From the Bookshelf of L.A.B.B…

Thief (Boston Underworld, #5)

A. Zavarelli

Start date: February 21, 2018

Finish date: February 21, 2018

Why we're reading this: Feb 23rd

I’m a good girl.

I live by a code that can’t be bent or broken. It is my duty to my family to sta…more
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Feb 23rd

I’m a good girl.

I live by a code that can’t be bent or broken. It is my duty to my family to stay innocent and pure. To marry an Italian man. The stars are already aligned.

But Nikolai Kozlov re-writes my destiny with five simple words.

You belong to me now.

He's Russian mafiya. A thief. A skilled liar with no moral boundaries. He is everything I have been taught to hate. A man who stands for nothing. A man who takes what he wants without a second thought.

And what he wanted was me.

He thinks he controls my fate, but what he doesn’t know is, sometimes it’s the good girls you have to watch out for.

I’m a dangerous man.

I live by a code. The Vory code. It is my duty to my family to protect the brotherhood. To destroy anyone who threatens what we stand for, including her.

She’s a dancer. A beautiful little doll. My prisoner, and my new favorite puppet. This mafia princess thinks she has me under her spell, but in the end, she is simply collateral.

It’s a shame to destroy precious things.

But this is what bad men do.

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What Members Thought

Mar 10, 2018 Melanie A. rated it liked it

Shelves: kindle

3.5 Stars

He will be the one to lure me to my quietus.

There's no doubt that A. Zavarelli is a great writer. Her words always wrap themselves around me and hold me hostage until the story is done. Too bad I'm not always a happy or willing hostage.

Tanaka is an extremely sheltered Italian mafia princess who has given her life meaning through ballet.

I don't know anything other than one unalterable truth. I'm a dancer. It's all I have. It's all I am.

As a Vor, Nikolai is rul 3.5 Stars

He will be the one to lure me to my quietus.

I don't know anything other than one unalterable truth. I'm a dancer. It's all I have. It's all I am.

As a Vor, Nikolai is ruled by the dictates of the Russian mafiya. Recently promoted, he decides to get answers about his mother who he's always been told abandoned him to run off with some Italian...an Italian he suspects is Tanaka's father. Now drowning in debts that he cannot pay, Tanaka's father offers her as collateral and Nikolai accepts. Tanaka becomes his prisoner.

I liked Tanaka. She was an interesting heroine who had a practical side that I appreciated. There was such an aura of dignified sadness about her, and the way she wavered between hope and resignation for her future was believable, as was her decision to give in to Nikolai:

I want to live before I die.

Nikolai, on the other hand, I did not like - at all. Unlike Lachlan, Ronan, Alexei, or Rory, he was never shown to have a softer side. I found his principles lacking and his motivations unredeemable, but that wasn't immediately apparent when the story began.

I actually really liked the impossibility to the start of Nikolai and Tanaka's relationship. Neither of them was free to love who they chose. The author had me intrigued as to how the insurmountable barriers between them would be overcome.

Unfortunately, while this is how relationships begin in dark romances…

"Zvezda." He kisses behind my ear. "You are so lovely, so soft and sweet and pure. I want to ruin you."

…in my opinion, it shouldn’t be how they end. These two may have started out on an even playing field, disdaining each other in equal measure, but slowly the scales became more and more unbalanced. Tanaka fell in love with Nikolai, but he continued to slice her open at every opportunity and just watched her bleed. The whole reason that I read this genre is to witness the characters' transformations. In this case, it was like Tanaka and the plot grew while Nikolai remained static, a cruel asshole to the end.

Another problem I had was the parallel running of the plot with book 3, Ghost. The Nikolai and Tanaka from that story didn't match the Nikolai and Tanaka in this one. The cross-over scenes felt awkward, disjointed, and false.

But hey, for all my moaning about this book, I can't deny that I read it in almost one sitting. By no stretch of the imagination was I ever bored, which is a lot more than I can say for a lot of books out there.
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23 likes · Like · see review

Feb 20, 2018 Jan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: hot-read, alpha-male, great-characters, mafia-madness

Another exciting read from A Zavarelli that I couldn't put down.

Damn, that was good! & what a combination a ballerina and a Russian mafia boss.

Tanaki is not only a ballerina, disciplined and focused on her career as short as it may be she is also the daughter of an Italian mafia boss, a mafia princess. Tanaki has been secluded her whole life, locked away no friends or socializing and the only thing that she has control over is her dancing.

When her father has a debt to pay Tanaki becomes collat ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Mar 07, 2018 Allyson rated it it was amazing

So freaking good!!!

2 likes · Like · see review

Apr 17, 2018 Em rated it liked it

DISCLAIMER TO MY FELLOW GOODREADER
This review is my personal opinion and may contain: spoilers, quotes, rants and swearing.

Early 20 something Tanaka Valentini became a soloist with the New York ballet company at a young age. She knows her time is limited as her life was mapped out since she was born. Tanaka was sheltered from the outside world. She always had her dancing. But then everything shatters. Taken by an opposing force wanting to break her in a game she never chose to play.

“I need balle ...more

1 like · Like · see review