Cora Reilly

Dante Cavallaro's wife died four years ago but her memory still haunts him. On the verge of becoming the youngest head in the history of the Chicago Outfit, Dante needs to remarry or risk appearing weak. Valentina is chosen for the role. She, too, lost her husband, but her first marriage has always been for show. Even after her husband's death, Valentina carries the weight of his secrets with her- to protect the honor of a dead man and herself. With her wedding to Dante, her castle of lies threatens to crash. Valentina fears the wedding night might reveal her secret, but her worries prove unfounded when Dante ignores her. Soon, her fear turns to confusion and anger. Valentina is tired of being ignored. She's determined to get Dante's attention and desire, even if she can't get his heart that still belongs to his dead wife.

Bound By Duty

Dante – The Boss – Cavallaro's wife died four years ago. On the verge of becoming the youngest head in the history of the Chicago mafia, Dante needs a new wife and Valentina was chosen for the role. Valentina lost her husband, too, but her first marriage had always been for show. When she was eighteen, she agreed to marry Antonio in order to hide the truth: that he was gay and in love with an outsider. Even after his death, she kept his secret, not only to preserve the honor of a dead man, but also to protect herself. But now that she's about to marry Dante, her castle of lies threatens to crash. Dante is only thirty-six but already feared and respected in the Familia, and he's notorious for always getting what he wants. Valentina is terrified the wedding night will reveal her secret, but her worries prove unfounded when Dante shows her the cold shoulder. Soon her fear is replaced by confusion and indignation. Valentina is tired of being ignored. She's determined to get Dante's attention and desire, even if she can't get his heart that still belongs to his dead wife.

Bound by Duty

Helena 

Ilham

2⭐️…
Where is the plot?
I thought I would enjoy this book but sadly I just found it boring

Renata

so goddamm valentina can u share? bc sharing is caring agh dante 🔛🔝 (of me pls). 
so i truly loved this, the plot slayed and although dante sometimes was an asshole i just couldn’t hate him, and valentina - oh girl your resilience and your strength definitely payed off. 

- (…) “I guess I'm just lucky to always end up with husbands who find me repulsive."
"You aren't repulsive to me,""Trust me, I find you attractive."

- "Don't you want me?"
"I do. That's the problem,"

- “”I would have given this to you last night but I didn't want to wake you” was written in neat script on the card. Delighted, I grabbed the present and unwrapped it. Inside the small velvet box rested a delicate white-gold necklace with an emerald pendant. I stumbled out of bed and hurried toward my vanity, holding it up against my eyes. The emerald had almost exactly the same color. That couldn't have been a coincidence.”

- "Am I forgiven?"
"I shouldn't forgive you," "But for some reason, I can't stay mad at you."

- "You're so busy honoring her memory and protecting the image of her you have in your mind that you don't realize how badly you're treating me. You lost your first wife through no fault of your own, but you will be losing me because you can't let go of her."

- "I fear you're saying that because you know I won't punish you,"
"You won't?"
"As long as I rule the Outfit, you won't be harmed."

- "I love this. I love talking to you like a real husband and wife. Please don't pull back from me again. I can't go back to being lonely."
"I won't. Today was the wakeup call I needed. I'll try to be the best husband I can possibly be, which probably is still much less than you deserve. I'm not an emotional man, and I hate public displays of affection, but I won't go back to ignoring you. That I can promise."

- "Thank you for never giving up on me, Val."
"I knew my stubbornness would come in handy one day,"

- "Your dad will always love you and keep you safe."
"You and Anna, both.”

- "I'll never let anything happen to you or Anna. I'll protect you until my last breath."

aleksandra

2.5/5

I don’t know why author put Valentina and Dante as a second couple, when Matteo and Gianna were mentioned a lot of times in the first book, and Val and Dante no. 

The plot consists mainly of h0rny Valentina and some kind of action at the end, which ended too quickly like every book in the series. Valentine was basically a brown hair Aria, and Dante was just more boring Luca. There was a moment where I thought I will even maybe like him, but when he didn’t apologize for what he said and Valentine was like "you know what, you didn’t apologized but I’m h0rny so whatever". 

