Bound by Honor (Born in Blood Mafia Chronicles Book 1)

This will contain some spoilers. Wow. I loved this book SO much. I'm actually pathetically sad that it's over and wish I could read it all over again like it was new. In fact, I stayed up all night to finish it and then went to work exhausted but it was totally worth it. So let's start from the beginning. Aria is a 15 year old girl who is basically being sold off to marriage for tactical mafia purposes to a 20 year old future boss, named Luca "the vice" Vitiello. She is terrified of him at first and of course the story is about how this will or won't pan out. The things I liked and loved: for starters... one word. LUCA. I am officially in love with a new book boyfriend. His oozing masculinity personality and edge that only seems to get the slightest kink in terms of Aria, was perfect. I loved that when they finally came together and admitted their feelings, neither one had to change who they were. They each fell in love with the other for exactly who that person is. There is something alluring about bad boys. The only stipulation for most women, is that he love them. It's a common theory that the bad boy fantasy is because a woman wants to be the one to change him. This is true, but it's not always about making him good. All it really takes it for him to be good to her. There is a part of some women that genuinely love and get a thrill from a badass. This story is exactly that. She accepts him and he loves her above everything. That is the bad boy fantasy in a nutshell. The hero is only sanitized so far as it pertains to the heroine. Not in any other way. Things I didn't care for as much: The writing was awesome. I just wish that we would've gotten his pov. Without it, we are guessing constantly and stuck inside aria's head which is a bit immature at times. I was already feeling swoony over Luca, but it could've been even more off the charts had I gotten a peek inside his mind. The author has mentioned a book from his pov and also a novella, which I hope we get because I'm in love with them and I really feel slightly cheated that the other books in the series gave the men a voice. Plus, I love the mob business parts of the book and with his pov, we would've gotten a lot more of that and seen how he interacts with others. Something else that bothered me a little was the issue of the ever evasive virginity. I was glad he was patient with her, but she was such a baby about it sometimes that it was cringeworthy to see. I get that it got better over time, but by that point the book was over and we don't get to see it. Also.. slight spoiler.. her sisters didn't have near the same issues as she did. There is also a certain thing that happened around 50% that everyone probably knows and I have an unpopular opinion about that. It happened like 3 days after their wedding. Which by the way, they only knew each other for days before that. Basically, they had known each other for about a week total when the cheating happened. There was no love in the marriage at that point, she hated him. And he was a mobster with a bad reputation. The only reason he got better at all, was for his love of Aria. So what shocks anyone about him not keeping his vows out of pure obligation, after knowing Aria for a week, not getting any from her and her hating him? I also think he really did believe that she wouldn't care. He didn't do it to hurt her. I didn't want it to happen, I was upset when I read it, I wanted her to be mad and rebel. She did. I wanted a genuine apology to show he cared and was affected. We got that. But I can't make myself hate him or ruin the love story over something that happened pretty predictably before a love story even really got started. In fact, ironically this was what kicked it off because it showed him that she really did care and he immediately ceased all ass-holery. This was the start of them coming together. I would've been more bothered had he done this after they either slept together or had begun falling in love. Neither was the case at this point. So, in conclusion on this topic, give the guy a break. When all was said and done, I think this deserved 5 stars. I am a sucker for mafia movies/books and love stories. This was the perfect combination. If you are like me in that way or even if you aren't, give it a try, it's not a waste of time. I will definitely be following this author from now on.

Aria is only fifteen years-old when she is told that she has been promised to marry Luca. At twenty years-old, and with reputation as a cold-blooded killer, marriage to Luca is a terrifying future for Aria to behold. Seemingly overnight her world is turned upside down, as she becomes the property of a man she only knows enough of to fear. Her anxiety and fear only seems to grow during the three years she spends finishing high school and counting down the days until her life as she's known it comes to an end. When Aria marries Luca at eighteen, she is resigned to her fate. Committed to performing her duty as a mafia wife, to solidify the union between her Chicago family and her new husband's New York family, she never expects to love her husband. In fact, she is determined to hate him. Luca is a cold-blooded killer and is in line to be the next Capo of the New York family. He doesn't try to hide the fact that he isn't a good guy. He's lived a life where emotions were weaknesses that could be exploited by enemies and betrayals are a dime a dozen. When his fresh-faced young wife blows into his world, a gentler side of Luca is revealed. Although his desire for her is evident, he wants her to want him. He's willing to woo her and wait until she wants him as much as he wants her...and wait he does. Although the plot of the book seemed to largely revolve around when Aria would finally have sex with her husband, I have to say that it was an engaging and thought-provoking story. I absolutely fell in love with these characters, despite their less than ideal start. I hung on every word and was up into the early morning hours reading this story. The only reason that this book did not get 5 stars from me was because it needed som editing/proofing. There were multiple instances of incorrect word usages and/or tenses. It was pretty distracting and sometimes laughable. I think that perhaps this stood out even more because the east of the story was so well-written and appealing. The characters were well-developed, etc. That being said, I loved this story! I will be jumping right into the next book in this series and cannot wait to see how things play out. I was kind of hoping to get Matteo and Gianna's story next, but guess I'll have to hold out for a little longer. If the next books are half as great as this one, I'll be hooked for sure!

