Reviews tagging 'Infertility'

Bound by Duty by Cora Reilly

7 reviews

cecilielaugesen's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

My main problem with this was Valentina… She was annoying, frustrating, insensitive and delusional.
1. Married a guy she KNEW was gay, because she thought SHE could turn him not gay anymore.
2. Is furious with Dante and keeps saying there is something wrong with him because he can’t just get over his dead wife whom he loved deeply. Again because now he has her, so he really shouldn’t keep dwelling on the dead love of his.

3. ALL she thinks about and talks about for the better part of the book is sex. Especially when talking to her best friend who is actively being raped and beaten, Valentine is constantly whining that Dante won’t touch her.

4. She’s oblivious to the (mafia) world around her. But apparently she is so much better and smarter than everyone else, so it doesn’t matter. And while she borderline looks down on all the other women being abused(again because she thinks she’s too strong to let a man abuse her) she caves to Dante SO easily, like????

5. She is very resentful, she has the WORST life ever because she was married to a (gay) man who didn’t love her. - I know that’s not the ideal situation, but again she thinks she has it harder than everyone else, and it’s just not fair….

6. She led them into an ambush, and then SHE is mad that he won’t just forgive her. Without her doing anything whatsoever to earn forgiveness, besides trying to seduce him and have sex.
7. She was a lot more tolerable towards the end, but it felt like it came out of nowhere with no actual character development.

Content Warnings

iemilia's review

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Content Warnings

belle13's review

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challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Tropes/Themes: Arranged Marriage, Mafia Romance
Amount of spice: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Explicitness: 🌶️🌶️🌶️

My thoughts
Bound by Honor will always have an extra special place in my heart but I loved Bound by Duty almost as much (occasionally even more). Val and Dante are a completely different vibe to Aria and Luca. They are much more calculating and careful with their emotions and response to things. In saying that, I think this is a more emotional story than Bound by Honor. My heart broke a little for Val because she’s so tough but feels like she isn’t good enough for someone to love and was let down twice in marriages where she had no real choice.

Val doesn’t take any shit from Dante which is refreshing and the sexual tension in this one is some of the best Cora has written in my opinion. It's a slow burn and takes them a long time to really trust and love each other which is right up my alley. I will say that I don’t think this book will age well because there are a few problematic themes - although this is consistent with the mafia romance genre I guess. I would say always check TWs for Cora’s books.

I loved it and will probably read it a thousand more times.

Content Warnings

lilwanderingpages's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I EXPECTED WAY MORE OK!?

Almost the same rating as "Luca Vitiello" but I know it deserves more. I even feel bad for giving Bound by Duty a lower rating than Honor/Luca.
The problem is that I had really high expectations for this one because I saw A LOT of people who love the series (and people that don't) saying that Luca and Aria were terrible, Bound by Duty is WAY better etc etc. I shouldn't have paid attention to that but I accepted these expectations and the book didn't attend it.

I didn't want to compare the two couples/books but I feel like giving my opinion about it. What I saw the most was "Dante and Valentina have a lot of chemistry, different from Aria and Luca that doesn't have it". I completely disagree and I tried to see that throughout the book. Also, I hate to compare couples and all that but, oh, well, here I am.

Now, focusing on Bound by Duty only:
Dante and Valentina do make a good couple and Dante really is very sweet but we keep getting the cold shoulder from him throughout the whole book, for this reason, I feel like the book would've been better if it was from his point of view.
As a reader, I understood Dante's whys and all, just by Valentina's pov but I got bored a lot of times, even sleepy, and really annoyed with both of them.

PS. Important to say that I liked how we got a little more understanding of the mafia world.

Even so, I really liked it and I'll read the next one (I'm hoping it's Gianna's book because for now I'm really irritated with her and a bit with Matteo too).

Born in Blood Mafia Chronicles - reviewed:

0.5 - Luca Vitiello:

TSG - https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/57f24b82-8331-460a-bd4d-ae02fc323861
Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4561568230

1.0 - Bound by Honor:
TSG - https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/eb670dd1-294d-4e23-9bab-bc9c11aef33f
Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4558103572

2.0 - Bound by Duty:
TSG - https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/a71e2654-573c-4d41-a224-363bbfb62ba0
Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3021719736

3.0 - Bound by Hatred:
TSG - https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/8e3fc6be-670e-4ae3-8bf1-eba71c361dcd
Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4578787289

4.0 - Bound by Temptation:
TSG - https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/e0ad773e-86e3-46fc-a250-df3cc60c318b
Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4585687182

5.0 - Bound by Vengeance:
TSG - https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/902ff414-f764-429f-b3a2-dfcd8fd35d0b
Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4593389597

Content Warnings

rachaelboyd's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Content Warnings

nicichels's review

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challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

I didn’t like their relationship, I still don’t understand how Val loved Dante. He didn’t tell her he loved her once and he was just frustrating as a person. Even Val and Enzo had more chemistry than her and Dante.

Content Warnings

ashleycmms's review

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dark emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

I mean, I liked it more than the first book for sure, but this was honestly just a fun and steamy read. I didn’t LOVE either of the characters and it’s clear that there story is only just beginning so it’s hard to give a rating for this one.

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