A page-turning and emotionally satisfying unlikely love story set in the world of the Boston mob.
In Bell’s novel, a mob wife stirs passions in a vicious enforcer.
As Bell’s romance opens, a temporary truce has been called for the first time in a decade between the rival Irish gang families, the Brennans and the Flynns—the occasion is a wedding. Twenty-year-old Willa Brennan, newly- widowed wife of Tiernan Brennan, is now going to marry Raphael Flynn in a move that will consolidate the business of the families and represent a financial windfall. “Our stronghold in the Northeast was an international trade route away from surpassing what any Irish-American crime syndicate had ever accomplished,” reflects Raphael’s brother and pitiless enforcer, Lucifer. “And the Brennans would benefit from the dependable shipments our stateside channels and connections with the Mejia Cartel could provide.” Lucifer actually met Willa years earlier, but in the interval he’s become a vicious killer who recognizes the utility of the marriage. “Our adversaries were infinite,” he thinks. “For the Flynns to remain the most formidable and most feared crime family east of New York, we needed to sustain our savage tactics” (foremost among the Flynn’s enemies is the Russian mob). Willa is fully aware of the tense situation she’s accepting by marrying Raphael. The last thing she expects is the additional twist that she encounters: a fierce attraction to Lucifer. She’ll have to navigate not only the dangers of mob life but her growing attraction to the most violent man in Boston.
Bell does a very adept job of writing in the standard contemporary urban romance register of steamy encounters and hurricanes of F-bombs. Some of her characters joke in tired stereotypes (“The identity of Widow Brennan was as elusive as a sober Irishman”), and although she’s skillful at dramatic lines (“Time and cataclysm eventually made us enemies”), this facility can sometimes curdle into bathos (“I swallowed the ball of panic in my throat before I choked on it”). The narrative is gritty, with betrayals and violence, and Bell effectively balances these elements with the growing relationship between Willa and Lucifer, which tends to evoke prose that’s both overwrought and enjoyable. “Lucifer drew me into his chest and released a sigh filled with messages it would take me a lifetime to translate,” Willa thinks at one such point. “We didn’t have that kind of time together, but at least we had this one night.” The novel’s most sharply handled plot twist leaves Willa on death’s door and highlights the heightened vulnerability readers have watched grow in Lucifer. When a helpless Willa overhears Lucifer desperately bargaining with God for her life, readers will feel like they’ve made a long and worthwhile journey to reach such a point. Those same readers will, of course, need to quiet their objections to the book’s moral relativism: The crime “thrones” and “kingdoms” seen throughout the narrative are built on extortion, drug running, and murder (as in most urban romances, these things are more of a backdrop than a moral quandary). But the temporary compromise is worth it—Bell provides a passionate story of unexpected love in exchange.
A page-turning and emotionally satisfying unlikely love story set in the world of the Boston mob.Pub Date: March 13, 2024
ISBN: 9798985418477
Page Count: 382
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Short and sweet; stuffed with emotion and original ideas.
Bordallo (An Autobiography of an Afternoon, 2012) delivers romantic philosophy via an enchanting collection of poems and scenes.
Bordallo shows a fresh perspective on love and the struggles of humanity. His lilting tones induce the sensation of falling in love. The collection comprises three parts that take the reader on a date with two unnamed, would-be lovers. The characters share a philosophical conversation over a bottle of wine. When the woman asks, “What are you looking for?” the answer is thought-provoking and unconventional. The second part features a couple on the beach and another intimate conversation. The dialogue is equally pensive, and sometimes self-congratulatory, about seeing frustration as positive, even when left with empty arms. Scenes brim with vivid descriptions that describe the world through a different lens, giving the reader “gardens of sand” and a yellow sky at sunrise. Interspersed among the chatty date scenes are bits of poetry, meditations on romance, the moon, the feel of a kiss. The lyrical work dances on the page, although the images do not always succeed. Comparing eating a mango with making love feels amateurish, creating a disturbing bump in an otherwise romantic ride. An energetic tone replaces the intimate conversations in the final part of the book, as two friends vacation in Brazil and stop at a bar. Secondary characters get swept into each other on the dance floor. They may have fallen in love, if only for a moment. It’s a tale of savoring minutes and making the most of the days—both for lovers and friends.
Short and sweet; stuffed with emotion and original ideas.Pub Date: May 29, 2012
ISBN: 978-1475130140
Page Count: 94
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 2, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A lively but somewhat pat bundle of fictive life lessons.
Face your fears, follow your dreams and say hello to that gorgeous hunk—that’s the message from this feisty collection of motivational verse and short stories.
Recalling her own struggles with depression, the author of this energetic medley encourages readers to get out of their shells, take charge of their lives and believe in themselves despite reverses and naysayers. The first section consists of poems aimed at stimulating the will to succeed, written in the exhortatory tone—“Do you want to be / a flash in the pan or the cream of the crop? / What will it take to get you to grab the bull by the horns?”—of an exuberant life coach with a weakness for mixed metaphors. The bulk of the book consists of Rabello’s short stories, which wrap self-help sermonizing in florid romance. Most of her tales center on shy, insecure, lovelorn women with extravagant hopes that they despair of achieving; their task is to learn to seize happiness by both lapels when it shows up—usually in the form of men dripping with wealth, looks and sensitivity. (The man’s complementary task is apparently to instantly fall in love with the heroine.) Sudden, charged encounters drive the narratives: A cleaning woman spends a passionate night with a psychiatrist then wonders if she should pursue a commitment; a career girl meets a studly ghost in need of help; an aspiring writer weathers a scathing critique from a hotshot editor whose caustic manner masks his own vulnerabilities; a volunteer at a feel-good telephone chat line wins a businessman’s heart by helping him with his ethical quandaries. The stories depict a dance of attraction and anxious hesitancy, with lots of testy and flirty banter thrown in: “I’m interested in your expertise. The fact that you’re an exquisite mulata is icing on the cake.” Rabello writes in a fluent style, but her plots often feel contrived, and the dialogue sometimes lapses into motivational volleys. (She: “Let’s both use our pain as energy—as fuel for the fight.” He: “Don’t let the things you don’t have prevent you from using the things you do have.”) Still, readers looking for a shot of gumption may get swept off their feet by these whirlwind redemptions.
A lively but somewhat pat bundle of fictive life lessons.Pub Date: Nov. 23, 2013
ISBN: 978-1483980393
Page Count: 234
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 4, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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