January 23, 2020

Review: THE ITALIAN by TL Swan

Title: THE ITALIAN 

Author: TL Swan

Source: KU



Goodreads...

They say there are three things you should do at least once in your life:

Dance like nobody’s watching.
Travel the world.
And fall hopelessly in love.

I aimed to do all three.

I went to Italy to find myself.
But he found me.

It was like a story book, our eyes met across a crowded room.
He asked me if I needed help reading the menu.
We ate, we laughed, we danced, and I fell.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go to plan, and we parted ways.

Two years later, our eyes meet across a room again.
Only this time I was on a date with another man.
He went crazy in a jealous fit.

But the man I met then is different now.
He’s colder, harder, and officially one of the most powerful men in Italy.
Dare I say it, even more enticing.

But if you dance with the devil, you get burnt.

And the fires in Italy are scalding hot.
 


My take...

While I loved the story itself, I was put off with all the errors riddled throughout the book. They seemed to gain momentum as the story reached the end. As if someone tired of editing. I went through countless reviews and for the life of me I didn’t see one person mention any of it. Were we reading the same story? Or have we desensitized ourselves lately that grammar no longer ranks on our scale of reviewing of books? Come on people! It matters. Countless Indie authors pay big time to give us a well written story. I am by no means a professional and it will show in my reviews, but lets not turn a blind eye on books we are paying for.

I will say the characters are what pulled me in. Their sweet, romantic and fiery meeting at the beginning of the story hooked me. But then something happens and they don’t see each other for 2 years. He changes big time. Rici could have been less a turd head. Yes we get it. You live for control. But every single time they fought, Olivia was the first to give. It got old. She tried to come off strong willed but she would eventually give in. It got to be very predictable.

The story was good and held my attention the whole book. With each end of a chapter, I fooled myself thinking that it would be a stopping point so I could get some work done. So not the case. It met my mafia need even though the book was more focused on them as a couple and not so much the mafia side of things. which was a little disappointing. But there was enough it made me happy.

Now while I really liked the story, I am back and forth on rating it too high. Seriously. The editing was horrid. I think I am going more 3.5 Stars. (When leaving reviews on sites such as Amazon and Goodreads, I always round up.) I want to read FERRARA because it shows promise and I think I have the whole Francesca/Giuliano thing figured out. I had it pinned from the moment we met her. And it makes me giddy. So 3.5 Stars!!

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