Title: The Predator
Series: Dark Verse, #1
Author: RuNyx
Publisher: Amazon Digital
Pages: 374
Publication Date: January 1, 2020
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.
This one was SO promising from the synopsis above. Rival mob families, star-crossed lovers, drama, dark romance! It seemed SO good on paper that I was very excited to dive into this one to see what the hype was about. As of this writing, this book is an Amazon top 20 Bestseller.
There are some triggering topics in this one, violence, death appears on the page although I never found it too graphic. I feel that most of the scenes in this book would be TV safe here in the states, perhaps the sex scenes excluded, although with TV today, those might have made it onto the screen as well. There are mentions of child abduction, although no child harm is really mentioned.
By biggest issue with this book is the writing style. This book BADLY needed an editor that could have suggested some sentence structure, diverse vocabulary, and just to tighten everything up. The writing is often stilted, overly simple, and repetitive to the point of pain. My "review" over on Goodreads (sarcastic and sassy) can sum up the issues there.
I have no idea why the author decides that the FMC needs to call Tristan Caine by his full name throughout the novel. Why he couldn't just become Tristan is a mystery, yes even through the final chapter when there might be some clue as to why.
The two MCs barely speak to one another, and instead it's all staring, lots of quivering and shaking, trembling, her stomach is constantly in knots. It's nearly always thundering and lightning storming. It feels like the author had 2-4 solid scenes and then struggled for hundreds of pages at trying to tie them together.
The FMC is a "certified genius" and yet she does not display this through words or actions.
I asked my wife to read the final chapter to see if I were being too critical and she mentioned "it seems like the author never learned the writing phrase 'show, don't tell.'" That feels pretty accurate. There was a lot of telling, and the character's actions never back up any of this.
This one seemed great on paper, but the execution was just not there for me. Overall, I was left frustrated at the lack of it all. Lack of character development, lack of plot development, lack of editing. Another reviewer mentioned that the word combination "Tristan Caine" appeared about 228 times in the book - which is 374 pages long. Why, oh why, oh whyyyyyy!
Overall, this book would be for those who don't mind a dark romance, don't mind things that read like 14 year old fanfiction on what they believe a strong, sexy, mafia man should be, don't mind reading about characters who do nothing but stare at each other and have sex scenes that is purely peen in vagine. I'm not kidding, he pretty much never touches her, and during the sex scenes they do not kiss, have no intimacy, no foreplay.
For some that might be hot, but it was just boring for me. *sigh* 1 triquetra which is generous.
***
I bought this book with my own money as a kindle edition.
About the Author
Website ➡️https://runyxwrites.com
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