Also the TikTok advertising for this book was SO annoying- they were all some woman like “If you don’t like toxic, age-gap, spicy mafia romances, then GET OUT. This book isnt for you”
It's not supposed to be that way, it's supposed to be "I hate you, and my hate for you is justified. I wanted to beat you just to be able to spit in your face that I won, but then you showed me you're not just human, but fallible, and I should exploit that but now that I understand that I can't bring myself to harm you."
If you want a REAL enemies to lovers (as in 'you killed my brother and thus the only person protecting me from a predator' type enemies) that's LGBT, has amounts of dubcon, has the victim of SA get justice in the form of their assaulter getting his head chopped off, I'd highly recommend Captive Price by C.S Pacat. It's smut with really good plot, and excellent enemies to lovers.
I'm gonna be very honest, everytime the last name Gallo was mentioned I couldn't help but snicker. It means chicken in italian. You guys do whatever you will with this
omg i thought it meant that but bc i don't speak italian i was like "naaaah the author wouldn't call them THAT !". i wonder if it was planned bc the rival family is the "Griffin"... so another kind of birds... but a mythical one at last 😂
I don't know about adult women, but my grandma definitely loves these kinds of books. Admittedly, her dark romance collection is centered more on the 'kidnapped by a prince from a strongly patriarchal monarchy that is definitely not the UAE' theme, but that's ultimately just window-dressing.
Not that it would improve the big problem that Cal is just not a sexy character, but there were at least a couple of missed opportunities to give Aida some agency. Like, when Cal takes all her clothes to force her to wear the dress, Aida wears one of Cal's suits, or rips down a curtain and makes her own dress. Or instead of eating the strawberries as a petty prank to make him look bad in the wedding photos, she does it so he can't force himself on her (Fuck, maybe she even IS trying to kill him? A story where the two love-interests repeatedly try to murder each other and then realise they're actually two psychopaths flirting would at least be interesting!)
I honestly think a lot of “dark” romance would be improved if both sides were psychotic I’m so sick of romance being her “the waifish victim” and him “the sexy abuser” . Give me two absolutely unhinged humans flirting with each other by attempted murder because they have a terrible sense of how to act normal and because neither of them is sane , completely into the whole thing, that would actually be interesting, potentially darkly comical, and might even get me to pick up one of these “dark romances”
@@spacebear1483 It would also actually be far more romantic, because they would not only understand each other perfectly, but be perfect equals. Though to be honest, I might just be thinking of NBC's Hannibal...
@@PassTheMarmalade1957 nooo! I think you’re right! They would be the perfect match made in hell, insane and in love, wayyy more romantic than idolised abuse.
literally them being equals is ALL it takes. i have a incomplete story written with a 'psycho' girl who is more 'violent' than the (basically golden retriever for her) guy. they both have their issues, but despite going up against each other, they also consistently treat one another as precious. they do some unconvincing life-threatening and the like, but are more of a romeo-juliet sort of thing. it's childhood best friends -> long lost (first) love -> enemies -> lovers, with their parents turning against one another. i definitely made the fem a bit meaner towards him than vice-versa. but he DOES get angry over VERY VALID things, like her/her group killing or hurting someone he cares about. he gets angry and hurt, and wonders wtf happened to her in their time apart to make her so awful. he does get aggressive, but never once (intentionally) physically hurts her. one scene, he doesn't see her face and goes in to catch her by surprise; he realises it's her and immediately relents (though she puts a knife to his throat and he's just like 'd@mn! i'm sorry!' lmao). but for me, a guy mistreating a woman usually just really unsettles me. it has different connotations and almost always a power imbalance, which is physically emphasized. whereas, though my male mc is fairly tall (lanky) and the fem mc is fairly petite, he basically lets her get the upper hand and willingly allows her to, like, grab him by the wrist and drag him alongside her. as opposed to that thing where the girl thrashes about and is tugged and overpowered. though her father figure does do that to her at one point, albeit not in an abusive way and purely taking her away from a situation out of concern. which is kinda my whole point- a FATHER, and she still pulls away and gets genuinely pissed off, lashes out about the controlling-ness with a 'yOuR nOt My DaD!' and he relents lmao. the ownership over a woman and the entitlement to do as a man pleases aggravates me, particularly when portrayed as romantic or appealing, because it is never treated with the gravity it deserves and feels so gross, because it happens SO OFTEN. irl, it makes me immediately turn off from a guy, bcus it doesn't ever suggest care or consideration, let alone love. ASSAULT is NOT appealing, and it is NEVER CNC portrayed. it is always a literal r*p*st. i understand it is fantasy, but i hate when they portray violently obsessive men as 'oh so in love' and it's telling that the author has likely never actually suffered at the hands of such a man. it's like they think being r*ped is about being wanted so bad, being irresistible. shocker: it isn't. irl, they're objectifying, demeaning, and subject the targeted woman to devaluation! it's not sweet like 'awe i'm just so important to him!', it's the opposite. like stalkers rarely ever give a crap about their victims or who they truly are; they just project their (often disturbing) fantasies onto them. like there was a case where this stalking man chased a younger woman around and he told the cops about how she was totally into it, and how she was actually just like the girls in all the noncon corn he watched, while she was obviously terrified and running. in the books, it's just like that, the men are all like 'you like it, huh? nasty $l#t, ik you do' and it's literally nauseating, but the narration treats it like it's attractive. sorry, i am legit ranting atp, but it makes me so unbelievably angry.
@@spacebear1483This is why I like the romcom How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. I’m not a fan of the genre but I like how the FMC is a girlboss and how both love interests fuck with each other.
I mean it's a bit of a stupid take tbh. Polish is like 10-20 times more logical when spoken than English lmao. It doesn't have 15 ways to pronounce "a," 27 to say "e," 12 to say "th," and there aren't any words (at least none I can think of) that would be spelled the same, but pronounced differently. The sounds it requires you to make aren't that unique or difficult in the first place ("sz" and "cz" are similar to English "sh" and "ch," "ś" is similar-ish to Japanese "shi" and so on), it's just that it tends to bunch up these difficult sounds really densely in most words, which isn't that difficult to overcome once you actually know how to spell things individually. It does get ridiculously hard when it comes to grammar, though, but at this point it's basically the same as Russian.
Can confirm, daddy issues goes away the minute you talk to your father for the first time in 30 years... To bad I have to break up with my mafia boyfriend now
That was my first thought too. Why did the Gallos gate-crash the party of their enemies? Because Romeo did it and that's how he met Juliet. It's bog standard copy-paste for every other "star-crossed lovers" story that completely misses the point of the tragedy
honestly as someone who partakes in "problematic" romance fiction but is also able to maintain normal relationships irl, the appeal is mostly in the absurdity of it all. its why stories like this bother me, ones that can't like entirely commit to the male lead being evil fr. im so tired of these stories where he's just the same as any misogynist i can find on the street corner but in a different outfit. the best stories are ones where the men are unhinged to a degree i can't see a real person actually doing these things and the story doesnt make excuses about him not being that bad actually. imo that's the whole point of it being "fantasy", its meant to be something that can only live as a fantasy.
