If you missed my KU review of Unveiled Desires, you can find it here.
Hi guys, I am back with another review for you. You know, I gotta say, I love my job, I get to read for work, watch TV and movies and stuff, but mostly read. Today’s book is From My Past by Alina Martyn. It is book one in the Men of the Clan series. It’s a spicy, Irish mafia, billionaire romance. There are trigger warnings for domestic abuse and talking about sexual assault that happened prior. There is a bunch of violence and murder. I mean anything with a trigger warning for domestic abuse would have violence, eh?
We meet Talia at a college rager getting cornered by a girl from high school that she would rather avoid. Once Talia gets away from the woman, we find out Talia is going to school to be an engineer. Talia’s got a goth/rock chic vibe going on which makes her stand out against the sorority girls around her which makes her happy. She makes her way inside to get a drink and meets Kieron. Kieron already graduated but came back to see a friend and is very glad he did. Talia and Kieron spend a single night together and then don’t see each other for five years.
After their night together, Talia eventually gets into an abusive relationship with Luca, the heir to the Italian mafia. After one particularly bad beating, Talia is forced to accompany Luca to a business meeting with strict instructions. This turns out to be a blessing in disguise. The person they are meeting remembers Talia from college and contacts Kieron. When he finds out the situation, he starts a war to keep Talia safe. Good thing he is the Second-in-Command for the Irish mafia.
Ok. This was not good. There were so many problems. I could see what Ms. Martyn was trying to do and I respect her effort. The book needs a lot of polish though. Editing would do a lot to help with that. Even just using the free version of Grammerly would have picked up on the missing words, extra words, extra letters, and missing letters that littered the work. It wasn’t just a smattering across the whole book, it was a problem. A couple times it was a completely wrong word. I don’t know about you but when I am in the groove of reading and there is a mess up in the words, it’s like hitting a rock while riding a skateboard.
I also had a problem with the FMC (Female Main Character) and MMC (Male Main Character) for similar reasons. Talia was too much of an “I’m not like other girls” girl. Her trauma was actually pretty well-written. She did have the violent swings of someone away from the abuse and reeling with the trauma and the need to apologize and check in to gauge the temperature of the situation. I think she would have had a whole lot harder time with the intimacy part though. Kieron was too perfect. He should have screwed up on an epic scale without knowing it but didn’t. Each time he “messed up” it was minor and he knew he did it and was able to explain it away. It doesn’t happen like that at all. I can forgive stuff for the sake of the story, like the sex part for Talia because given the timeline of the story, she needed to be able to have sex to meet the criteria of the story and have it fit in the timeline. But at least make it look like you tried. Kieron was too perfect for Talia’s trauma. The other problem with that was it made it hard to believe he could be a cold-blooded killer like he was supposed to be. The reason I know any of this is I have PTSD from domestic violence and my husband has been paying for the sins of others since the day we met.
Unfortunately, I didn’t like the book. It has great potential and if it is reworked. I would be interested in reading it again because the base of the story is fine. Have you read From My Past or anything else by Alina Martyn? What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below. Until next time, have fun storming the castle!
