Taken By A Sinner: A Greek Mafia Romance (The Sinners Series)

2.5 ⭐

⚠️ TW: abuse, violence, bullying

So I saw that Chosen by a Sinner came out recently on the 8th of August and decided to hop onto this series to see what's the hype all about.

I wouldn't say this is a dark romance but it's definitely more than a fluffy, contemporary romance. It centers around mafia which definitely comes with killing and blood.

I liked that Tessa stood up to Nikolas for at least 20% of the book before they started communicating with each other and their relationship grew. I also appreciate Nikolas liking curvy women because that representation is something we could always read about. But there were more meh feelings on this book.

There was a forbidden plotline (Nikolas is Tessa's stepbrother) but it felt like it was executed poorly because I didn't really have a problem with that. Tessa's mother married Nikolas's old father but since they're not blood related and they're literally strangers... I don't see why? (or maybe this is where I acknowledge I'm a little messed in the head). I thought the age gap between them was normal too - Tessa is 21 and Nikolas is 36, it didn't seem that scandalous to me because both of them are adults and most mafia books do have an age gap. Also, there could have been more angst because it did build up but simmered down rather quickly. There was also the marriage of convenience trope where Nikolas married Tessa (without her even knowing it would be him) and I thought that was a little unrealistic. I get it he wanted to marry her to keep her safe but how can she not know until she's literally seconds away from getting married? I would be so mad if someone swapped grooms and told me I'm marrying someone else when the marriage was already forced in the first place.

I'm not sure if the other books will get better but I'd say the books are rather quick to read through so I wouldn't mind reading them.