26:06 they inmediately have sex after she *shot him in the arm?!* Forget the anger that would be logical to feel in that situation, does the guy at least puts a bandaid over the wound before he starts the plowing?! WTF?!
As someone from Southern Italy, I really don’t get the mafia romances. There’s nothing sexy and about criminals who made regions miserable for generations.
Mafia kinda sprouted up after the invasion by Sardinia-Piedmont, so really it's those pesky French-Italians fault. The south could not understand what Savoy wanted and required, and the Savoy did not try to acknowledge any of the differences.
It’s so funny when smut authors name their books something similar to some popular book or movie even when the two pieces have nothing in common. This author didn’t even tried to hide they wanted people to mix their book with The Cruel Prince 😭
There was a lifetime movie about a woman marrying into a Mafia family I saw years ago. It basically started like a normal romance, great woman meets wonderful guy. Cute moments and dates. It wasn't until after they got married that she (and the viewer) started noticing strange things about the man and his family. She eventually confronts him, learns that she married into a Mafia family and is absolutely horrified. She's terrified, so she doesn't divorce him but she does begin to pull away from him -- especially after he physically assaulted her. He ends up cheating on her, she finds out, she's been confiding in a close friend about everything. Near the end, she finally makes the choice to run (I think she was planning on getting into the witness protection program or something). His family found out and had her killed. The movie ends with her funeral and him with the woman he cheated on her with, who is revealed to be the friend she confided in. He has some internal monologue about how her fate could have been different if she had accepted him and his family and the "friend" smirks while looking at her casket. I felt it was a very realistic version of a Mafia "romance/marriage", especially for one not realizing what they were getting into. Great movie, wish I could remember the name of it, but it forever will turn you off of Mafia romances because of the realistic picture it paints.
btw the polsih name isnt really your fault because its polish and also it's a mispelling i think it's supposed to be zając (pronounced kinda like zah-yonce) meaning hare although its aslo only used as a surname fun other thing theres a polish gang in philideplhia called the kielbasa posse
Idea; mafia tragedy marketed as a romance. Like it’s got all the romance tropes, but it ends with another boss coming in and killing the couple and taking over
Saying "the Italians" or "the Columbians" is like when westerners talk about "Arabs" as if they're all on the same side. Like, there were five major families just in NYC and there were dozens of other smaller factions within those families and they all constantly changed alliances. The Godfather was about a war between just Italians, specifically sicilians, Peaky Blinders touched on a lot of different cultures because it was often safer to work with foreign organizations, the closer the proximity the more likely they'd benefit from getting rid of the other.
The irritating thing is - when they say "Italians" they really mean "Sicilians". You only need to Google for longer than ten minutes. Read a book like "The Five Families" by Selwyn Raab. Anything. But that would get in the way of writing the smut I guess. Research? These authors have no time for that.
true, also Colombia actually went through a huge gang war after Escobar died, there's no way killing one gang caused all Colombians to fear some Polish dude
@@DaFireElf There are so many. Definitely Non-Fiction or even Biographies on well known Mafia figures, or Cartel leaders or even topics like KGB history, the fall of the Eastern Bloc in order to get an idea for how mafia-like organizations developed. There is so much out there, really.
I wonder how many people there are who got recomaned "the cruel prince" and accidentally got this book instead. There's got to be at least one person, right?
23:51 I know I shouldn't expect accuracy in fetish material, but I don't know what's more absurd - the idea that Polish mafia controls Lawndale and Garfield Park or the fact that the two neighborhoods are in the same sentence as Ukrainian Village. (For non-Chicagoans - Lawndale and Garfield Park are mostly Black and mostly poor (though East Garfield Park is gentrifying little by little). Ukrainian Village is.... neither of those things)
Adult woman who can tell reality from fantasy, and i think the thought of teenagers reading this kind of thing is what really does concern me about the genre. Otherwise, its just someones idea of fun fantasy trash with or without the sex scenes, not that much different from like ... nobody kill me for this, but John Wick and the Fast and Furious series (both of which i quite enjoyed).
Tbh even as a teen I could tell fantasy from reality. I know not all do, but I never really fantasized about any relationship like these- I even watched Twilight and people were concerned about that too. I don’t think it should be promoted towards teens like you said, but eh. Sneaky teens gonna find it either way lol. Though at my time at school my classmates were talking about Pretty Little Liars and that’s… uh… was a teen drama. That was definitely something that shouldn’t been promoted toward teens either 😭
@@TabbyWithMittens 4 sure! Not all teens are susceptible to the bad ideas in the stuff they consume, and they are gonna get their hands on things not marketed to them. I read Twilight when I was a teen and could not figure out what the fuss was about, though I also couldn't tell what was problematic about the whole imprinting thing at the time either. I guess my concern has to end up being not just about the media itself, but the way society treats the ideas in it. Action flicks are tempered slightly by the fact that violence is taught explicitly at a young age as a bad thing. Whereas I don't really know that we teach esp young girls to expect to be treated well by the guys that are supposed to love them, and these kind of stories, whether explicitly marketed towards teens or not, definitely reinforce the ideas that equate violence and lack of consent with love. Maybe that'll change with time! Or already is. (Definitely agree with you on Pretty Little Liars, too.... That being explicitly meant to be a teen show terrifies me considering what ive heard and seen of it.)
It’s very clear that the generation of teens who only read fanfiction and/or derivative “Original” stories in wattpad Grew up and are now young adults Who buy and write books like this and I hate it.
I think that part of the appeal of the dominant man is that they are capable- alot of the time women are required to do alot, cook, clean, work, raise kids, be attractive and make their significant others attractive to others so the idea of him coming in and taking some non important decisions would appeal. Think like the middle age woman who has to explain to her husband that cargo shorts can't be worn to weddings and then the dress scene makes more sense... still weird and violent but so is corn made for men. I think the issue with admitting you read corn is more related to social conditioning aswell. Love your content! Thank you for the video❤
I think the guy's name was supposed to be "Zając" ("Hare") but the author couldn't be bothered to use proper polish letters because Zajac isn't a polish word or name. Also forgainers try to respect Polish people challange.
