Dirty (RAW Family #2)

4.25 Dirty, Raw Stars

How much do you think one lone woman can take when six years of being married to the man you thought you came to adore, respect, and cherish the friendship between the two has turned out to be a life lived in fear. When she’s been abused not only in her mind, but body and soul. How long before the light in her eyes start to dim because she’s desperately seeking the light to be saved, to be rescued? When she tries to be strong and fight back, only to get knocked back down again and be broken all over from the start once the hope flares inside of her. The sacrifices she’s made are only seen as a duty she must pay for her family and not to the man she’s been wed to. That is the questions that runs through your mind when you meet Alejandra Castillo Gambino. Her story is heartbreaking as it is about rebirth. Alejandra grew up in the underground world of the Castillo mob family. Where ladies were raised to fulfill the duties to their families without question and fight. So when her father decides that she is to marry Dino Gambino. At first their relationship seemed as good as sit got. Dino was the perfect gentlemen, caring, thoughtful, and sweet. She knew their partnership would be a good paring, even though she might not love him. But that was the turn of everything that went downhill… she didn’t love Dino. Once he truly found out that he could never have her, that’s when things changed with Dino. She finally saw the anger that he kept so tamed, and it came in many forms of abuse. After six years of living in her own personal hell, she knew there was no way out. She was a recluse to her family since Dino prevented most of her visits. There was no way that anyone knew the lies behind her perfect marriage. No one saw the marks left hidden on her body, or the emptiness that was in her eyes. She knew how to play that perfectly thanks to her husband. "My marriage consisted of three emotions. Happiness, anger, and sadness. Happiness when we first marries, anger when I realized Dino wasn’t the prince I though he was, and sadness when I finally understood that nobody was coming to save me.” But when father calls for a meeting among family and friends for a crime that was committed and a witness to name the culprit, the punishment must be met. She knows this is her only way out. The only way to survive. The only way to live again. She just didn’t know that the people that were going to be played by her, would be the ones to cause more pain, but also, take away her one chance at freedom. ”So I planned to save myself.” I enjoyed Alejandra. Her character was not only one who was broken, but she tried to escape a life with no regrets. She had been hurt for so long that she didn’t care if anyone else was thrown into the fire by her actions. And I enjoyed the connecting story between her and Julius. Of course, it will be easy for Alejandra to feel something other than hate or anger towards Julius since he can turn her in and face her demise. But, there is something safe about him, something that shows her he is worth the fight, worth losing everything else, just to be an important part of his life. Because when Julius takes notice, you better believe it truly means something. But Julius wants to know what lies underneath the woman who out herself in the situation she did. She captivates him, he wants more of Alejandra that meets the eye. But there’s an understanding that he is so eager to know, not just to harm or hurt her, but to help and save her as well. She provokes emotions within him that he doesn’t know how to explain or make out. Emotions he cannot allow because when you have and give yourself to someone else, the people who he has harm or done wrong will have a target on the ones closet to him. These two both struggle within themselves. The two wrongs that complicate everything, but can maybe make it right. Overall, I enjoyed Dirty. Bella Aurora took it to the next level with the emotions in this book, her writing was a little Rawer, a little Dirtier. (See what I did there?) But honestly, the overall story was one where I connected with. Not only was this a story about Alejandra and Julius, but we get to finally, FINALLY get a glimpse into Twitch. Yes, people. We get the infamous Twitch to settle our hunger over the man. Though it might not satisfy, it is only the beginning. Like an appetizer to the dinner. Leaving room for the final course. We get to see the insight of the reasons behind book one, RAW and the sacrifices he’s making to finalize everything he has set motion to. And finally getting the story we have all been waiting for in RAW: Rebirth.