I wish mafia romance authors would give up on the whole “her father sold her to the mafia because she’s hot” thing. Can’t we have women who are getting kidnapped for ransom? For information? Because she’s a badass and they want to recruit her? Come on people, let’s get some variety up in here.
Read this one fanfic where the main lead was a smart computer hacker and the main mafia guy kidnaps her for that...and she's actually well developed..your comment reminded me of that lmao
Why are romance books never… romantic? I SO wish that in the second book you read they let her go and she just peaced out and never saw them again and lived a good life. That would’ve been hilarious.
YUP. As a 16yo girl honestly it's kind of atrocious the sheer (we're talking copious here, like, endless) amount of 15/16 yo romance books and fanfics are made, especially on like fanfiction sites. Why the hell are people attracted to children??! Like, I can barely drive myself and it eeks me so and knowing how it's such a normalized thing nowadays.. I guess the target audience is girls my age though, so like, less... predatory... But yikes. society has a problem it's gots to adress
@@messiahofthefirst.3415 I guess a fair number of people who write about underage OC/reader insert are underage themselves so they're not mature enough to realize how wrong and not romantic it sounds. If anyone over 18 does write this kind of things tho... ☎🚓
@@kitkatboardI turned 18 last week. You don’t magically gain perspective on your birthday. You’re still a teenager. You’re still going to see yourself in a 17yo protagonist
@@messiahofthefirst.3415 It wasn't too long that I was 16 (im 19 almost 20) and while I'm not a girl I really don't blame your feelings on this. It feels dehumanizing.
@@kiera6326 Also true- I think it'd be moreso concerning if it was like anyone in their late 20s and up. It's still fiction at the end of the day, but the sexualization of teenagers can be damaging ngl
As someone who's family has been affected and has witnessed the horror of gang violence, I will never understand why people insist on writing stories where they turn heinous criminals into sexy studs.
Yeah. Like actual gangs and mafias are terrible, and terrifying to their victims, and the violence they incite are still issues that affect COUNTLESS people today. What is so romantic about a murderer???
@@arieandfarrah9039 Of course! I definitely don't mean to say you can't write stories with the mafia in it; every story needs some kind of conflict. I've just always had a problem with authors trying to make these terrible people seem cool and hot.
It's so terrifying. Even where I come from, girls are glamorising the idea of dating men who are affiliated with gangs and there are plenty of stories where these girls end up brutally "un-alived". A lot of them are university students too so they end up getting "got" in their dorm rooms by these guys who just barge in and traumatize everyone. Worst part is that even when people know exactly who did it, there are long lines of women still begging to date these men just because of the luxury shopping trips that they post on their socials with their next "vic**ms". And no one gets arrested.
Den of vipers should not even be called a mafia story, there's nothing mafia about a criminal organisation consisting of 4 people doing illegal stuff. That's just a gang. A lot of these writers do not even know what a mafia is and it shows with how general they describe it.
They'd be a pretty minor gang too. Which makes it worse as it just seems like barely disguised porn at that point, like just write the 5 way gangbang and don't add the crime stuff. you'll probably have the exact same target audience.
I read part of the Den of Vipers orgy scene because the woman sitting down in front of me on the bus was reading in on a Kindle with the screen at full brightness. I accidentally read a sentence and then couldn't look away because I was desperately trying to figure out what the fuck the mechanics of the scene were supposed to be
God I hated Mafia Mistress. The author has another pen name for historical romance and BOYYYY does the misogyny run deep. Lots of men who have mistresses, sleep around to hurt the main character (who instantly forgive them bcs she just can’t resist him!), and cheat. 🙄
Idk what you guys thought during Den of vipers but all I could think of was that it was WAY TOO MUCH like one of those fanfics from 2010 of a girl getting sold to one direction
I love how Sara does not take ages to give an intro and just dives straight into how traumatised she is because of the horrible books. P.S Thank you Sara. You are doing a huge service to humanity by sacrificing your braincells so we don't lose ours.
Fr! This is my first video I've watched from Sara but I'm definitely going to watch more because I'm SO sick of long intros, I was pleasantly surprised when she dove straight into the first book!