Still, this book was better than the first one. I’m a proud Luca hater.

alya adlina

guys i ate this book up…..i finished it in one sitting only. this one is much better than the first one ngl but i still love aria and luca.

dante and valentina just own my heart. i love them. their love story is just more to angsty and i’m here for it. their relationship is just so pure and i love it so much even tho i’m still not quite fond of few scenes but still i enjoyed it. 

THE SMUT SCENES IS EVERYTHING ISTG I JUST LOVE IT SO MUCH ITS SO HOT.

honya

they were fine. dante did get on my nerves sometimes.

i hate it when one of the main characters is not over the past yet, unspecial trope is just not in my liking list. i love valentina for what she is; confident, strong-willed, and just amazing. i feel bad for her that she was so naïve to think the marriage would work immediately, the journey was dull and it really makes me like dante less. he's so.. stuck in the past, that's pathetic and irritating. but she's so easy to give in when dante gave her inconsistencies, but i like her more for that she's not easy to give up their marriage.

though dante let his walls down and his feelings flow, it doesn't feel satisfying. valentina deserves more than that, but i believe dante will make it up for the rest of his life. he should be.

i hate it when one of the main characters is not over the past yet, unspecial trope is just not in my liking list. i love valentina for what she is; confident, strong-willed, and just amazing. i feel bad for her that she was so naïve to think the marriage would work immediately, the journey was dull and it really makes me like dante less. he's so.. stuck in the past, that's pathetic and irritating. but she's so easy to give in when dante gave her inconsistencies, but i like her more for that she's not easy to give up their marriage.

though dante let his walls down and his feelings flow, it doesn't feel satisfying. valentina deserves more than that, but i believe dante will make it up for the rest of his life. he should be.

It took me a while to finish this book because I had 0 motivation to read it but I managed to finish it somehow. The start of the book was really really slow but at some point near the end it started to be more interesting. Honestly, it’s pretty similar to the first one. I like Valentina because she stood up for herself but at the same time she always ended up giving in to Dante. And well Dante… he’s just meh. 

Anita

Jules

arleth

Valentina is strong and determined, Dante is cold and distant, they both have secrets that prevent them from moving on with their lives, I loved that Valentina was so stubborn and although sometimes she did certain things that Dante didn't like, he eventually gave up on her.

Trish

why is the second book in a series always the boring one? idk, maybe i was just too eager for gianna and mattheo's story to pay attention to anything that was happening in this book.

Kathleen Tom

** spoiler alert **
           5 Stars! 

Hi BookLover,

I don’t know what is it about Mafia Romance or Dark Romance it just really turn my world upside down with the storyline, the characters. And I have always love all the Series by Cora Reilly. It’s just something I really look forward to read. 

I have this obsession with works that I read Twisted Emotions like 6 times and I even re-read Luca & Aria love’s story many times without getting bored. I will have my copy of this soon and I can’t wait. 

When you read POV from the other series it always show the bad side of Dante and when I read about him today I can’t help that my heart feel warm and I fall in love for his character. 

Oh you know—I love all the Mafia man. I mean, who doesn’t? 😬🤪 

But I highly recommended this! :)

Janna Niemi

I personally like the mafia set up. It probably wouldn’t be quite as exciting and tempting in real life though. I like Dante and Valentina’s relationship a lot. It’s not quite as good as Luca and Aria’s but I still enjoy it and I’m happy they have each other. I also really like the ending and I can’t wait to follow the series further.

nory

sharyn

3.5 porque existe Valentina y .5 porque las escenas hot todisima pero detesto a Dante

jo solimo

anessa lawrence 

Mary

I'm going to pour out my thoughts just as they come. 

