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The Godfather's Lover

by Ann T. Ryan (Goodreads Author)

3.4 of 5 stars 3.40 · rating details · 172 ratings · 31 reviews

Jarod Greene doesn’t know anything about love, but that didn’t stop him from taking an IT intern from the FBI up against the wall in a moment of confusion and passion. It certainly didn’t keep him from asking the wide-eyed intern to be his kept lover. And it’s not like Chris Wilkinson’s job or life was going anywhere. Why wouldn’t he want to be the kept man of the most pow...more

ebook, 98 pages

Published September 7th 2011 by Dreamspinner Press (first published September 6th 2011)

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Best Gay Romance with a Criminal or Secret Organization Theme

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(showing 1-30 of 287)

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Oct 25, 2012 Heller rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary, m-m, mobsters-bad-guys, dnf

I'm DNFing this one at about 70%. The dialogue is too stilted for me and the characters feel very unrealistic. I am a fan of the mobster/cop pairing but this one is just not working for me.

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Sep 29, 2011 Vio rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: not-my-thing

Adrian explains why this failed. The idea was a good one and exciting because who doesn't love a good mobster story? Yeah it didnt work out that way, wasted opportunity.

like 3 likes · see review

Nov 30, 2012 Nile Princess added it

Shelves: law-enforcement, fbi, opposite-sides-of-the-law, mafia, m-m-romance, reviewed, ruined-by-unrealistic-ending

Hmmm, so lots of bad ratings on this one but I have to say, before the 90% mark, I would have given it four stars. Maybe my standards are lower because the m/m mob books I've been subjected to lately have been so lacking but, if I read a book where the male characters actually act like men instead of simpering teenage girls it's already ahead of the game. Sad but true. But, to address some of the complaints, I LIKED Jarod and Chris' first (sexual) encounter in the alley. It was unapologetic and...more

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Sep 10, 2011 Cayce rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: m-m

3.5 stars, but this has got such a low ratings in here, I had to give 4 in the end.
I liked it. I agree with the others, that the book is far from perfect. And I remember not liking at all the writer's other book (My King’s Seraglio)But the title and the blurb intrigued me. It's a short one, so I thought I'd give it a go. And I'm glad I did.
There are quite a few m/m books out there, where one of the guys is a bad one; a mob, a yakuza or something like that. And in a lot of cases they turn out to...more

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Sep 26, 2011 Sharon rated it 5 of 5 stars

http://www.rarelydustybooks.com/2011/...

This is my kind of M/M story. What is my kind you ask? I love it when there is a tough guy (assassin, mafia boss, special forces) who falls for the fun and flirty guy who isn’t impressed with all the money or power (excuse me while I :sigh:). They both keep secrets from each other and end up sacrificing to keep the other safe.

Even though this is a novella, the author was able to create two well developed characters that wormed their way into my heart. In t...more

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Dec 01, 2012 Purplegirl rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: so-called-mob-story, rent-boy, owned

I could say that this story could have been better if it was longer but I won't because I don't think it would have helped. It was a whole story of clichés. I did not connect with Jarod or Chris. The time jumps were ridiculous. If the author is going to do massive time jumps then there needs to be some kind of build up. You can't go from no mention of time to saying it is a year later and then another 6 months pass. Also, mostly everything important was off the page or never mentioned, as in wha...more

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May 09, 2012 Edina Rose marked it as maybe-not

What a good blurb & title! fans of The Godfather like me will be well served, I hope.

-----

Not so well served after all...
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

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Oct 11, 2011 Three Crow Press rated it 1 of 5 stars

Review by Isabel De Valera

You know how when there’s a disaster or some kind of catastrophe, it’s human nature to find someone to take responsibility? And when there’s no one to pin it on, you kind of blame everyone?

This was a very difficult review to write. I kept wanting to blame someone for this disaster, and while one would expect that the author is the natural recipient, somehow I can’t help but spread the guilt around. In fact, I kind of feel sorry for the author. I mean, I assume that the...more Review by Isabel De Valera

You know how when there’s a disaster or some kind of catastrophe, it’s human nature to find someone to take responsibility? And when there’s no one to pin it on, you kind of blame everyone?

