Painted Scars: An Enemies To Lovers Mafia Romance (Perfectly Imperfect) Paperback – May 23, 2022

I loved the characters in this book. I felt all the emotions and enjoyed both POV ... roman and Nina were so intense and yet so heartwarming ... such a sweet love story. There was humor and caring concerns for each other. Really a great read. I highly recommend it.

4/5 ⭐️3,75 🌶️Starting the series of Perfeclty Imperfect painted scars follow the story of Roman and Nina.Here are the tropes of the book:1. Disabled Hero2. Fake mariage3. Age gap4. Opposite attract5. Possessive/jealous MMC6. Grumpy/sunshineDisclaimers: my review doesn’t have spoilers, I try to never give important elements of the story.The story of Nina and Roman was really a good introduction to the mafia universe of Neva Altaj. It was such a sweet and angsty romance. The book wasn’t too dark and the balance between the love story and the other event (mafia related) was well written. I personally hate when authors go all over the place and don’t keep their focus on the couple. But Neva altaj kept the dynamic so well. There was a real connection between the lovers. Chapters by chapters you get a view of how they learn about each other. Nothings is ruched, it was the first book that really showed me how sweet an obsessed and jealous mmc can be. There was a lot of funny moment because Nina was so different from the mafia world. Neva altaj gave to Nina a sweet but strong personality to be able to match Roman personality and grumpiness. I love that you get a small introduction to other characters and their personality for the following books. The book is easy to read with a good level of spice. I really liked the plot twist wasn’t a crazy plot but it was necessary to bring a dynamic to the couple. The only spot that I would have loved is to see a longer side to Roman after the plot.Having read all the books of the series this one was not my favorite one of them all but it’s a perfect start and really easy to read.I really recommend to read all the books in order. If you have never read a mafia romance this book is the perfect way to start. Neva Altaj is the author for mafia romance.

I loved this story and Nina’s personality. She is just too cool. I love how she takes Roman’s domineering personality in stride, and calls his bluff every time. The arrival of fourteen lamps and the dog were hilarious. And his men’s reactions to her craziness act were funny. Well written.

So I had read part of this book a while ago and stop reading it because it has some really weird like fetish about her being petite short and how she has a thing against tall people being around her in certain situations. But I did want to read a couple of stories later on in the series, and even though there's standalone, they're all kind of interconnected, so I wanted it to start from the beginning.So one thing I do like about this author stories is most of them are under the 300 Page Mark which includes this one so the story is fairly easy to read at 233 pages. A con is that it is very repetitive for a story that only has 233 pages.Another thing I do like about the story is there was a part at about the 20% mark where the FMC is basically talking about Improv and how you can kind of create a Life by curating one and I like the way that she processes the conversation. It goes on for a good three or four pages in the book see below.('I want them to secretly roll their eyes and not notice what you’re doing, because they assume you’re . . . harmless.” She watches me in surprise, then laughs. It’s an unguarded and genuine laugh which reaches her eyes. “Okay, you definitely mean stupid. Okay. I’ll need a few minutes.” She leans back into the cushions, throws her head back, and with her face turned up toward the ceiling, she closes her eyes. She stays like that for a few moments and then starts speaking. “Shallow. Harmless. A little bit stupid. Crazy in love with you, of course. Needs access to every part of the house. Let’s see . . . Who am I? Well, Roman’s trophy wife, of course. I am pretty, elegant, and extremely snobbish. I love wearing expensive clothes, just the best labels. I’m not really into dresses unless the occasion requires it. I much more prefer designer jeans, paired with silky blouses. The heels are a must.”)So getting to the actual storyline you have the MMC Russian boss who was injured in a car bomb. He has a leg injury and is using a wheelchair. While he was in the hospital you find out that at least two people from his own organization tried to hurt him but he's not exactly sure who it was. So he's trying to figure out who it was so we can handle them. He is currently in physical therapy working on his knee and he most likely will have to use a cane to walk. FMC is a painter who also does good improv acting and is the daughter of someone who screwed the Russians out of money because he had taken 3 million dollars of their money that was supposed to go towards a transaction that he was brokering but got screwed and ended up losing the money. So MMC needed a wife apparently so he chose fmc. FMC created this character they got married in legit two days and had everything down to their meet cute set up. They were supposed to be married for 6 months. During this time she's painting For Her Expo. There's drama sprinkled in and there's a drug war going on.They sprinkle in some of the characters for the other stories in this one but it's not like you have to read this one in order to read theirs but it does kind of give you the overall Vibe as to why the characters are the way they are if you read all of them. For instance Mikail book is book two and in this book they mention him a few times and kind of lay a little bit of the groundwork and telling you that he's got certain issues but you definitely could completely skip this story and not have it affect Mikail story.Timeline also feels a bit off in the story. They get married very very quickly. So they have their initial meeting and then they have their meet cute just a few days later. But in the storyline she also talks about two weeks and then she gets sick in there and she's out for at least 3 days. In there she also goes and meets her parents for dinner with the MMC but then also talks about how she only has 4 days to finish up her paintings. But then when she talks to her mom on the phone it makes it seem like the dinner earlier. I think they were trying to cram everything into a month timeline. FMC has her gallery expo at about 65%. This is also around the point where FMC tells her parents that she loves the MMC and also the point where the MMC tells fmc's parents that he loves the fmc. But they don't really communicate that with each other even though they are being intimate. They finally confessed her love at about 70% and Roman tells her that the 6 month deal is off and that he is never going to let her go. MMC is focused on his knee a lot throughout the series and he also kind of self-deprecates a lot with it. But FMC also brings up the issue she has with being around tall men.But as I was reading this book I did realize that I must have finished it the first time because I remembered when certain things happened and when they did their little like break up thing. So the story isn't bad and it's okay for a one-time read but it's not something that I would read more than once.*3 🌟 for me means the book was okay average.*

This was a really good read. This book kept popping up on my tik tok feed and my other social media sites so I decided to give it a go and I am glad I did. This was book 1 in the "Perfectly Imperfect" Roman Patrov is head of the Russian mob he has a knee injury from a bomb hit and needs a wife. Nina has just found out that her father wants her to marry the head of the Russian mob because he stole 3 million dollars from him if she doesn't marry him he kills her father. I liked Nina from the beginning she wasn't afraid to speak her mind. Roman is taken with Nina who is an artist and she knows how to play the game then her feelings get involved and they fall in love. Roman realized that Nina has been hurt but she didn't tell him the guys name until they saw him in the club. Roman also found put who was trying to kill him. This was a good read Roman was devastated when Nina left him and so was she. This book was well written with no errors in grammar or spelling. I also liked the narrators as I listened and read this book. I am looking forward to reading the next book in this series.

I loved the main characters. I loved the quirky fmc and the Russian mob boss duo. It’s a fast face read and short. I personally wouldn’t consider this a enemies to lover. Also the only tiny bit that I didn’t like was the whole how small she was like okay I get just mentioning it. But to repeat it kind just gets annoying. Other then that it was good.