Thursday, May 7, 2015

Book Review: Vendetta by Catherine Doyle

Vendetta (Blood for Blood #1) by Catherine Doyle 
Published: February 24th, 2015
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Summary: When it comes to revenge, love is a dangerous complication.With a fierce rivalry raging between two warring families, falling in love is the deadliest thing Sophie could do. An epic debut set outside modern-day Chicago.

When five brothers move into the abandoned mansion in her neighbourhood, Sophie Gracewell's life changes forever. Irresistibly drawn to bad boy Nicoli, Sophie finds herself falling into a criminal underworld governed by powerful families. As the boys' dark secrets begin to come to light, Sophie is confronted with stinging truths about her own family, too. She must choose between two warring dynasties - the one she was born into, and the one she is falling in love with. When she does, blood will spill and hearts will break.

A mysteriously fun read which surprised me.
I read Vendetta back in March and while I'm writing this review quite a while later, it's because I've actually grown quite fond of this book. Maybe it's the fact that more of my friends have read it or maybe it's because I've been perusing through the book recently to make edits for my tumblr. Either way, I've actually become more appreciative of this book.

There's not many (if any) well written mafia books in the YA genre as per my knowledge. Catherine Doyle is a such a fun and daring author and I'm already a fan. The way she mixed the ridiculous elements together, I don't think many would have been able to pull it off. With the love-story you could argue there's a twilight feel but the main character is not bella swan. In fact, Sophie Gracewell was a very well executed teenage girl. She was level headed when she needed to be but of course, as a teenager, she was also very impulsive and did make some questionable decisions. There wouldn't be a story to tell now would it without the questionable decisions.

The connection between Sophie and one of the brothers is used as a major plot device to be honest and may not make for the most original plots but there's some twists that keep it exciting. It was fast-paced and kept moving. My major concern was that we didn't get to the depth of the Falcone brothers but it's only the first book and they were expected to be mysterious for a majority of it so I'm sure that will be remedied in the sequel. 

No matter what I thought of the first half of the book, the ending would have lead me to craving book 2 anyways. The twists and turns and the action! My favourite swooniest part also comes in at the end and I just about cried for the yearning of book 2. I especially need more of my favourite character (whom I will not mention because it's a surprise how much I loved them). 
I'm glad I randomly ordered this just based on the summary because without others opinions of it, I was just able to sit back and enjoy reading it without much expectations. I suggest you do the same if you ever happen to pick it up.











2 comments:

  1. Nazeefa this review made me fist pump all because I felt exactly the same with the connection thing between Sophia and the brother in question, plus I felt like we didn't quite delve into the Falcones as we could have in this book. I admit I wasn't too fond of the beginning but it really picked up towards the end, especially that scene, and I can't wait for the sequel either. Here's to hoping our favorite brother will get more screen time ;)

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