Merciless

There are multiple issues with this book.1. For a book that is supposed to be a dark romance there is absolutely no romance. I’m not sure when kidnapping someone, starving them, mentally torturing them and forcing them to give you sex because the only other choice is to die of starvation became ethically ok to write about. In fact the one word we hear from Aria over and over again is FEAR.As multiple other reviewers have said Stockholm Syndrome. I love a good dark romance however this book is not that at all.2. I’m so tired of authors using a cliffhanger ending to get you to buy more books. What purpose did the ending here serve? There was no resolution whatsoever for any of the characters. We barely learned anything about the characters in this book.3. Carter has no compassion or light. All he cares about is breaking Aria and owning her. He doesnt actually care anything about her as a person. Anti-heroes can make for very interesting and complex characters. Carter is none of these. He is the same person at the beginning as he is at the end.In short this book is vastly overrated and underwritten. Not going to read the second book.

This story is sick and should come with a warning label. This is a non-consent story about kidnapping, coersion (rape), murder. Spoiler alert. There's nothing romantic or sexy about holding a woman in a filthy cell for weeks, starving and torturing her until she agrees to be a rich man's sex toy. This book really missed the mark for me. Especially the ending, which was ludicrous. The PTSD-suffering-broken-little-female of the novel spends the whole book indecisive and victimized until the very end when she somehow summons force of will enough to murder another human being? This is not a romance. This is not erotica. This is glorification of violence, kidnapping, murder, rape. If that's your thing...All of that aside, the author still needs to get an editor to help her develop her writing. Her metaphors are painful to read, dialog is stilted, and Characters are sparse in motivation and underdeveloped from a reader perspective.

I have officially jumped down the rabbit hole that is angsty, kept me teetering on the fine line between love and hate, understanding, and confusion, darkness, and light that is W. Winters-- and I am not quite sure if I am ready to come back out yet! Holy mind wreck! A gripping tale of the darkness in two lost souls, this romance is not for the faint of heart... Ms. Winters draws a compelling, detailed, heart twisting, sometimes maddening relationship between the individually different, broken pair- Carter and Aria.Intricately detailed, with so much heart gah! This storyline keeps sucking me in.. I am fully invested now- more than ever!I eagerly await the next book!#ONECLICK MATERIAL5 Stars!!!!

I don’t care for books that end with a cliffhanger and my understanding is tha book two also ends with out a resolution . What a waste .

MERCILESS is exactly the right title for this book. There is little to zero romance in this story. With three violent crime families at war, there is plenty of tension and intrigue to make you keep turning the pages. And among all this fighting is a broken young woman that is caught between it all.Her name is Aria Talvery and she is the daughter of the most violet crime family of them all. Her mother was murdered in front of her when she was only eight years old. She has never been okay since. Her father is a crook, but has kept her safe. She loves to draw, and hides away in her room. Away from all the madness and danger. But one day someone stole her precious drawing pad that held a picture of her deceased mother. She left the safety of her home and father's protection in hope of getting it back. That was the day her life changed forever!!Carter Cross is the oldest of the four Cross brothers and head of a drug cartel. He took over the territory from his father, and along with his three brothers Jase, Daniel, and Declan rules with an iron fist. He never shows mercy and is plain heartless. He is domineering, controlling, and extremely possessive. He wanted nothing to do with the war between Talvery and the Romanos. He felt it had nothing to do with them. What he did want and was going to get was Nicholas Talvery's daughter Aria as his own. He took her from her family. Locked her in a room and told her in simple words that her former life was over and she belonged to him.Carter and Aria's story is far from over and doesn't end with this book. Their story will continue in W Winters next book HEARTLESS.

Not very well written. The author fails miserably when she tries to make the reader understand Carter's reasoning for abusing Aria, humiliating her and locking her away. That he was trying to free her of her fear of Stephan?! He didn't even know anything about what Stephan had done to her at that stage either and only killed him at the dinner party, after hearing Aria screaming Stephan's name during her night terrors. By which time Carter had already taken Aria and brutally abused her. If he took her because he was trying to save her from the attack on her family, fine. But he doesn't need to treat her like he does, abusing her physically, emotionally and physiologically, starving her, then forcing her to kill someone.The writing fails to make this a dark erotica, instead it's just not pleasant to read what he does to her and it's definitely not sexy. There is nothing sexy about a broken girl being forced to submit. I hated the other male character's, like Daniel and Jase, for standing back and allowing him to abuse her in the cell for weeks. So I won't be reading their stories.With mistakes from the start, typos, words out of order, paragraphs that are only a couple of sentences long, actions, inner monologues that don't fit, unbelievable scenes, a weak plot with holes and a cliff hanger too, this is seriously not a good read. Not well constructed and not well written.

This book offends most of my sensibilities as a woman. I like a bit of noir but this systematic breakdown of someone through such barbaric methods as if they are a prisoner of war is very un-sexy and UN-romantic to me.Also allowing her to kill someone will devastate her.I have read two books from this author and they promise to make good reading but the manipulation of the female characters shows a fundamental weakness in their in their make up. The male characters on the other hand are described how women would like to have their men - strong . They don't live up to this though and are usually blunt and a bit self absorbed. This is my last book by her.

I’m still trying to catch my breath! OMG, Merciless is not what I anticipated it to be and it left me speechless! It gave all the feels with mixed emotions!A spine tingling and Angsty Must Read! 🖤Carter Cross!?! - I hated him but at the same time I just could not help but love him- he’s ruthless m, powerful dangerous but hot! 🔥This story is very much a dark romance that’s gripping and addictive - it’s a story you are drawn into where you cannot put it down- I read feeling anxious throughout and it had me on the edge of my seat! I kept looking at how much was left and wondering where on earth was this going and how’s it going to end- it’s definitely not a story you can predict let me tell you ! you will be reading it with bated breath!! I found Merciless to be probably one of the darkest I’ve read of Willows, so intense and deep yet captivating and as usual she’s left us craving more!

Not what I expected, and frankly couldn't understand the plot or reasoning. The story, as I vaguely understood it, is based on three mafia families. Carter appears to form an alliance with the Romanos, and to prove themselves, he asks them to kidnap the daughter of the Talverys, Aria. From hereon, left me confused. He repeatedly says, she is special and she saved his life, but he treats her badly, mentally and physically abusing her. Aria witnessesd her mother's murder, and it has since plagued her with persistent nightmares. So she is already mentally frail. The end goal, in this book, is when Carter allows Aria to get revenge. I dont mind books about submissive relationships, but this was abusing an already weak character. I could not find a way to like Carter as a character, and as such, disliked most of the content.

Carter – his persona is one of those that you just cannot help but love and respect even though it was a bit full on at times. He’s hard to work out and I could not predict what he was going to do next. There is this almost untouchable energy around him and I found him to be the most fascinating character in this book.Aria – I don’t know how to feel about her to be honest in the beginning. I did not really know how to take her behaviour and attitudes towards Carter because she was rightly afraid, annoyed and fearful of what was going to happen. Her submission and her demeanour is written very well and she’s definitely a character to watch.This story has many different twists and turns and a very addictive nature. You will not want to put it down and I am so glad that I found this book! I don’t know how to sum up this book – I don’t think it can be summed up really because it is the first of 4 books. I feel the darkness and the chemistry so much and it really was addicting to read because now whilst I’m writing this review I have read all 4 books. There is something compelling about the way that Willow writes and I have to say that if you haven’t read anything by this author and this is my first book of hers – you’re missing out for damn sure! Once you start reading there is no way you can stop, literally no way.