Arhavili 1: Medcezir
Good Fit
- Readers of dark mafia romance, enemies-to-lovers pairings and high-tension stories
- Those who want open romantic tension and bold dialogue inside a fast-moving plot
- Readers who like series, a large cast and waiting for the next book
Not a Fit
- Readers who do not find a possessive, jealous, controlling male lead romantic
- Anyone who wants to avoid explicit sex scenes, heavy profanity and armed violence
- Those who want a story that finishes in one book: this one ends on a hard cliffhanger
Before the book the author Burcu Büyükyıldız presents the «Arhavili» series as the beginning of a large universe she calls «Kor Evren». The warning is explicit: the book has a morally dark, highly possessive and jealous male hero, crime, violence, swearing, murder and sexual content; for adult readers only. The series' main couple is Hazel and Tekin; Hazel first appeared as a side character in the author's 2015 book «Bir Günah Gibi».
In the prologue Hazel, in summer in Istanbul, recalls «the dark roses of the past». Love came to her like lightning: a hurricane dragging her to the abyss. She says of herself «I was not of the lucky minority» and speaks of a love she hid inside a bullet casing. The prologue is written like a poem and ends with a quotation from a sad song.
Chapter 1 begins on 16 October 2020 in Arhavi/Artvin. Hazel is woken with icy water: on a ship's deck, in the middle of the dark sea, under cold rain, tied to a chair among masked men. She wears the ice-blue long dress from the reception in Athens. The unmasked man asks her about the «file»; Hazel knows nothing of it. The man says «It's with your twin». And Hazel realises that her twin brother Hazar will be seized too.
When the masked man unties Hazel's hands she lunges at the weapon on the floor, flings the chair behind her and aims the gun at the unmasked man. «Take back your order!» she says. The man laughs: «With us an order once given is not taken back». Lightning flashes, Hazel pulls the trigger. Then the book wakes her from this event, which she relives like a nightmare, in a hotel room a few days later. At night she drinks or throws herself into entertainment to silence her memory.
- The story runs in Hazel's first-person past tense; only the closing epilogue is given from Tekin's point of view, which shows his feelings for her
- Chapters are separated by date and place labels (for example «31 October 2020, Athens») and Greek and Laz phrases are explained in footnotes; this strengthens the local atmosphere
- The quarrel–jealousy–kiss–reconciliation cycle repeats many times across the book, and some sections feel stretched
- The tension scenes (the chase, the party, the ambush, the test before the Council) are well built, and the last third speeds the book up
- Profanity and rough language, especially in the male lead's speech, are used heavily and are part of the character's portrait
- The ending is left open: several questions go unanswered and the story waits for the sequel
The author's earlier book: the Arhavili character first appeared there as a side character
A marriage arranged between mafia families and a slowly simmering relationship; less Black Sea, more American mafia
A mafia romance series full of strong family structures, alliances and possessive male leads
In the hotel suite Hazel gets a call from an unknown number. A mechanical voice says that in Ankara the Russian ambassador Sergei Petrov has been shot dead at a private reception at Niche GalleryArt and that the weapon used in the murder is one of the weapons that came off the ship of Hazel's father Viktor Poyrazoğlu (real surname Kardaras). The caller spells it all out: they will brand her father a «traitor», her twin Hazar will be arrested for illegal arms trade, and her mother Beliz's fashion house and the family's «Boreas Shipping» will be destroyed.
Hazel sees the news on television: on the screen the photograph of the fair-haired ambassador of about fifty, a bloodstained wall and police tape. She tries to stay calm, tells the caller «you are dreaming» and hangs up. Then she phones Elias on the phone secured by her cousin, the programmer Baran. So the book's main intrigue is set: before the family is chosen as a scapegoat Hazel must find out who stands behind it.
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