Mafia romance with a hint of dark and a forced / arranged marriage to boot – what a dangerously delicious mix! The hearts and roses kind of love stories aren’t really my thing, I need the intensity, the grit – the danger – a darker storyline brings. And DANGEROUS: MADE & BROKEN fit this bill just perfectly. I listened to the audio book version and just flew through the hours, totally drawn into Mira and Blaine’s story. But it’s not all dark either. There’s some great humor mixed into it – and I especially loved their first meeting; for me, it made the story so much more fun.
Blaine and Mira are thrown into a marriage that should have been doomed from the start. Both forced to marry a strange person from an opposing mafia family for ‘business reasons’. It is a difficult situation, but husband and wife need to make it work… somehow. Mira has some serious backbone and does not give in easily, neither to the constant attraction between them (well, a drunken mistake doesn’t really count) nor in regards to their marriage altogether. Somehow, she has to learn to trust Blaine – and him her. But trust does not come easily, seeing as she has tried but failed to escape her evil family and thus the mafia for so many years…
Both characters are well-developed and carry their own demons and secrets. I watched these two growing together despite their circumstances, constantly hoping they would make it work. It was especially funny to witness Blaine falling for Mira from so early on – without even realizing it…
A fast-paced, suspenseful mafia romance with heartfelt as well as gut-wrenching moments, lots of action and a sensual and hot romance.
Rachel Hine and Joel Froomkin do a wonderful job in bringing the characters to life and conveying their emotions. The Irish and British accents were amazing too. And while I was able to get used to Rachel’s voice for Blaine, I really had trouble with Joel’s voice for Mira – she always came across much too bitxxy for me. Mimicking voices for the opposite sex cannot be easy, but this is exactly the reason why I mostly prefer narration in duet style.