Forbidden War: Marco

Bellanti Brothers, Book 5

De: Stella Gray

Narrado por: Vanessa Edwin, Teddy Hamilton

I thought we were star-crossed lovers...but Bellanti men make their own fates.

I fell in love with a lie. That perfect face, those smoldering touches, his careful words... I should have known a Bellanti can’t be trusted.

Now I’m married to a man I no longer recognize. And his family is at war with mine. And I’m caught in the middle, trapped between men who would kill to possess me.

I wanted a hero, a white knight who would fight for me.

Marco fights for his family, for his honor.... He doesn’t fight for love. But my traitorous body still yearns for him. Still responds to the sound of his voice, the memories of our long nights together.

I fell in love with a man who doesn’t exist, and I damned us all when I did.

God help me, I’d still choose Marco Bellanti all over again.

Book two of three in the all-new angsty, sizzling Forbidden series.

Suggested listening order:

• Broken Bride: Dante (Bellanti Brothers, Book 1)
• Broken Vow: Dante (Bellanti Brothers, Book 2)
• Broken Trust: Dante (Bellanti Brothers, Book 3)
• Forbidden Bride: Marco (Bellanti Brothers, Book 4)
• Forbidden War: Marco (Bellanti Brothers, Book 5)
• Forbidden Love: Marco (Bellanti Brothers, Book 6)

©2022 Paige Press, LLC (P)2022 Paige Press, LLC

Very good, but…

I hope this makes sense…. This is what this series makes me think of:

You know how movies have to scale down scenes in a script to fit into a budget? Like when a writer writes a battle scene, but they can’t afford to pay for the extra actors, props, and location. By giving the audience context through dialogue and the illusion of something more than what they see, this can often work well.

This is one of two ways Gray is coming up short. She writes some scenes as though she’s on a word budget. For example, in a book 3 she wrote a scene describing the brothers raiding a hotel to confront Frankie’s drunk dad. She described the rapid mobilization of a parade of black SUVs w/ a large security force. This made sense as Frankie and her sister were in trouble. But then in books 4 and 5, the brothers storm properties looking to rescue the youngest sister from kidnappers without any security or back up - nor any attempt to explain why. It leaves the scenes short on action, less dramatic than they could be, and implausible.

The second problem is inconsistent character behavior. Gray initially does a great job establishing who the characters “truly are” through excessive internal dialogue. But this is inevitably followed by scene after scene where they behave in ways that are irreconcilable with who they “truly are”. This makes you think you must have missed something that would explain this earlier in the story. When you double check and realize this isn’t the case, you seriously start to think there must be a secret twin sometimes posing as the character or something else (like someone else doing some of the writing - which I truly do not think is the case) to explain the inexplicable.

It’s a testament to Gray’s talent that in spite of a somewhat frustrating reading/listening experience I still want to stick with it to know what happens. And this hasn’t been a problem in every series. It seems more prevalent in her more recent work.

Things heat up

Forbidden War opens with the brothers fighting over what has happened. Marco and Karina may be married but their position is far from secure. They also are not the united front they need to be to face what is coming. Distrust and secrets made this a page turning read, or in my case a listen that left me needing to know more. So many of their struggles would have been solved by communicating, but with the nature of their lives and the newness of their relationship, it felt right even while being frustrating. Overall, the action of the plot kept the story moving quite nicely and left me rooting for this couple to get their HEA.

This story continued much from the first book with plot pieces unfolding page by page with the Bellantis and the Brunos stepping closer and closer to war. Vanessa Edwin and Teddy Hamilton return and are amazing as always. There was passion both in the bedroom and also in the dialogue between all the characters. This story really gave a lot of insight into the dynamic between the brothers. The ending was surprising and made me want the next book. Fortunately it was already in my library so I got to dive right in.

captivating story line

I have been captivated from the first book in this series. strong willful heroines and amazing narrators