Genre: Romantic Suspense/Erotica

The Analysis:

As a true continuation of the last story, it stopped mid scene, I was excited to see this story come to some sort of completion. So I jumped right in prepared to read to the end. The Scent Of Roses: A Mafia Romance by Sienna Blake, let’s get into it.

Heres the Blurb:

I’m annoyed from page one, but some of this is residual anger from her very weak detective like behavior in Book 1.

Spoiler Alert of Book 2: My feelings are only further perpetrated by the fact that there pretending to sleep together to save her life. Which in itself is fine. But its still a risky situation and she’s like being a whore and trying to get her jollies at the same time. I immediately thought to myself, are you going to act like a real detective at any point during this story. This is an insult to women who work there butts off in the field that you can’t keep things in perspective. I’m ready for my bad ass woman detective to show up, any day here. She does mention, I shouldn’t be doing this its still a high tension situation. But no take backs. She looked crazy to me.

By the end of chapter 3 I knew I wasn’t going to read the next book. With some thought I didn’t find the scene offensive. But I think it proved to me that this wasn’t going to turn out to be the story that I wanted.

As I hinted in my review of Book 1, I love a good mafia romance. With the Romeo and Juliet aspect thrown in, I thought it would make for a crazy push and pull romance. Which it certainly did, but Julianna’s character as the detective was a let down. I like strong female characters and she just wasn’t.

I also love dark romance, and heroines in those stories tend to be damsels. But that’s not what I expected from this story. I just wish Julianna had been some waitress from the diner. Not a detective. It was all out of character for me. So its just not my type of story.

Plus the rose scenes came off as a little abusive. He gave her a rose when he yelled at her and then again after he choked her. I’m starting to think, are you going to give her a rose every time you do something wrong. Although, it did quickly taper.

But lets book review this story objectively.

In Romeo and Juliet, there’s the now infamous balcony scene. I love the way the author majorly upgrades this scene for her novel, giving the readers some hot and heavy fun. Without going overboard with the description as in Book 1.

Roman’s conversation with his priest was pretty special as well. The things he said about that girl had me fanning myself. Like this man is deep in love. He means it. His interactions with Nora was also adorable. As well as the gun moment after, just what I was waiting for a moment of badassery with a little love sprinkled in.

Being objective is harder than you think.

I was definitely surprised by the spoiler alert: almost rape scene. But Roman came to the rescue in the way that only he can. The perfect statement to describe Roman is when they were talking, and he said I’m Still A Bastard, and she replied, Not Where It Counts.

And believe it or not, I was doing a little happy jig when they finally decided to stop fighting it and just be with each other in secret. Then the author lays a wallop on me that I was not expecting about Romans past. And the whole idea behind why he felt he wasn’t good enough for Julianna went far beyond the simple mob storyline that was beautiful as well. I even wanted to give Roman a hug. His dream about walking in the sunlight with Julianna was only to be commended. And I liked that he at least wanted to try to be good.

Which is why my heart went out to him when yet again he was forced to prove his worth to his family. Julianna’s blind faith in her love, had me wishing for her death. As if because of love alone she just knew he couldn’t hurt anyone. People have married serial killers and didn’t know they were serial killers. She just irks me as a so-called detective.

Story At A Glance:

Overall Story:

This story is far from over, but I got a better feeling of completion after reading this one. I also got a better picture of just who the main characters were in this novel and that was invaluable, and really endeared me to Roman.

Pacing:

The cliffhanger wasn’t as frustrating as the last book. But it still ends on a nail-biter that will definitely have its target reader wanting more.

Characterization:

Roman quickly becomes one of my favorite out of the bunch. He has so much depth. And the scenes with his father are always emotional and tense. Job well done on the part of the author. Definitely Book BF material.

World/Building Setting:

Every scene is intense and well written.

Language:

Some of my favorite quotes come from the priest and Roman.

Feeling:

There were so many moments when I wanted to give Roman a hug. This was definitely an emotional thrill ride.

Recommendation: Yes and No. If you’re a fan of Romeo and Juliet retellings, this one is for the TBR list. If you love Mafia romances, I’d advise skipping this series.

The Ratings:

My Thumbs Up For:

• Evoking Feeling Into Every Scene
• Sympathetic Character: Roman

My Thumbs Down For:

• Unlikeable Heroine

THE TRS BOOKS SYSTEM:

Book Cover Appeal:

🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓

Story & Narration:

🍓🍓🍓🍓

Romance:

🍓🍓🍓

Sex Scenes:

🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓

OVERALL READING EXPERIENCE:

The Scent of Roses gets 3 1/2 strawberries from me. Its ranked at  4 1/2 on Amazon.

Book Info:
Pages: 251
Author: Sienna Blake
Available: On Amazon

Author Note: I wanted to make it clear that although I didn’t enjoy the story. I think this woman is a phenomenal writer and I look forward to crossing paths with her again. And reading something else that’s just as great, but better.