot someone, how about the guy married to your sister (whose name I don't care to remember)? He gets an easy way out of the whole mess: he stays with his family and the h never speaks again....cause she's been shot dead.
Nope. I can't take any more of this.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
November 23, 2019This didn't work for me.
The situation is just ridiculous.
“Be with your brother-in-law’s slut-whore babysitter mistress without being blackmailed into it?”
The situation is just ridiculous.
“Be with your brother-in-law’s slut-whore babysitter mistress without being blackmailed into it?”
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 23, 2020
“You need a therapist,” he informs me. “That was meant to scare you, not turn you on.” I shrug, grinning at him. “Maybe I’m just the right kind of crazy for you.”
This book has been in my Kindle library for almost a month, yet for reasons I can’t even begin to understand I continued to move it down my TBR list. It wasn’t that I didn’t find it interesting or that it made me nervous.....the only thing I can chalk it up to is always forgetting what the blurb was about & other books coming in that I was more in the mood for. But in an effort to get my Kindle cleared out, I decided to just go with it and after reading the blurb (for the 10th time at least) as well as some reviews, I found myself really excited to dive on in.
I’m not a regular reader of Sam’s, but she did write a book that I absolutely devoured despite so many readers having moral issues with it. So I knew the risks she took were ones I seemed to favor & the readers were rather obsessed with Brant. That left me wanting to see what all the fuss was over him, was he really that delicious? Would he threaten those sitting comfortably on their thrones at the top of my book boyfriend lists?
I may have been a little too eager to find out.....what I found within these pages was a story I could have never prepared for between two characters that couldn’t have been written more perfectly to suit the other. I can’t even begin to put into words just how special these two oddballs are, they are that kind of couple that makes it impossible to forget them. There were many times I thought I would end up hating one of them BUT that hate never came......instead I developed a genuine soft spot for Brant & Alyssa.
Overall Plot/Story: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Plot Speed/Pace: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Brant Morrison: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Alyssa Walton: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“Whole Lotta Crazy” Meter: 😳😳😳😳 1/2
Steamy Scale: 🔥🔥🔥
Book Facts:
Told in: Dual POV, all present day.
About: This forbidden romance stand-alone centers around Brant Morrison & Alyssa Walton. Brant is known for fixing situations by whatever means possible, which lands Alyssa directly on his radar. She is a problem that needs to disappear in order to protect the hearts of his loved ones, but he also never planned on wanting to make her his either. This story poses the question, could you give up your HEA in order to protect those around you?
Safe Read: Yes although it does include one situation of forced consent that is uncomfortable as well as an attempted rape and a rather graphic violence scene (not against woman).
Ends in: HEA ending with an extended epilogue.
My Thoughts:
It was hard not to fall for Brant & Alyssa. Upon first introductions to who they were, you are shown “sides” of them that should make you dislike them from the start. More so with Brant, as he does something many may see as unredeemable (stick with the story, he more than redeems himself time & time again). Yet, I felt a certain loyalty & understanding towards both of them for totally different reasons.
There were also times that I felt like both were complete pushovers, but quickly realized that’s just how they are. Don’t mistake that for Brant not being a completely dominating alpha bc he is 100% of that in every way, it’s just hard to believe that men like him exist so to speak. As for her, she will be viewed as weak by most readers I’m sure. Her decisions and actions support those views. BUT her “weakness” isn’t the kind that made me ragey or even dislike her——it was in this way that made her Brant’s perfect partner and caused me to love her like I would my own daughter. There was a unique strength in what many assume as that weakness. Even now, having finished the book, I have this odd protectiveness over her and she’s a freaking fictional character.
Together they created both sizzling hot moments as well as some moments that had me laughing at their craziness. I mean with dialogue like this.....
“All of it—the murder, the threats, the fierce possessiveness. You oughta stop saying things like that before I find my panties and fling them at you.”
....Make no mistake, these two are crazy in their own ways. But that made them as a couple that much more special.
As for support characters, it’s going to be no surprise that everyone hates Theo.
But what surprised me is how much I disliked Bri a majority of the time. All I have to say is that girl needs to learn what being loyal means ESPECIALLY when the one person who seems willing to do anything to protect her and make her happy is the one person she seems to have the most trouble showing it to. I wasn’t a fan of hers for most of the book.
