Danielle Marie's Reviews > Lorenzo

So I read Dante, hated it. I didn’t plan on reading another book in this series even though I usually love Sadie’s work but figured I’d give Lorenzo a chance given the nature of the book. It’s not a common situation and I admired the uniqueness of the plot.

However, I think Sadie forgot how to write a strong FMC. And I’m not talking physically kick your butt strong, but even mentally. There was so so so much potential here. Literally this woman goes from a 10 year abusive relationship to the arms of a man who lost the love of his life. His wish-washyness was understandable for some time, but then it dragged on. And on. And on. And on.

And what does Mia do? Forgives him. Every. Single. Time. With hardly any work. This man literally tells you he’ll never love you like he did his dead wife and you’ll always be second best, and then what 3 days later you forgive him? All because he said some pretty words?……seriously? That’s all it took? She should’ve been focusing on herself and healing and not so concerned with a man who compared her to his wife time and time again. For someone who was so insecure it shocked me that she consistently let his words go.

Mind you, this was AFTER he already chased her away for 4 months. Mind you, after she takes him back THE SAME DAY she calls him after not seeing him for 4 months. Where was the grovel? Where was the effort? It’s like authors constantly glorifying just accepting scraps and forgiving with no expectation of showing a change. It’s crazy to me.

The spice was ok. I wasn’t expecting the dom/sub relationship aspect (oh yeah, he tells her he’ll literally never have a sub again cause she could never be Anya, multiple times) but it was fine. I get why Mia needed someone to take healthy control after her relationship with her husband. My big issue with dom/sub books is a lot of the times, like Sadie did here, they do absolutely no aftercare and it drives me nuts. How do they not discuss aftercare until 80% into the book? Gross. She calls him sir and he does what he wants but it doesn’t really show how it benefits the sub.

Overall, I just really couldn’t get past that many pages of him constantly bringing up his wife and then on the other page them having sex. I would’ve loved to see Mia go off on her own again and actually stand strong and not take him back same day. Normally if I eye-roll during a book more than 5 times that’s not a good sign, and there were countless in this book. Again, had potential, but ultimately fell short with both characters being a disappointment.