This was a very difficult review to write. I kept wanting to blame someone for this disaster, and while one would expect that the author is the natural recipient, somehow I can’t help but spread the guilt around. In fact, I kind of feel sorry for the author. I mean, I assume that there was some beta reading somewhere along the line, and it had to be read to be accepted by the publisher, and then it must have gone through edits and proofreading. Didn’t anyone stop and say, “Wait a minute”? Didn’t anyone care enough to sit down with the author and say, “You have a good idea here, but your follow-through is a mite… lacking”?

The germ of the idea is a good one: Mafioso falls in love with the FBI agent who’s setting him up, and vice versa. There’s an enormous scope for an edgy, dark, passionate story with a peek into the grimy criminal underworld.

This story ain’t it.
(view spoiler)[
Instead, what we get is a fairy tale, and not one particularly well handled. The characters are flat and one-dimensional. Chris, the FBI agent, was raised in an orphanage by a saintly priest. He is the Good Guy, with issues of abandonment. We meet Jarod, the “godfather” of the title, at his mother’s funeral, where his abusive father socks him around for crying and being less than manly. He is… also the Good Guy.

Fast forward a number of years, and Jarod Greene, the Godfather of Los Angeles, is in an alley beating up a thug called Carlos (one of the few ethnic names in this story. I mean, come on. This is Los Angeles. A story set in Los Angeles without any significant Asian or African-American characters? And only one important Latino character, Jarod’s right hand man, Mike. But this, dear reader, is not the last of the disbelief-suspending we are asked to do). A drunk man staggers out the back door, and instead of offing a potential witness, Jarod… screws him through the wall. It turns out to be Chris, whom Jarod quickly gets obsessive about. He breaks up with his current boyfriend, the nephew of another crime lord, and sets Chris up in his stead. This falls in with Chris’s plan, because, of course, he’s not just an intern—that’s his cover. He’s a Special Agent.

Jarod is variously described as “the Godfather of Los Angeles” and the “underground boss who ruled over California,” and people are said to be afraid of him, but he never actually does anything bad. His organization doesn’t even sell drugs. I’m not quite sure what it does, exactly, except run a couple of nightclubs and have meetings with rival gangs (the Smith clan of Nevada, or the Giordano gang. Seriously. The gangsters are either WASPs or stereotypes). The incident with Carlos at the beginning is supposed to show how bad he is, but my first reaction was “Really? The Godfather of Los Angeles does his own dirty work?” And he doesn’t do much, just roughs him up a bit before he sees Chris and decides—with that short attention span, how did he ever get to be Godfather?—that Chris was much more interesting. (“You betrayed me, Carlos! You’re going to suff… oooh, shiny!!”)

The biggest problem I had with this book is that there are no real consequences for anything. The ex-boyfriend doesn’t set his uncle’s goons on them, the Mafia—notoriously homophobic—doesn’t seem to mind an openly gay man at the head of one of its organizations, and people don’t get killed. When Chris quits the FBI because he’s fallen in love with Jarod, he gets a handshake and a “good luck” instead of getting his ass thrown in jail for compromising a federal criminal case.

But the thing that pisses me off the most is the fact that this book could have been good. Ryan is not a bad writer; she “tells” a little too much, and her characters need more development, but her writing has potential. Her pacing is good, her descriptions vivid. With a little research, a little effort, a little help, it could have been an entertaining story. But instead, we have a sad little mess. And it makes me sad, and mad, and I want someone to blame, damn it. (hide spoiler)](less)

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Sep 09, 2011 Lauraadriana rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: m-m

1.75 Stars

This WAS a quick read, and not particularly angsty or boring.

However, I did have issues with the writing. Mostly because the book I WANTED to read was about a Mobster falling in love with an FBI agent that was bent on destroying him. And the book I actually read was just two dudes having sex and eventually developing feelings for each other. The characters really did not have much depth, and the story needed editing, A LOT of editing.

