Bound by Honor

3⭐️

I liked the book, personally it was just missing something for me.

okay so this book definitely kicked my reading slump in the butt and since we have here a whole mega universe imma just read the whole coraverse bc i’ve been putting that off for a long time. so ofc i knew that luca cheated on aria like 2 days after they get married but honestly i’m not really “mad” at it but i am definitely not brushing off his actions but im sorry I LOVE DRAMA. also the relationship building yeah. YEAH. but ngl i can’t wait to read giannamatteo i am so so so excited for that one - "There is no stronger bond than blood. At least the Familia got that right." "Born in blood. Sworn in blood. That's their motto." - "Born in blood, sworn in blood, I swear that I won't try to steal your virginity or harm you in any way tonight." "I already bled for you, so that seals it. Born in blood. Sworn in blood." - "If I'd done that today, you would have lost control. The only reason why you didn't was because I treated you like my husband, not a monster." "You are far too beautiful and innocent to be married to someone like me, but I'm too much of a selfish bastard to ever let you go. You are mine. Forever” - "Your marriage to me shackles you to the mafia. Blood and death will be your life as long as I live." "Then so be it. I'll go where you go no matter how dark the path." - “He knew I wouldn't go anywhere. Even if I still wanted to run, I couldn't. My heart belonged to him even if he didn't have a heart that he could give me in turn.” - "So you lied? Why?" "Yes, I lied!" “Why?” "I lied because I hate that I love you, because I hate that you can hurt me without ever laying a finger on me, because I hate myself for loving you even though you won't ever love me back." - "I could have lost you two days ago." "But you didn't." "Why did you do this? Why did you take a bullet for me?" "Do you really not know why?" "I love you, Luca.” - "Love is a risk in our world, and a weakness a Capo can't afford." "I know," "But I don't care because loving you is the only pure thing in my life. "You love me?" "Yes, even if I shouldn't. If my enemies knew how much you meant to me, they'd do anything to get their hands on you, to hurt me through you, to control me by threatening you. (…) My first choice should always be the Familia." "But you are my first choice, Aria. I'll burn down the world if I have to. I'll kill and maim and blackmail. I'll do anything for you. Maybe love is a risk, but it's a risk I'm willing to take and as you said, it's not a choice. I never thought I would, never thought I could love someone like that but I fell in love with you. I fought it. It's the first battle I didn't mind losing.” - “The path stretching before us was one of darkness, a life of blood and death and danger, a future of always watching my back, of knowing every day could be Luca's last, of fearing that one day I might have to watch him receive a lethal injection. But this was my world and Luca was my man, and I would go this path with him until the bitter end. As he made love to me, I touched my hand to the tattoo over his heart, felt his heart beating against my palm. I smiled. "Mine." "Always," Luca said.”

1/5 first read: idk when but 2019 second read: 27.11.2022 I’m sorry but it was terrible. I only started this series because I see it on Twitter every day. I read the first book in 2019 and the only two things I remember are that Luca cheated and Luca and Aria's first meeting was weird? Let's start with our main character, Luca, the worst male lead in a book I've ever read. He cheated, he didn't even apologize for it and was using his d!ck instead of brain. When Aria described him like that - "He turned toward me and I stared intently at his black shirt. Black shirt, black tie, black jacket. Black like his soul." I knew it will be bad. It’s not even the worst thing, because THE AUDACITY of this man was phenomenal. Let me just give you one example, because I don't even want to look back at my highlights for more. "Luca tilted his head, eyes narrowed in thought. “Do you intend to make me wait long?” ( for s*x, her first time) “I think we both have very different concepts of the word ‘long wait’.” "I’m not a patient man. If long means a year…” He trailed off. I couldn’t believe him." You know what I will leave it no comment. Now to our heroine, Aria. She was giving "I’m not like other girls" vibes and I couldn't understand how she could EVER fall in love with Luca. He was basically only interested in fuck*ng her, he didn’t even asked once what she liked. The plot at the beginning was okay, even though the book is written poorly. I stayed till the end because I thought Luca will change. Even a little bit. Unfortunately it did not happen. He was still a d*ck. I will continue to read the next books, because I constantly see the posts about the children of the main characters from this series, and I’m curious about them.

hmm o que foi isso que acabei de ler? Quando decidi dar uma chance aos famosos livros de máfia não achei que eles seriam tão parecido com uma fanfic do wattpad. Sinceramente nem sei o que dizer sobre esse livro. 2 estrelas por ter me deixado presa (afinal eu amo uma fanfic rs).

okay well this book was OKAY for me….i mean i enjoyed reading this but my mafia era has ended so it didn’t quite live up to my expectations overall… okay but i love the characters. aria and luca’s relationship development IS there. just love to see them being honest and love each other. i thought i will hate luca but he did not that bad BAD. while aria she’s very innocent and very independent woman. i love them. overall i enjoyed this book and will continue this series. i gave this 3.2 stars!!

such a quick read. a good kind of cliche. aria & luca is ok, too vanilla so that probably is the reason why i am more drawn to matteo & gianna, the hot and fire couple.

dnf @ 30%

3.5. better than i expected! the smut was also pretty good icl🤌 idek what i didn’t like abt this book, it just wasn’t anything too special iykyk

3.75⭐️

sex, violence, and moral ambiguity I loved it. I figured they would’ve come to a stage of obvious emotional affection a lot sooner than they did, but I’m a sucker for a slow burn. I was waiting for more playfulness like in the scene at the gym but mafias are usually more dark so it doesn’t bug me as much as it usually would, but that scene came so naturally it was hard not to want more of that dynamic, can’t wait to see if the other books provide that

odeio isso, é tão irreal, mesmo que ela seja de fato uma garota da máfia, nunca que ela ia ser tão virginalmente inocente assim, só se fosse nos anos 1800 mas n é entao cora reilly sua cadela farofeira te odeio to traumatizada agora como assim ele enfiou nela gozou mas ela n gozou ela so sentiu dor e TA TUDO BEM??? tipo ELE DEVERIA TER DADO UM JEITO DE FAZER FICAR BOM aí mano chega esse luca tbm é um BROXA existe homem mafioso possessivo machista com demônios internos que são ATRAENTES e SEXYS e APAIXONANTES e daí existe o luca vitiello QUERO ME MATAR CORA REILLY

I don't know why I liked the book but it wasn't too bad. I think it could have more potential if the book wasn't so focused on sex.

