Genre : Dark romance

Series : The Fallen #2

Publication Date : February 2, 2023

Pages : 472

Format I read : Kindle

Rating : ⭐⭐✨

Spice : 🌶️🌶️.5

Goodreads

“I’ve lived for a long time, piccolina,” he rasps. “Nearly twice as long as you. Never in my life have I met anyone who hides so much wickedness behind an innocent face like yours. Your mind seduces me. Your body tempts me. A single glimpse of you, and I lose my train of thought. I become completely absorbed in your presence. You shouldn’t have let me touch you like I just did, because now that I know how wet and warm you’d feel around me, I won’t think about anything else for hours. Days. Weeks.”

After When She Unravels, I didn’t even hesitate before picking up When She Tempts. The hints we got in the first book had me READY for this story. I had expectations, I had theories, I had excitement… basically, I set myself up. 😭

Unfortunately… it did not live up to my expectations. And trust me, I really wanted it to. So let’s dive straight into my review and talk about exactly where this one lost me. 👀

Table of Contents

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Summary of When She Tempts by Gabrielle Sands

She’s eighteen. Innocent. Forbidden.

Martina De Rossi is off-limits, and not just because her brother is about to become the Don.

When I agree to protect her while he’s out waging a brutal war, it isn’t only out of loyalty.

It’s because Martina is the perfect pawn in my game of revenge.

Unfortunately, she’s also temptation personified.

Innocent eyes. A body to die for. Silky blond hair that begs to be wrapped around my fist.

I’m a master of staying in control, but with each day she spends with me inside the walls of my remote Italian castle, I can feel my resolve cracking.

My gaze starts to drift.

My touch starts to linger.

And when she tempts, I realize this game we’re playing might be one I won’t win.

Review of When She Tempts by Gabrielle Sands

I really wanted to love this one. Like, the premise was practically handcrafted for me. Age gap? Forbidden love? Mafia romance? HELLO?? You already had me. 😭 I usually eat these tropes UP, so When She Tempts had all the ingredients to become an easy five-star read for me.

But unfortunately… the execution just didn’t deliver. The potential was THERE, staring me directly in the face, and somehow I was still left wanting more. It had everything I should’ve loved on paper, but by the end, I was just sitting there like… that’s it?? You had all the ingredients and forgot to cook. 😭

Plot Analysis of When She Tempts by Gabrielle Sands

Imagine this: you’re literally your brother’s biggest weakness while he’s trying to become the Don and claim his birthright. So obviously, what does every enemy decide to do? TARGET YOU. 😭 Because apparently this girl cannot just exist in peace.

So her brother decides the safest option is to send her away with Giorgio Girard, aka Napoletano, the head of security and basically the man the mafia trusts to protect all their precious things. And well… Martina is now one of those precious things. 😂

She ends up hidden in an isolated Italian castle with this 33-year-old grumpy man, cold as ice and seemingly born with ZERO emotions, or at least that’s what she thinks. 👀 And they’re stuck there together for however long it takes until she’s safe. Just the two of them. In a castle. With an age gap. And forced proximity.

Oh, and did I mention Martina is 18, completely forbidden, AND Giorgio might have his own reasons for keeping her close? Yeah… what could possibly go wrong? 😭🏰🔪

Characters of When She Tempts by Gabrielle Sands

Martina De Rossi: Her character arc felt a little conflicted to me because I never really knew which version of Martina I was going to get. One minute she’s this fragile little thing who needs to be protected at all costs, and the next she’s acting like this strong, independent woman who doesn’t need anyone. Like girl… choose a side please. 😭 And I would totally understand if this was part of her character development, but NO. Sometimes we were getting both versions in the SAME chapter. The whiplash was real lmao.