I really wanted to like it more, because it did ha...more

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Sep 20, 2011 Sian rated it 2 of 5 stars

Way too many coincidences for me to be comfortable with the plotting, but I did like the characters a lot. I mean, really, though, what sort of mafia boss takes a random hot stranger, and has sex with them while they're busy chasing down someone else? And the actions of the characters... often I felt as if I was missing something that would make it all logical, because they were consistent in their decisions, if unrealistic.

Not bad, just... not much to justify the disbelief and confusion it prom...more

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Dec 18, 2011 Adrian Anderson added it

For a relatively simple book, this is somewhat of a difficult review to write. A large part of this is because of the potential this story had that failed to be realized. I don't want to give this book a rating as I think a low rating would be overly simplistic.

For some reason when reading this book I kept thinking about a J2 fanfic. I don't know why. But that is the way it came across to me. In fanfiction authors can get away with a lot of poor characterization because readers know exactly who...more For a relatively simple book, this is somewhat of a difficult review to write. A large part of this is because of the potential this story had that failed to be realized. I don't want to give this book a rating as I think a low rating would be overly simplistic.

For some reason when reading this book I kept thinking about a J2 fanfic. I don't know why. But that is the way it came across to me. In fanfiction authors can get away with a lot of poor characterization because readers know exactly who you are talking about and their minds fill in the blanks, and their love for the persons involved make them more willing to forgive holes in plot etc.

But in original works the author does not have that luxury and has to flesh out the characters, to make them appealing to the readers. And that was something that this book did not accomplish. The characters were not as dull as some I have read but they did lack life. At times their actions did not seem justified at all, even when taken in context based on what the author told us of them.

An example. It is plainly stated that Jarod is a man-ho with no shortage of hunks lining up to do him. Repeatedly Jarod expresses disbelief at how deeply his feelings for Chris develop. Well I was disbelieving too. I mean that first "meeting" against the wall, there was NOTHING shown in Chris to set him apart from all them other guys. WHY exactly did Jarod see him any differently?

I found that the author tried to make us feel sympathetically for Jarod. Bastard father, poor mother who died etc. But I just could not like the character. It wasn't as if Jarod was forced into the clan life unwillingly and he just trying to do his "duty" through coercion. Jarod revels in his business and the book plainly says he has murdered people etc. And then talks about him being a man who respects honor etc. I just didn't buy it and cannot empathize and like such a character.

Furthermore Chris was unbelievable. For someone who the author tries to cast in a poor me on, low self-esteem light etc. Chris is an excellent manipulator. Obviously since that priest father figure was killed by the same Clan Jarod belongs to, he entered the FBI thing for revenge. I found it so hard to believe that he could so easily throw away his desire for vengeance that he had simmering for YEARS! I mean some of the men who did it could damn well be working for Jarod. And even if it WAS Jarod's father and no Jarod running things at that time, Chris was TOO logical and methodical in his one line statement where he let it all go. Emotions and logic do NOT go hand in hand. It made me feel that Chris didn't really feel all that much when priest guy died.

Morreti's nephew Brian and his fiendish plot to gank Jarod in revenge was anticlimactic when it did happen. Brian basically was seen in one scene where he does the cliche swearing it's not over thing...then ages later when we basically forget about him because he was so unmemorable...we see there's a shootout.

The ending was so contrived and Deux Ex Machina... Simply stating that Jarod knew all along. I mean really. I could go on but I won't. The editor should have done a better job and demanded some changes with this book before it went to sale.

Poor characterization, unlikeable characters, contrived plot...(less)

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Aug 11, 2012 Ale Rivero rated it 4 of 5 stars

Acción y Amor

Una historia fantástica que mezcla acción y amor a partes iguales.
Jarod un jefe de la mafia, con un carácter de perro y una figura que causa estragos.
Chris un agente del FBI, con un carácter triste y una figura que enloquece a más de uno.
Ambos gays, y ambos imposibilitados de reconocer sus verdaderos sentimientos, hasta que estos son más fuertes que ellos y lo que hasta ahora parecía lo correcto se vuelve impensado.
Una genial historia de amor, que deja muchas ganas de más.