My Verdict:
This is one of those I want to recommend bc I did thoroughly enjoy it, not to mention I also have to admit I have never quite read anything like it before. That’s a rarity in itself since so many books seem to be copy & paste versions of each other. However, it’s one of those that not everyone is going to enjoy or be able to get past the single thing Brant does towards the beginning. I wouldn’t call it dark romance but it’s not cookie cutter either. If you have an open mind and can push past that “glitch”, you will find a love story that’s unique with the perfect mix of crazy & sweet.
“I’m not under any illusion that Brant’s hands are clean, but I still prefer them to yours.”
This book has been in my Kindle library for almost a month, yet for reasons I can’t even begin to understand I continued to move it down my TBR list. It wasn’t that I didn’t find it interesting or that it made me nervous.....the only thing I can chalk it up to is always forgetting what the blurb was about & other books coming in that I was more in the mood for. But in an effort to get my Kindle cleared out, I decided to just go with it and after reading the blurb (for the 10th time at least) as well as some reviews, I found myself really excited to dive on in.
I’m not a regular reader of Sam’s, but she did write a book that I absolutely devoured despite so many readers having moral issues with it. So I knew the risks she took were ones I seemed to favor & the readers were rather obsessed with Brant. That left me wanting to see what all the fuss was over him, was he really that delicious? Would he threaten those sitting comfortably on their thrones at the top of my book boyfriend lists?
I may have been a little too eager to find out.....what I found within these pages was a story I could have never prepared for between two characters that couldn’t have been written more perfectly to suit the other. I can’t even begin to put into words just how special these two oddballs are, they are that kind of couple that makes it impossible to forget them. There were many times I thought I would end up hating one of them BUT that hate never came......instead I developed a genuine soft spot for Brant & Alyssa.
Overall Plot/Story: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Plot Speed/Pace: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Brant Morrison: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Alyssa Walton: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“Whole Lotta Crazy” Meter: 😳😳😳😳 1/2
Steamy Scale: 🔥🔥🔥
Book Facts:
Told in: Dual POV, all present day.
About: This forbidden romance stand-alone centers around Brant Morrison & Alyssa Walton. Brant is known for fixing situations by whatever means possible, which lands Alyssa directly on his radar. She is a problem that needs to disappear in order to protect the hearts of his loved ones, but he also never planned on wanting to make her his either. This story poses the question, could you give up your HEA in order to protect those around you?
Safe Read: Yes although it does include one situation of forced consent that is uncomfortable as well as an attempted rape and a rather graphic violence scene (not against woman).
Ends in: HEA ending with an extended epilogue.
My Thoughts:
It was hard not to fall for Brant & Alyssa. Upon first introductions to who they were, you are shown “sides” of them that should make you dislike them from the start. More so with Brant, as he does something many may see as unredeemable (stick with the story, he more than redeems himself time & time again). Yet, I felt a certain loyalty & understanding towards both of them for totally different reasons.
There were also times that I felt like both were complete pushovers, but quickly realized that’s just how they are. Don’t mistake that for Brant not being a completely dominating alpha bc he is 100% of that in every way, it’s just hard to believe that men like him exist so to speak. As for her, she will be viewed as weak by most readers I’m sure. Her decisions and actions support those views. BUT her “weakness” isn’t the kind that made me ragey or even dislike her——it was in this way that made her Brant’s perfect partner and caused me to love her like I would my own daughter. There was a unique strength in what many assume as that weakness. Even now, having finished the book, I have this odd protectiveness over her and she’s a freaking fictional character.
Together they created both sizzling hot moments as well as some moments that had me laughing at their craziness. I mean with dialogue like this.....
“All of it—the murder, the threats, the fierce possessiveness. You oughta stop saying things like that before I find my panties and fling them at you.”
....Make no mistake, these two are crazy in their own ways. But that made them as a couple that much more special.
As for support characters, it’s going to be no surprise that everyone hates Theo.
But what surprised me is how much I disliked Bri a majority of the time. All I have to say is that girl needs to learn what being loyal means ESPECIALLY when the one person who seems willing to do anything to protect her and make her happy is the one person she seems to have the most trouble showing it to. I wasn’t a fan of hers for most of the book.
