Painted Scars: An Enemies To Lovers Mafia Romance (Perfectly Imperfect) Paperback – May 23, 2022

I was a bit surprised by this book and not necessarily in a bad way. The story centers around Nina and Roman. She is quirky and funny and different from the usual women the Russian Pakhan, Roman, dates. He is strong, abrasive, and protective. The story starts with Roman being injured and in a vulnerable position for a Mafia King. He needs to marry to send a message to his people that he is secure and stable. She is put in the position of having to marry to save her father’s life. Neither are looking for a real connection, both are looking to benefit in other ways.As the story unfolds we find that it really centers around Nina and Roman and their relationship behind closed doors versus the mask they put on in front of others. I was pleasantly surprised when the story wasn’t hyper focused on mafia life, mafia business, and the relationship conflicts it usually causes. Unlike other mafia stories I’ve read, the family dynamic is not based on blood or loyalty. Instead, it seems to be based on fear.The time they spend together forges a bond that is “them against the world.” This eventually grows into a relationship and later love…but always that same feeling of “them against the world.”Ok…side characters. Her mom, I didn’t like her at first but came to understand her more later in the story. Her Dad, a total douche canoe. His Uncle Leonid, still trying to figure out what his deal was and he was such an a**. Igor the cook, loved him! Such a great character. Nina loved playing it up for her ‘role’ as wife and I got some great laughs from the wedding scene at the table with the other wives.Cons: I wish there had been more backstory to Leonid as well as the overall dynamic for this particular mafia family. Brian, we can all assume we know what he did to Nina, however, I would have liked to have learned the real story. Why, when he saw her did he look at her with contempt? A wee bit more history or backstory would have really buttoned up this story.Overall: 4/5 starsSteam: 3/5 starsTropes: Mafia, Forced Marriage, Age Gap, He fell first, Who hurt you?, Touch her and d**HEA

I really loved Nina and Roman together. I loved that despite all the confusing timeline issues we get to watch them grow as a couple rather than just as individuals. They grow in both but the focus on the relationship was fantastic.I love that both have things they have to overcome but that's what makes them stronger together because each is the others strength and support when facing inner demons.Beautiful romance. I highly enjoyed.

Excerpts you see on tiktok and insta can be a bit misleading about who the main characters are and what barriers their might be in the relationship. But if you actually read the description, you'll be just fine. I loved the story regardless. It just kind of gave me whiplash when I figured out Igor is a chef and not going to be anyone's love interest, haha....Spice is 3/5, much lower than the standard mafia romance I think.Emotional intrigue is definitely a 4/5, not really a slow burn but lots of yearning and building.Only thing I disliked was how many time skips there was. 2 week, 2 moths, 3 months. Made it hard to keep a timeline in my head. Like at this point has is been a year since they first met? Did this turn into 365 days? I'm not sure. Cute and would recommend either way. 👌

So I had read part of this book a while ago and stop reading it because it has some really weird like fetish about her being petite short and how she has a thing against tall people being around her in certain situations. But I did want to read a couple of stories later on in the series, and even though there's standalone, they're all kind of interconnected, so I wanted it to start from the beginning.So one thing I do like about this author stories is most of them are under the 300 Page Mark which includes this one so the story is fairly easy to read at 233 pages. A con is that it is very repetitive for a story that only has 233 pages.Another thing I do like about the story is there was a part at about the 20% mark where the FMC is basically talking about Improv and how you can kind of create a Life by curating one and I like the way that she processes the conversation. It goes on for a good three or four pages in the book see below.('I want them to secretly roll their eyes and not notice what you’re doing, because they assume you’re . . . harmless.” She watches me in surprise, then laughs. It’s an unguarded and genuine laugh which reaches her eyes. “Okay, you definitely mean stupid. Okay. I’ll need a few minutes.” She leans back into the cushions, throws her head back, and with her face turned up toward the ceiling, she closes her eyes. She stays like that for a few moments and then starts speaking. “Shallow. Harmless. A little bit stupid. Crazy in love with you, of course. Needs access to every part of the house. Let’s see . . . Who am I? Well, Roman’s trophy wife, of course. I am pretty, elegant, and extremely snobbish. I love wearing expensive clothes, just the best labels. I’m not really into dresses unless the occasion requires it. I much more prefer designer jeans, paired with silky blouses. The heels are a must.”)So getting to the actual storyline you have the MMC Russian boss who was injured in a car bomb. He has a leg injury and is using a wheelchair. While he was in the hospital you find out that at least two people from his own organization tried to hurt him but he's not exactly sure who it was. So he's trying to figure out who it was so we can handle them. He is currently in physical therapy working on his knee and he most likely will have to use a cane to walk. FMC is a painter who also does good improv acting and is the daughter of someone who screwed the Russians out of money because he had taken 3 million dollars of their money that was supposed to go towards a transaction that he was brokering but got screwed and ended up losing the money. So MMC needed a wife apparently so he chose fmc. FMC created this character they got married in legit two days and had everything down to their meet cute set up. They were supposed to be married for 6 months. During this time she's painting For Her Expo. There's drama sprinkled in and there's a drug war going on.They sprinkle in some of the characters for the other stories in this one but it's not like you have to read this one in order to read theirs but it does kind of give you the overall Vibe as to why the characters are the way they are if you read all of them. For instance Mikail book is book two and in this book they mention him a few times and kind of lay a little bit of the groundwork and telling you that he's got certain issues but you definitely could completely skip this story and not have it affect Mikail story.Timeline also feels a bit off in the story. They get married very very quickly. So they have their initial meeting and then they have their meet cute just a few days later. But in the storyline she also talks about two weeks and then she gets sick in there and she's out for at least 3 days. In there she also goes and meets her parents for dinner with the MMC but then also talks about how she only has 4 days to finish up her paintings. But then when she talks to her mom on the phone it makes it seem like the dinner earlier. I think they were trying to cram everything into a month timeline. FMC has her gallery expo at about 65%. This is also around the point where FMC tells her parents that she loves the MMC and also the point where the MMC tells fmc's parents that he loves the fmc. But they don't really communicate that with each other even though they are being intimate. They finally confessed her love at about 70% and Roman tells her that the 6 month deal is off and that he is never going to let her go. MMC is focused on his knee a lot throughout the series and he also kind of self-deprecates a lot with it. But FMC also brings up the issue she has with being around tall men.But as I was reading this book I did realize that I must have finished it the first time because I remembered when certain things happened and when they did their little like break up thing. So the story isn't bad and it's okay for a one-time read but it's not something that I would read more than once.*3 🌟 for me means the book was okay average.*