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May 12, 2013 Sharon rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: erotica-romance, m-m

I really don't think this book was as bad as everyone made it sound! The passing of time didn't bother me as much as some people, but I felt like I could have used more emotion and steamy sex scenes. But that's always my personal preference. The story focused a bit more on the logistics of the mob/cop story than the romance....and that was my biggest problem. Still not a horrible read though.

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Dec 03, 2011 pbj rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: z_2011, collapse-my-disbelief, enemies-to-lovers, m-m, law-enforcement, mobster, nasty-plot-device, undercover-hiding-mistaken-identity

This book is about on par with a porn plot. Hot mobster takes undercover FBI agent as his paid sex toy. Hot sex conquers all.
There are no ethical or moral issues raised in the book - and the legal ones magically seem to disappear.
Aren't you glad that love trumps murder and racketeering? My faith in humanity has been restored...

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Sep 13, 2011 Meggie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-police-procedural-mystery, romance

I was a bit skeptic about this book because of the title. It was surprisingly good. I liked the characters and the writing style. I have to admit, the plotted story was to easy and I did miss an epilogue at the end. I would really love to read more about this couple, both Chris and Jarod, were enjoyable together.

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Sep 23, 2011 Melissa rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: k

Loved this story, FBI agent devoted to taking down crime family's gets involved with the big California boss, to take down their family. But he falls in love, even as he is collecting evidence against the family. The boss also find himself falling for his newest toy. Great story!

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Sep 02, 2011 Simsala*is getting slow* rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: m-m, suspense-crime

1,5 stars

I did finish The Godfather`s Lover to get it out of my system.
0,5 stars for the basic idea of a bad boy getting lucky,but the realization
ultimately was wasted time - and money.

Note
I`m so tired of nagging and giving low ratings...just want to read good books/stories...

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Aug 06, 2012 Linnt added it

Shelves: m-m, living-together, m-m-romance, bareback, mafia, fbi

love the story, i never knew i had a thing for mafia stories, i just wished it was longer and there was a little more of a back story. the author gave a very brief but direct back story of the why the two main character act the way they do and do what they do. however, i just wished that there was more written on Jarod and Chris relationship development. i'm not saying that their relationship was rushed consider the circumstance, but i would still have love a little more.
nonetheless i give this...more

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Sep 17, 2011 Marsha Spence rated it 3 of 5 stars

I really liked this. I liked the story, the MC's, everything...except the abrupt ending. At least for me it seemed like it needed another chapter or two or an epilogue.

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Sep 14, 2011 Erin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wanted to give this one 4 stars cuz I really liked Jarod and Chris but everything just seemed so rushed. I could have easily read another 200 pages about these guys.

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Sep 14, 2011 Tana rated it 4 of 5 stars

From the description I guess I was expecting a bit more, it was a quick read, the writing is good, but it was missing something. I would give it a 3 1/2 if I could.

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Sep 29, 2011 Tanya rated it 3 of 5 stars

Is this the start of a series? That ending kinda pissed me off....like running towards a cliff and you wake up and your laying at the bottom but have no idea how the hell you got there.

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Oct 12, 2011 Shay rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle-lendable

Love it, wished it was longer.

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Oct 31, 2011 Debbie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

OUTSTANDING!!!

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Oct 25, 2011 Sasha Conte rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime

LOVED IT!!

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Apr 22, 2012 Susan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: mm-read, z-2012

I enjoyed this book but I think it would have benefitted from being longer. The reader didn't really get to see the relationship between Jarod and Chris develop although about a year passed during the course of the book. Had I seen more of the interaction between the two men during this time period I think it would have been easier to believe in the decisions that Chris went on to make.

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Sep 09, 2011 Ely rated it 2 of 5 stars

This story had a lot of potential. Unfortunately, I felt that it was short and the writing style very awkward. I'm not sure if this is a first for the author, but I hope with time her stories improve.

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Mar 05, 2012 Fehu rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: genre-m-m-contemporery, profession-teaching, special-agents

I really liked this one, after reading Dark Soul, which was too dark for my taste this was a good choice for a chance at romance.

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May 14, 2013 Reader rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: library

May 14, 2013 Suzy rated it 4 of 5 stars

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