My Verdict:
This is one of those I want to recommend bc I did thoroughly enjoy it, not to mention I also have to admit I have never quite read anything like it before. That’s a rarity in itself since so many books seem to be copy & paste versions of each other. However, it’s one of those that not everyone is going to enjoy or be able to get past the single thing Brant does towards the beginning. I wouldn’t call it dark romance but it’s not cookie cutter either. If you have an open mind and can push past that “glitch”, you will find a love story that’s unique with the perfect mix of crazy & sweet.
“I’m not under any illusion that Brant’s hands are clean, but I still prefer them to yours.”
November 26, 2019
Are you kidding me with the high reviews? Assholes everywhere in this book!
January 1, 2020
If you e not read any books by Sam Mariano before then I feel like it’s my duty to warn you that she likes to go for the shock factor - UNTOUCHABLE is one of my faves, and although THE IMPERFECTIONS is something entirely different, it doesn’t hold back and from the very first chapter you’ll be thinking “WTF am I reading”
Brant and Alyssas story is forbidden. It’s sexy and twisted with a side of funny. But it’s also a little fucked up. If that’s the kind of thing you love, then this one if for you.
Brant and Alyssas story is forbidden. It’s sexy and twisted with a side of funny. But it’s also a little fucked up. If that’s the kind of thing you love, then this one if for you.
June 25, 2022
A word to describe this book: grotesque.
And not in a sarcastic way.
I still can’t make up my mind about the feelings it brings out in me.
Angst? Not at all.
Anger? Nope.
Boredom? Not even that.
I think I was most of the time perplexed.
Because a book can be well written and easy to read but still be lacking something you can’t explain.
It starts very well as usually this author’s books.
The hero’s brother in law describes to the hero how he got involved with his children’s 17 yo nanny, how and when they had sex and how eventually the heroine got pregnant.
He asks the hero to solve his problem.
The hero listens carefully to all these sexual prowess and - instead of being angry and disgusted that his 30 something bil seduced a minor and knocked her up, he’s faintly aroused and interested in this lil young hottie.
This is the first inconsistency. There are many others.
He should beat the crap out of the jerk. But nope, he accepts to solve the problem.
That in his language it means he will kill the nanny. The barely of age pregnant nanny.
Well, so you expect he is some kind of mob boss or someone involved- seriously- with criminals because who would be so cold as to kill a teenager because his shitty bil knocked her up?
Instead of, maybe, paying her off and sending her somewhere far away.
So he goes to the nanny’s house and when he sees her he decides not to kill her but to kidnap her instead and to take her to his house.
Because he is curious about the things his bil described to him.
So he threatens her to kill her if she doesn’t do anything he asks and he has sex with her.
So now we have our two main characters, a criminal hero and a slutty teenager heroine with very lil morals.
And yeah everything bil said about her is true, she had an affair with said married man, she had unprotected sex with him several times ending up pregnant and now that she met the hero she is quite happy to be at his house for some days and to have sex with him. Because he’s much better lover than bil.
Just like that.
The hero on the other hand, has a personality transplant and we find out that no, he’s no mafia boss or hitman at all, he is a 35 yo bachelor with a bar, who isn’t even a manho and has only killed one man in his life, a junkie who was his sister’s fiancé and betrayed her and the hero sleeping with hero’s girlfriend.
But he turns out to be a nice good chap, even better than the silly heroine who is clueless and obviously unable to show some maturity in her choices for life.
He sends her back home because he can’t have an affair with the woman who is pregnant with his bil, and asks her not to see the man again.
The heroine has already had enough of om, and is now ready to go on with her life, but of course the hero can’t stay away from her and they meet again and again until she tells his sister she’s pregnant and the hero is the father.
This hero is an exception for this author: not at all cruel and merciless, he’s quite cute and mature and responsible, surely very much more that the heroine. He even decides he will marry her and keeps her child as his own, and that’s the other big inconsistency. Why in the beginning the hero’s bil asks him to get rid of the heroine if he’s not a criminal and he only killed a man once - maybe- because it was never proved, and the hero’s bil doesn’t know he did it???
And why did the hero accept to kill a pregnant teenager if he’s not a mob boss? It doesn’t make sense.
The hero during all the book is very nice and jealous of the heroine, but even if his sisters tells her he is pathologically jealous we don’t really see it, I’m fact it’s quite understandable that he’s wary and doesn’t trust the heroine since she had an affair with a married man and wasn’t even too sorry for it.
