Tommy Gabrini: The Grace Factor (Tommy Gabrini Series)

No, I didn't like every aspect of this book; however, I'm still rating it 5 stars. Great writing! Great action! And I love to see my favorite 5 men together - they are so dynamic!!!! I could read an entire story with nothing but Mick, Tommy, Sal, Reno, and Big Daddy taking care of business - no romance needed! Although I am VERY disappointed about the return of Tommy and Grace, I still enjoyed the overall story.To all those that are celebrating the return of Grace, please know this; it's not the "real" Grace. Yes, the name is the same and the look is the same; however, the Grace in this story has an entirely different personality. No one "matures" into an entirely different person. One of the things that I love about Ms. Monroe is that she seems to read these reviews - bad or good - and incorporate them into her stories, and that is what I think happened in this case. Enough people cried about the demise of Tommy and Grace, so Ms. Monroe gave those fans what they wanted - a reunion. However, even she knew that the old/original Grace wasn't right for Tommy, and made her into a completely different person - it feels like the Grace in this story is a Gemma-clone from the last Sal book. Even with that said, I still don't know who Grace is! That's always been my problem with her. Her personality has always been so bland, and I can't even get into this "new" Grace. No one changes that fast.I believe that it was Ms. Monroe's intention to gave Tommy the woman/ride-or-die that he deserved with Liz. I am forever on her website, and earlier this year, one of her upcoming books was titled "Tommy and Liz: You Give Good Love". I remembered that title because it reminded me of my favorite Anita Baker song. I do think she allowed the Grace fans to influence this reunion. That last Tommy and Liz book was freaking amazing - one of her best books ever. Yet, that book is totally worthless now, and I'm upset by that. I have re-read that book no less than 10 times, now it's junk. So yea, I too feel jerked around. Also, it wasn't necessary to make Liz into a nasty character. That woman saved Tommy's life, and truly loved him. Liz deserved to leave with dignity; trashing her character was so very wrong. That part really angered me. Divorce is a part of life. I think that she should have stayed the course with the Tommy and Liz story, and I believe that even the Grace fans would have came around to Tommy moving on with Liz.There has always been an unevenness to the Tommy books. His series has never flowed like the other men, and he always fell short of living up to the "Boss" that he could be. However, that last Tommy book gave us the real Tommy. The Tommy that was inside him all along. The fighter, the lover (you have to admit - the sex between him and Liz was fire), and a true Boss! This current book took him backwards, not forward. Tommy is like the Brent of the Sinatra series; great character, but a terrible leading man.I know that everyone is probably saying, "Wow - you have that many gripes with this book, yet you gave it 5 stars". Yep, because despite my disappointment with how things ended up, it was still a very well written story. The action was on point! And all the men - my favorite 5 plus the young guns were in the house! The strength of the Tommy series has never been based on the romance aspect, if that was the case, I would have stopped reading at book # 2 because I never saw it for Grace. I love Tommy!!! If I ranked the men without the women (because adding the women changes the ranking), Tommy is my # 2 guy! However, no one is ever taking the top spot from my Mick (I re-read that wedding scene 5 times just to get my fill of Mick)!! Tommy Gabrini is one of those rare series where I could (and definitely will from now on) skip pass the romance/sex scenes and read for the action and drama alone. That's only happened with one other book by another amazingly talented author. So yes, despite the fact that I hate how it ended for Tommy and Liz, I'm still giving this book the 5 stars that it deserves.

Grace and Tommy finally side by side instead of Grace being pulled along! Knew Ed was bad news...Also knew he would like others, Tommy included underestimate Grace. Grace and Tommy both share the trait of not being hotheads. However, when pushed, they handle things. Ed learned that Grace is sugar, but come at her wrong and you will feel the heat of her spice! LOL..It was so good to have Tommy feel and figure out things about his relationship with Grace. And it was especially fantastic for Grace to realize that she is not going to be lead around by any man including Tommy....The Liz and Tommy conversation in his office; with Liz bringing up Tommy's physical abuse inflicted by his father....Although I never felt the couple connection between Tommy and Liz....she seemed to have too many similarities to his other women...I still felt she was more classy than to say what she said....And Liz calling Grace names and going on and on about what a catch she was...just didn't ring true to the type of person Liz came across as to me....I look forward to Grace teaching Tommy how to be a husband.Tommy still has some transitioning to make from his old life. Tommy has finally realized that Grace is the key to his happiness. But he still has to accept that he has a right to be happy.Sidebar: Miss Monroe, you caught my attention with the description of Tommy's security chief Branson Nash...any plans for a romance for him perhaps?UPDATE: I re-read all of the Tommy Gabrini series books. I wanted to see where the other readers got the opinion that Grace was weak and not as attractive as Tommy's other women. Granted she was not flashy, did not trade on her femininity and did not fly off the handle. She was in a word 'grace'. When Tommy first saw Grace in the red dress at the party, he was taken by her looks, body and charm. Of course she has a youthful appearance which he then and would continue to fixate on. As to Grace being weak and needing Tommy to protect her, when Cam grabbed her and was being hostile, Grace did not hesitate to slap him and did not back down....When one of Tommy's ex-lover's thought to ambush and attack Grace as she was going to her home. Grace though caught unaware, quickly turned the tables and came out the victor. Grace even told the doorman that she did want him to notify Tommy....When Tommy and Grace went to see Jillian, Tommy was going to handle situation, but Grace told him she would handle her business & a few slaps to Jillian later it was handled....Grace intuitively knew that the situation with Tommy's ex's was going to continue escalating ---She asked Sal for a gun not Tommy and Grace as she had done all along was going to handle her business.Liz hit mayor with baseball bat knocking him down the stairs and was quickly calling Tommy to her rescue....As for her running out into yard and shooting and killing men to save Tommy...for me Shanks doing that yes, Liz no.

