Believing In Fate
GENRE
ACTION EROTICA EPIC CRIME OTHER SUSPENSE/THRILLER ROMANCE
Core Theme
LOVE, SACRIFICE, REVENGE
TIME PERIOD
Other
COMPARABLE TITLES
FIFTY SHADES SERIES
CHARACTER LIST
ASIMINA “MINA” ALEXIOU (F/20S) -- LEAD. FIERY, FIERCE, DOMINANT, SEXUAL, AGGRESSIVE.
RAFFAELE MORELLI (M/20S) -- LEAD. DARK, RESPECTED, FEARED, PASSIONATE, INTENSE.
PETRO (M/30S) -- SUPPORTING. INTELLIGENT, PROTECTIVE, CALCULATED, LOYAL; MINA'S COUSIN AND RAFFAELE'S CAPO WORKING ALONGSIDE HIM.
LIA & NATASHA (F/20S) -- SUPPORTING. SUPPORTIVE, LOYAL; MINA'S TWO LIKE-MINDED SISTERS, ALWAYS IN HER CORNER.
ALONZO (M/30S) -- SUPPORTING. VILE, SADISTIC, AND SPITEFUL; RAFFAELE'S RIVAL CRIME BOSS.
TOMMY (M/20S) -- SUPPORTING. LOYAL, SUBORDINATE, PROTECTIVE; RAFFAELE'S UNDERBOSS AND YOUNGER BROTHER.
Logline
Asimina and Raffaele become connected through Petro Asimina's cousin. He is part of the Morelli Mafia group hired as a Capo. We see several gang wars and a few mafia families conspiring against the Morelli's. There are horrific kill scenes, love, hate, humor, and erotic scene.
Target Audiences
Age: 18-34,35-54
Target Gender: Female Leaning
Setting
California America
Based on a True Story
No
Publishing Details
Status: Yes: self-published
Publisher: Vaya Palantzas
Year Published: 2020
Starting Description
The first chapter begins with Asimina waiting to meet her cousin. Petro is caught up and unable to make it. Leaving the cafe she is followed home and harassed. However, she fights backs stabs one man, and shoots the other.
Ending Description
The last chapter is left on a cliffhanger. Raffaele the male lead and love interest breaks off the relationship and leaves Asimina after threats are made by another mafia family. Book two begins where book one has left off.
Group Specific
Information not completed
Hard Copy Available
No
ISBN
9798704362777
Mature Audience Themes
Extreme Violence,Nudity,Sexual Abuse,Substance Abuse, Language/Profanity
Plot - Other Elements
Twist,Other,Meaningful Message
Plot - Premise
Overcoming Monster/Villain,Other,Tragedy,Internal Journey/Rebirth
Main Character Details
Name: Asimina Alexiou
Age: 25
Gender: Female
Role: Emotional
Key Traits: Adventurous,Badass,Aggressive,Sexy,Villainous,Confident,Faithful,Romantic,Heroic
Additional Character Details
Name: Raffaele Morelli
Age: 29
Gender: Male
Role: Logical
Key Traits: Masculine,Villainous,Aggressive,Complex,Sexy,Confident,Criminal
Additional Character Details
The author has not yet written this
Additional Character Details
The author has not yet written this
Development Pitch
Can you love the man and overlook the occupation? Is his dark, dangerous, and domineering personality too much to stomach? Or can you love the man, embrace the occupation and become as dark and dangerous as the lover you have chosen? There are many characters and side stories within Books 1-3. My readers are never bored. I incorporate the Italian and Greek traditions, culture throughout the story. There's suspense, heart-shattering moments, humor, violence, and erotica. Both female and male leads are extremely strong but need to be as Capo dei Capi and his queen. Asimina becomes just as vicious as Raffaele. It is said your fate is sealed at infancy, love, happiness, and sorrow. Asimina Alexiou is impulsive, brave, vibrant, and independent. She finds herself with unwanted attention. She sought help from her cousin, a man that is nothing less than a brother. However, Petro has secrets of his own. That will land Asimina in the hands of one Capo dei capi Raffaele Dante Morelli. Raffaele the crime boss of the biggest mafia family across the state and Europe. His close, inner cycle of men are in positions such as underboss and capos running extensive drug and gun operations throughout multiple sectors. Raffaele's training has prepared him well, for a life of crime. However, none of that training will be of any use to him, when he's dealing with one Asimina Alexiou.
