aimee (aimeecanread)'s Reviews > Vendetta

Actual rating: 2.5 stars.

What would you do if you had to choose between the lives of your family and the lives of the crazy-ass strangers you met just weeks or months ago?

If you're anything like the heroine in Vendetta and are seriously conflicted about this huge decision, then you're probably living in a cheesy Mafia movie.

Vendetta had so much potential--I mean, who doesn't want to read about a girl whose dad is in prison for murder? About a girl whose life is suddenly turned upside down as she uncovers each of her family's secrets? But ultimately, I think this book just wound up being another "typical" YA love story.

What I Liked:

- Nic was a sweet love interest (finally--we don't have enough of those). He was flirty in a cute way, and was in no way an arrogant prick! He was also protective about Sophie, which was really endearing.

- Sophie had an amazing friendship with her best friend, Millie. They were clearly caring towards each other, to the point that Millie gave up having a social life with more friends just so she could have Sophie's back. They stuck with each other through thick and thin; they were like sisters in the most important sense.

- One of the main twists (view spoiler)[about Sophie's dad being a drug pusher (hide spoiler)]--was actually pretty surprising. I don't know about everybody else, but I actually didn't see it coming.

What I Disliked:

- Like I said earlier, this book was a bit too cheesy in general. We have the airhead who doesn't listen to her elders, the new guys in town who're totally hot and gorgeous, and the crazy family issues that the heroine is too busy in Cloud Nine to take notice of until the last few chapters of the book.

- Sophie was kind of an idiot, to put it frankly. She never listened to ANYONE'S advice about staying away from the family of hot strangers, because, of course, she's drawn to them.

- There's a potential love triangle for future books. Yep, and the other guy is Nic's aggressive and arrogant older brother, Luca. Yeah sure, this guy had good intentions but he's such a prick and I just wanted to punch him most of the time.

- The other twists--(view spoiler)[about Valentino being the crazy-ass mastermind and about the boys being part of a Mafia family in general (hide spoiler)]--were really predictable.

Overall:

Even if it may have seemed like I did nothing but rant about this book, I definitely saw the potential and I'm still curious enough to pick up the sequels in this trilogy.

I would recommend this book to romance fans who are okay with reading about your typical YA tropes.

Thanks so much to Scholastic and Chicken House Books for the review copy!