Romance

McGowan Mafia Series: Books 1-5 by Effie Campbell

 in Books / Romance / Series by

The McGowan Mafia series by Effie Campbell is such a spicy and amazing series. When I tell you I read 4 books in like 2-3 days, I am not joking! I would have read all 5 but I actually didn’t know the 5th book was released until I started writing the review for book 1-4.

The series is:

  1. Dark Escapes
  2. Dark Enemies
  3. Dark Obsessions
  4. Dark Desires
  5. Dark Corruption

Each book is a standalone technically, so you can just read one if it draws you in. But I read it one after the other, and it was kind of nice because you got to see a little bit of character development and how each character got to have their own story. I enjoyed that certainly and I pretty much inhaled the entire series. But if you just want to dive in because one stands out to you, you definitely can!

I felt book 1-3 were really like the dark romance, morally grey, attitude woman kind of story. They were 1000% my cup of tea and I loved the story. While the books were dark of course, overall they weren’t dark dark and if you got to some of the darker themes, you could kind of fast read by them. But, I wasn’t as much of a fan of book 4 – mostly because there was a wider age gap, the FMC used “daddy” which I’m not personally a huge fan of, and it was more about hedonism kind of themes which didn’t really interest me. It was a good book and kept me engaged, but wasn’t what I was expecting based on the first few books. But the last one, Dark Corruption, which had a similar vibe to book 4 I loved – that one worked for me!

These books are SPICY. I’m talking like 5 out of 5 on the spice scale. These are absolutely not books for under 18 by any means due to the language and the themes that are in the book. But good god did I keep wanting to come back for more! I will note that a lot of the words used for certain actions were quite vulgar as well. I know not everyone likes certain words being used so if that’s not your cup of tea, a bit of a warning there.

If you are looking for a deep story with your romance then this isn’t it. This really is primarily focused on the smut and spice side with a hint of a mafia story – the traditional mafia vibe that you would expect.

Going into it, honestly, I had no clue that they were based up in Scotland which I felt was a bit of a struggle. I felt they were in New York the whole time and then when they’d mention going between Glasgow and Edinburgh, that was really the only reminder that this wasn’t based in the USA. Maybe a bit more of the local dialect could have added a bit more to really make you feel immersed. But if you are reading this kind of series, you aren’t going to be really focusing on that. That’s just me being nit picky to be honest.

Once again, this isn’t a book that with a review you can say too much about. Each MMC was hawttttt, each female had that spunk and the spice was perfectly spicy. This is most likely going to be a book series that I will want to add into my comfort rotation, along with The Predator by Runyx.

All I can really say is it was a page turner and really hit the spot nicely for me. Exactly what I wanted. I initially fell into the book from some reel I saw on Instagram related to Book 3 and I am glad that I did because gosh, was it good! I’d give this a solid 4/5 as it was enjoyable, decently written for what it was and kept me wanting to come back for more. I was engaged and it was an absolute page turner!

Happy Reading!

 

Dark Romance Tropes: Toxic & Dangerous or Okay Fantasy? 1

 in Books / Opinion / Romance by

Romance is all over Bookstagram and beyond in the past few months. Spicy books have kind of surged back with stores like The Ripped Bodice and others catering to romance readers.

But when you think of romance, a lot of the uninitiated think of bodice ripper books, they may think of the Mills and Boone kind where there’s the rugged man, the damsel in distress and some nooky nooky. That of course still exists, but now there’s a much darker side too.

Dark romance are romance books with a much darker side to them. They can be as gentle as there’s a loving relationship but the MMC is a bike gang member but nothing super dark happens in the book. But they can be as extreme as people being unalived in books while characters get it on. Dark romance tropes include things like:

  • Stalker
  • Cheating/Infidelity
  • Serial Killer
  • Non Consent
  • Knife Play
  • Pregnancy
  • Kidnapping
  • Somnophilia

Now for the uninitiated, you probably look at this and go “why in all that is good would someone want to read this?” Well, I am no psychologist so I cannot tell you why. But, people do and they eat it up. I’m not here to discuss the reasoning people do – you can’t say it’s Daddy issues, or an abusive family at all. There are plenty of people who grew up in very healthy lives who enjoy or consume these books (I’m one of them). People just like what they like.

What I am here to talk about is what concerns can be. Back in the day when adult videos became readily accessible there were concerns that this may make people more violent and have unrealistic standards. While I don’t have the data to back it up (although there are some articles out there), we have seen adult videos give people unrealistic standards on what a sideways tango should look like, and result in people who watch too much having….physical performance issues.

Dark romance has me asking similar questions. If someone lives on a steady stream of a dark romance diet with really dark themes and going darker and darker, can this blur what is deemed to be healthy?

I would argue that for the average reader where you read other things and sprinkle in some dark romance, it shouldn’t have too big of an impact. But if you have a very constant and steady stream of this, or you are a younger and impressionable reader, then that can really impact you.