I can't do motorcycle club or mafia smut because they take the alpha male trope to the next level where it is just abusive and toxic. I'm a guy and I read a lot of category romance (Harlequin/Mills & Boon) and the genre as a whole just seems really obsessed with virginal heroines no matter what their age. The Harlequin Presents line, in particular, goes hard (hehe) on this trope.
@@sarawithoutanH Another one I've been seeing that is baffling to me in a genre written by women is the main male hero cheating on the female heroine and them still getting together.
@@lpfun1494Fr I mean I'm a lesbian so maybe that's why my perspective ist different but I would rather forgive murder than cheating if my gf would cheat she will wake up without her genitals 😂
My thing is, mafia romance isn’t always necessarily bad, it’s just that many of these authors writing are SO STEREOTYPICAL. And romanizing gross toxic romance because of course the authors are ok with that. Especially with the weird age gaps, like what’s so hard with making characters near the same age or hell have older characters?
okay this might be a bad rec bc i’ve been on a No Brain Books binge recently but the sins series by emma slate are mafia romances that have some refreshingly strong female leads and a good chunk of actual mafia intrigue, plus the spicy scenes aren’t like unrealistic or even particularly filthy imo. they’re definitely not Perfect, there are some references to “alpha males” that i don’t personally love and the plots are pretty predictable (especially later on in the series), but for easy reads they’re definitely Better than some other books i’ve suffered through recently
I recently finished that book and OMG! I would consider it a 7/10. It’s just some of the commentary was so cringey and some of the stuff in the book was so predictable 😂😂😂
I don’t know what makes the second book worse. The fact that he had sex with her while the knife was in her and was repeatedly stabbing himself, or the fact I thought he had put the blade in her blade first like he was putting it in a sheath 😂😂😂
As an italian who lives in a town that's been completely ruined and will be forever scarred by mafia, this whole genre repels me, and the fact that some people don't find anything wrong with romanticizing mafia disgust me.
I write in my spare time and I like writing romances like these but in a more realistic way. The women in my stories are all older, experienced, and the abusive relationships are shown as what they are, abusive! As someone who has been in therapy for many years, I would recommend therapy for many of these people 😂
Clearly romance novels & porn serve some important human purpose in allowing us to live out forbidden scenarios but there has GOT to be a healthier way for us to do so 😭😭😭
All these books are labeled mafia but don't actually do much with the mafia stuff, like there should be significantly more murder and government bribery
@@ceciliamarinello7129I don’t understand it either but I think it’s like man in power who would fight for their significant other? Still not something that should be romanticized
I feel like the "Romance YA female MC is so young" is because: 1. So that the targeted audience (most likely teens) feel like they could relate/project themselves and became more delusional than we already are lmao 2. So the MC making dumb decisions can be tolerated with "that's because they're so young!"
There’s this italian korean mafia show called Vincenzo the the main character, who’s a mafia lawyer and he’s breaks that typical toxic man stereotype. Like he’s such a gentleman and falls in love with another lawyer and they develop the healthiest relationship
At the brutal prince section of the video and I legitimately gasped at how good you look. The outfit, the hair, the makeup EVERYTHING IS 10/10!! and a round of applause for the butterfly clips 👏
Few things-- 1- you're very pretty. 2-Your delivery is SO FUNNY. 3- I like that you read these horrendous books so that I dont have to read them. MAKE MORE MAKE MORE VIDEOS!!!!!