It's not one of my favourite books by far but it wasn't bad either. The characters are a bit frustrating. Luca basically just wants sex all the time and Aria could learn to be a bit more like her sister Gianna. That said, I'm looking forward to reading Gianna's story.

And I think I’m being pretty generous giving 3 stars to the book.

Bruh

i hate that she doesn't stand up enough and is always so afraid. jeeez. and the men are all assholes. we didn't even get to see them change a bit. no character development. I did enjoy the short mafia moments we got in there though. it isn't terrible but i can see how it could've been awesome and it irkes me that it isn't better

books like this are my ultimate guilty pleasure. the fanfic loving girl in me craves the dark smutty stuff that can be borderline problematic. #sorrynotsorry. plus the writing was good/not awkward and it was fun to read. nothing overdramatic or unexpected happened and tbh i kinda liked that. sometimes it's satisfying to pick up a book knowing it will deliver exactly what you're in the mood for.

5 Stars! Hi BookLovers, I had always Love Aria & Luca's love story. I had always adored their relationship. Luca's possessiveness and jealousy is something else. It gives possessive a new meaning when it comes to Luca. I don't what is it about Cora Reilly's books but it just something you can never forget that easily and it was not something you can move on from. I didn't know why didn't read this before but when I read it back last night I feel like I've already read this but I'm not sure so I've decide to re-read it again and put up my review on this. Highly Recommended! :)

** spoiler alert ** I hate that they Considered woman as an object belong to man And I also hate that aria forgeve Luca so easy and quickly

TLDR: this book is boring as hell, practically no chemistry between the characters, felt rushed (esp with the amount of loose ends there were) and my two stars are generous. ive seen this book recommended everywhere so of course i went to it with high hopes and it fell so short. as someone who loves dark romances and books with forced marriages (we don’t talk about it LMAO), seeing people say this was one of the best books in this genre felt like such a let down - but i think many authors mark their books as dark just bc they’re mafia so Reilly gets a pass on this ig. honestly 75% of this book was just him practically begging her to fuck him despite her not being ready and being scared. idk if i’d call it r*pe but like the first time they were intimate was literally because she wanted to see her sister. even when they eventually did do it imo it just felt like she felt like it was her obligation for letting her see her sister and not like she genuinely wanted him. like he wanted so much from her despite treating her so badly, esp in the first 50% of the book. i could not stand him at all, and my standards for men, esp in dark romances and mafia books is so low but he is deffo not going to be my book bf anytime soon. like when i said before there was no chemistry, i meant it. he literally treated her like shit, even when he was ‘nice’ until like the very last couple of pages. aria deserves better than him considering how much of a cunt he is. tbh he seems like the character in another book that would be the MMC’s best friend but the one that the FMC low-key didn’t like but put up with him just for the MMC. i think dual pov couldve really added to this story. like getting to see what luca thought about aria wouldve maybe made my rating a little higher bc arias pov was low-key boring asf. also considering part of the reason for why they even had to get married was bc of the taiwanese mafia, why were the never mentioned ?!?. idk the book just had a bunch of other loose ends but those are like big spoilers. also he cheated on her, idc that they barely had a relationship i CANNOT STAND cheaters in books, i only ‘let him off’ because of their lack of relationship, but i absolutely hate luca. i liked aria until like the last couple of pages. like she seemed pretty relatable and i understood her a lot and actually agreed with a lot of her actions but with what’s revealed at the end, the way she just low-key forgave him made me want to scream.  tbh the most likeable person in the entire book was literally gianna, aria’s sister. her and aria’s other sister lilliana were actually pretty entertaining and the only reason this book didn’t have 1 star. like everyone else was so annoying at one point or another but they were just <3 i guess reilly suceeded though, like tbh her writing style was pretty nice so i’ll be reading the next book in the series to see if she improves bc i wanna give her another chance (or understand the hype tbh). i just don’t get how can how you write be so good but what you write be so… bad.

wow all of them is just a bunch of sexist mf huh? dont know what else to tell ya.

I love this book! It was great to read the story in Aria’s point of view and see what she thinks and does within Luca and hers relationship. I’m a big fan of strong alpha males and Luca is definitely one of those. It’s amazing to experience this relationship. I can’t wait to move along the series!

Okay.....I never thought that I'll "like" this book...I actually LOVED it!!!!! Mafia world....

Ehhhh not my favorite mafia but it was okay. The smut was good at first but if you’re one of those people that doesn’t like sex every chapter this book isn’t for you. If you’re into that then you’ll probably enjoy this The writing felt a little immature, understanding that Aria is unexperienced and she doesn’t know anything about being in a relationship, but she was an 18 year old girl and I felt like I was in the mind of a 14 year old lol. At the beginning when she was 15 the writing made sense, like okay she’s young and is absolutely lost but then 3 years later and I’m like???? I do love an enemies to lovers (obviously) but tbh I was disappointed with this after hearing so much about it. I did love Luca and I loved Arias relationship with her sisters and brother, I just can’t get past reading about a heroine who is pretty dumb and seems lost the entire story. It got 3 stars out of me because it was a cute story and I will probably end up reading Gianna’s book.