Which Carrero Man Would You Actually Survive Dating?

One thing I’ve learned over the years of writing the Carrero books is that readers never agree on which Carrero man is the best. Every time I think there is a clear favourite, somebody turns up ready to passionately defend another brother and suddenly we’re all debating again.

Some readers are completely devoted to Jake. Others will defend Arry until their dying breath. Then there are the Alexi fans who somehow manage to justify every questionable decision he has ever made because apparently enough devotion makes all sins forgivable.

It got me wondering though.

We all love a fictional book boyfriend, but how many of us would actually survive being in a relationship with one?

It’s easy to fall in love with the romantic moments. The grand gestures. The fierce loyalty. The protective instincts. The scenes that make you close the book and sigh because somebody said exactly the right thing at exactly the right moment.

Living with them every day is a very different challenge.

Because every Carrero man comes with strengths, flaws, baggage, and enough emotional damage to keep a therapist employed for years.

Take Jake, for example.

On the surface, he probably seems like the safest choice. He’s dependable, loyal, protective, and the kind of man who would move mountains for the people he loves without expecting anything in return. If something goes wrong, Jake is already halfway through fixing it before anyone else has even realised there’s a problem.

The trouble is that Jake has never been particularly good at sharing his burdens.

He worries quietly. Plans quietly. Struggles quietly. And is annoyingly covert when figuring out issues. Rather than sit down and talk through a problem, his instinct is usually to deal with it himself first and explain it later. Sometimes much later.

His heart is always in the right place. He genuinely believes he’s protecting the people he loves by carrying the difficult things alone. The problem is that the people who love him often want to carry those things with him.

I think being with Jake would mean constantly trying to remind him that he doesn’t have to shoulder every responsibility by himself. That it’s okay to admit he’s struggling. That the people around him aren’t going to fall apart if he lets them see the cracks occasionally.

Then there’s Arry.

I’ve always felt Arry is one of the most misunderstood Carrero men because people often focus on the sensitivity and miss everything underneath it.

He’s naturally social. Easy-going. Warm. The sort of person who can make people feel comfortable within minutes of meeting them. He carries himself with confidence and has a way of putting others at ease that comes naturally to him.

What many readers overlook is how much thought goes into the decisions he makes. Arry isn’t someone who blindly follows his heart. If anything, some of his biggest struggles come from trying too hard to do the right thing.

He worries about consequences. He considers how his actions affect the people around him. He carries responsibility for others long before they ever ask him to. More than once, he sacrifices what he wants because he believes it’s the right thing to do for somebody else. There is a quiet selflessness to Arry that often gets overshadowed by his confidence.

I think being with him would mean constantly reminding him that his happiness matters too. That he doesn’t always have to be the one making sacrifices. That sometimes it’s okay to choose himself.

And then we come to Alexi.

I always laugh when readers immediately choose Alexi because I suspect many of them have forgotten what he was actually like before Camilla. Who he was in book one!!

The Alexi everyone loves wasn’t the man we met at the beginning.

At the start, Alexi was emotionally detached, cynical, cruel, and perfectly content keeping people at arm’s length. Relationships were easy when they meant nothing. Casual encounters required no vulnerability, no emotional risk, and no possibility of getting hurt.

Love wasn’t something he wanted. Love was something he actively avoided. And he used love as a weapon, and emotions as a tool to make people bend. Make Camilla break.

Then Camilla happened. What makes Alexi’s story so compelling isn’t that he was secretly romantic all along. It’s that he wasn’t. Camilla didn’t simply fall in love with him. She tore down walls that had taken years to build. Brick by brick. Argument by argument. Until the man who had spent most of his life avoiding emotional attachment suddenly found himself caring far more than he ever intended to.

The Alexi readers adore is the man who emerges after those walls come down. The fiercely loyal, protective, devoted man who would do absolutely anything for the woman he loves. Except his need for control, his unwillingness to back down, and his overbearing protectiveness need a strong women to withstand him. Not to mention his dark mafia job and the things he must do to maintain it.

Of course, if we’re opening the discussion up beyond the main Carrero heroes, then we need to talk about Mico and Gino too.

Mico is probably the most dependable man in the entire family.

He’s mature, steady, loyal, and about as drama-free as a Carrero can realistically be. While the rest of the family seems determined to create chaos wherever they go, Mico quietly gets on with life, keeps his head down, fixes problems with quiet efficiency and a very patient silence…. He remains fiercely devoted to the woman he’s loved since high school.

He’s the good guy. The reliable guy. The mature one who keeps many secrets and is the confidant to the Kingpin of their Mafia family. The one you’d trust with your secrets, your future, and probably your spare house keys. Of course, being a Carrero means there is one slight complication.

He’s still a mafia henchman. A good one who is skilled and dangerous, and we sometimes forget that.

Which feels like an important detail that shouldn’t be overlooked.

Then there’s Gino.

Alexi’s twin and absolute human chaos. Where Mico is steady, Gino is explosive. Where Mico thinks things through, Gino is already halfway out the door, looking for trouble.

He’s passionate, cheeky, endlessly entertaining, and possesses a remarkable ability to turn even the simplest situation into an adventure. Or a disaster. Sometimes both. Although he does have a good understanding of human emotion and clocked his brother’s love growing long before anyone else. He’s smarter than he seems.

Gino loves attention, enjoys winding people up, and has never met a boundary he wasn’t tempted to push just to see what happens. Yet underneath all that mischief is someone fiercely devoted to the people he loves. The challenge with Gino wouldn’t be wondering whether he cared. The challenge would be keeping up with him. Because life with Gino would never be boring, but it might be exhausting.

You’d probably need strong coffee, endless patience, and very good running shoes.

So now I’m curious.

When we strip away the money, the looks, the Carrero name, and all those romantic moments that make us swoon, which Carrero man do you honestly think you could build a life with?

Which one would drive you completely insane?

Tell me in the comments.

I have a feeling there are going to be some very passionate arguments about this one.