Where do I begin. I downloaded this book on the 23 Dec 15 and have read it 5 times. I got a warm fuzzy feeling every time I read this book.Thank you Ms Monroe for re-uniting Tommy and Grace. This was a brilliant read, Very grown up with both adults going after what they want withoutplaying any games. Great communication and no misunderstanding. Glad that Tommy understood that he made mistakes too when they were married the first time. I never considered Grace to be weak. She was just scared. Grace showed great strength of character without being an all out alpha female. Just what Tommy needed and wanted. A great mother to his children and someone who can stand up for herself but also knew when to ask him for help.Mr Ed (the talking Horse? lol) was a dumba$$. Don't know why Tommy took so long to take him out.I can't say much about Liz as I do not know their back story as I refused to read their story in Dapper Tom Begins Again. I did not want to read about Grace and Tommy with other partners. I don't think that I will ever read it. However, I did not like her in this book. Too conceited and full of herself. She knew that Tommy was still in love with Grace but she thought that she could come back almost a year later and get Tommy back with the click of her fingers. After all beauty is in the eye of the beholder and Tommy thought that Grace was the most beautiful women that he ever knew inside and out. .Reno coined it in a phrase - Tommy wanted and needed a dainty lady not someone who was more alpha than he was. Femininity, motherhood and nurturer won out in the end. The heart wants the heart wants and Tommy wanted Grace.Tommy stepped up to the plate. He re-deemed himself and I fell in love with him all over again. Reno is my favourite (The Original) and Tommy is 2nd favourite. there was no time line, How old is destiny? How old are Tommy and Grace? How long have they been divorced? How long was Tommy and Liz together. This info would have been helpful to the book.TO ALL THE GRACE DETRACTORS, YOU CAN SEE FROM THE SYNOPSIS AND SAMPLE THAT LIZ IS OUT OF THE PICTURE.I refuse to read Dapper Tom Begins Again. Romance and love wins the day.In one of my favourite Mafia books, the h is truly a ride and die chick, she is also very feminine, cooks and clean and has 3 children. A great combination. A super wife, mother and mafia enforcer. Just shows you can straddle both worlds.

I was very excited when this book came through! I love Ms Monroe's work, but I'm one of those people who were sorely disappointed at the prospect of Tommy breaking up with Grace and getting with Liz. To be honest, this book was a tad disappointing for me because it felt as if Ms Monroe may have come up with it mainly to stem the backlash that came about due to the Tommy-Liz dynamic. My problem lies mainly with the fact that in order to bring about a reunion between Tommy and Grace, the author decided to vilify Liz and Ed in a fashion that we never saw coming!I mean cmon, in as much as I have never been a Liz fan and I desperately wanted Tommy and Grace back together, surely if indeed Liz was another Shanks, Tommy would have picked up on this much earlier and not committed to the relationship? -and I found Ed suddenly being this nasty murderer slant a touch too much! I mean, there was NEVER ever a hint of Ed being so horrible, so to turn him into this opportunistic schmuck was a shock.For once, I found myself reading a Monroe book and thinking, I want to get this over with to find a better read. I agree wholly with the reviewers who say it's time Ms Monroe came up with new material, as all her new material has become a little old and tired and 'samey' , to put it mildly. I love these families, but everything has to have an end. I think she's milked them for all they're worth and if she continues churning out more books on them, she runs the risk of me 9and a whole other fans of hers) stopping reading them altogether. She's a fantastic author, and can and should come up with fresh new stuff with fresh new characters.

These Gabrini storylines read much the same. People coming after them, them retaliating. Loads of shooting etc etc. Seems too contrived rather then a slow build up and the writing style is immature and obvious.**spoiler alert**Around the same time Tommy splits with Liz, Grace happens to be having issues with her husband. No idea destiny's age even though she had a birthday! Or timeline. Divorced one year? Two years? "Guns were rigged to go off at the push of a button". REALLY!! "My men even found two bodies in a storage shed on the property.” "He used to take out women on the operating table if they didn’t share their fortunes with him.” I KNOW ITS FICTION BUT PLEASE!!So we are supposed to believe that Ed did all these things but it didn't initially come up in a background investigation until after Tommy dumps girl and grace dumps man!! Not buying it and won't be wasting my time on anymore of these storylines until the author writes something more believable and for goodness sake stop with the ridiculous sex scenes already!

This was a great read. The best Tommy book so far me anyhow. You will see a side to Tommy that you have never seen before. Not only is he a lover but he is a true mobster too! I was always in Grace's camp and she has proven herself to be a true Gabrini wife. Liz has earned my total disrespect after her slinging mud at Tommy even going into his childhood. I wanted to beat her ass. Who the hell does she think she is!!! What an inflated ego!!!!I am okay with Loz being Alpha I am not okay with how low she stooped because she wanted to throw shade at Grace. That was totally out of order. How you gonna expect a man to love you and respect you when you stoop so low!!!! Please!!! That is not how you get a man no matter how ALPHA you are!!!I loved it. I thought it was a great read! Cannot wait for the next Sal book!

Another great instalment in this extremely addictive entertaining family saga. I love Me some Tommy, please can I have him for Christmas. I recommend you will not be disappointed.