Thursday 12 July 2018

✪ Claire Contreras ✪ BECAUSE YOU'RE MINE ✪

©  Bianca  Janeane 




• 12 July 2018
• Mafia Romance
★★★★
3,75 Stars

When you grow up in the most feared mafia family, it's easy to identify the kind of men that are bad news.

They're the ones with experience.
The ones with secrets.
The ones that exude sex just by saying your name.

From the minute I laid eyes on Lorenzo, I knew he wasn't just bad news.
He was the headline.

My opinion didn't change on our second meeting.

Or our third.

But my head and my heart are at war.

He’s too mysterious, too gorgeous, too wild, and now, he wants me.
I should run far away.
So why am I racing toward him?
I’m totally going to get burned.
I know it.
A man like Lorenzo won’t leave me unscathed.
He'll make ashes of me.



ARC received for an honest review

Ballet, mafia - so many books I have read where these two worlds are entwined (though I will admit it is usaually Russian ballerinas and the Bratva that I have come across) so it was different to have the US mob this time.

Cat and Lorenzo's story to me was, how should I say, a little lost?  I don't know how else to describe it.  Neither of them had any real goal for their future, no plan for what they were doing - but this could just be me?

It did get better about halfway through the book, and things did start to make sense.  I was a bit confuzzled the first half of the book about what it wanted to be - did it want to be a mafia book? A dance book? A romance book?  There were so many characters introduced that it took a while to get my head around who they were and what they wanted.

Lorenzo though, he was what kept me ploughing through - even though he also confused me at times.

Ugh, it makes it sound like I didn't like this book at all, but that's not how it is.  I did enjoy it, there were just a big confuzzled (like my brain!)

I know with so many characters there must be some set up for more books about these people, and I know I will read them in the future.





Catalina grew up in a Mafia family. She 'escaped' to boarding school in Europe and then ended up in London to be a professional ballet dancer.
But then her father's business was all over CNN and her mom disappeared and her sister Emma asked her to come back home. And now they both live in New York. Cat is still dancing and her sister is going to college to become a journalist!
Emma will be out of town for a bit to uncover some crime in Chicago and she asks if Cat could go to one of her classes. They look enough alike that the prof won't notice. But he does. Because he's been looking for Cat for years.
Why? What does Lorenzo have to do with her family or her past?

What will happen to Cat & Lorenzo?
Will there be a HEA?
READ THE BOOK TO FIND OUT!

 ____________________________________ 


Well, that was pretty mafia-ish and ballet-dancer-ish.
I really love the cover!!!!!! ♥
But the story ... (Before you read what I'll write next ↓ I have to mention that I'm back now after finishing the first half of the book and the book is getting better - or at least it's making more sense now! So please don't be too worried about my upcoming rant!  ↓☺)

I'm not really a mafia-romance fan. But I'm a Claire Contreras fan - so I had to read this book.
And Lorenzo is a very swoonworthy hero!!!! I really liked him - even though he's very mysterious and a criminal ... BUT - we have no idea what he wants???!!!! Why he's here!!?? What's the story of this book? Is there a storyline? Revenge? For what? Why? I don't understand the meaning of this book - at least the first half!
But Lorenzo is really nice to look at and to listen to! ☺



And Cat ... what's her thing? Nobody in this book has a goal - a dream for the future. Cat is already living her dream by dancing and Lorenzo wants to ... make more money? No idea.

I don't think the first half of the book makes any sense whatsoever! Does it want to be a mafia romance or a ballet romance? How can she not know that her teacher's family is mafia too? And why are the sisters so old already? Cat is 28. In the beginning of the book, with all the college talk, I thought she was 23!!
And there are way too many people in this book - all those Gios and Doms and Frankies and Deans and Joes and Justins and ugh. Too many people confuse this reader. But I'm also pretty sure that we'll get to see some of them in future books - there will probably be a book about Emma, maybe Gio too.

Cat and Emma's lives have been pretty exciting up until a few years ago. But now that everything is going ok, Lorenzo shows up and her brother is doing business in the city too - and they're not really friends - obviously - two mafia families. But still ... why? What? Ugh, I don't get it. Maybe I was just not in the mood to read a mafia book. Sorry. Other readers will probably love the story. Not that there is any kind of story. Sorry - shutting up now! The second half of the book was so much better - so much suddenly made sense. I just wish the story would've hurried a bit and started sooner. All that excitement in the second half. Well, all in all it wasn't a bad book, just a bit weirdly written and created. Should've been storylined a bit better. But I'm also pretty sure that I'll read the next book in this series. I know - I'm weird. ☺ Also - the cover - so very pretty - but not really Lorenzo and not really a scene that happens in the book. But pfff. Pretty to look at.

BECAUSE YOU'R MINE was a mysterious and sexy mafia/ballet dramance! Run to your nearest amazon for your own LORENZO - this one is MINE!!!

Tiny little idea ... maybe the book was just not edited at all before we got our early copy? There were all those already mentioned weird moments but there were also so very many mistakes. Not typo mistakes but timeline and storyline mistakes. (like: my mom was an orphan, that's why we do that charity event every year. But we also spent many childhood summers with my mom's mom in South America!!!!!) I really hope that an amazing editor will go through this book again before it's released!!!! That hot cover needs an amazing story inside!



 LiNKS TO THE BOOK AND AUTHOR 
    



Second Chance Duet #1






Book #2







Claire is a New York Times & USA Today Best Selling author, mother of two, wife of one, owner of three dogs, and breast cancer survivor.

She enjoys writing anything from children’s stories to erotic suspense, but her most notable work is a contemporary romance. When she’s not writing, she’s reading and dreaming about places she wants to visit.

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