Now, I am not usually one for ebooks, I prefer the touch and smell of the page but sometimes you find yourself in a situation without a book at the ready. Not often, but tragedies do strike. Anyone, I have an app on my phone called Kobo and so, I decided to take a look at some of the books they offer. And guess what, I found this little gem for free. And as one of my close friends used to say, “If it’s free, it’s for me.”
And guess what, this novel really deserves it. I give it a 4/5 stars.
This novel is about the daughter of a New York City mafia crime boss. Forced to choose between her mother and her sister, Verity Guerra chooses her sister. But apparently, it was the wrong choice because all of a sudden they are in witness protection and her sister hates her. Then of course, there is the fact that Verity snitched on her dear beloved dad. There are assassins and another crime family somehow thrown into the mix. I don’t want to give away any spoilers but somewhere along the line, Verity must team up with the assassin known only to the world as X to find her sister. But that means asking her dear father for help from his prison cell.
The language that Marissa Farrar uses is wonderful and she definitely knows how to pace a novel to keep readers on their toes. Her characters were frustratingly human even though they could have been more flushed out. She gives us an interesting family dynamic and shows us what it feels like to be hated, misunderstood and angry all at the same time which is one of the main reasons I loved this book.
Another reason is that she uses both Verity and X as narrators. Anyone who knows me can attest to my love of multiple narrators. I can’t help it, something about it feels right to me, as though you can only see the real world through the eyes of multiple people taken together as a collective. Farrar made great use of the multiple narrators, each transition was smooth and made sense. In fact, I can’t imagine this book with only one narrator, there are just to many twists in it; it wouldn’t make sense.
Guess what? This isn’t your typical crime drama or revenge story. In a way, it is so different from most mafia novels I’ve read that I almost forgot it was one. The mafia wasn’t the main conflict in this novel, it was family. Who would’ve ever thought about mixing that in with assassins, murders and angst-y young girls? Not me, but Farrar did, and I congratulate her on a job well done.
You may be wondering why this book only got 4 stars if I liked it so much, but the answer is that it was a nice lighter read but I feel as though she could’ve gone deeper, made the characters more polished and did more to carry the plot in the down times (times not action-packed). True, this is the first book in a series and there are issues here that are completely missing from the later novels but I can’t tell you as I haven’t finished the series.
So, if you like fast-paced action sequences, this book may be the right one for you. Check it out and make sure to follow this blog and follow me on Instagram, just search under Chyina_Powell!
Happy reading,
Chyina