Climbing Stories

"Destiny, the winding path she traveled toward it, was set."

Let's see:

1 star-contains a mafia badass alpha
2 stars-features jazzy cotton clubbish heroine singer the hero pet names Songbird (great!)
3 stars-pays adequate homage to setting, style and dialect of the era
4 stars-bravely gives the reader forbidden romance set in the ROARING 20s

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To get all criticism out the way, I will say this plot was fairly predictable in that you could guess the betrayer and some of the actions of the heroine. Secondary characters kind of lose their initial intrigue and potential impact due to swift turns in the plot. Along these lines, there is a sense that if backstory detail, flashback(a technique I admire when use right) or point of view had been utilized more creatively, then the story could have felt less choppy and more epic. Moreover this could have made setting a better character.

HOWEVER, this historical romance does deliver treats.

Songbird was looking him directly in the eye. He liked that. 'What a dame.'...Still, he wasn't a man to be teased and his songbird was tempting the beast in him.

I just loved it when Harmony (the sultry, making-it-on-a-wing-and-prayer heroine) sets her sights on the mob boss Vinnie Romano, a man of many contractions, who is cast as the prodigal immigrant son, who, like so many, came across the pond to the American Dream with nothing in his pocket but pride, responsibility and Old World code.

And it is here we find that though Vinnie may have the power and the heart of a lion (a piece of this symbolism subtly flutters at a point in the story), his way of ruling the jungle does not hold a lot of weight in the flash and burgeoning transformations within a new kind of urbanity.

Vinnie and Harmony soon face decisions of loyalty, family and survival--getting out of Harlem alive.

This book contains steamy scenes, a private song, lots of guns and an ending that is littered about parts of the American landscape.

A song for Vinnie and his songbird:Bound To You
Christina Aguilera, from Burlesque

I found a man I can trust and boy, I believe in us
I am terrified to love for the first time
Can you see that I'm bound in chains?
I've finally found my way

I am bound to you
I am bound to you