I don't have words to express how much I despise these new "genres" that are becoming popular (romantasy, toxic romance, romance with elves and fairies, bullying romance, and other crap like that) so I won't even start.
i understand for the ones like bullying and toxic romance, but romantasy and the type with elves and fairies isn't nearly as bad, definitely overdone and annoying though.
this reminds me of a romantic comedy anime I saw, nisekoi, in which the main character, the teenage son of a yakuza boss, is forced to fake date his classmate, the tsundere daughter of an american mafioso
I've seen fanfiction like this book, and even on the sites the authors that write this stuff admit its just an excuse for porn. I don't understand why people are trying to make it seem like this book isn't just porn with plot as an afterthought
The funny thing is that the polish mafia boss is named Zajac which is probably the word „Zając” which means a bunny, but mostly when you say „Zając” people imagine an Easter bunny
Okay this book is so bizarre and the way of thinking of both main characters is just disgusting to me and also about the Polish mafia guy, I'm Polish and I never in my life heard of anyone named Zajac
Imagine being 'friends' with this couple. You're a nice normal couple who goes to their parties and sees them for brunch. The hot girl volunteers at your family business and gets it trashed after being kidnapped again. The hot guy pays for the triple for the damages, and the hot girl is mad because 'she can clean up her own mess' and how dare he step in again she doesn’t need rescuing. Never mind, she can't afford to fix the windows. Someone always gets punched at their parties, and the girl yells a lot about things the guy has done and gets randomly kidnapped or attacked. And the normal couple always come early to help set up and leave last to help clean up because they actually care about them. Shes the one who gets the late night phone call about how stupid rich guy is. And the normal boyfriend gets paid a few million to achieve his dream simply for always being there for the hot girl. But the normal couole do live vicariously through the hot couple.
Crazy Joe Gallo was a famously insane mafia enforcer from back in the day. How crazy? He literally modeled himself after a movie gangster from the film Kiss of Death. seriously He was diagnosed as a schizophrenic but I actually asked a shrink and given that people usually ran around labeling people incorrectly. Usually one diagnosed with schizophrenia before 1970 were actually severely bipolar. Kinda like how Openhimer was diagnosed with "dementia precox" (another term for schizophrenia ) back in his university days.
If my Italian doesn’t fail me, gallo means rooster, so mafia being associated with Italian mobsters, this family is more or less called “the Roosters” (galli would be more accurate for the plural, but you know) and they’re against the Griffins. That’s kinda funny.
"Polish is an insult to the concept of spoken language." - Homie I don't know what to tell you, if that's the way you talk about an ordinary Slavic language, you're not strong enough to survive the entire rest of the Germanic family (that aren't English). Also say what you will about Polish, but it has a very consistent spelling system, like once you learn how each symbol is pronounced, you're pretty much good to go. As opposed to English, whose spelling is so inconsistent anglophone schoolchildren compete in figuring out how each word is actually written. (I am Slovak and think Polish is bullshit for entirely different reasons, namely that to average Slovak it just sounds hillarious.)
Polish person here, "Zając" means "Rabbit" in Polish. It's not a name, nobody ever would be named like this. Author propably just used google translate to make name that sounds cool and egdy
The fact that mafia romance lit is a thing has immediately unlocked a memory of the fact that there was a really weeby mangaesque webcomic from like the mid-2000s called 'Cosa Nostra' centering on the escapades of a girl (or guy?) who ends up joining the mafia. I don't remember any details about it besides a scene where the main protag bumps into a Japanese man on an early 20th century immigrant boat sailing across the atlantic from europe of all places.
These people who "fantasize" about fictional characters like these likely would not anymore if they actually experienced it in real life. I too get the difference between reality and fantasy, but this is too extreme to be removed from
Why make this a story where they get married? Why not just two enemies who have angry sex a few times? I ask because even if that stuff turns you on, why would you also think it would work as a marriage?
There is one book that i really like about prehistoric life thats called "The Clan of the Cave Bear", but after the first book they turned it into a series that seems to be porn books, like the ones mentioned in this video... have anyone else here read those?
No yeah I read the first one and was like "ok, the graphic descriptions of child rape are kinda weird but it was a good book," and then got into the second one and it became porn.
@@cicooooooo No way?! the same thing happened to me too- that's a crazy coincidence (idk what age you were but I was eleven... I'm 90% sure my ma forgot what really went down in those books) I'm also sure most of it went straight over my head lol
The stupidest part about this is the premise. To stop a war between two mafia groups, instead of secession of territory or money (while James says it’s common it’s really only common between Families (in the Italian mafia there are five families, with a dozen clans under them each) and that’s more a fact of where they grow up than any poltical planning.
And not only is it not that, it's also not even enemies to lovers, because they bang pretty much straight away while still hating each other. Forget the sexy slow-burn and rivalry, just try to drown her in the pool and then get straight to fucking.
So, Zajac is angry that one of his sons didn't marry Ida to merge their family businesses. What about one of Zajac's sons marrying one of Ida's brothers (maybe the super-sexy one who makes the pants spontaneously combust)? That would've been the interestingly modern take on the robust and dangerous mob story, now wouldn't it? ;)
you saying ''dont worry about it'' felt so nice and reassuring, that if you had a cameo i would pay for you to say it over and over, so i could listen to it while doing my research project
I’m polish and have never in my life known anyone or known of anyone named Zajac lol. I think it was supposed to be Zając (rabbit) but this word is never used as a name, only a surname, so the author is completely off. Also the comment about my language being unintelligible is wrong and I am personally offended, our surnames don’t look like wifi passwords at all. 22:49
I really don’t know what these people see in these book boyfriends/husbands. Like, are you guys just skipping to the s*x scenes?? And just skipping the highly alarming “plot?” Also 21 and 30 is soooo concerning what’s even more so concerning is that the scary age gap was a selling point😭 why is the age gap never 30 and 40 when it’s ok at that point? Why is it always someone barely legal with a full grown man?! That power dynamic is crazy!
Omg i remember this book! I was bloody gifted one of them! Where the irish youngest gets stockholm syndromed into falling in love with a polish gangster that kidnapped her.
Hey now you can't be mad at all romance authors because of the ones that are into CNC or abusive partners - there are plenty of romance novels with golden retriever type loyal himbos who actually ask for consent! That being said, the romance novels that show healthy relationships that I'm familiar with are interspecies relationships, so maybe the authors still have issues (or I have the issues for primarily reading alien/fantasy creature/monster romance😅). My personal theory is that it's easier for women to suspend their disbelief of aliens than to believe a human male would be an extremely loyal feminist who is great in the bedroom, extremely muscular and talented, loves children, only has eyes for their regular looking partner, and whose ultimate dream is to do everything for them. Personally, the himbo simp archetype is much more attractive. 🤷
@@gstellar96 I totally see how my comment came across as super salty 😂 I'm happily married. What I was trying to convey is that romance leads are written in such an unbelievable way that they might as well literally be aliens (i.e. fifty shades of grey types who are extremely rich and attractive and completely devoted to the very normal obvious self insert female lead)
I am Polish 21:04 and tbh a name like that does not exist in Poland lol. But it is simmilar to the word "zając" (In english: Hare) and idk why but its funny for me. Like if the guy rlly was polish he would have a name like idk. Mateusz (Matthew) maybe Dawid (David), Szymon (Simon), Kuba, Kacper or something like that but most definetly not Zajac 💀
"braterstwo" means brotherhood so that makes sense, but "Zajac" is not a name that any polish person has (according to goverment data). I guess it could be a surname, i searched and 42 people have it as of 2024 but I never heard of any of them.
