What in the what was the chokehold this book had on me?

I should have hated it!
MCs who are kids for the first 25%? 🤢
A ‘dark mafia romance’? 🤮
That list of TWs? 😵‍💫

But… I loved it so much? A favourite of the year? An all-time favourite??

It was unputdownable; swoony and heart wrenching; and strangely cinematic. That epilogue? I cried like a friggin’ baby. Whatever part of me is responsible for The Departed being one of my favourite movies (don’t ask, I have no clue why I love that movie so much) vibed with this book. Maybe because it didn’t romanticize crime? Maybe because the characters were just as complex as the situations they were put in? … or am I just a simpleton who loves a good car chase?

This is the only mafia book I’ve ever liked. Probably the only one I’ll ever like. I don’t make the rules.