This story was pathetic and I knew I wasn't going to enjoy this about 30% of the way through. Their marriage was a fucking joke. Valentina was pining after her husband just due to the fact that he was her husband. she didn't know anything about him and yet she so badly wanted to be loved by someone. Dante was closed off because of his ex wife and barely showed his new wife any decency. the tomb room was weird as hell. Dante claiming he wouldn't know if she had a mistress 'lover' whatever is so stupid because he knew everything she did before she did it.

The cook ws a bitch for no reason. Shut up and respect your employer. Especially since she's the boss' wife. Like ??? One of the guards would have told Dante about her I'm sure of it. Gaby seemed to be a good side character. I don't even care about Bibi even thought she was a part of this book. 
It didn't seem like this plot was well thought out. Like the first book at least had some continuity/ slow to it. This was choppy and ridiculous. 

overall this just was not a good book. I really didn't think it was bad but nothing about me wants to continue reading this series.

Emilie Adele Rognmo

Okay so this one.... I'm clearly addicted to Cora Reilly's books. And I enjoyed this one a lot but there is a huge problem to me. I'm a hopeless romantic girl so I obviously want to see romance in whatever book I'm reading. And even though I truly appreciate how loyal and heartbroken Dante was because of his first wife, I can't help but feel so disappointed that he never truly said the words "I love you" to Valentina. I also was feeling pain when she was trying her best to make this union a good marriage and he was just ignoring her, but as I said, I understand that part of the whole plot. 
I like that we got to see a bit more dark parts in this book as well, especially the whole Frank/Antonio part, that was really interesting. I know there's a book ahead that is supposed to be focused on Dante and Valentina again and I really hope I get what I want in that one.

María | @AltroReader

Where to begin?

I saw this couple from the first book, both widows and part of a mob. 

This, again, is arranged marriage so I'm in, and let me tell this was a whole journey

At first (like the first 6 chapters) it was very repetitive, like very shallow and would give the reader very to non plot 

But as the pages went by it increased significantly. I really liked it, the overall of it, the characters 

4.5/5

allie

4/5★
↓
Qué guay ha sido la historia de Valentina y Dante.

En este segundo libro de la serie 'Born in blood' de la autora, nos encontramos con la historia de Valentina y Dante. Me han gustado mucho los protagonistas. Tanto Valentina como Dante. Valentina me ha parecido un personaje increíble, súper fuerte, valiente y decidida. Siempre defiende sus ideales y su lucha y eso me ha encantado. Me ha gustado muchísimo la amistad de Valentina y Bibiana, su mejor amiga. Siempre está ahí para ella y ha sido increíble la amistad tan estupenda que forman.
Por otra parte, Dante también me ha gustado mucho. Es un personaje serio, duro, pero también es un hombre atormentado. 
Me ha gustado mucho la relación entre ambos. Es una relación que va creciendo poco a poco. Aunque es cierto que me ha parecido que ha sido todo algo frío entre ellos hasta prácticamente el final. Y eso no me ha gustado mucho.

Igual que me ha pasado con todos los libros de Cora Reilly, este libro ha sido súper adictivo y atrapante. Engancha desde la primera página y no puedes soltar el libro. Su pluma es fantástica y súper entretenida.

'Bound by duty' es una historia súper adictiva, entretenida y amena. Es una historia sencilla que te atrapa desde el primer momento y se lee con una facilidad increíble. Una historia de amor de la mafia, llena de secretos y detalles difíciles, pero también es una historia de valentía y superación.
He disfrutado mucho con esta novela.

Tanya 

This was a good one. Fairly different than Aria & Luca though. I don’t feel as though we got to know Dante that well. I really hate it’s only one POV so far in the series but I’m loving the different dynamics with the arranged marriages.

The fact that sis first marriage was with a man who was gay then her second husband refused to love her bc his first wife died of cancer? Fuck that’s so sad shit. She was borderline desperate in the beginning but that quickly changed and she grew into herself so I can appreciate that.

I love love love these stories!

Andrey-Claude Fortin

Not as good as the first, but I loved the ending 🥰

Bound By Duty

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