Genre
SUSPENSE, THRILLER, ROMANCE, MATURE AUDIENCE
Brief
After surviving an attempted gang rape, Mina is taken into protection by the Morelli crime family. She soon falls in love--and in lust--with godfather Raffaele, but she soon becomes a target of a rival boss and flees for Mexico. When she finds out she is pregnant, she reunites with Raffaele and resumes their intense sex life. However, she is soon kidnapped by a rival boss, is raped, and loses her baby. With Raffaele's help, Mina exacts extreme torture and revenge on her rapist.
Overall Rating
FAIR
Narrative Elements
Authors Writing Style: FAIR
Characterization: FAIR
Commerciality: FAIR
Franchise Potential: FAIR
Pace: FAIR
Premise: FAIR
Structure: FAIR
Theme: FAIR
Accuracy of Book Profile
Yes, no complaints here. It is accurate.
Draw of Story
What drew me into the story immediately was its in media res quality. It begins with an attempted rape, fight, and chase, and it doesn't really let up from there. The sexual tension becomes palpable before long, and the author plants seeds for many moments of impact to come.
Possible Drawbacks
What made me want to put the put down was the style of writing. There are many cases of spoon-fed exposition, repetitiveness, and over-the-top prose/dialogue. An example of this is the three plus times that the author writes that Mina and Raffaele are kissing as if for the first time. Another example is when Mina gloats to herself about satisfying the "head" as in the head of the penis of the head of a crime family. It struck as quite cringey and unbecoming of the female lead-- She seems to find her value solely in her sexual service to her man. All in all, if the words are bigger than the emotions or truth of the story, it is cause for dialing back or reconsideration.
Use of Special Effects
THE STORY DOES NOT RELY ON SPECIAL EFFECTS
Primary Hook of Story
The hook is that this story checks many boxes that are prerequisites to enticing an audience. Namely, it features no shortage of grisly violence, action, and endless sex. Fans of the FIFTY SHADES series, at least, will get exactly what they pay for.
Fanbase Potential
This could potentially have a large fan base. After all, the FIFTY SHADES series was a success. It seems that this work checks many of the same boxes.
Awards Potential
No, this is far from an awards contender. It is much more of fun romp, leaning far more toward pornography than prestige romance.
Envisioned Budget
LOW BUDGET
Similar Films/TV Series
FIFTY SHADES SERIES.
What’s New About the Story
What is original about this series is that it takes the premise of the FIFTY SHADES series and turns it up to 11 with the violence. The crime and mafia intrigue in this work are prevalent. However, despite the mafia angle, it does feel like this work borrows too much from its competition. Many of the characters, dynamics, and plot points are taken right out of other stories and reappropriated here. The author would be wise to reconsider her influences and to invest the time in a rewrite with focus to differentiate this work from what has come before. How can this subgenre and its tropes be subverted or reinvented?
Lead Characters
Mina stands out for what a spitfire she is. She is fierce, insistent, and sometimes crazy. It's fun to see how the characters around her react to and anticipate her. She is memorable for no-holds-barred personality.
Uniqueness of Story
This is not a rare gem. For one thing, the writing stands out as a bit subpar. There are many cases of clumsy writing, like when the author confuses tenses or uses incompatible clauses, and there are countless cases of unearned, hyperbolic writing that outmatches the actual content of the story. Moreover, this work seems to borrow heavily from other genre entries. For example, countless elements can be traced back to other works of its ilk, with little apparent effort to differentiate or evolve.
Possible Formats
Film: Streaming, Studio
Analyst Recommendation
WORK IN PROGRESS
Justification
This is a work in progress due to the quality of the prose and due to the overall feeling of familiarity this work instills. Much more can be done to pare down some of the extreme and silly prose and to iron out some of the tense and grammatical miscues. Also, there is opportunity to evolve this work past what has come before. Right now, many of its conceits feel trite.
Tips for Improvement
The author would need to do another sentence-by-sentence pass to weed out some of the purple, silly, or over-the-top prose. Also, reconsideration for how to deviate from what has come before in this genre space would only help, too.
Brief
After surviving an attempted gang rape, fiery Greek-American ASIMINA is taken into protection by the Morelli crime family at the behest of godfather RAFFAELE. Soon, Asimina and Raffaele spark a passionate and intense romance and sex life, making Asimina a target for Raffaele's enemies.
What We Liked
What stands out about this work is its horrific violence paired with its all-in eroticism. One would be hard pressed to find a work with more grisly gore and with more vivid sex scenes. Intense, sometimes to the point of being over-the-top, this work is sure to call attention to itself and will be sure to be remembered.
Film: This would be a solid adaptation for film in that its concept has been proven definitively. Audiences will be sure to tune in for the graphic sex and grisly violence. All kinds of curiosities, morbid and not, will be indulged in this hard-R romp.
