Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Bound by Duty by Cora Reilly

5 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

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

lh_reads's review against another edition

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tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Content Warnings

carolzinh4's review

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challenging emotional medium-paced

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

3.0

Dante was just so cold and distant — I wished he had “melted” more towards Valentina sooner… She was the one to put a lot of effort in making the relationship work and tell him the truths he needed to hear. It was just a “meh” book overall but engaging enough to make me want to read it until the end and discover what would happen.

Content Warnings

risseandshine's review

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emotional tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

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