Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Review: Code of Honor (Spontagio Family #1) by Missy Johnson


Pietro Gustovi is loyal, polished, and hard as stone, the kind of guy women want and men respect. At twenty-three, he’s survived tragedies that would break men twice his age. And he owes it all to his father’s closest friend, Giovanni Spontagio, who took him in as an orphaned teenager. Pietro would give his life for Giovanni . . . but his heart belongs to Giovanni’s daughter.

Raised in Chicago under the spotlight of power and privilege, Lucy Spontiago feels most alive on stage. Determined to become a prima ballerina, she escapes her father’s protective gaze long enough to audition for the ballet in New York City. Soon, however, Lucy realizes that she is not alone. Pietro is watching her back. And though he’s like a brother to her, Lucy cannot deny the thrill she feels knowing his eyes are on her.

Pietro could never betray his mentor by sleeping with his only child. But Lucy follows her passions, no matter how forbidden. Soon their nights are consumed by explosive, red-hot temptation—a dance that will expose shocking secrets and burn everything else to the ground.






Pietro is a broken man. His family was killed practically in front of him when he was young and then he was shipped off to live with the Spontagio family. Pietro grew up working for the Spontagio family, Giovanni in particular, and he fell in love with the one person that he couldn't have ... Giovanni's daughter, Lucy. Little did he know that Lucy had feelings for him as well. 

I was excited to read this book because I recently read Breaking Noah by Missy Johnson and Ashley Suzanne. I absolutely adored Breaking Noah, so I guess you could say that I had super high hopes for Code of Honor. I wanted the same kind of magic that I experienced with Breaking Noah and unfortunately, it just didn't happen. I don't know exactly what it was that I was expecting but it wasn't this. 

I think that from the first couple of chapters of the book, I was expecting a mob book but that just isn't what happened. To be honest, Code of Honor was a bit shallow for me. I was wanting this intricate book about how Pietro worked for Giovanni and what that entailed and how Lucy handled having her father in the mob but again, that just isn't what happened. This read as more of a romance novel with very little intrigue/mystery/suspense in it. I think I learned more about Lucy and her ballet than I did about the inner workings of the family that she was born into. I wish I could have learned more about each of the characters. I feel like I never got down to the nitty-gritty of who the characters were. I couldn't pick out their descriptions (physical and otherwise) if I was being held at gunpoint.

All of that being said, it wasn't a bad book ... it just wasn't what it could have been, I think. Seeing as how I loved another one of Johnson's books, I'll probably give her another shot just to see if this story was some sort of weird tangent that isn't the norm. 

* I received this novel in exchange for an honest review *



Available: August 4th, 2015



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