It takes time to build trust.
So, the hero is meek and nice and the book could have been 100 pages shorter because there’s not much happening after he and the heroine decides to get married.
Bil decides he wants the heroine again and cause troubles, and the end was OTT in a grotesque and unusual way. I was like WTF all the time, because it is so very not probable that two normal people would behave like those two characters in the end.
There’s no psychological consistency.
The heroine doesn’t bat an eyelid when she finds out the hero killed a man, and she behaves as if it’s normal behavior and the hero is completely nice until he isn’t but he’s also very emphatic and this is not consistent with such behavior.
I was more amused and surprised than anguished in the end.
There’s not one character in this book that I liked, not a single one.
Not the main characters, nor bil, or the hero’s sister or the heroine’s mother and sister. Not the heroine’s date, nobody at all.
I liked the description of the heroine’s family with grandpa always sleeping in his armchair because he’s an alcoholic- but a nice one who always sleeps, and both sister and mother who have several children at a very young age and are without a partner.
And the heroine follows their example, sadly.
So I felt pity for the poor hero when he tried to tell the heroine’s mother they were getting married and her mother flirted with him. Jeez what a sleazy situation. But very poignant.
I think the book was a weird one, not a romance for sure, with some of the most bizarre and unlikely characters ever and some of the most unpleasant sex scene ever- and I’m not a prude.
I don’t know if many can appreciate such book, there’s cheating, murder, pregnancy with a married man and rape. But if you don’t take it seriously- not at all- you can enjoy a story unlike many others.
And not in a sarcastic way.
I still can’t make up my mind about the feelings it brings out in me.
Angst? Not at all.
Anger? Nope.
Boredom? Not even that.
I think I was most of the time perplexed.
Because a book can be well written and easy to read but still be lacking something you can’t explain.
It starts very well as usually this author’s books.
The hero’s brother in law describes to the hero how he got involved with his children’s 17 yo nanny, how and when they had sex and how eventually the heroine got pregnant.
He asks the hero to solve his problem.
The hero listens carefully to all these sexual prowess and - instead of being angry and disgusted that his 30 something bil seduced a minor and knocked her up, he’s faintly aroused and interested in this lil young hottie.
This is the first inconsistency. There are many others.
He should beat the crap out of the jerk. But nope, he accepts to solve the problem.
That in his language it means he will kill the nanny. The barely of age pregnant nanny.
Well, so you expect he is some kind of mob boss or someone involved- seriously- with criminals because who would be so cold as to kill a teenager because his shitty bil knocked her up?
Instead of, maybe, paying her off and sending her somewhere far away.
So he goes to the nanny’s house and when he sees her he decides not to kill her but to kidnap her instead and to take her to his house.
Because he is curious about the things his bil described to him.
So he threatens her to kill her if she doesn’t do anything he asks and he has sex with her.
So now we have our two main characters, a criminal hero and a slutty teenager heroine with very lil morals.
And yeah everything bil said about her is true, she had an affair with said married man, she had unprotected sex with him several times ending up pregnant and now that she met the hero she is quite happy to be at his house for some days and to have sex with him. Because he’s much better lover than bil.
Just like that.
The hero on the other hand, has a personality transplant and we find out that no, he’s no mafia boss or hitman at all, he is a 35 yo bachelor with a bar, who isn’t even a manho and has only killed one man in his life, a junkie who was his sister’s fiancé and betrayed her and the hero sleeping with hero’s girlfriend.
But he turns out to be a nice good chap, even better than the silly heroine who is clueless and obviously unable to show some maturity in her choices for life.
He sends her back home because he can’t have an affair with the woman who is pregnant with his bil, and asks her not to see the man again.
The heroine has already had enough of om, and is now ready to go on with her life, but of course the hero can’t stay away from her and they meet again and again until she tells his sister she’s pregnant and the hero is the father.
This hero is an exception for this author: not at all cruel and merciless, he’s quite cute and mature and responsible, surely very much more that the heroine. He even decides he will marry her and keeps her child as his own, and that’s the other big inconsistency. Why in the beginning the hero’s bil asks him to get rid of the heroine if he’s not a criminal and he only killed a man once - maybe- because it was never proved, and the hero’s bil doesn’t know he did it???