Best series out there. If you want a great book, start with this one. I Guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

It was an ok read. It was really hard to like any of the characters in the book. Gianni was a loud mouthed little girl who needed to learn to read the room and learn when to keep her mouth shut. She was all big and bad until she realized she'd be marrying Matteo. Aria was whiney, and although she grew up in the Mafia, she knew absolutely nothing. She was a child, and it showed. 70% of the book was her and Luca pleasuring themselves orally. Boring. I get she wasn't ready to have sex, but she wanted to give everything and change while she did nothing. I don't condone cheating, but I was hoping she'd let him take a mistress, so she'd be less annoying. Luca was alright. He never lied about who or what he was. He was honest with her, but he had the patience of a saint when it came to Aria and her fickle behavior. There are some grammatical errors that sometimes made it harder to understand what the author was trying to convey. There was hardly any real character development and no real chemistry between Luca and Aria. I love me a good mafia story, but this one missed the mark.

The fmc was a bit inaccurate in an infuriating way. For someone born and raised in a mafia family it rang untrue that she'd be so morally opposed to everything they stood for. Like her asking Luca about killings and business. No real girl born in the mafia would ever ask her husband about what he did on thr street. There were just so many instances where I was like she seems like a woman from Kansas just dropped into mafia world randomly with no clue how any of it works. But the story itself was lovely and heartwarming once I got past my irritation at her non mafia daughter ignorance

Amoooo, el libro es una joya✨. Ame como Luca ama tan apasionadamente a Aria. Es tan frío pero lo demuestra con tan pequeños actos 🥰. También amo demasiado su posesividad, es tan Luca que me encanta. Hay tantas emociones incluidas en el libro que te llevan por un viaje. Me gustó la parte que él espera hasta que ella está lista para su primera vez y que la misma no sea como un cuento de hadas 😌.

Hot, possessive and calculating mafia boss meets his resilient yet endearing and emotional better half. Almost no story (but a good one though and to be continued in the next books - definitely on my tbr list ;)), a lot of sensual and graphic sex, a drizzle of humor, and some nice (and snarky ;D) side characters. It’s not something you have a book hangover over, but it’s really well written and Aria and Luca are sooo good for each other! I am glad I found a new author! :D

It was too good i never looked at which page i am on. And when it ended i was like Ohh it ended too soon. Too good book now going to read it in luca pov. 💫😁😊

Era da tempo che non leggevo un mafia romance così bello e travolgente. La storia è intensa e i personaggi aderenti alla realtà. Luca è carnefice e vittima del Sistema in cui è nato e cresciuto. Il suo destino è già scritto: diventare il Capo dei Capi, un uomo temuto, crudele e rispettato da tutti. E Luca non può fare altro che accettarlo. La Famiglia viene prima di tutto e tutti, non c'è spazio per le emozioni nella sua vita, mostrarle è un segno di debolezza dal quale il nemico potrebbe trarre vantaggio. Il matrimonio con Aria è un matrimonio di convenienza che serve a siglare un'alleanza tra famiglie malavitose. Apparentemente a farne le spese è Aria, data in sposa a uno sconosciuto, un mostro a detta di tutti. Ma, nonostante la poca esperienza e la giovane età, Aria sa il fatto suo e saprà farsi rispettare e amare da Luca. Luca è e resta l'antieroe, non diventa un principe azzurro, le sue mani sono macchiate di sangue, ma l'autrice nel rapporto con Aria ce lo fa vedere sotto una luce diversa, ci mostra sprazzi del ragazzo che era prima di diventare un uomo d'onore. Ho già comprato il secondo volume perché devo assolutamente conoscere gli altri personaggi. Lo consiglio.

Wow, Cora, you created an amazing mafia world, I'm so hooked to your stories. I've read other mafia books by other authors and there is no doubt Cora is the mafia queen. Oh my God, the emotions that spring from these books. This is Aria and Luca's story. Aria is a 15-year-old girl who has been promised to the future head of the New York Famiglia. She's aware her marriage is one of convenience, devised to create peace in the Famiglia and she'll have to swallow lots of tough situations- something she's inevitably terrified of, and specially terrified of Luca. Luca, 5 years older than her, is a ruthless killer and -apparently- emotionless. At first her prospects seem bleak but slowly she starts perceiving the real Luca and it becomes a slow burn with increasingly intense sex scenes (yay!) and more importantly, you see a great bond forming between them- and that is so captivating! Phewwwww! The story is written from Aria's point of view. I read this one and then book 0, Luca Vitiello, where you can get some good insights of the situations that we barely see from Aria's point of view so after reading both books I found the whole story incredibly fabulous.