I always hear about how terrible mafia romance books are, and it's fully deserved. Who writes this garbage. I bet I could write a better mafia romance than this crap.
Well. Listening to this has given me a little bit of spite motivation to continue my terrible toxic couple fanfic. Also probably absurdly dark and edgy, especially given the fandom it's for, but ... Actually IDK that I can even claim it's better at being self aware, OR at being edgy, lmao.
It's nice to see someone approach this with some sensibility. Digging your commentary and this is the first I've seen of your channel. I have no idea why anyone would find this titillating 😳
In fairness, crashing a rvival family's happens in a few stories. Notably, Romeo and Juliet. In that, the only one who cared (Tybalt) was told to leave Romeo alone by the Patriarch (Juliet's dad)
39:46 Cal is basically that theater kid in tiktok that became viral for doing videos as a mafioso character. You all know the one, years ago Kurtis Conner (or Danny Gonzalez) made a video about him and his immitators
Okay, calling the Polish-mafia run stripper club "The Pole" is kinda funny
I agree, classic Triple Endendre
As a Pole, I'll take the Pole over "Zajac" everyday lmao
I wonder if in Montreal, they have a Stripper Club named
The "Qlub" Heck yeah.
U no what, it's a stupid joke.
@@whocareswhatelithinks Wait, how is it triple? I get the Pole as in Polish and pole as in pole-dancing. I am genuinely so curious 😭
@@sahitya3417 THE Pole as in he’s the best Pole
Also the TikTok advertising for this book was SO annoying- they were all some woman like “If you don’t like toxic, age-gap, spicy mafia romances, then GET OUT. This book isnt for you”
I miss the days where skits were just lowkey advertising, at least its slightly less annoying and in your face
I can’t tell if these books are a fetish or just really bad Stockholm syndrome. Maybe both?
I mean, how annoying can it be? Pretty straightforward to me. I would say "you're right! It isn't! I will peacefully scroll on by."
"waaaaa age gap waaaaa"
i love my "daddy boy" and you can get fucked if it bothers you
are people on the internet upset and a 30 and 21 age gap? it sounds like that was put there to be provocative
This entire book is just the “crime, penetration, crime, penetration” joke from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia but played completely straight.
1000% convinced that enemies to lovers just means I hate you until I see you with your shirt off.
It's not supposed to be that way, it's supposed to be "I hate you, and my hate for you is justified. I wanted to beat you just to be able to spit in your face that I won, but then you showed me you're not just human, but fallible, and I should exploit that but now that I understand that I can't bring myself to harm you."
If you want a REAL enemies to lovers (as in 'you killed my brother and thus the only person protecting me from a predator' type enemies) that's LGBT, has amounts of dubcon, has the victim of SA get justice in the form of their assaulter getting his head chopped off, I'd highly recommend Captive Price by C.S Pacat. It's smut with really good plot, and excellent enemies to lovers.
Either that or it’s “he’s a raging psychotic misogynist until he falls in love with her and she just accepts him for some reason”
Enemies to lovers is a fantastic trope that's being wasted on mid YA and porn
@@b1_1nniesy’all need to watch Asian dramas fr
"He thinks he can wax my 🐈without my consent? He doesn't know what he f***ìng started!" is kind of a raw line IMO.
Absolutely
If only she actually did anything about it.
It's really not tho
Be honest, Griffins and Gallo(w)s sound more like a pair of rejected Hogwarts House names than mafia families
Griffins is actually a reference to how Peter griffins became a godfather and started a crime organization
this book is a sequel to the family guy episode when peter becamea godfather, and in this book is about his desendants
The fact that Gallo in italian means cock makes it even funnier
I thought it was a Harry Potter ff lol
"gallus" is the latin word for "chicken", btw. So we already know what animal is on their coat of arms.
new bit of lore: james used to live next to a strip club
my silly ass one day fr
I'm gonna be very honest, everytime the last name Gallo was mentioned I couldn't help but snicker. It means chicken in italian. You guys do whatever you will with this
the real chicken is the author for not committing to anything but the smut
Same for me but in Portuguese lol
In Spanish it means rooster too😭
He’s a chicken
omg i thought it meant that but bc i don't speak italian i was like "naaaah the author wouldn't call them THAT !". i wonder if it was planned bc the rival family is the "Griffin"... so another kind of birds... but a mythical one at last 😂
I don't know about adult women, but my grandma definitely loves these kinds of books. Admittedly, her dark romance collection is centered more on the 'kidnapped by a prince from a strongly patriarchal monarchy that is definitely not the UAE' theme, but that's ultimately just window-dressing.
That is an oddly specific genre I didn't know it even existed and I'm chronically online. Your grandma is into some deep stuff😭
Quick question, how old is your grandpa in comparison and how did they meet? lol
@@stellaoliviasarah For my own sanity, I do not question grandma's sexual fantasies.
It’s from an old novel called « the shiek ». Where middle eastern and North African romance was a thing.
implying your grandma is under the age of 18
Not that it would improve the big problem that Cal is just not a sexy character, but there were at least a couple of missed opportunities to give Aida some agency. Like, when Cal takes all her clothes to force her to wear the dress, Aida wears one of Cal's suits, or rips down a curtain and makes her own dress. Or instead of eating the strawberries as a petty prank to make him look bad in the wedding photos, she does it so he can't force himself on her (Fuck, maybe she even IS trying to kill him? A story where the two love-interests repeatedly try to murder each other and then realise they're actually two psychopaths flirting would at least be interesting!)
I honestly think a lot of “dark” romance would be improved if both sides were psychotic I’m so sick of romance being her “the waifish victim” and him “the sexy abuser” . Give me two absolutely unhinged humans flirting with each other by attempted murder because they have a terrible sense of how to act normal and because neither of them is sane , completely into the whole thing, that would actually be interesting, potentially darkly comical, and might even get me to pick up one of these “dark romances”
@@spacebear1483 It would also actually be far more romantic, because they would not only understand each other perfectly, but be perfect equals. Though to be honest, I might just be thinking of NBC's Hannibal...
