The Sweetest Oblivion (Made)

I had this book ‘The sweetest oblivion’ on my TBR pile for some time now. I must confess that I had totally forgotten I had this book, until suddenly, in the last week, it was mentioned a few times by others readers in different Facebook groups that I’m in. It made me curious so I decided to read it this time and I’m so happy that I did because I LOVED every minute of it. But let me start by give you a little warning, don’t do like me and start reading this book on a weeknight or when you don’t have a lot of time. Because before you know it, it’s 02:30 am and you’re still reading! Not a good thing when you have to work the ‘next’ morning. This story is just so addictive once you start reading it. The writer is totally new to me, so I don’t know if this is her first (debut) book or not but ‘The sweetest oblivion’ is the first book in the ‘Made’ series. A story set in the world of the Italian mafia in New York. A world where it is very ‘normal’ to marry not for love but for business, to connect two important families for more power, influence and money. Where love is a fairy tale. This story is about Nicolas Russo, head of the Russo family and Elena Abelli, whose father is the head of the Abelli family, but what made this story so delicious forbidden is that Nicolas isn’t contracted to marry Elena but her younger sister Adrianna. But for the very beginning you could feel the chemistry between Nicolas and Elena and with each chapter that I read I just knew that this bad mafia guy would make sure that in the end he would marry the ‘right’ sister and that was Elena. He didn’t care or fear the consequences of that decision!! The story was told from both POV’s and I loved both characters very much. The characters may be in their twenties but they felt more mature to me. Nicolas was a bad, bad guy but just like Elena I felt for him chapter after chapter. His intense indifferent drove me crazy (in a very good way!!), just like it fascinated Elena very much, so I could really understand that she found it so hard to see him as only her future brother-in-low. The sexual chemistry between them was hot! And the sexual build-up during the story was steaming! Elena may be nicknamed ‘Sweet Abelli’ and she had a gentle heart and nature but that didn’t mean that she was a shallow-brained girl. No! Between acting and being one is a very big difference. She knew what her family did for a living and she knew how things went in her world. I found her strong and very lovable. The secondary characters were also very interesting and I already have a few names of men that I hope will get their own story too in the future. Fingers crossed! The writer wrote a great story and it’s a wonderful start to a new mafia series! For me, personally, ‘The sweetest oblivion’ isn’t a dark story. It is a mafia book so you know that people will get hurt or killed but it doesn’t have a dark vibe. It had the perfect mix between suspense, emotional, longing and romance. If you are a fan of the mafia books of Cora Reilly or A. Zavarelli then you will enjoy this book too.

Mafia romance Forbidden romance Arranged marriage Forced proximity Tension Pining Sister’s fiancé Miscommunication/lack of whole story Sprinkle of OW/OM drama (sort of) No cheating Morally gray MMC Touch her and die Mine Reformed playboy MMC Almost a virgin FMC Sprinkle of Praise Sprinkle of Begging Standalone in a series Dual POV (mostly FMC) HEA No Epilogue TW: violence Spice: 3/5 FMC: Elena MMC: Nicolas/Nico Did I enjoy the book? Yes Would I read the book again? Maybe Will I continue the series? At some point Will I read from this author again? Yes Sooo much internal monologue, and telling of the story, not a lot of doing so lots of skimming. I don’t mind so much because the plot is good and the tension is hot. The mysterious “him” is driving me crazy. Just tell me what happened instead of these little snippets through the story. Elena is an idiot. At this point, her and Nico are in the kitchen and she’s trying to get out of the arranged marriage to him, but she made a deal with him to take her clothes off whenever he wanted in exchange to protect her sister’s baby daddy and she is miscommunicating everything and it makes her look like a hoe who also cheats on her man. And she’s not correcting the assumptions Nico is making about her, which in turn is making Nico hate her. The way Elena is portrayed to Nico, I wouldn’t want her if I was him. If I read “heat pools between my legs” one more time this book is losing a star…yep, star lost. The language is very repetitive in this book. Like copied a paragraph and then edited it to sound slightly different, but words still ended up the same in a different order. As I have finished the book, I stand by my original opinion. Elena is an idiot. Nico would have given her anything. All she had to do was tell him what happened, ask for the money, and he would have given the money to that man’s family. Which, by the way, feels like a plot point not fully fleshed out. But she stole from him and made him think the worst of her. She deserved everything Nico did in anger and so much worse. Really all he did was drop her off at the penthouse he was going to home her sister in when they were going to marry and leave her there for less than a day. He loved her so much he couldn’t go a whole day without her. She does not deserve Nico at all. Not once did he ever convey that he was not trustworthy or that he was not honest with her from the very beginning. There was no reason for her deception. Nico was a total book boyfriend. Soft when he needed to be, rough when he needed to be, always defending and saving Elena (mostly from her stupidity), treated her with respect and care. Even when Elena was like “I want you to disrespect me,” I was like here we go down degradation avenue (huge eye roll), but he never went there and I appreciate that about him and that the author did not go that route. A lot of mafia books can go that way easily, but the author didn’t do that and it made me love Nico even more. This book needed an epilogue. It needed one more chapter of Elena and Nico down the road a bit to really close it out.

Love it, though wanted it a little darker.

I don’t know why I kept putting this book off for so long but HOLY HECK! I love a good mafia read and this one ticked ALL the boxes! Although it was technically forbidden, it didn’t feel forbidden. I think that’s why I had put it off for so long. If you love mafia tropes then you’ll love this book. On to the second book!

Most existing, heart fluttering book i ever read. This is my first time reading this genre. Highly recommend for beginners on this genre.

I really really liked this book and it's very well-written! I loved their story. It has been an amazing discovery

Not my favourite book out of the series but still really good. I love the writing style of the author and the character were pretty good but nothing compared to the other ones in the series in my opinion. Overall a pretty good read but I recommend reading the whole series.