TV: This would be a good adaptation for TV as it seems to be the beginning of a long story, and it seems to have characters and villains that will be able to sustain more than just a season of TV, much less a feature length run time. There is no shortage of high-stakes story, violence, and sex in this work, not dissimilar to the attractions of the likes of GAME OF THRONES.
Key points:
1. The fiery spirit and personality of Mina.
2. The high stakes-- Always a threat of physical and emotional consequences.
3. The camaraderie of the Morelli family mafiosos.
4. The many, many sex scenes.
5. The intense, exciting, albeit often excessive, violence.
Synopsis
In Los Angeles, walking alone at night, Greek-American ASIMINA, 20s, is harassed and surrounded by a gang of predatory Italian goons, led by the nefarious ALONZO, 20s. However, she manages to stab one of them, arm herself, and flee. She heads to the hospital to seek refuge in her older, medical professional cousin PETRO's company. There, she meets the formidable godfather RAFFAELE MORELLI, late 20s, and his loyal men. She finds out that Petro is in cahoots with the Morelli crime family and that her harassers are men from a rival organization. With that, Asimina, or "Mina," is taken in by the Morellis. Months pass as an unspoken connection with Raffaele grows into a forbidden crush. Raffaele's men train Mina in shooting and self-defense, as she has evidently become a target to the rival organization. Soon enough, Mina and Raffaele consummate their forbidden attraction. It's no secret, as everybody around them is atune to their budding romance. A kiss soon evolves into a passionate and intense romance, with a thriving sex life. Mina's passion for Raffaele leads her to strive to please his "Stallion," a nickname for his penis, as well as his inner, dominant "Beast," and his inner "Demon," symbolic of his most violent tendencies. She confides in her loyal sister NATASHA, 20s, about her romance, while relying on her other sister LIA, 20s, for support throughout as well.
Their relationship continues to thrive over time, with each talking dirty to each other and having intense, explosive sex at every opportunity. Mina is living in Raffaele's safehouse, where she is watched over by many cameras and secured by an impenetrable perimeter. One night, while Raffaele and his team hunt down a missing gun shipment, Mina puts on a sex show for him with her bedroom security camera, exposing herself and teasing her lover. Later, though, Mina is dismayed to find out that Alonzo has a rampant obsession with Mina from before she became entangled with Raffaele and his organization. Mina is horrified to find many bug cameras that were planted by Alonzo that have been watching her-- including when she exposed herself and teased Raffaele. Word spreads about Alonzo's obsession with Mina as well as his desire to rape her. Mina, as a result, flees California altogether, claiming to be leaving Raffaele for good. She flees to Phoenix, then Tucson, then Mexico, with Raffaele and his men struggling to stay on her trail. Alone in Mexico, Mina struggles from nausea and sickness, and she eventually becomes privy to the fact that she is pregnant with Raffaele's child. Eventually, Mina gives in and exposes her location to Raffaele. He comes in, and Mina reveals that she is pregnant during a heated confrontation. The two come together with fiery sex, Raffaele "punishing" Mina for leaving. Mina and all return to Los Angeles, where Mina re-acclimates to her life. She starts to see doctors about her pregnancy and becomes close with Raffaele's mother. However, after a doctor's appointment one day, Mina is taken captive by Alonzo.
Mina fades in and out of consciousness in captivity after suffering several blows to the head as Raffaele and co. seek her out in a frenzy. While Raffaele and his men prepare to storm Alonzo's base, Alonzo rapes Mina. Luckily, Raffaele and his men are successful, and they recover Mina and take Alonzo prisoner. Mina slowly recovers, while fearing that she will be looked at differently by Raffaele after her trauma, not to mention her extended friends and family. Mina, also, has lost her child-- a tragedy affecting all those around her. She instructs them to keep Alonzo alive for when she is ready to end him. Alonzo, then, has his arms broken and is hung from handcuffs. He is lacerated with razors and held in salt water. Petro surgically removes Alonzo's testicles and has them fed to him. Later, Mina pours acid in Alonzo's eyes, searing and blinding him. After many days of torture, Alonzo is finally killed, and Mina and Raffaele resume their extreme sex life, while their high-passion relationship returns to its equilibrium. However, Raffaele begins receiving letters from a long-lost crime family heir long thought dead. To Raffaele's utter dismay, Mina becomes a target once again. As a result, Raffaele does the impossible, heart-breaking act of excommunicating Mina in order to protect her. Mina is heart-broken, but Raffaele plans to reunite with her once the looming threat is mitigated.