Format: eBook
Author: Lisa Cullen
Bought by Mafia Daddies by Lisa Cullen was a fast-paced read that I managed to finish in only four reading sessions. While there were definitely parts I enjoyed, there were also quite a few moments where I wanted to reach into the book and shake some sense into the main character.
Frankie enters an auction to sell her virginity because she needs money to help her mother, only for Jonathan, Devin, and Alex to purchase her together. Why starts as an arrangement quickly becomes much more complicated as feelings develop and Frankie discovers exactly what kind of men she's become involved with.
The relationship between the four of them moves extremely fast. At times, it felt like they went from strangers to unable to live without each other before I had enough time to really feel that emotional progression. There is also a lot of sex. Sometimes it worked with what was happening in the story, while other times I felt the sexual scenes interrupted plot developments that I was more interested in seeing explored.
Frankie herself was probably my biggest source of frustration. There were moments when I understood her decisions, especially when emotions overwhelmed her. There were other moments when her lack of awareness about her own safety drove me crazy. When you're actively being targeted, wandering away from the people protecting you without telling them where you're going probably isn't the greatest survival strategy.
That said, I appreciated that she wasn't written as though she suddenly developed perfect instincts simply because she was in danger. Someone who hasn't spent their life learning to watch their surroundings isn't necessarily going to start thinking that way overnight.
I also enjoyed getting pieces of Jonathan, Devin, and Alex's individual histories and personalities through their different POV chapters. Alex in particular had more resistance to what was developing between them, which gave his feelings for Frankie some conflict that I wish had been present a little more throughout the relationship.
The later chapters finally brought the danger surrounding Frankie to the forefront, although some of the decisions leading into the climax were painfully predictable. I saw trouble coming before the characters did. The eventual confrontation was resolved a little too cleanly for my taste, but I appreciated that it wasn't unnecessarily stretched across several chapters simply to prolong the drama.
The epilogue was a nice conclusion. I especially appreciated that Cullen addressed what happened to the mafia family under its new leadership rather than simply giving the characters their happily ever after and ignoring that part of their lives. They didn't magically become law-abiding citizens, but there was an acknowledgement that things changed.
Overall, Bought by Mafia Daddies was entertaining and extremely easy to fly through. The pacing was sometimes too fast for me, the romance developed faster than I would have preferred, and Frankie occasionally made me question where she'd misplaced her common sense. Still, there were other moments when I understood exactly where she was coming from, and I enjoyed enough of the characters and story to keep turning the pages.
Sometimes I understood Frankie.
Sometimes I wanted to shake her.
That's probably the best summary of my reading experience.
My last update here was a short one. I said I was taking some time away for personal reasons.
At the time, that was all I was prepared to say.
Those personal reasons were my Uncle Bill, also known as Uncle Lion.
His health had deteriorated rapidly, and what began as worrying updates from my family eventually became the kind of situation where everything else simply stopped mattering. I traveled to Florida to be with my family and was able to see my uncle one last time before he was disconnected from life support.
I didn't have some profound final speech prepared for him. I didn't know what to say.
So I said the one thing that mattered.
"I love you, Uncle Bill."
He passed away August 11.
Growing up, he was Uncle Bill. Look at a picture of him when he was younger and that nickname becomes fairly self-explanatory. That hair earned it.
Some of my memories of him aren't extraordinary stories. They're better than that.
They're family piled all over a couch with Uncle Bill underneath the chaos. They're wrestling with him. They're laughing and teasing. They're making an "uncle sandwich." They're the ordinary pieces of childhood that nobody thinks to label important while they're happening.
Then one day you realize those ordinary moments became some of the important ones.
That's where I've been.
I wasn't interested in forcing myself to write, post, or maintain a schedule simply so everything could appear normal from the outside. Some things still got done when my mind cooperated. Other things didn't. I let them sit.
Now I'm home, and I'm beginning to find my way back into my work.
And there is a lot to catch up on.
There are updates that never got posted, projects that stopped midway through, things I've been organizing behind the scenes, reading I've been tracking, and creative work waiting for my attention. Some posts may appear with earlier dates because they belong to those dates rather than the day I finally managed to publish them.
I'm not going to try to erase the gap or pretend it didn't happen.
It happened.
I lost someone who had been part of my life since childhood. I went home to my family. I said goodbye. I spent time remembering him with the people who remembered him too.
And now I'm coming back.
Not starting over. Not pretending everything has returned to normal.
Just picking things up, one piece at a time, and continuing from where I left them.
I'm back.
And I'm catching up.
Áille
