Nina is a total hoot, best heroine I've read in a romance book in a long time. ( )

I actually enjoyed this book. I was frustrated a bit at the end when Nina was upset about the "Brian" situation. I felt she way over-reacted! If you love the head of the Russian mafia, then you have to accept your husband for who he is and what he does. I will read the next one. ( )

ARC Review: UNBIAS
When Nina, an eccentric artist with past trauma, is forced into a 6 month marriage with the Pakhan (Head of the Russian Mafia) due to her Father's debt, what she expects is a frail old man. What she gets is so much more: a hot, damaged, tattooed and dangerous man. Roman, suffering after a car bomb shatters his knee, is battling is own demons while trying to remain the head of his organisation. They both expect it to be an easy 6 months, duty-bound, what they don't expect is the attraction and respect they gain for each other when forced to live together.
Trigger warnings for themes of violence, PTSD, anxiety, disability and it's struggles and slight gore.

Before this book, I hadn't really read much mafia romance, but I kept seeing it pop up on my Insta feed and I was intrigued. I'm still finding some of the sub-genres I like in Romance and this has definitely whet my appetite! I need more, with more darkness it seems, as this is definitely milder than some i've heard about. It would definitely have benefited from more violence and a little darker in the plot.
The plot and premise of the book was well written and thought out. Nothing about the plot seemed random or outlandish and I thoroughly enjoyed the disability element of the story as there aren't too many out there and in this book it was woven into the plot superbly.

I would give it a medium slow burn rating and the spice is integrated in well although not as smutty as I would have liked - this could be due to the mental health of the FMC or the author's writing style. I do wish the scenes from the epilogue could have been brought forward and had more of them exploring Nina's experiences.

The character's read well - although I didn't find myself as intrigued as I would have liked. I always know if something has really sucked me in as I'll read it in 1-2 sittings. This one was more a 3-4 sittings type of book, but that could be due to personal preference!!
I felt Roman's character wasn't giving me the vibe I would want from the head of the mafia, he just wasn't emanating as much of an alpha vibe as I would have preferred. It also would have been nice to see him get some much needed fear and respect, and to see him interacting with other's more during the time jump, instilling more fear in our hearts and giving us the vibe that he only has a soft spot for her would have made it a little more swoonworthy.

All that being said, it's definitely a good book, would definitely recommend this and i'm looking forward to read more from this author.
Ratings: 3.5 rounded to 4/5 Stars overall!
Plot 3.5/5
Spice 3.5/5
Violence 3/5
Romance 3.5/5
Characters 3/5
Slow Burn 3/5
Readability 4/5

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