And why did the hero accept to kill a pregnant teenager if he’s not a mob boss? It doesn’t make sense.
The hero during all the book is very nice and jealous of the heroine, but even if his sisters tells her he is pathologically jealous we don’t really see it, I’m fact it’s quite understandable that he’s wary and doesn’t trust the heroine since she had an affair with a married man and wasn’t even too sorry for it.
It takes time to build trust.
So, the hero is meek and nice and the book could have been 100 pages shorter because there’s not much happening after he and the heroine decides to get married.
Bil decides he wants the heroine again and cause troubles, and the end was OTT in a grotesque and unusual way. I was like WTF all the time, because it is so very not probable that two normal people would behave like those two characters in the end.
There’s no psychological consistency.
The heroine doesn’t bat an eyelid when she finds out the hero killed a man, and she behaves as if it’s normal behavior and the hero is completely nice until he isn’t but he’s also very emphatic and this is not consistent with such behavior.
I was more amused and surprised than anguished in the end.
There’s not one character in this book that I liked, not a single one.
Not the main characters, nor bil, or the hero’s sister or the heroine’s mother and sister. Not the heroine’s date, nobody at all.
I liked the description of the heroine’s family with grandpa always sleeping in his armchair because he’s an alcoholic- but a nice one who always sleeps, and both sister and mother who have several children at a very young age and are without a partner.
And the heroine follows their example, sadly.
So I felt pity for the poor hero when he tried to tell the heroine’s mother they were getting married and her mother flirted with him. Jeez what a sleazy situation. But very poignant.
I think the book was a weird one, not a romance for sure, with some of the most bizarre and unlikely characters ever and some of the most unpleasant sex scene ever- and I’m not a prude.
I don’t know if many can appreciate such book, there’s cheating, murder, pregnancy with a married man and rape. But if you don’t take it seriously- not at all- you can enjoy a story unlike many others.
June 18, 2022
2.5
"Thanks for breakfast, but I have to lock you in my basement now."
"Thanks for breakfast, but I have to lock you in my basement now."
Read
November 26, 2019DNF at 16%
Issa big Nope!
Issa big Nope!
November 23, 2019
YES!
This book starts out with a bang... of triggers. That said, if you were able to handle Untouchable then you'll probably be fine here.
Now that we have that unpleasantness out of the way, onward to the good stuff!
Oh, I so needed more Sam Mariano. And here she comes to save the day with another one of her otherwise unlikable anti-heroes. How does she do it?? How does she take a man, who by all accounts is completely unacceptable as a romantic interest, have them do despicable things, and yet by the end of the book scores of otherwise sensible women are ready to fight over him? It defies logic. And yet... whatever sorcery it is certainly works on me. Every damn time.
"If it counts for anything, I'm glad I didn't kill you tonight," I tell her.
"You're a true romantic," she spits back acerbically."
Did I love Brant in the first few pages? No. However, I never love her anti-heroes within the first few pages. They need space to spread their terrible wings and do very bad things before she turns on her magic trickery to make us love them.
Brant is not what most folks would call a "good guy." I say most because it depends on your definition. Does that person have to abstain from killing people? Well, Brant is out. Does that person have to abstain from kidnapping? Assault? Okay, well... he doesn't pass that hurdle, either. Some might say you are being picky with these requirements, I'm gonna be honest with you. BUT- he doesn't cheat on his romantic partners! And what's more? He is very loyal to his family. So there! All is forgiven, eh?
We good here? Did I mention he is also hot, and kinda jerky sometimes? Yeah, I thought that last part would do it.
Alyssa is an interesting character. She is young, but due to growing up in a small, overcrowded house with several hot mess relatives she is somehow more laid back and logical than you would expect for a person her age. She also has a strange approach to threats and/or danger in that she just sort of... bends to it. Rather than being rigid and unyielding (and thus easy to break) she instead adapts to what comes her way. Figures a certain degree of pliability will protect her. And you know what? She's right. My magic 8 ball predicts that some readers might accuse her of being a doormat, but I counter that with the argument that her ways are what saved her. Her ability to turn a would-be enemy into an ally isn't weak- it's enviable. Because if I got kidnapped? My dead body would be thrown from the moving getaway vehicle with a quickness, no doubt.