Reading a book, even a hard core smut book, isn’t as taboo as maybe watching adult films. I can read the dirtiest book in public and 99.9999% of people would not bat an eye. You can’t do that with adult videos. So the point is, you can read as much of this you want, where ever you want. Too much of a good thing can become a bad thing. Effects of adult videos (not suitable for work link) are known through various studies, but the same studies haven’t been done with books. Who is to say reading too much of this hard core stuff impacts you?

Now, once again, I am not talking about the actual sideways tango in the books. I’m talking about the mix of that and the violence, stalking or otherwise illegal activities that, mixed with the tangoing, can blur the lines. I know I’ve read books with some of the most f-ed up stuff and been like “well you know…I’m okay with it in this context” and have to check myself like woah what? Now imagine all you do is read this all day, or that’s your entry into romance books, or you’ve never had a relationship (healthy or otherwise). You may begin to fantasize about these extreme bad boys so that when someone good comes your way that’s not what you want.

I have no direct data to back any of this up and I’m just expression hypothesis’ and opinions, but we see people falling in love with murderers and serial killers. Women specifically are, usually, a bit more drawn to the bad boy. Now when the bad boy in your books does a lot of crazy stuff, you read it, and it desensitizes you a little bit, that’s when it becomes a concern.

Takeaways/TL;DR

Read your books! Live your fantasies! That is completely healthy. Love your dark romances of a crazy nature, because I know I do. But make sure you take breaks, reset and make sure what you read isn’t bleeding into your real life.

For younger readers, or parents of younger readers, make sure you are checking what your kids are reading. Some of the dirtiest and darkest books have the most unassuming covers! No, don’t be censoring books but books are made for different ages for a reason and a 15 year old should not be reading books like Malevolent King or The Predator. I’ll be delving a little more into covers in another post, but sometimes dark romances have covers and titles that don’t always give it away.

 

What are your thoughts on this?

The Predator by Runyx [Book Review] 2

 in Adult / Books / Fiction / Kindle Unlimited / Romance by

Summary

“What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object in the field of death?

In the dark underbelly of the mob, Tristan Caine has been an anomaly. As the only non-blooded member in the high circle of the Tenebrae Outfit, he is an enigma to all – his skills unparalleled, his morality questionable, and his motives unknown. He is lethal and he knows it.

As does Morana Vitalio, the genius extraordinaire daughter of the rival family. What Caine does with weapons, Morana does with computers. When a twenty-year-old mystery resurfaces, Morana infiltrates Caine’s house, intent on killing him, unaware of a tie that binds them together. Hate, heat, and history clash together with unexpected sparks.

But something bigger, something worse is happening in their world. And despite their animosity, only they can fight it down.”

–Amazon.com

Review

So I have hopped on board the December Kindle Unlimited smut train and it has left the station and is rolling through at massive speeds! I went into this universe of books with decently low expectations to be honest and while some of those expectations have been met, some books have actually surprised me. This book is one of them.

Now, I will say right off the bat, if you are expecting some high quality, lofty writing from these books you will be mistaken. That is not what these books are. Most people read these books for the spice and a bit of story, but more heavily on the spice. I mean, that is what we are here for in #booktok. But, this book really did well in so many ways.

A Developing Story & Characters?? Who would have thunk!

The story progressed. I mean, like there was an actual story going on around all the bow-chick-wow-wow. As everyone knows, I’m a sucker for some kind of story progression and character development. I can’t stand when they don’t go anywhere. This one actually had a story and some decent character development – and by decent I mean they did progress but we don’t have any high level coming to a spiritual awakening kind of moments. But it was enough that I did feel that this was a good piece of adult literature and not like some of the other fanfiction quality books I’ve read.

Morona was a badass and we love a strong female in these stories. But realistically strong – not over the top and trying to be something that was not attainable. I don’t personally love when they are just a bit too overdone (read a few like that recently). Tristan, well we love him (yes yes I know, bad man but we love him anyway).

Dark romance so do be ready.

This is not those cutesy romance books. This is dark romance. So go into it with that awareness. I didn’t see any trigger warnings at the front of the book as this book was not as dark as some other ones, but it’s a mafia book so you can kind of guess the kind of themes that will be in here.

A series of yum.

This is a series, so you have a few books to see through. I thought the first one was the best and the second was just as enjoyable. I have not gotten through the rest of the series yet as I am seeing what else is out there, but if you want a series that progresses with the different characters and feeds into a larger story, then this is a good one for you!

 

With these kind of books there’s honestly not much to review because you can’t really review the writing and the story progression per se because they aren’t those kind of books. However, I can tell you if I would recommend it or not.

Yes, I would recommend this as a nice quick read.

I would give this a 4/5 on the spice level as well.