@@PassTheMarmalade1957 nooo! I think you’re right! They would be the perfect match made in hell, insane and in love, wayyy more romantic than idolised abuse.
literally them being equals is ALL it takes. i have a incomplete story written with a 'psycho' girl who is more 'violent' than the (basically golden retriever for her) guy. they both have their issues, but despite going up against each other, they also consistently treat one another as precious. they do some unconvincing life-threatening and the like, but are more of a romeo-juliet sort of thing. it's childhood best friends -> long lost (first) love -> enemies -> lovers, with their parents turning against one another. i definitely made the fem a bit meaner towards him than vice-versa. but he DOES get angry over VERY VALID things, like her/her group killing or hurting someone he cares about. he gets angry and hurt, and wonders wtf happened to her in their time apart to make her so awful. he does get aggressive, but never once (intentionally) physically hurts her. one scene, he doesn't see her face and goes in to catch her by surprise; he realises it's her and immediately relents (though she puts a knife to his throat and he's just like 'd@mn! i'm sorry!' lmao).
but for me, a guy mistreating a woman usually just really unsettles me. it has different connotations and almost always a power imbalance, which is physically emphasized. whereas, though my male mc is fairly tall (lanky) and the fem mc is fairly petite, he basically lets her get the upper hand and willingly allows her to, like, grab him by the wrist and drag him alongside her. as opposed to that thing where the girl thrashes about and is tugged and overpowered. though her father figure does do that to her at one point, albeit not in an abusive way and purely taking her away from a situation out of concern. which is kinda my whole point- a FATHER, and she still pulls away and gets genuinely pissed off, lashes out about the controlling-ness with a 'yOuR nOt My DaD!' and he relents lmao.
the ownership over a woman and the entitlement to do as a man pleases aggravates me, particularly when portrayed as romantic or appealing, because it is never treated with the gravity it deserves and feels so gross, because it happens SO OFTEN. irl, it makes me immediately turn off from a guy, bcus it doesn't ever suggest care or consideration, let alone love. ASSAULT is NOT appealing, and it is NEVER CNC portrayed. it is always a literal r*p*st.
i understand it is fantasy, but i hate when they portray violently obsessive men as 'oh so in love' and it's telling that the author has likely never actually suffered at the hands of such a man. it's like they think being r*ped is about being wanted so bad, being irresistible. shocker: it isn't.
irl, they're objectifying, demeaning, and subject the targeted woman to devaluation! it's not sweet like 'awe i'm just so important to him!', it's the opposite. like stalkers rarely ever give a crap about their victims or who they truly are; they just project their (often disturbing) fantasies onto them. like there was a case where this stalking man chased a younger woman around and he told the cops about how she was totally into it, and how she was actually just like the girls in all the noncon corn he watched, while she was obviously terrified and running. in the books, it's just like that, the men are all like 'you like it, huh? nasty $l#t, ik you do' and it's literally nauseating, but the narration treats it like it's attractive. sorry, i am legit ranting atp, but it makes me so unbelievably angry.
@@spacebear1483This is why I like the romcom How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. I’m not a fan of the genre but I like how the FMC is a girlboss and how both love interests fuck with each other.
“Polish is an insult to the concept of spoken language.” That’s a spicy take.
Very mid twentieth-century German Art Deco, you might say
14 versions of one verb is way too much.
@@granienasniadanie8322 that has nothing to do with speach :P
and 14 is a very small number for poles
RIP certain painter turn politician from Austria, you would've loved youtube
I mean it's a bit of a stupid take tbh. Polish is like 10-20 times more logical when spoken than English lmao. It doesn't have 15 ways to pronounce "a," 27 to say "e," 12 to say "th," and there aren't any words (at least none I can think of) that would be spelled the same, but pronounced differently. The sounds it requires you to make aren't that unique or difficult in the first place ("sz" and "cz" are similar to English "sh" and "ch," "ś" is similar-ish to Japanese "shi" and so on), it's just that it tends to bunch up these difficult sounds really densely in most words, which isn't that difficult to overcome once you actually know how to spell things individually. It does get ridiculously hard when it comes to grammar, though, but at this point it's basically the same as Russian.
Can confirm, daddy issues goes away the minute you talk to your father for the first time in 30 years... To bad I have to break up with my mafia boyfriend now
This book feels like a weird mashup of Romeo and Juliet and Taming of the Shrew with gangsters.
It ain't that smart, lol.
“Mafia: Taming of Juliet”
@@corvuscorax1740 lol, nice 😂
That was my first thought too. Why did the Gallos gate-crash the party of their enemies? Because Romeo did it and that's how he met Juliet. It's bog standard copy-paste for every other "star-crossed lovers" story that completely misses the point of the tragedy
honestly as someone who partakes in "problematic" romance fiction but is also able to maintain normal relationships irl, the appeal is mostly in the absurdity of it all. its why stories like this bother me, ones that can't like entirely commit to the male lead being evil fr. im so tired of these stories where he's just the same as any misogynist i can find on the street corner but in a different outfit. the best stories are ones where the men are unhinged to a degree i can't see a real person actually doing these things and the story doesnt make excuses about him not being that bad actually. imo that's the whole point of it being "fantasy", its meant to be something that can only live as a fantasy.
I think part of it is also imagining just how differently you would act in a situation like that, or like anyone would
@eleanorcatherino3839 ikr !! it's fun to think about how you'd react to situations you would never actually be in
This is why I can understand the appeal of werewolf erotica and those time-travelling stories far more than stuff like this.
That's what I've been saying for years 😔 I want them unhinged, delirious, psychotic. Not some alpha male wannabe in three piece suit and a podcast.
Time to get syphilce@@PassTheMarmalade1957
BRAZILIAN WAX WHILE UNCONSCIOUS ACTUALLY MADE MY JAW DROP. dropped my phone on my FACE.
dropped your phone onto your dropped jaw like how the forgettable fmc’s brother drops and combusts women’s panties
26:06 they inmediately have sex after she *shot him in the arm?!* Forget the anger that would be logical to feel in that situation, does the guy at least puts a bandaid over the wound before he starts the plowing?! WTF?!
Dw, instead of pouring out of his arm all the blood went to his dick so its all good lol
All the blood goes to his d so he stops bleeding. /j
As someone from Southern Italy, I really don’t get the mafia romances. There’s nothing sexy and about criminals who made regions miserable for generations.
Mafia kinda sprouted up after the invasion by Sardinia-Piedmont, so really it's those pesky French-Italians fault.
The south could not understand what Savoy wanted and required, and the Savoy did not try to acknowledge any of the differences.