As is the norm for Sam Mariano the relationship that is eventually forged between these two is NOT a typical progression for a romance. Does she love him? Should she call the police? Is he going to sleep with her, or kill her? Could he possibly be more hurtful? I mean, possibly... but he did do a damn good job of it.
True to her style, this book had me hooked right away. The story popped out of the pages and slapped me right in the face before darting back with a sinister giggle. And quite frankly, that's how I like my books.
Recommended as always, but be mindful of trigger warnings.
Triggers: non-con, dub-con, violence
Find me at:
Facebook: https://fb.me/amandamariereads
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amanda_mari...
Blog: http://amandamariereads.blog
This book starts out with a bang... of triggers. That said, if you were able to handle Untouchable then you'll probably be fine here.
Now that we have that unpleasantness out of the way, onward to the good stuff!
Oh, I so needed more Sam Mariano. And here she comes to save the day with another one of her otherwise unlikable anti-heroes. How does she do it?? How does she take a man, who by all accounts is completely unacceptable as a romantic interest, have them do despicable things, and yet by the end of the book scores of otherwise sensible women are ready to fight over him? It defies logic. And yet... whatever sorcery it is certainly works on me. Every damn time.
"If it counts for anything, I'm glad I didn't kill you tonight," I tell her.
"You're a true romantic," she spits back acerbically."
Did I love Brant in the first few pages? No. However, I never love her anti-heroes within the first few pages. They need space to spread their terrible wings and do very bad things before she turns on her magic trickery to make us love them.
Brant is not what most folks would call a "good guy." I say most because it depends on your definition. Does that person have to abstain from killing people? Well, Brant is out. Does that person have to abstain from kidnapping? Assault? Okay, well... he doesn't pass that hurdle, either. Some might say you are being picky with these requirements, I'm gonna be honest with you. BUT- he doesn't cheat on his romantic partners! And what's more? He is very loyal to his family. So there! All is forgiven, eh?
We good here? Did I mention he is also hot, and kinda jerky sometimes? Yeah, I thought that last part would do it.
Alyssa is an interesting character. She is young, but due to growing up in a small, overcrowded house with several hot mess relatives she is somehow more laid back and logical than you would expect for a person her age. She also has a strange approach to threats and/or danger in that she just sort of... bends to it. Rather than being rigid and unyielding (and thus easy to break) she instead adapts to what comes her way. Figures a certain degree of pliability will protect her. And you know what? She's right. My magic 8 ball predicts that some readers might accuse her of being a doormat, but I counter that with the argument that her ways are what saved her. Her ability to turn a would-be enemy into an ally isn't weak- it's enviable. Because if I got kidnapped? My dead body would be thrown from the moving getaway vehicle with a quickness, no doubt.
As is the norm for Sam Mariano the relationship that is eventually forged between these two is NOT a typical progression for a romance. Does she love him? Should she call the police? Is he going to sleep with her, or kill her? Could he possibly be more hurtful? I mean, possibly... but he did do a damn good job of it.
True to her style, this book had me hooked right away. The story popped out of the pages and slapped me right in the face before darting back with a sinister giggle. And quite frankly, that's how I like my books.
Recommended as always, but be mindful of trigger warnings.
Triggers: non-con, dub-con, violence
Find me at:
Facebook: https://fb.me/amandamariereads
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amanda_mari...
Blog: http://amandamariereads.blog
December 1, 2019
3.5
I'm torn, I really enjoyed some aspects of this crazy and twisty story but then some parts were.....super extra.
If you've read Sam then you know that you should see the trigger warnings from a mile away. She doesn't do conventional, she does controversial. She doesn't do soft and sweet, she does hard and dark. Her "anti heroes" are just that and they're flawed, questionable, unstable and menacing, so if you're into that then you'll love them!
The Imperfections plot is both enticing and shocking. Bad things happen, really bad and some scenes are absolutely hard to read and process. Are there some tender moments? Sure... but even those are wrapped in thorns.
I will say I spent a big chunk despising one chracter, disliking another, scratching my head about one and I still haven't quite figured out how I feel about the last.
Though I did put this book down several times obviously something kept me coming back for more.
I'm torn, I really enjoyed some aspects of this crazy and twisty story but then some parts were.....super extra.
