Obsession by Ann Mayburn Book Review
Publication Date: September 20th 2016
Series Information:
Obsession is the first book in the Cordova Empire series.
Other books in the series:
Sweetest Obsession published April 22, 2017
Sweetest Obsession published April 22, 2017
Genres: Dark Romance, Erotic Romance, Contemporary Romance
Formats: Ebook, paperback
Pages: 369
My Ranking:
Fire In The Sheets Ranking: 4.5 Fire with some extra smoke. This is a dark romance, some scene include brainwashing, light BDSM, as well as graphic details and may cause triggers for some readers. If you are one such reader this might not be the book for you. My ranking system is a little different from most, for more information please click here.
Where To Buy:
My Review:
Warning, though I try my best to avoid this, all reviews can contain spoilers of some kind. If you would like to know just my overall opinion of the book, and otherwise go into reading it blind, please scroll down to my overall and would I recommend it section.
Obsession is an interesting dark romance that introduces the idea of science into the genre. In this series, the main family is a cartel, but not in the sense that most people would think. They deal in a variety of different businesses including medical research.
I must say for a dark romance, this story was very well thought out. Leo, our hero, is an apprentice to the Cordova Cartel’s leader, Judith. He has worked for them since he was a teenager, which makes him more of a son to Judith as much as her birth children Fernando and Ramón. When Nina, Fernando‘s wife betrays the family and gets her son killed, the Cordova family take justice into their own hands and kill her. This leaves them all a little uneasy about the prospect of allowing another outsider into their hearts. Leo decides that he is going to do whatever it takes to find a way to force loyalty and ensure the tragedy they felt never happens again.
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| Excerpt From Obsession by Ann Mayburn |
Hannah is a waitress who is attending college in hopes of marking a better life for herself than the one she has always had. The problem is that what she really wants is something money and education can’t give her, a family. She was starved for attention by her mother and father as a child which only got worse after her sister died. This left her hungry for love and very vulnerable to people taking advantage of her. I have to say, Hannah’s sweet innocence made me want to protect her from all the bad things that happen to her.
When Hanna comes into Leo’s life, he can’t help but be mesmerized by her. Her beauty and kind heart make him want her so bad, but he never wants what happened with Nina to happen with his woman. Leo decides he will stop at nothing to have her, even if that means he needs to brainwash her. Wow, let me just say wow. What a new and interesting twist to this kind of romance. I adored the love Leo shows towards her and the path he decides to ultimately take with this whole scheme. While this is a dark romance, and things to get a little kinky as well as scary for Hanna, this is a love story at the heart of it, one that melted my heart and had me cheering for Leo the whole time.
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| Excerpt From Obsession by Ann Mayburn |
When Hanna comes into Leo’s life, he can’t help but be mesmerized by her. Her beauty and kind heart make him want her so bad, but he never wants what happened with Nina to happen with his woman. Leo decides he will stop at nothing to have her, even if that means he needs to brainwash her. Wow, let me just say wow. What a new and interesting twist to this kind of romance. I adored the love Leo shows towards her and the path he decides to ultimately take with this whole scheme. While this is a dark romance, and things to get a little kinky as well as scary for Hanna, this is a love story at the heart of it, one that melted my heart and had me cheering for Leo the whole time.
This story is mostly an erotic romance, so the hot and heavy scenes take up most of the book, but they are mixed in with real romance that most girls only dream about. This is so unexpected for a dark romance novel, and was done supremely well.
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| Excerpt From Obsession by Ann Mayburn |
The only thing that kept this story from getting a higher page turning ranking from me is the believability. This is in no way a paranormal romance book, there are no fantasy or science fiction elements. The science that is introduce is well thought out and presented in a way that is realistic, however the start of the story steps to far over the line into fantasy for this kind of book for me. Warning, small spoiler ahead. During the first chapter, when the family is dealing with Nina, her death is described by Judith telling the women how they are going to kill her. Their plan included six acts that are on the gruesome side. The problem is that there is no way anyone could survive even the first thing they did without medical treatment, and nothing would have saved her after the third torturous act, Nina would have died before the next could have even been started. Heck, even surviving the second for more than a few minutes would have been a stretch. I felt this was more added in to show that Leo and the family are indeed dangerous, but the extremity of this scene could have been dialed back and that message still would have gotten across. I will say though, please do not put this book down when you read this chapter it is well worth continuing on and is not the overall tone of the book.
That being said, the story has other action scenes involving rival gangs in it that are beautifully done. The characters reactions are well thought out and the emotional state that Hannah in particular is left in after really pulled me in. My heart broke for her and Leo in that moment and I couldn’t stop reading until I got to see how the issues were resolved.
With a dark romance, you never know just how you’re going to feel after everything is said and done, but the ending of Obsession was heart warming and fully made me eager to read the next installment of the series.
Over All:
I feel this was a good read, despite the little hiccups along the way. Dark romance novels will always have some points where people are a bit uncomfortable with something being done. It is very hard to display the true essence of a dark romance as well as have an overwhelming feeling of real love and romance mixed in but Obsession pulls all these elements together beautifully.
Would I Recommend It:
I would say maybe. It depends on what kind of story your looking for. If you want a more dark romance story with a heavy emphasis on the romantic side than yes, I would. However if you’re looking for a full on dark romance or have triggers to the idea of BDSM or gore this probably isn’t the book for you.
Start a conversation. Let me know what you thought of this book, or if you are excited to give it a go.
As always, happy reading.
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