It’s so funny when smut authors name their books something similar to some popular book or movie even when the two pieces have nothing in common. This author didn’t even tried to hide they wanted people to mix their book with The Cruel Prince 😭
No seriously, I was trying to find this video again cause I didn’t finish it and I kept on searching up cruel prince
There was a lifetime movie about a woman marrying into a Mafia family I saw years ago. It basically started like a normal romance, great woman meets wonderful guy. Cute moments and dates. It wasn't until after they got married that she (and the viewer) started noticing strange things about the man and his family. She eventually confronts him, learns that she married into a Mafia family and is absolutely horrified. She's terrified, so she doesn't divorce him but she does begin to pull away from him -- especially after he physically assaulted her. He ends up cheating on her, she finds out, she's been confiding in a close friend about everything. Near the end, she finally makes the choice to run (I think she was planning on getting into the witness protection program or something). His family found out and had her killed. The movie ends with her funeral and him with the woman he cheated on her with, who is revealed to be the friend she confided in. He has some internal monologue about how her fate could have been different if she had accepted him and his family and the "friend" smirks while looking at her casket.
I felt it was a very realistic version of a Mafia "romance/marriage", especially for one not realizing what they were getting into. Great movie, wish I could remember the name of it, but it forever will turn you off of Mafia romances because of the realistic picture it paints.
This sounds great
Why does it feel like I need to mentally add 3 years to an adult character?
btw the polsih name isnt really your fault because its polish and also it's a mispelling i think it's supposed to be zając (pronounced kinda like zah-yonce) meaning hare although its aslo only used as a surname
fun other thing theres a polish gang in philideplhia called the kielbasa posse
wait is it unironically called the sausage posse because that's hilarious or is my russian playing tricks on me
@@eldara3yeah it is
Are they behind sausage sellers, or do they make manmeat sausages
Idea; mafia tragedy marketed as a romance. Like it’s got all the romance tropes, but it ends with another boss coming in and killing the couple and taking over
Oh like in Hamlet
Dear God the bar is in HELL when it comes to books like this.
the lee harvey oswald line is W I L D
Saying "the Italians" or "the Columbians" is like when westerners talk about "Arabs" as if they're all on the same side. Like, there were five major families just in NYC and there were dozens of other smaller factions within those families and they all constantly changed alliances. The Godfather was about a war between just Italians, specifically sicilians, Peaky Blinders touched on a lot of different cultures because it was often safer to work with foreign organizations, the closer the proximity the more likely they'd benefit from getting rid of the other.
The irritating thing is - when they say "Italians" they really mean "Sicilians". You only need to Google for longer than ten minutes. Read a book like "The Five Families" by Selwyn Raab. Anything. But that would get in the way of writing the smut I guess. Research? These authors have no time for that.
true, also Colombia actually went through a huge gang war after Escobar died, there's no way killing one gang caused all Colombians to fear some Polish dude
@@KatAdVictoriamwhat other books/resources would u recommend to learn more abt mafias around the world?
@@DaFireElf There are so many. Definitely Non-Fiction or even Biographies on well known Mafia figures, or Cartel leaders or even topics like KGB history, the fall of the Eastern Bloc in order to get an idea for how mafia-like organizations developed. There is so much out there, really.
Booktok loves spice level, do they? They need Cornbread Mafia romance.
Full of whiskey, racism and lots of dubcon cousins. Suuuuper edgy.
Don't give them ideas, Satan's already tripping over the bar to work.
@@chaoticautistic7113 Ha! Yes, this is true!
13:50
“[…] groomed head to toe.”
So he wants her to be bald?!
No, obviously not.
@@saucefreakystyle
The joke flew right over your head…
@@SheilaCid-gz2zq I got the joke, it was just dumb
@@saucefreakystyle
49 people didn’t. Just leave it be.
Never reading this, not even for the"fun" or smut. Thanks for bearing the cross yet again james
Polish gal here, I took psychic damage from the „Pole” strip club
Tiktok just can’t stop making
BANGER After BANGER
Yeah, banging my hand in the door so the physical pain overwrites the mental pain from this book🤪
I wonder how many people there are who got recomaned "the cruel prince" and accidentally got this book instead. There's got to be at least one person, right?
23:51 I know I shouldn't expect accuracy in fetish material, but I don't know what's more absurd - the idea that Polish mafia controls Lawndale and Garfield Park or the fact that the two neighborhoods are in the same sentence as Ukrainian Village.
(For non-Chicagoans - Lawndale and Garfield Park are mostly Black and mostly poor (though East Garfield Park is gentrifying little by little). Ukrainian Village is.... neither of those things)
"I would have to read the book with both hands." 😂😂😂
Straight woman here! Dear god no, I'm not into this. I enjoy a good dark romance, but not when it's just 'misogyny but the guy's hot so it's ok!'
Adult woman who can tell reality from fantasy, and i think the thought of teenagers reading this kind of thing is what really does concern me about the genre. Otherwise, its just someones idea of fun fantasy trash with or without the sex scenes, not that much different from like ... nobody kill me for this, but John Wick and the Fast and Furious series (both of which i quite enjoyed).
Tbh even as a teen I could tell fantasy from reality. I know not all do, but I never really fantasized about any relationship like these- I even watched Twilight and people were concerned about that too.
I don’t think it should be promoted towards teens like you said, but eh. Sneaky teens gonna find it either way lol.
Though at my time at school my classmates were talking about Pretty Little Liars and that’s… uh… was a teen drama. That was definitely something that shouldn’t been promoted toward teens either 😭
@@TabbyWithMittens 4 sure! Not all teens are susceptible to the bad ideas in the stuff they consume, and they are gonna get their hands on things not marketed to them. I read Twilight when I was a teen and could not figure out what the fuss was about, though I also couldn't tell what was problematic about the whole imprinting thing at the time either.
I guess my concern has to end up being not just about the media itself, but the way society treats the ideas in it. Action flicks are tempered slightly by the fact that violence is taught explicitly at a young age as a bad thing. Whereas I don't really know that we teach esp young girls to expect to be treated well by the guys that are supposed to love them, and these kind of stories, whether explicitly marketed towards teens or not, definitely reinforce the ideas that equate violence and lack of consent with love. Maybe that'll change with time! Or already is.
(Definitely agree with you on Pretty Little Liars, too.... That being explicitly meant to be a teen show terrifies me considering what ive heard and seen of it.)
It’s very clear that the generation of teens who only read fanfiction and/or derivative “Original” stories in wattpad Grew up and are now young adults Who buy and write books like this and I hate it.
Hey! There is so- oh Wattpad. Yeah, fair.
I got my fix of mafia stories on wattpad but actually paying for it? Fuck no.
I think that part of the appeal of the dominant man is that they are capable- alot of the time women are required to do alot, cook, clean, work, raise kids, be attractive and make their significant others attractive to others so the idea of him coming in and taking some non important decisions would appeal. Think like the middle age woman who has to explain to her husband that cargo shorts can't be worn to weddings and then the dress scene makes more sense... still weird and violent but so is corn made for men. I think the issue with admitting you read corn is more related to social conditioning aswell. Love your content! Thank you for the video❤
A few chapters into this book and you'll be sleepin with da fishes
I think the guy's name was supposed to be "Zając" ("Hare") but the author couldn't be bothered to use proper polish letters because Zajac isn't a polish word or name. Also forgainers try to respect Polish people challange.
