*Grabby Hands* Release & Review - Brazilian Revenge by Carmen Falcone

Image and blurb from Goodreads

Title: Brazilian Revenge

Release date:  March 7th, 2016

Author: Carmen Falcone

Entangled

About the book:

Losing his heart wasn’t part of the plan…

Human rights lawyer Leonardo Duarte wants to destroy Satyanna Darling, the woman who disappeared after a weekend of earth shattering sex…along with his priceless sculpture. But when he finds her in a Brazilian prison a year later he realizes she didn't act alone and blackmails her into helping him find the man behind the theft.

Satyanna wants to return to the US and stay out of prison, but she knows Leonardo won't let her, unless she takes him to the man who really stole from him. As they embark on a cat and mouse game to find the man with all the answers, dodging their attraction to each other becomes even more difficult. But even while things heat up between them, secrets and mistrust threaten everything. 

Goodreads | Amazon

My thoughts:

3.5 “Sexy Brazilian hero” STARS

ARC via NetGalley

Thank you, Entangled!

First things first: YAY for a Brazilian author publishing hot romances in English! Go, Carmen!

With that out of the way, let’s get into the story of Satyanna (what’s up with that name?) and Leonardo doing the nasty in Rio de Janeiro.

Told in dual POV, the story follows Satyanna’s adventures in Brazil, a country she traveled to when the only father figure she’d ever known called her asking for another chance to reestablish their relationship. Satyanna knew she couldn't really trust Harry, a criminal with a long police record, but she was so desperate to be part of a family that she was willing to give him a chance to prove her he had changed. Except he hadn't. Harry manipulated her into flirting with a sexy Brazilian lawyer, Leonardo, and while they had hot sex after hot sex in a hotel room, Harry stole a valuable statue from Leonardo’s place.

Like I said, the sex was hot.

So hot that Leonard apparently spent a whole weekend in bed with Satyanna, but when he woke up on Monday, she was gone and so was his statue. Of course he thought she had helped Harry steal it from him. I would've thought the same.

Flash forward a year, and Leonardo meets Satyanna again. This time, she’s where he wanted her to be: behind bars. But with a promise that she’ll help him find Harry and get the statue back, Leonardo pulls some strings (the Brazilian way of doing things, unfortunately) and releases her. Satyanna is now his “prisoner” and they both try (and fail) to pretend they don’t like that at all.

Turns out Harry stole more than the statue from Leonardo… When Leonardo learns the truth about a secret Satyanna kept from him and they find that Harry has something that belongs to both of them, the hunting starts. Not gonna go into details because of SPOILERS.

What made this book different from others in the same genre was that it balanced the romance with a little bit of action. The plot was interesting and had some surprising twists. There was room for more, though, but I guess it offered enough since most romances are much quieter than that.

I wish I’d seen a lot more of Rio de Janeiro and Maranhão, two of the places mentioned in the story. Both places are so, so beautiful, but the author didn’t explore the setting. It’s always a shame when you have an exotic setting, but it doesn’t come alive in the pages.

While the sexual chemistry was there and all the scenes between Leonardo and Satyanna were steamy, I missed a wider range of emotion in non-sexual scenes – especially when it came to Satyanna. There were many instances when I thought she’d break down and break my heart, but it almost felt like she (or the author) was holding back. There was potential for real, raw emotion, but it fell flat.

Like I said, the romance didn’t disappoint. Seeing as how Leonardo thought Satyanna couldn’t be trusted, but his body still desired hers, the tension between them was palpable. He wanted her. She wanted him just as bad. They tried to resist each other and I had a lot of fun reading about all of it.

This was a sexy story with a little bit of action that was easy to read and delivered what it had promised. Plus, it has a hot Brazilian LI, so what else could you want, right?