A London Villain by Catherine Wiltcher – Review
THIS POST MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!!!!
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Hello sassy people! Today’s post is about A London Villain by Catherine Wiltcher! Thank you, Catherine Wiltcher and Social Butterfly PR for providing this copy in exchange for an honest review!
A London Villain
by Catherine Wiltcher
The devil dances in his veins…
From USA Today bestselling author, Catherine Wiltcher, comes a new dark mafia romance about second chances and enduring love.
It started with a dare:
Steal a kiss from the pretty, green-eyed girl with the Irish mobster father.
Turns out, Ada O’Sullivan was a much better thief than me.
In the span of one night, I lost my head, my senses, my loyalty to my own crime family…
At nineteen, she was the only thing worth fighting for.
Dying for.
Loving.
But I was a boy playing a man’s game.
In the end, they drove me from this city, while Ada was driven straight to hell.
Now, I’m back—an avenging devil—with red hands and loaded bullets.
Irish. Mafia. Bratva. British.
Everyone who tore her from my arms, everyone who has ever hurt her, will suffer the consequences.
But time bleeds secrets.
Secrets open old wounds.
Ada isn’t the same sweet girl I knew before they ripped her innocence apart.
And that boy?
I’ve turned him into a villain who will stop at nothing to make her mine again.
A London Villain is a heart-stopping, second chance romance with NO cliff-hanger and a guaranteed HEA.
For mature readers only.
Genre: Romance, ARC
Publisher: Indie
Year: 2022
Nº of pages: 339
Is it on KU?: Yes!!!!!
Subgenres: Contemporary Romance, Dark
Tropes: Tropes: Love at First Sight, Mafia Romance, Revenge, Second Chance
Smut factor: 🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥 4/5 (steamy)
Spice scale: 3/5 🌶️🌶️🌶️
POP (Put Out Percentage): 21%
TRIGGER WARNINGS (Based on StoryGraphs): Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Body Shaming, Child Abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of a parent, Domestic Abuse, Drug Abuse, Emotional Abuse, Grief, Grooming, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical Abuse, Sexism, Sexual Abuse/Rape, Sexual Content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide Attempt, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence
Main characters: Ada and Frankie
Main conflict: They were separated by the villains of the story
Hero: Alpha
Heroine: Father’s Daughter
Pacing: Medium
Mood: Amazing, Deep, Heavy
Plot or character-driven: Mixed
P.O.V.: Double P.O.V.
Character development: Very deep
Diverse Cast: Nope
Read in: 2022
My Rate: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5
The writing is so amazing! Almost poetic. I absolutely loved Catherine’s writing and I’m definitely reading more of her books. Now, this was also very heavy. This book is not for the weak of heart. If you have ANY triggers, do not read them.
Frankie is a bit too authoritarian at times, too much for my taste.
Now I did have a few problems:
- It was unclear to me what Frankie did before going to jail. Why did he spend 14 years away from Ada?
- He talks about having to choose between love and revenge. But you would “let” your soulmate be raped and abused for 14 years, because of revenge?
- The title and the beginning of the book talk about Frankie as someone who is “A London Villain” he is going to be the new capo of London, he is powerful and strong. But I didn’t see that in him during the book. He was very reckless, making rash decisions, doing things unplanned, doing honestly stupid things. So it’s hard for me to believe in the success and ruthlessness of this man. He is not a bad character, but he is not a capo. Or at least not one that would last very long. And he depends on Santiago a lot. He is afraid of him and dependent on him, which also takes away his authority. He honestly feels like a teenager still, during the whole book.
Equality rate: ⭐⭐ 2/5
This book gets a very low rating. Frankie is borderline abusive in my eyes. I used my checklist of negative behaviors (based on the National Domestic Violence hotline) and here are all the red flags I recognized:
Aggressive behavior, Controlling issues, Dangerous power dynamics, Dominating decision-making process, Insta love, Love interest believes in rigid gender roles, No Communication, No explicit consent, Possessiveness, Sexism, Stalking, The main character is viewed as an object, Unprotected sex (consensual or non-consensual)
The part that most annoys me is that EVERY SINGLE TIME THESE TWO PEOPLE SAW EACH OTHER FOR LONGER THEN 5 MINUTES THEY WERE F*****. This is not a relationship. They don’t know each other because they haven’t had ONE decent conversation in 21 years (all the time that they’ve known each other). So ultimately, this is not exactly a couple I believe in, because I haven’t seen them have a relationship. They never had a conversation.
Now, their connection is undeniable. They are connected because of their trauma, the people who hurt them, and because they used each other as motivation to survive.
Now, that is not enough for a healthy relationship.
And it annoyed me that Frankie hasn’t talked to “the love of his life” in 14 years, and he can only think with his d***. EVERY TIME! No matter if her knees are hurt and she was almost raped by her husband, or if he just received horrible news. He only thinks about sex, and that to me is not a mature and healthy relationship.
Now, I’m not saying they can’t have one. They can build it, but I didn’t see it on the page.
That was one of the things that made me give this book 4 stars.
The other was: Some of the violence felt too much or unnecessary. Ada is almost raped at least 4 times, if not more, on-page. I really don’t think that was necessary. We already understood that she suffered, and it gets to a point where you question if those scenes are just there for shock value.
I’m a person who has very few triggers, and this was not triggering for me, but it was unpleasant in a lot of moments, to read so much violence and horror all the time.
I ultimately loved the book, despite all the issues I found, I enjoyed reading it really much.
Adjectives and general thoughts: Amazing writing and worldbuilding, but with very serious problems in the Equality Rate
Recommend this to people with no TWs.
Grab your copy today!
Amazon: https://amzn.to/39W5eaC
Amazon Worldwide: mybook.to/alondonvillain
Add A London Villain to Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3utLrZh
Meet Catherine
Catherine Wiltcher is a USA Today and Amazon Top 15 bestselling dark romance author. A stage 4 cancer thriver and a former TV Producer, she writes flawed characters who always fall hard and deep for one another, whatever the cost.
She lives in the UK with her husband and their two young daughters. To keep up to date with all things in the Santiago World, sign up to her newsletter for giveaways and exclusives!
www.catherinewiltcher.com/newsletter
Connect with Catherine
Website: https://catherinewiltcher.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/catherinewiltcher/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kidsversuscopy1
Well, that is all for today, I hope you like this post, hope you enjoy this book as much as I did. Feel free to leave your opinion about it in the comments and I will see you next time!
Bye sassy people!
- I know that some comments I make about decent guys on my posts are the bare minimum a guy should do, so no, they don’t deserve to be treated like gods for doing the minimum, but at the same time, I’ve read a lot of sexist books and I appreciate authors who make characters that can serve as role models and examples of how a decent guy acts and what a loving and respectful relationship looks like. I believe we should always encourage these authors and bring attention to the ones that still write sexist characters and stories.
- I make a lot of comments about sexism and healthy role models in books, but a lot of times these characteristics don’t make the book a bad book and definitely don’t make the author a bad author. Please never shame these authors and these books for these comments, I simply feel that we need to have awareness of the less than ideal situations some books bring us, and not use the romanticized problem as examples of what a relationship should be. Most of these authors are still amazing, and the content they write doesn’t reflect directly with their personal views and opinions. Always make sure to respect and be kind to everyone, even while criticizing their content.
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Brazilian architecture student and book lover
One of my goals in analysing my readings was to talk about important topics, like feminist and consent, because literature, art and culture influence us, and I believe we should always encorage authors who talk about this topics.
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