I have had Den Of Vipers on Audible for months now, but ive been scared for months cause i saw that the length was 19 HOURS!!! But now im even more scared cause of the clips Sara just played
A random idea for any writers out there based on my inner kid’s brain: When I was younger, and first saw 50 shades of grey trailer in my TV (and since it was in another language, I didn’t understood shit and my imagination immediately went wild) I thought it was a story about; A guy and a woman from 2 mafias (one being super strong and the other slowly growing, but is a threat somehow to the first mafia) and they both are constantly fighting and etc. The girl’s dad recently passed away and now she was the head of the mafia, but, before that nobody knew her father had any daughter, that resulting the fact the other Mafia thought he still alive. So, the girl decides to flirt with the guy from the other mafia to take them down, so she hacks his phone number (since his security system is shit), she fakes a story of “oh I thought it was somebody else” and starts flirting with him, he gets a bit doubtful and doesn’t agree on meeting her in public, but he agrees to meet her in a masquerade (that was a way to hide his face), and now the rest is up to your imagination, if they fall in love, if he feels first and she feels harder, if she actually doesn’t care but her narrative makes her look like she do- (In my head, when I first saw the trailer, it super made sense).
Den of Vipers needs new narrators. It's supposed to be a sexy read, and the male narrator, in particular, made me want to crawl inside myself and hide. And I haven't even read or listened to this book, this is purely from the small clip she played. No way I'd make it through a whole audiobook of that.
When i was in middle school i used to really like A/B/O. I got over it and in high school i changed upon a fic i liked in middle school and i could not go past the first few chapters. I don't understand how some people can casually get off of actual grape. Like dubious consent is one thing but when they're crying, yelling, screaming about how they don't want it and reading about how they feel like they need to escape, to run away or else they'll die or forever loose a part of themselves that makes them happy. It's so much.
I stopped taking TikTok recommendations after Haunting Adeline and I am SO glad I didn’t pick up Den of Vipers. The knife scene?! Oh god 😭 🤚🏼 Thank you for saving me time yet again.
X-Ray tech here... Regarding the Den of Vipers scene with the knife. I really hope that knife had a flared base... Please don't ever put things up there that do not have a means of retrieval or a flared base. The anus is notorious for pulling things up deeper into your colon, especially if you pass a certain point. Anally inserting the handle of a knife is a really easy way to have a sharp blade cutting your rectum and sigmoid colon open. I get the need for fantasy and recording the frantic, passionate decisions that in hindsight are stupid --- but in the moment are just "hot". But like, please don't put things up your butt without a flared base. Abdominal surgery isn't fun. And yes - everyone in the ER, imaging suite, and OR will know who you are and what you did.
I will say that I actually do kinda like age gaps because the idea of two different people who are from different generations but still find a common ground together somehow is sweet to me (even from a platonic standpoint), but...18 is way too freaking young for an age gap romance. I'm okay if the youngest partner is mid-late twenties, but 18 in my mind is still a child. Any relationship with someone that young that isn't someone else around the same age as them comes across as incredibly creepy to me.
The only book I recognized was den of vipers because of some of the scenes other reviewers have talked about 😱I thought it was a biker gang romance though 😂 The audio book is a masterpiece. I do like these videos because you read through books I'm a bit too squeamish to try myself. Watching you has made me realize I have really boring tastes. I also looked up what 650 pages would be and it's about 160,000 words! Thank you for that Mario reference. It was really needed for that last book. I don't blame you for not wanting to read further. 👴
I thought *reading* some of the sex scenes from Den of Vipers was rough but I would NOT be able to listen to them, and especially in those accents omg 😩
Oh my god Sara how did you get through Den of Vipers with those voice actors? Just two little clips and I was cringing beyond belief, you're stronger than I am.😂😂😂 I'm so glad I'm out of my Mafia era because girl these books sound tragic
21:27 if I had to guess I’d say the women reading are supposed to project themselves into the story. So they are supposed to be the beautiful, irresistible young siren and the older man is supposed to be who 30-40 year old women find attractive.