(99% of people f̶a̶i̶l̶ partition poland)
Your squiting at the screen after you said edgier cracked me up - cant wait to see the rest!! Lol
I cooka da pizza
Badda-bing Badda-boom
Aye man, this aint funny. Quit ya jokin or we'll make yas sleep with the fishes!
mama mia
I don't have words to express how much I despise these new "genres" that are becoming popular (romantasy, toxic romance, romance with elves and fairies, bullying romance, and other crap like that) so I won't even start.
truly, the Wattpad-ification of literature
I'm beginning to think people love to be abused or something. 🤔
They were always popular
@@eleanorcatherino3839 Not in my bubble, but now it seems like I can't escape them anymore, they're everywhere.
i understand for the ones like bullying and toxic romance, but romantasy and the type with elves and fairies isn't nearly as bad, definitely overdone and annoying though.
this reminds me of a romantic comedy anime I saw, nisekoi, in which the main character, the teenage son of a yakuza boss, is forced to fake date his classmate, the tsundere daughter of an american mafioso
Racketeering, money laundering, and tossing snitches? Now THAT'S what I call romance!
I've seen fanfiction like this book, and even on the sites the authors that write this stuff admit its just an excuse for porn. I don't understand why people are trying to make it seem like this book isn't just porn with plot as an afterthought
The funny thing is that the polish mafia boss is named Zajac which is probably the word „Zając” which means a bunny, but mostly when you say „Zając” people imagine an Easter bunny
Zając means Hare, Królik means bunny...
As an adult woman who has recently gotten into watching mafia films, I can’t imagine a mafia romance that wouldn’t be problematic 😭
As a polish person Id say that naming the bad guy Zajac which was propably supposed to be zając is hilarious (it literally means rabbit)
Ha! Toxic? You haven't seen/read real "toxic" until you read the most popular actual BL Korean comics
Right? Trying to find not horrifically abusive gay light novels/anime is next to impossible. I've found like 3 ever
@@morgank.6113 there are quite a few "just" a little toxic, but definitely not the more popular ones xD
@@andrea-0.0 tru tru. And I do occasionally enjoy some of those, as I am a drama lover, I just cant do the like rapey ones at all
No cuz they're scary😨
How to date youtuber james tullos
step one: never ever steal his great grandfathers prize heirloom watch
step two:???
step three: profit
33:52 In this case the sequels are about all the siblings finding love, which is also pretty common but not necessarily less dumb
14:44 Well I’ll have you know my father didn’t hug me as a child and Callum STILL sounds like a manchild nightmare to me soooo…
Okay this book is so bizarre and the way of thinking of both main characters is just disgusting to me and also about the Polish mafia guy, I'm Polish and I never in my life heard of anyone named Zajac
Thanks for the trauma dumping. It’s helping me navigate literature by showing where the rocks are. Like a lighthouse, now that I think about it.
Our James and Saviour, trapped again in a hell of His own making.
Imagine being 'friends' with this couple. You're a nice normal couple who goes to their parties and sees them for brunch. The hot girl volunteers at your family business and gets it trashed after being kidnapped again. The hot guy pays for the triple for the damages, and the hot girl is mad because 'she can clean up her own mess' and how dare he step in again she doesn’t need rescuing. Never mind, she can't afford to fix the windows. Someone always gets punched at their parties, and the girl yells a lot about things the guy has done and gets randomly kidnapped or attacked. And the normal couple always come early to help set up and leave last to help clean up because they actually care about them. Shes the one who gets the late night phone call about how stupid rich guy is. And the normal boyfriend gets paid a few million to achieve his dream simply for always being there for the hot girl. But the normal couole do live vicariously through the hot couple.
Crazy Joe Gallo was a famously insane mafia enforcer from back in the day. How crazy? He literally modeled himself after a movie gangster from the film Kiss of Death. seriously He was diagnosed as a schizophrenic but I actually asked a shrink and given that people usually ran around labeling people incorrectly. Usually one diagnosed with schizophrenia before 1970 were actually severely bipolar. Kinda like how Openhimer was diagnosed with "dementia precox" (another term for schizophrenia ) back in his university days.
Is that why he left impractical Jokers?
Hell even to this day armchair psychologists or even some of the shittier actual psychologists will still confuse bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
The "edgy" bits had me laughing. You've got the sexy squint down
If my Italian doesn’t fail me, gallo means rooster, so mafia being associated with Italian mobsters, this family is more or less called “the Roosters” (galli would be more accurate for the plural, but you know) and they’re against the Griffins. That’s kinda funny.
"Polish is an insult to the concept of spoken language." - Homie I don't know what to tell you, if that's the way you talk about an ordinary Slavic language, you're not strong enough to survive the entire rest of the Germanic family (that aren't English). Also say what you will about Polish, but it has a very consistent spelling system, like once you learn how each symbol is pronounced, you're pretty much good to go. As opposed to English, whose spelling is so inconsistent anglophone schoolchildren compete in figuring out how each word is actually written.
(I am Slovak and think Polish is bullshit for entirely different reasons, namely that to average Slovak it just sounds hillarious.)
it's so good to see my language hated on CORRECTLY. you need to know sth to insult it right
My dude, ANY language in the world has more consistent spelling rules than English 😂😂😂
@@diewott1337 What about French?
@@diewott1337Wait til you get to Chinese languages and Japanese kanji…
@@Wired_Userjapanese definitely has more consistent phonetic spelling rules than english lol
14:14 “does the average straight woman really fantasize about men who act and think like CG does?” NO‼️‼️🤨‼️ (at least i don’t LMAO)
Polish person here, "Zając" means "Rabbit" in Polish. It's not a name, nobody ever would be named like this. Author propably just used google translate to make name that sounds cool and egdy
The fact that mafia romance lit is a thing has immediately unlocked a memory of the fact that there was a really weeby mangaesque webcomic from like the mid-2000s called 'Cosa Nostra' centering on the escapades of a girl (or guy?) who ends up joining the mafia. I don't remember any details about it besides a scene where the main protag bumps into a Japanese man on an early 20th century immigrant boat sailing across the atlantic from europe of all places.
These people who "fantasize" about fictional characters like these likely would not anymore if they actually experienced it in real life. I too get the difference between reality and fantasy, but this is too extreme to be removed from
I love the idea of mafia romance, but I've never once read a good one, but i will keep looking for something good
Why make this a story where they get married? Why not just two enemies who have angry sex a few times?
I ask because even if that stuff turns you on, why would you also think it would work as a marriage?
It's not hot. It's very worrying. 😢
Edit: love the review!
There is one book that i really like about prehistoric life thats called "The Clan of the Cave Bear", but after the first book they turned it into a series that seems to be porn books, like the ones mentioned in this video... have anyone else here read those?
