WOW! i actually enjoyed this book LMAO. like the other 2 books in the series were romances with practically no chemistry, like the FMC loved him and would take a bullet for him and sure the MMC was possessive but beside that he didn't seem to care for her and it seemed like a rushed romance with all the love coming in the last chapter/epilogue.

but i really liked this book. regardless of what anyone says Gianna was amazing. she spoke her mind and reminded me of Nix from The Spy by Sophie Lark (which if you've read, you know is amazing and shes incredible). her feelings weren't unreasonable and her behaviour was justifiable imo, like ik in the book everyone else thinks shes a bit questionable but idc i love her to bits and pieces. she's scared and she's brave and she's so many things at once and i think although it was a little rushed, it was captured so well here and there's deffo an improvement that you can see with this book's characters as opposed to the first book.

ALSO DIBUFHIJ there was dual pov which we hadn't seen in the first book which really added to the experience. it gave us so much more insight into Matteo's mindset which I think would've been amazing in the first 2 books. Matteo is this flirty, play-boy type who has his eye set on Gianna and regardless of what she does to get away from him, he knows what he wants AND HE'LL GET IT. he was funny and charming and idc what that says about me but i loved him.

the chemistry between them both was THERE!!!! like oh my gosh Reilly finally delivered with an actual romances and she really put some effort into this one man. i dont wanna spoil it too much so ill leave the rest but i just loved the way we had both characters pov and could really see their feelings and the conflicting emotions and everything <3

but like i said. it was still rushed. like there was 2 big kinda events that happened in the play and i feel like they were both half-done and instead of developing on these events which had had such a big lead up to them, we were instead handed with time jumps. no flashbacks or nada, i notice that Reilly seems to do this in her other books too which just really takes away from the experience. like sure we see the characters feelings after but what's the point in even including them if the whole build-up was practically for nothing. like there was such a big build up to her growing up and the wedding and all we got were just boring time-jumps and then when she ran away it wouldve been AMAZING and added so much to see her pov and get a view of her daily-life and how she was actually doing without the mafia and everything with her being on the run but instead we just got the tiniest little snippets, like not even enough paragraphs for a small chapter and then all of a sudden she was found again!?!? like especially with her in chicago. what was the point of her being in chicago, the very place where her family lived if she literally did nothing there? it seemed so useless and just like a dumb filler paragraph, esp as it Aria had literally said that her passport would be useless bc they'd known that A would help G and that in europe there was no border control and that whole spiel. what was the point of that for her just to travel back to europe anyway?

Content Warnings

lilwanderingpages's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark tense medium-paced

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

2.25

Ok, here we go...

As soon as I finished the book I gave it 3.7 stars but I couldn't write the review at the time. Now I sat down to write it and I already had time to think and my almost hate towards Gianna does not deserve that many stars, so I lower it to 2.7 stars. I really understand what she says and thinks but none of it justifies the way that she acts, speaks and, well, her completely. I've been talking about reading her book since I read Bound by Honor because I hoped I would finally like her but I only got the opposite.

"Oh but it's not just her book, what about Matteo?"
I like him. Weirdly, I do. Of course, I don't LOVE him or anything like that, it's just that near Gianna it's hard to not like other people. But he's not all that either, just to make that very clear. Even though we also get his point of view I feel like it was just Gianna's book, completely character-driven.
This book can be defined by:
Gianna, Gianna being a huge pain in the ass, sex, Gianna making me roll my eyes in frustration, sex, Matteo showing a human and loveable side, please I can't take more Gianna, sex, Matteo and Gianna kinda being a couple, sex, can't we focus on Aria and Luca please?, sex, GIVE ME ARIA AND LUCA, more Gianna, and then, Gianna and Matteo.
Basically, I don't recommend it... I'm thinking about lowering the rating already.

OH, important to say, I spent the WHOLE book thinking about Aria and Luca in the middle of it all. Everything that happened I imagined "oh, how are Luca and Aria dealing with it?", wanting their side, their point of view, and didn't care about Gianna and Matteo. That's extremely bad since it is THEIR book.

Maybe I'm the problem, maybe it's because I don't like enemies-to-lovers. But I'll go with 2.28 stars.

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

Go to review page

dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

nathaly_martinez18's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark hopeful tense fast-paced

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

2.5

Mmm, its okey 😒

Content Warnings

mbichaela's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark fast-paced

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

2.0

ENG
i really liked the male character as well as narrator but giana’s annoying character influenced my reading experience.

Content Warnings

ella_hades's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark funny tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Content Warnings

bookedupchick's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark funny fast-paced

4.0

“If she liked to play with fire, fine. I didn’t mind getting burned. I’d walk through flames for her.” 🔥🔥🔥

I freaking loved Gianna + Matteo’s story! ❤️ Their banter is fantastic and the spice ❤️‍🔥 Their was a lot of action in this book too! Loved it 🥰 another wild adventure!

Read this if you like ⤵️

👩🏻‍🦰 Mafia Romance
👩🏻‍🦰 Enemies To Lovers
👩🏻‍🦰 Dual POV
👩🏻‍🦰 Spicy Scenes 🌶
👩🏻‍🦰 Clever Banter

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Bound By Hatred by Cora Reilly

Content Warnings

mybookthrone's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious 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

3.0

Content Warnings

More...