the only mafia romance i ever read was in high school. it was called "blood stained tea" , it was book one of a series called the yakuza path. i only every read the first one i think because the ending had me fucked up lmao. i don't remember much that i liked it, but the premise was the best part honestly. it was a retired yakuza (well in his late 20s) trying to live his peaceful life running his little tea shop and not getting involved with the yakuza anymore, but one day he stumbles upon an injured korean guy with a knife. he takes him back to his house to help him, and turns out he's part of the korean mafia and is actively in a war with the yakuza rn. and so they develop this relationship except the korean guy doesn't know about the former yakuza, and meanwhile the yakuza keeps getting dragged back in by his family, and it's the tension of their relationship, and the secrets they keep from each other, and the underground war happening at the same time, i was like this is the best thing. but im trying to think about it right now and honestly, i think the relationship was not that well developed, like it was really more a mafia story, cuz i mean clearly there are 6 books, with gay romance sprinkled in here and there. i should re-read it lmao
I had to stop den of vipers at the knife play scene because it literally had my stomach rolling 😂 I didn’t mind the other scenes but anything with blood and I’m gone. 💀
I need these authors to realize it’s okay to have a female protagonist that’s over the age of 20. Like please get serious, you can have an age gap and still have the both characters with a fully developed frontal cortex.
I feel like as time goes on and the internet gets both more wild and more performative, and writers / content creators maybe feel pressured to get more extreme in what they put out in order to draw views / downloads, etc, a lot of people forget that unless a person is specifically into certain things, romance doesn't have to be gross, violent, etc to be sexy. It doesn't even necessarily have to be particularly crude to be erotic (how many straight / bi ladies would honestly turn their nose up at the arm thing Oscar Isaac did with Jessica Chastain on the red carpet?) It seems like a lot of writers just keep digging in one or two directions instead of thinking outside the box, if that makes sense. Sorry for the ramble, lol my sympathies for your mind after these!
totally agree with this - it actually ties quite deep & the same concept also goes for p*rn content. viewers get so desensitised to "vanilla" which turns into consuming more violent, obscene, or taboo content in order to get the same feeling :(
I don't know how long ago you made the thriller video I'm going to reference, but I just read Confessions by Kanae Minato and I loved it! One of the best thrillers I've ever read, so thank you for recommending it.
I'm italian and i find mafia romances to be incredibly offensive not just because they are usually very toxic but because they romanticise an horrible organization that has ruined a lot of innocent people's lives
Lol to be fair that was the least offensive book in the bunch! It just wasn't my thing. But I know so many people love it! I really tried it as the one book I could maybe like
As an Italian if you called paparino a man you were having sex with I'm pretty sure they would throw up in your mouth because it's no sexy at all here it's like actually calling someone dad. It's also usually ironic nobody uses it seriously
I did read Den of Vipers. I downloaded it off of Kindle unlimited and kind of just turned my brain off and it was all right. But there is no way in heck I could have gotten through that audiobook 😅 the cockney accent out of control what the heck?
I’m not sure if it’d count as age gap, but you might like Dark Olympus by Katie Robert. It’s a series of romantic/erotic retellings of classic Greek myths. Consent is a big deal throughout all the books, the sex scenes are very nicely written in my opinion, lots of diversity and body positivity, Robert’s version of Apollo is actually a decent human being who understands and respects women. I say it might be age gap-ish because in book one, Neon Gods, Hades is thirty-three and Persephone is a few months out from turning twenty-five. I really love these books, book five came out just this month and I’m waiting with bated breath for my library to get the audiobook so I can curl up on the sofa and happy stim while reading
It’s so funny because den of vipers was my first step into dark romance or mafia and it got me back into reading and it was just a wild ride. It wasn’t being read for plot, I was there for the bad writing and smut LMAO
The name K.A. Knight seemed familiar. I looked on Goodreads and at some point I read her Fallen Gods series. I guess I liked it enough to read the whole series.
unrelated to the books but omg girl i adore your hair in this video it’s gorgeous - like it’s shining so much it’s insane! and the clips in the brutal prince review? so cute!!
The guy in that vipers book sounds like Murdoc Niccals. If I was listening to that he'd be all I could think, like no matter how much the characters were described I'd envision that green crusty British man
Give me a mafia romance where the main character isn't kidnapped in any sort of way and instead inserts themself into the mafia life completely of their own choice for shits and giggles (also dear god let them be well above 18 I am BEGGING thee)
I read Den of Vipers a while ago and i’m still trying to wash off the WRONG! 😂 It did give me hope that I too could publish a book! I mean if that was allowed out of its cage….anything and anyone can publish!
