First things first: There’s a major point in He’s a brute that you won’t find anywhere. The heroine’s “phisicality” (I’m not going into specifics, because the way it’s thrown at the reader is actually clever, imho, glimpsed but not revealed until the hero finds out) is something I’ll praise forever, because I’ve never seen it in any romance. It means being inclusive, diverse, and open-minded all in one place, and I’m all for it.
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Step back. Nairne is an MIT researcher, feisty, no-nonsense kind of woman, former
Footballer, but in Europe where football actually means something, with a heavy past. Zed is her temporary boss, soccer player, a Mafia prince and a real Dom.
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Now, being Italian, I was pleasantly stunned by the amount of Italian words (some were not exactly right in the structure, but a few and I didn’t mind), but mainly I couldn’t really buy the Mafia stuff, it looked more like a Soprano episode than real.
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I loved their banter, the way Nairne thinks and speaks, all technical and scientific, how resilient and outspoken she is, and ready to get her pleasure no matter what. Although it’s very much steamy, for some reason the relationship between these 2 felt a bit cold. Maybe because they’re both uptight, and don’t give in to emotions easily, but i couldn’t really connect.
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Steam: 🔥🔥🔥
Characters: ⚽️⚽️⚽️
Story: 🇮🇹🇺🇸
Trope: enemies to lovers
Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (because of Nairne mainly)