If you've read Sam then you know that you should see the trigger warnings from a mile away. She doesn't do conventional, she does controversial. She doesn't do soft and sweet, she does hard and dark. Her "anti heroes" are just that and they're flawed, questionable, unstable and menacing, so if you're into that then you'll love them!
The Imperfections plot is both enticing and shocking. Bad things happen, really bad and some scenes are absolutely hard to read and process. Are there some tender moments? Sure... but even those are wrapped in thorns.
I will say I spent a big chunk despising one chracter, disliking another, scratching my head about one and I still haven't quite figured out how I feel about the last.
Though I did put this book down several times obviously something kept me coming back for more.
Read
February 21, 2020***DNF***
No. HELL NO.
Love Sam’s books and how fucked up they usually are. But this? This is on a whole other level. One that makes me a bit queasy. So many things wrong with this.
Hero is dumb. Dumb. Dumb. So the hero’s (he’s really not a hero) brother in law tells him he’s been fucking a teenager. Instead of killing the guy that has a teenage mistress, he goes after the mistress instead...
Huh?
Then proceeds to fall in love with this perky and perfect blonde girl. Gross🤢
Did I happen to mention the little harlot is pregnant? Yep...I’m speechless too.
The only one I felt for was Bri, the woman being cheated on by a nasty perv and then being betrayed by her twin brother. Double gross. Falling in love with your BIL side piece. So classy.
No. HELL NO.
Love Sam’s books and how fucked up they usually are. But this? This is on a whole other level. One that makes me a bit queasy. So many things wrong with this.
Hero is dumb. Dumb. Dumb. So the hero’s (he’s really not a hero) brother in law tells him he’s been fucking a teenager. Instead of killing the guy that has a teenage mistress, he goes after the mistress instead...
Huh?
Then proceeds to fall in love with this perky and perfect blonde girl. Gross🤢
Did I happen to mention the little harlot is pregnant? Yep...I’m speechless too.
The only one I felt for was Bri, the woman being cheated on by a nasty perv and then being betrayed by her twin brother. Double gross. Falling in love with your BIL side piece. So classy.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 22, 2019
All aboard the crazy train.
What a ride!! Don’t plan on ‘adulting’ while reading this book because you will not want to put it down. Breakfast in bed please.
Brant and Alyssa’s crazy matched each other. They were both twisted and perfect for each other. I love that her sweetness and purity balanced out his Alphaness. I loved their loyalty to each other.
As always, Sam Mariano delivers on all the feels and will leave you in a book funk, mind blown!! It’s amazing how she pulls you into the book and characters and doesn’t let you go. She is and will always be a 1-Click Author.
What a ride!! Don’t plan on ‘adulting’ while reading this book because you will not want to put it down. Breakfast in bed please.
Brant and Alyssa’s crazy matched each other. They were both twisted and perfect for each other. I love that her sweetness and purity balanced out his Alphaness. I loved their loyalty to each other.
As always, Sam Mariano delivers on all the feels and will leave you in a book funk, mind blown!! It’s amazing how she pulls you into the book and characters and doesn’t let you go. She is and will always be a 1-Click Author.
December 12, 2022
I would like to start this review by saying that I absolutely adore this author and most of her books are solid 5 star reads for me. While I enjoyed The Imperfections, Brant, for me, didn't quite live up to the intensity that I've come to expects from Sam's "heroes". This is not to say that he didn't have his crazy moments and a normally functioning moral compass. Certainly, the beginning of the book had me at the edge of my seat. But then he failed to deliver on that promise. Otherwise, I really loved Brant in all his loyal grouchy glory. His love for his family and, eventually, Alyssa was all-encompassing and raw. The way he chose to show that love and handle problems was, um, interesting... Alyssa seemed like a fairly typical Sam's heroine that is loving and understanding and willing to disable her all moral compass for the right (or wrong) guy. I've seen a lot of people calling her out for her bad behavior, however, it didn't bother me as much taking into consideration her age and level of remorse. Now Theo I hated with a passion from the get go and was hoping for an epic comeuppance. Did he get it? You'll have to read the book to find out. I felt both sad for Bri and frustrated with her for most of the book. Bottom line is that Sam Mariano definitely made me feel, live and breathe along her characters. he writing is beautiful and evocative and she can certainly pack some heat into her stories! It's a fairly long books which I love as it allows you to really dig into the world that the author created. Finally, it's all wrapped up in a satisfying HEA with an epilogue taking us 2 years into the future. Definitely recommend this book to all fans of Sam Mariano, age gap, forbidden romance featuring a damaged hero and a woman who can be his resin (you'll have to read the book to get that one!).
