Painted Scars: An Enemies To Lovers Mafia Romance (Perfectly Imperfect) Paperback – May 23, 2022

Absolutely loved this! First read by this author and definitely won’t be the last! I always love a damaged main male character 🫶🏼🫶🏼 Nina was a tough, thoughtful female character! The story was great flow and ending was perfect!

This was not only a new series for me, but a new author as well. This is an across the mafia territories series (from Chicago to New York, involving many mafia families).I have read many mafia romances and find most of them follow the same plot line (heroine traded for a deal gone bad/money owed, anti-hero dark and quick to respond with intimidation/death) . What was refreshing about this book (and the entire series - which I binge read over 2 days) were the characters, some dark and slightly imperfect while others smart and funny (and some quirky). A wheelchair bound over the top possessive Pakhan and a feisty and funny heroine.Taking out the mafia aspect, the author was able to relay characters which seemed like "real people with real issues". Each character was brought to life and leaves you wanting more. The author's use of heroes and heroines with disabilities is a plus (wheelchair bound, deaf, burned, partial amputee as in other books in the series). All of the books in the series were captivating and well worth the read.I appreciate the author's use of trigger warnings in all the books.

The Trope: Forced marriage contract for a limited time.Nina's father was handling some real estate deals for the Russian bratva when he has an opportunity for an investment to make big bucks. He, "borrows" the Bratva's money figuring he can pay it back when his investment pays out. Only it turns outto be a Ponzi scheme that goes bust and he loses it all. Now the Bratva is afyer him because he owes them $3 million.The Bratva Pakhan was injured in a car bombing which shattered his knee. One of his own may be responsible. He's been confined to a wheel chair but with therapy hopes to eventualy graduate to crutches, then a cane. He doesn't like appearing weak and has mostly been hidng in his home since his release from the hospital. Othes are beginning to question his capabilities and he has at least 6 more months of therapy. His second in command and best friend, warns him a distraction is needed...he needs to marry and suggest using the daughter of the man who owes him $3 millio in exchange for his life.I loved Nina. She's pint sized, but strong, brave and qwerky and marches to the beat of her own drum! She doesn't hesitate to negotiate with the Pakhan even though she has no room to negotiate. He is intrigued by her uniqueness and qwerky behavior; by te fact that she sands up to him even when he can see telltale signs of fear or doubt though she hides it well. The two are playing a role but it going to become real....until he does something she might not be able to forgive.This story is well written with just the right amount of action, intrigue, emotion and steam to keep you turning pages. 4.75 stars.

So I had read part of this book a while ago and stop reading it because it has some really weird like fetish about her being petite short and how she has a thing against tall people being around her in certain situations. But I did want to read a couple of stories later on in the series, and even though there's standalone, they're all kind of interconnected, so I wanted it to start from the beginning.So one thing I do like about this author stories is most of them are under the 300 Page Mark which includes this one so the story is fairly easy to read at 233 pages. A con is that it is very repetitive for a story that only has 233 pages.Another thing I do like about the story is there was a part at about the 20% mark where the FMC is basically talking about Improv and how you can kind of create a Life by curating one and I like the way that she processes the conversation. It goes on for a good three or four pages in the book see below.('I want them to secretly roll their eyes and not notice what you’re doing, because they assume you’re . . . harmless.” She watches me in surprise, then laughs. It’s an unguarded and genuine laugh which reaches her eyes. “Okay, you definitely mean stupid. Okay. I’ll need a few minutes.” She leans back into the cushions, throws her head back, and with her face turned up toward the ceiling, she closes her eyes. She stays like that for a few moments and then starts speaking. “Shallow. Harmless. A little bit stupid. Crazy in love with you, of course. Needs access to every part of the house. Let’s see . . . Who am I? Well, Roman’s trophy wife, of course. I am pretty, elegant, and extremely snobbish. I love wearing expensive clothes, just the best labels. I’m not really into dresses unless the occasion requires it. I much more prefer designer jeans, paired with silky blouses. The heels are a must.”)So getting to the actual storyline you have the MMC Russian boss who was injured in a car bomb. He has a leg injury and is using a wheelchair. While he was in the hospital you find out that at least two people from his own organization tried to hurt him but he's not exactly sure who it was. So he's trying to figure out who it was so we can handle them. He is currently in physical therapy working on his knee and he most likely will have to use a cane to walk. FMC is a painter who also does good improv acting and is the daughter of someone who screwed the Russians out of money because he had taken 3 million dollars of their money that was supposed to go towards a transaction that he was brokering but got screwed and ended up losing the money. So MMC needed a wife apparently so he chose fmc. FMC created this character they got married in legit two days and had everything down to their meet cute set up. They were supposed to be married for 6 months. During this time she's painting For Her Expo. There's drama sprinkled in and there's a drug war going on.They sprinkle in some of the characters for the other stories in this one but it's not like you have to read this one in order to read theirs but it does kind of give you the overall Vibe as to why the characters are the way they are if you read all of them. For instance Mikail book is book two and in this book they mention him a few times and kind of lay a little bit of the groundwork and telling you that he's got certain issues but you definitely could completely skip this story and not have it affect Mikail story.Timeline also feels a bit off in the story. They get married very very quickly. So they have their initial meeting and then they have their meet cute just a few days later. But in the storyline she also talks about two weeks and then she gets sick in there and she's out for at least 3 days. In there she also goes and meets her parents for dinner with the MMC but then also talks about how she only has 4 days to finish up her paintings. But then when she talks to her mom on the phone it makes it seem like the dinner earlier. I think they were trying to cram everything into a month timeline. FMC has her gallery expo at about 65%. This is also around the point where FMC tells her parents that she loves the MMC and also the point where the MMC tells fmc's parents that he loves the fmc. But they don't really communicate that with each other even though they are being intimate. They finally confessed her love at about 70% and Roman tells her that the 6 month deal is off and that he is never going to let her go. MMC is focused on his knee a lot throughout the series and he also kind of self-deprecates a lot with it. But FMC also brings up the issue she has with being around tall men.But as I was reading this book I did realize that I must have finished it the first time because I remembered when certain things happened and when they did their little like break up thing. So the story isn't bad and it's okay for a one-time read but it's not something that I would read more than once.*3 🌟 for me means the book was okay average.*

Wow!! This book was absolutely perfect and amazing in every way!! I loved the way the characters blended with each other!!The best and sweetest Mafia Romance I've read so far!

I love Roman's character so much. I've read a couple of books from this series. I left painted scars from the bottom pile for a reason. I heard mix reviews about Nina. And sadly, I have to agree with them. I just don't like Nina's character. I'm sorry but her doing what she did is kinda unnecessary.And we have Roman! The epitome of touch her you die. I love him.It was a good book nonetheless. Neva's writing is always amazing.