No yeah I read the first one and was like "ok, the graphic descriptions of child rape are kinda weird but it was a good book," and then got into the second one and it became porn.
OMG I read the first two. AND I GOT THEM FROM MY MOM
@@cicooooooo No way?! the same thing happened to me too- that's a crazy coincidence (idk what age you were but I was eleven... I'm 90% sure my ma forgot what really went down in those books) I'm also sure most of it went straight over my head lol
@@lemonn_jellie I was 15 but it was still really weird. Definitely too much sex in there for me, when all I wanted was a nice historical book :(
When you mentioned the pole (or is it pol?) strip club and i kept thinking about clinton saying “pokemon go to the poll”
The stupidest part about this is the premise. To stop a war between two mafia groups, instead of secession of territory or money (while James says it’s common it’s really only common between Families (in the Italian mafia there are five families, with a dozen clans under them each) and that’s more a fact of where they grow up than any poltical planning.
It's a little weird that her reaction to being SA'd in her sleep is just "It's on like Donkey Kong"
PLEASE never stop reviewing
Im sick rn and this is a perfect watch while suffering in my bed, thank you
"Polish is an affront to the concept of a spoken language" is such a terminally Anglophone take lmao
Someone found out about Nisekoi, and tried to recreate it, but made it worse (not that Nisekoi is that good...)
You're my favorite channel on CZcams lately. I love falling asleep to your snarky analyses of terrible books. Thank you James ❤
3:59 They snuck into the party because this book has delusions of being Romeo and Juliette
And not only is it not that, it's also not even enemies to lovers, because they bang pretty much straight away while still hating each other. Forget the sexy slow-burn and rivalry, just try to drown her in the pool and then get straight to fucking.
this video got recommended to me and i'm so instantly hooked LMAO this was awesome, thanks for this video
So, Zajac is angry that one of his sons didn't marry Ida to merge their family businesses. What about one of Zajac's sons marrying one of Ida's brothers (maybe the super-sexy one who makes the pants spontaneously combust)? That would've been the interestingly modern take on the robust and dangerous mob story, now wouldn't it? ;)
how would they make mob babies tho 🥲
Booktokus Romanus,
Been edgyus won't protectus to the "Ridiculous" spellus...God damnus!!!
you saying ''dont worry about it'' felt so nice and reassuring, that if you had a cameo i would pay for you to say it over and over, so i could listen to it while doing my research project
I’m polish and have never in my life known anyone or known of anyone named Zajac lol. I think it was supposed to be Zając (rabbit) but this word is never used as a name, only a surname, so the author is completely off. Also the comment about my language being unintelligible is wrong and I am personally offended, our surnames don’t look like wifi passwords at all. 22:49
Classic Italian name “Callum Griffin”
I really don’t know what these people see in these book boyfriends/husbands. Like, are you guys just skipping to the s*x scenes?? And just skipping the highly alarming “plot?” Also 21 and 30 is soooo concerning what’s even more so concerning is that the scary age gap was a selling point😭 why is the age gap never 30 and 40 when it’s ok at that point? Why is it always someone barely legal with a full grown man?! That power dynamic is crazy!
“I’d have to read that book with both hands” OMFFFFF dyinggg
Omg i remember this book! I was bloody gifted one of them! Where the irish youngest gets stockholm syndromed into falling in love with a polish gangster that kidnapped her.
Hey now you can't be mad at all romance authors because of the ones that are into CNC or abusive partners - there are plenty of romance novels with golden retriever type loyal himbos who actually ask for consent!
That being said, the romance novels that show healthy relationships that I'm familiar with are interspecies relationships, so maybe the authors still have issues (or I have the issues for primarily reading alien/fantasy creature/monster romance😅).
My personal theory is that it's easier for women to suspend their disbelief of aliens than to believe a human male would be an extremely loyal feminist who is great in the bedroom, extremely muscular and talented, loves children, only has eyes for their regular looking partner, and whose ultimate dream is to do everything for them.
Personally, the himbo simp archetype is much more attractive. 🤷
How many cats do you plan on having in the future?
Any recommendations?
I feel like I’d end up on some kind of watchlist if I googled what CNC means…
@@zacharysieg2305 consensual non-consent or very specific kind of roleplaying in the bedroom.
@@gstellar96 I totally see how my comment came across as super salty 😂 I'm happily married.
What I was trying to convey is that romance leads are written in such an unbelievable way that they might as well literally be aliens (i.e. fifty shades of grey types who are extremely rich and attractive and completely devoted to the very normal obvious self insert female lead)
I am Polish 21:04 and tbh a name like that does not exist in Poland lol. But it is simmilar to the word "zając" (In english: Hare) and idk why but its funny for me. Like if the guy rlly was polish he would have a name like idk. Mateusz (Matthew) maybe Dawid (David), Szymon (Simon), Kuba, Kacper or something like that but most definetly not Zajac 💀
I thought that was his codename or smth
"braterstwo" means brotherhood so that makes sense, but "Zajac" is not a name that any polish person has (according to goverment data). I guess it could be a surname, i searched and 42 people have it as of 2024 but I never heard of any of them.
I always hear about how terrible mafia romance books are, and it's fully deserved. Who writes this garbage. I bet I could write a better mafia romance than this crap.
It would be fun to see like a humorful slapstick kidnappers who kidnap a mafia boss and then they fall in love
21:06 no fucking way the guy’s name is Hare 😭
Gallos in Spanish translates to roosters and I think that’s hilarious
"But does it have spice?" The Booktok gooners chant in unison.
Well. Listening to this has given me a little bit of spite motivation to continue my terrible toxic couple fanfic. Also probably absurdly dark and edgy, especially given the fandom it's for, but ... Actually IDK that I can even claim it's better at being self aware, OR at being edgy, lmao.
PLEASE PLEASE write smthn about a mafia boss dude being kidnapped and falling in love with his kidnapper it would be so funny
Can't guarantee it, but lmao I do love that premise 😂👏
I feel like this video is one of your funniest, which is good because a serious retelling would cause me to lose it
I feel like James going down BookTok/Indie Dark romances is the beginning to an evil, far more sinister James
Honestly, the idea of mafia-romance was only interesting to me until I read one half of a wattpad story about it. I don’t see why it is so popular.
It's nice to see someone approach this with some sensibility. Digging your commentary and this is the first I've seen of your channel. I have no idea why anyone would find this titillating 😳
In fairness, crashing a rvival family's happens in a few stories. Notably, Romeo and Juliet. In that, the only one who cared (Tybalt) was told to leave Romeo alone by the Patriarch (Juliet's dad)
39:46 Cal is basically that theater kid in tiktok that became viral for doing videos as a mafioso character. You all know the one, years ago Kurtis Conner (or Danny Gonzalez) made a video about him and his immitators