But what frustrated me the most was how childish and immature she could be. I KNOW she’s only 18, so obviously I wasn’t expecting the emotional maturity of a 35-year-old woman, but damn girl… look at the situation you’re in!!! Sometimes we need to use our brain. 😭

SPOILER: Baby girl, your brother is literally risking everything to keep you safe, people are targeting you, and you’re hidden away in an isolated castle FOR A REASON… but you decide to go out because you’re angry??? GIRL BFR!!! I would’ve personally locked the castle doors myself. 😭🔒

Giorgio Girardi: Like the previous MMC, Giorgio didn’t really give me anything special either. He was…there. 😭 I didn’t hate him, I didn’t love him, and he definitely didn’t have me adding another fictional man to my already concerning collection. At least we got some character development from him, which I actually appreciated, but honestly? That was pretty much it.

AH! Except there is ONE thing that genuinely pissed me off and almost ruined the whole age-gap thing for me. I usually eat up a good age gap, but then this man opened his mouth and said, and let me quote it for y’all “You will look at me while I fuck your tight, young pussy, piccolina.”. And I was like… **SIR??? WHY ARE WE EMPHASIZING THAT SHE’S YOUNG???**😭😭 You’re already 33 and she’s 18, I KNOW there’s an age gap. I don’t need you reminding me of it like that. It immediately gave me the ick. Like please, I was trying to enjoy the trope and you made me question my life choices. 💀

The romance: I don’t really know how to explain their relationship because it was slow… but definitely NOT a slow burn. 😭 Like, the lust was there pretty much from the beginning, but if I remember correctly, the spice didn’t actually happen until around the 60% mark. So do with that what you will lmao. But the romance itself? SO GOOD. And the tension??? SO GOOOOOOD. I was eating it up!! The forced proximity, the forbidden aspect, all that waiting around for something to finally happen… yeah, it was working for me.

Until, of course, we reached the third-act breakup. 💀 And surprisingly, this time it wasn’t even the morally grey MMC making the questionable decisions. Nope. It was, of course, our immature, childish FMC. Please act shocked, everyone. 😭 If you’ve read the book, you already know exactly what I’m talking about. I was TIRED.

Pacing & writing style

The writing in When She Tempts by Gabrielle Sands was easy to read and follow, and I actually found myself completely immersed at times, even though I was also frustrated for a good portion of this book. 😭 And yes, most of that frustration had a name: Martina. But we’ll come back to THAT because there’s one particular thing she did that I seriously need to talk about.

The cringe also hit me way harder in this one. Especially with how often Giorgio talks about how young, petite, innocent, and VIRGIN Martina is. And let me EMPHASIZE VIRGIN, because brother… WE GET IT. I SWEAR. You do not need to remind me every two seconds. 😭 And don’t even get me started on the nickname basically meaning “little thing.” Be freaking for real!!! Between that and constantly emphasizing how young she is, the age gap started feeling less sexy and more like something I was painfully aware of. 💀

The plot, though? I’ll give credit where credit is due: it was actually really good. I pretty much saw where things were going from the beginning, but the reveal was still well done. It didn’t feel like something randomly thrown in for shock value or forced into the story at the last minute. Predictable? Yes. Bad? Definitely not.

NOW, SPOILER TERRITORY. If you haven’t read the book, please skip this part because I need to talk about my biggest problem with it.

Martina drugging Giorgio’s tea so he would fall asleep and she could get her phone was already a massive WTF moment for me. But then she tries to have sex with him while he’s still drugged and not fully capable of understanding what he’s doing or properly consenting??? CAN WE TALK ABOUT THAT?! Because I genuinely don’t understand why the story seemed to glaze over it so quickly. If the genders were reversed, I think a lot more readers would immediately recognize how disturbing that situation is. For me, that crosses a serious consent boundary, and the fact that it wasn’t treated with the weight it deserved really bothered me. Like GIRL, I was already fighting for my life with some of your decisions and then you gave me THIS??? 😭

The pacing in When She Tempts was actually really good. I didn’t get bored, and even when Martina had me wanting to throw my Kindle across the room 😭, I still wanted to keep reading and see where the story was going.

