Dirty Pool by Bethany Kris

🛑 Please Do Not Read If You Would Like to Avoid Spoilers 🛑

Ratings:

⭐️: 3.5/5

🌶: 4/5

Tropes:

- Forbidden Love

- Mafia

- Family Rivals

- College Students

Review:

Since high school I have been reading author Bethany-Kris novels and novellas. Her books are centered around crime taking place within different worlds such as the Russian Mafia, Italian Mafia, and more. Her writing and research are so well that you would believe you are actually in the mafia with her written characters. Also, she writes books for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation characters spanning over decades. She is one of my favorite authors and I have not missed a single release of her books since then. The first book I read by Bethany-Kris was her 2016 novel Lucian part of the Filthy Marcellos series taken place in the commission world centering around the Italian mob. Since then, there have been over 25 books in said world with this book, Dirty Pool, included.

The book follows Michel Marcello an aspiring trauma surgeon who is the son of Dante Marcello, a mob boss, and Catrina Marcello, a queen pin. He moves to Detroit in order to

attend medical school, but while doing so he works for the Vannozzos, a faction part of the Marcello family. But, on the other side you have Gabbie Casey the daughter of an Irish mob boss also located in Detroit. While sharing the same city both crime families have to maintain peace while staying on their side of the tracks. Well, that is what the goal was, right?

When I first started the book, I was excited because like I said I have read plenty of Bethany Kris books prior. Not to mention unlike most of the men in his family Michel is unmade which means he is not part of the mob at all. But, he dabbled in the criminal world often earning money along the way and he is good at it. I did like that he was going towards being a doctor he could have been a rich kid that depends upon his parents’ money for the rest of his life. Instead, he decided to go for a career to save peoples lives. Overall, I liked his character because he stood up for himself when people underestimated him. As for Gabbie I really enjoyed her character because she was carefree and much like Michel had an outlook of her future with hopes of becoming a lawyer. Not to mention I liked how Bethany explored and had a character that suffered from a disease, which is Gabbie who has diabetes. You can tell as an author she completed her research, but she didn’t let such enable the characters progress or the storyline.

I did enjoy the chemistry between them, but I didn’t feel as much compared to other books.

It was something missing because the s*x scenes were very graphic and nice to read, but I still didn’t feel a deep connection between the two outside of the bedroom. But, the forbidden love aspect was nice and I like how they bonded over games like pool.

Then the drama aspect of the book was kind of rushed to an extent. I don’t understand how Michel didn’t notice form the beginning that the Italians were using his debacle with the Irish to start war. I caught on to that when they retaliated on “behalf of Michel.” They really didn’t give a s**t about him and made that known especially when he decided to distance himself from them. When he went upon taking steps to escalate the war, by killing two prominent members of each family, because the Irish wasn’t responding back to the Italians antics that was clever. When he did it you may think he was doing it for revenge, but he just wanted

Gabbie whose father was keeping a tight leash on her to stay away from Michel. It irritated me that she wouldn’t stand up to her father at first, but I understand as a daddy’s girl myself it is hard to not listen to your parent because they want the best for you. Not to mention her father was the only parent she had because her mother passed away. In the end Michel was granted his prize which he fought to earn, Gabbie, after the chaos was so prevalent her father was distracted enough for her to escape. But, it seemed after all that happened we didn’t get to see much within the chaos that implored which threw me off. Michel and Gabbie were able to drive off into the sunset by eventually going to New York, Michel’s true home. Out of nowhere the idea of marriage comes, I understand why they did for the sake of security, but there was no build up or anything. It was like Gabbie looked at a courthouse and then they were married soon after in another state upon agreement of course🙃.

I was happy to see other side characters like John, Dante, Catrina, and Catherine. They have all have their own books which were amazing! At the end we get to see all of them and a

happy ending for Michel and Gabbie. He is a doctor, and she is a lawyer. She even makes up with her father who basically told her she is dead to him after her marriage. That was kind of an emotional moment because that was her only family, but they could rebuild now.

The book was good it wasn’t my favorite of course and sometimes I was going to DNF the book, but I decided not to. It did seem like a drag at certain points because sometimes a scene was longer than needed to be to me, but it was still a short read. It could have been so much added to the book that would have made it go above and beyond. However, I am glad I didn’t just stop reading the book because it was worth finishing at the end with the happy ending. I recommend this book especially if you enjoy reading books about crime and forbidden love.

"Dirty Pool" Amazon Link