Shelved as 'dnf'
November 25, 2019DNF at 34%
I tried.. but the writing and the heroine was so juvenile I couldn’t take it - even beyond the ridiculous plot.
I tried.. but the writing and the heroine was so juvenile I couldn’t take it - even beyond the ridiculous plot.
Shelved as 'not-going-to-do-it'
February 11, 2024Sleeping with married men??
November 12, 2019
I didn’t even read the blurb on this book before I jumped on the opportunity to read it and it was even better than I imagined.
I was in love with Brant at 1% and shortly after I fell in love with Alyssa. He was as alpha as someone can be with his need to own Alyssa and keep her safe. The chemistry between them was on fire. My feels were everywhere throughout this book. My heart was full with the sweetness of a moment then my chest would be aching and a lump would form in my throat because this book had me immersed in the pages and the lives of these people. This is an absolute must read and a top pick of 2019.
I was in love with Brant at 1% and shortly after I fell in love with Alyssa. He was as alpha as someone can be with his need to own Alyssa and keep her safe. The chemistry between them was on fire. My feels were everywhere throughout this book. My heart was full with the sweetness of a moment then my chest would be aching and a lump would form in my throat because this book had me immersed in the pages and the lives of these people. This is an absolute must read and a top pick of 2019.
February 26, 2020
DNF 25% and I’m annoyed at myself for going that far!
This “heroine” is just so awful in every sense of the word! She is a virgin who sleeps with a married man she’s babysitting for. She lets him do all the things his wife won’t let him do because she feels sorry for him and wants everyone to be happy!
The “hero” is going to kill this girl even though she’s pregnant and even though he hates his douchebag brother in law.
Their first encounter he’s there to kill her but instead watches a video of her masturbating that she sent to his bro in law, and he’s so turned on he decides not to kill her, just take her home with him and rape her instead!
Then she decides she likes him because he just raped her and didn’t kill her, so she voluntarily stays all weekend with him having loads of sex with him, even though he raped and nearly killed her... oh and she is pregnant with his twin sisters husbands baby, but whatever!
I have read quite a few gritty, uncomfortable stories. They have their place because life isn’t all rainbows and fairytales, but the story is generally more fleshed out and the characters have more grey areas that you eventually can get over or see why they acted in a certain way.
This pissed me off because the author is constantly trying to make us believe this young girl is really sweet and lovely and we are meant to like her. But she’s not sweet, she needs a therapist and she is so unbelievably naive and stupid.
Again with the hero, we are TOLD what kind of character the author wants him to be rather than shown. By his actions he is a rapist, murderer, kidnapper and really bad judge of character. But because he’s got a cute dog and can give her an orgasm we are just supposed to forget all the bad shit.
NO.
This “heroine” is just so awful in every sense of the word! She is a virgin who sleeps with a married man she’s babysitting for. She lets him do all the things his wife won’t let him do because she feels sorry for him and wants everyone to be happy!
The “hero” is going to kill this girl even though she’s pregnant and even though he hates his douchebag brother in law.
Their first encounter he’s there to kill her but instead watches a video of her masturbating that she sent to his bro in law, and he’s so turned on he decides not to kill her, just take her home with him and rape her instead!
Then she decides she likes him because he just raped her and didn’t kill her, so she voluntarily stays all weekend with him having loads of sex with him, even though he raped and nearly killed her... oh and she is pregnant with his twin sisters husbands baby, but whatever!
I have read quite a few gritty, uncomfortable stories. They have their place because life isn’t all rainbows and fairytales, but the story is generally more fleshed out and the characters have more grey areas that you eventually can get over or see why they acted in a certain way.
This pissed me off because the author is constantly trying to make us believe this young girl is really sweet and lovely and we are meant to like her. But she’s not sweet, she needs a therapist and she is so unbelievably naive and stupid.
Again with the hero, we are TOLD what kind of character the author wants him to be rather than shown. By his actions he is a rapist, murderer, kidnapper and really bad judge of character. But because he’s got a cute dog and can give her an orgasm we are just supposed to forget all the bad shit.
NO.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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