I also really liked how the side plot from the first book continued in this one. That storyline definitely helped keep me hooked because I wanted to know how everything would unfold. So even though I spent a good portion of this book FRUSTRATED, I can’t blame the pacing for that lmao. It was fast, enjoyable, and made it really easy to keep going with both Martina and Giorgio’s story and the bigger plot happening in the background.

Tropes and Trigger warnings of When She Tempts by Gabrielle Sands

Tropes of When She Tempts by Gabrielle Sands

• Forced Proximity
• Age Gap
• Forbidden Romance
• Grumpy x Sunshine
• Found family
• Opposites Attract
• Dual POV

Trigger warnings of When She Tempts by Gabrielle Sands

• Violence
• Kidnapping
• Mentions of rape (not in regards to the heroine, nothing on-page)
• Death of a parent
• Mentions of suicide
• Sexual assault ( I add it this one because of that scene, IYKYK)

Final Thought

The more I think about When She Tempts while writing this review, the more I’m realizing that 2.5 stars might actually be generous. 😭 Like, I knew I was frustrated while reading it, but apparently writing everything down made me realize just HOW frustrated I actually was. And when a review starts turning into a therapy session, we might have a problem lmao.

This book had everything I usually eat up: age gap, forbidden romance, forced proximity, mafia, an isolated freaking castle??? The ingredients for a five-star meal were RIGHT THERE. And there were things I genuinely enjoyed! The romance was good, the tension was GOOOOOD, the pacing kept me hooked, and I actually really liked the bigger plot and how it continued the storyline from the first book.

But then we have Martina making me question my sanity every five business days, Giorgio constantly reminding me that she’s young and innocent like SIR WE KNOW, the third-act breakup, and especially that consent scene that I just cannot glaze over. Some of my problems with this book are simply too big for me to ignore.

So yes, 2.5 stars it stays. I could probably talk myself into lowering it after writing this review, but I don’t think I will. The plot deserves its flowers, I was entertained enough to keep reading, and clearly something was working because I never got bored. But considering how much potential this book had for me personally? Yeah… this one hurt. We could’ve had it ALL. 😭💔

About the author

Gabrielle Sands is a romance author who writes sexy, smart, dangerous romance. Her heroes are powerful mafiosos, but her heroines always keep these alpha men on their toes. Gabrielle loves to travel and often writes her favorite destinations into her books.When she’s not writing, Gabrielle enjoys exploring whatever city she’s in, grabbing a cocktail or two, and reading her favorite books. She lives in a small town in Mexico with her husband.

Practical Information for Readers

When She Tempts by Gabrielle Sands Book Formats

When She Tempts is available in various formats to suit every reader’s preference:

• Paperback: Ideal for readers who enjoy the tactile experience of holding a physical book.
• eBook: Convenient for on-the-go reading, available on all major e-reader platforms.
• Audiobook: Narrated with emotional depth, available on platforms like Audible.
• PDF When She Tempts: While some may search for a PDF version, it’s recommended to opt for legal eBook options to support the author.

Where to find When She Tempts by Gabrielle Sands PDF

1. Amazon Kindle: Offers a user-friendly interface with customizable reading settings.
2. Barnes & Noble Nook: Another popular platform with a wide selection of e-books.
3. Apple Books: Provides seamless integration with Apple devices and a smooth reading experience.

When She Tempts by Gabrielle Sands Age Rating

I recommend When She Tempts by Gabrielle Sands to readers 22 and older. While the FMC is only 18, don’t let that fool you into thinking this is meant for younger readers. This is a dark mafia romance that explores some very heavy and disturbing themes, with repeated mentions of sexual assault and suicide, among other triggers. So please, check the trigger warnings before diving in. This one is definitely not meant for teens, and even as an adult, know what you’re getting into beforehand. 🖤

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