Book Review - Mafia's Bodyguard Boxset by Tera Jones

Mafia’s Bodyguard Box Set.

I’ve just finished reading this box set. Writing a review for this is quite difficult. I cannot really give this box set anything but 3 stars out of 5. As this box set contains 5 books, I will briefly review each.

BOOK ONE

Vince Jones is a bodyguard for nine-year-old, Perla – the daughter of his best friend, Mauricio, and wife Nikki, in Miami.

Graciela (Gracie) Irving, whose mother is a good friend of Nikki, becomes a tutor for Perla. After being interviewed at their estate, Gracie’s car breaks down in front of a fancy restaurant. Vince comes to her rescue (and even gets her car fixed). He takes Gracie out for a beer to cheer her up. When some frat boys hassle her after she visits the bathroom, Vince defends her by becoming heavy handed with a college boy – which she finds is hot. Not sure if a show of violence would be ‘hot’ to me. Anyway, Gracie invites him in when he takes her home, one thing leads to another, and they get hot and heavy on the couch.

I have a couple of issues with this book. First, there were a lot of “I thought to myself”, and “I said to myself” written in. So many, that it became quite annoying. At times, characters who are speaking run together instead of being separated. After their hot and heavy interlude after she invited him in, Gracie reminisces about ‘the other night’ when in fact, it should be ‘last night’. Book one ends with someone by the name of Elaine entering the story.

BOOK TWO

For two weeks, Gracie ignores Vince, doesn’t take his calls, or pretends he’s not around while she’s tutoring Perla. Nine-year-old, Perla, notices that Vince likes Gracie and teases him about it. For a nine-year-old, this kid has a sassy mouth. But I think she was a likeable character. I just wouldn’t put up with the way she back-talks. Vince manages to explain who Elaine is to Gracie – his serial cheating, ex-wife, who also tried it on with his best friend, Mauricio, quite a few times, but failed. Vince takes a day/night off to be with Gracie, and Mauricio’s house is shot up. There was a disturbing note that came with pictures of all of them – showing they’d been under surveillance for some time, and Vince didn’t notice.

Vince takes Gracie, and her mother, to hide away to remain safe. This book ends with their car being intentionally t-boned by Carlos’s son – who isn’t named anything other than that. He didn’t seem to have a name of his own. Gracie ends up with a broken leg, and Vince ends up slipping an engagement ring on her finger while she recuperates at his apartment.

There are some issues with this second book. To begin with, I wonder if it was edited. There are full stops in the middle of some sentences, at one point there is a capital letter half-way through a word, and there seems to be lots of spacing throughout – enough to make me wonder if it was done intentionally to extend the length of the book.

BOOK THREE

Let me give you the gist of the story before I get to the issues.

Perla is dropped off at Vince’s apartment to be looked after for the weekend while Mauricio and Nikki visit with his mother who is sick in hospital. Nikki remains with his mother, while Mauricio returns.

Gracie promised to take Perla to the Children’s Science Museum. While she waits for a red light to change along the way, two cars pull up – one in front, one in behind – trapping her in. Lots of men with guns approach with a message for Perla to give her dad. Gracie reacts and gets them out of the situation, but as a result, she breaks off the engagement with Vince.

Now to the issues… There are so many, I wonder if this book was even beta read. For example: She was like the male version of me. Rock-solid. This is Vince talking about Gracie. This should have been ‘the female version’. There are a lot of spelling mistakes, and missing words throughout. The author repeats how Vince and Gracie met like the reader doesn’t already know from book one. Toward the end, Gracie slips off her engagement ring – twice. If she’s already taken it off, how can she take it off a second time?

BOOK FOUR

There is not much I can say about the progression of the story line in this book. Basically, Gracie leaves Vince, has an interview, Vince tries to win her back, and after they get hot and heavy in her childhood bedroom, men in masks break the door down, and someone gets shot.

This book is in dire need of editing. Grace didn’t ‘give’ the interview, she attended it. How can Perla place her hands on her wrists? Think that should have been waist. I had to re-read a heap of paragraphs along the read to try to understand what the author wanted to convey. I wasn’t really impressed with this book.

BOOK FIVE

The reader finds out that Gracie was knocked out, Vince has been kidnapped, has been shot in the shoulder, and tied to a chair in a factory of some sort. Fredo Nochi the 3rd (from a rival gang – and is the blue-eyed man causing all the havoc along the way) wants the throne, and thinks he can get to Mauricio through Vince. Vince is taped being beaten up, then that is sent to Mauricio via email. After a very short ‘investigation’ by Gracie and Nikki, they find the factory where Vince is being held, and Vince is rescued.

I don’t think this book was even proofread. Vince being tied to the chair is repeated twice, Gracie refers to her mother as ‘the woman I call mother’ way too much, and a wrong character name was used - “Vince and Nikki are shocked to the core” should have been Mauricio and Nikki.

I know how hard it is to produce a book. This story line has good bones, but I feel it should have been ‘fleshed out’ a lot more. Especially the detective work by Gracie and Nikki. I also feel Mauricio would not have allowed that to happen. Mafioso have a chain-of-command, even if they have tried to remain out of the ‘family business’ and it is not believable that Gracie ‘order’ Mauricio around to take over investigations with Nikki into where Vince is being held hostage. All of these books are very short reads. In my opinion, the five books could have been combined into one continuous novel. Even then it would still be a short read that could be read in one sitting.