Bound by Honor by Cora Reilly

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The ninth book I read for the Kindle Clear Out Readathon was Bound by Honor by Cora Reilly. After getting through His Grumpy Childhood Friend by Jackie Lau, I only had two prompts left on my bingo board; Oldest TBR and Buddy Read. I did have a couple different options, but Wednesday morning the Smart Women Read Romance new episode was posted and centered on Twisted Emotions, a book in Cora's Camorra Chronicles series. This connects with the Born in Blood series, of which Bound by Honor is the first. Jen and Jessen have both also raved about these two series on their YouTube channels a lot recently so I added them to my TBR. After listening to the podcast at work Wednesday, I immediately decided to go off prompt and start Bound by Honor! Mood reading strikes again!

I have read dark romance before (not quite as dark as these are supposed to get) as well as I know I've read at least one mafia series at one time, but don't really remember what it was. I do remember I didn't enjoy it, but now that I'm thinking, maybe it was a MC (motorcycle club) or combined the two. Anyways, I'm not usually a fan of either of those. Dark romance that I've read has also been hit or miss for me. Sometimes I'm on board all the way, but sometimes it's a little too much depending on when it's set. This book was easier for me to handle the rights that weren't afforded to most women in the mafia because it was set up more along the lines of how it is in a lot of regency historicals. So if they're following old traditions, it made more sense. Although it's still hard to get past it sometimes with the characters being set in modern times and them still being treated as property.

That's also a part of the draw though; that Luca doesn't treat Aria like property, not really. He says the things in front of others that shows the "ownership," but in reality it doesn't feel like that when they are alone. It just feels like max alpha vibes to me, which I am on board with. Now, one thing I did have issue with is Luca cheating on Aria and pretty early on in their marriage. I also didn't like how his groveling was over pretty quickly, but I do understand that it's not like they can get divorced or separate, even temporarily. Aria just has to accept his apology and they both move past the indiscretions if they want to try to have a decent marriage. 

Now, going into this I heard from a couple reviews that people have issues with Aria acting too young and tstl (too stupid to live). I didn't get that vibe. While she did act young sometimes, it wasn't annoying or grating to me. Plus she's a sheltered 18-year-old that's only really been around men in her family or guards, so while she's mature for an 18-year-old, she is still young and pretty naïve. But even then, the men she was around were happily married, older and trusted to not be lewd towards her or her sisters. So basically, she didn't bother me like it seems she did others. I did wish that when Luca got short with her, especially in the beginning of their marriage, that she was more open with him about what she was actually feeling. I understand that she was afraid of him still and didn't want to feel weak or vulnerable around him, but I feel like her opening to him, just a little, would've helped them have a better basis for the marriage. Plus, she just let him assume the worst instead of actually explaining why she was upset. I feel like that was part of why he ended up cheating and this book had enough going on without that plot point. Maybe that's just me though.

I also really enjoyed Cora Reilly's writing and was hooked from the prologue. It's very engaging and when I started late after finished my previous book, I just wanted to read the first couple chapters. Next thing I know it's midnight (I'm usually in bed by 9pm) and I'm struggling to keep my eyes open. Yet my mind just wanted more. I'm super excited to finally get into the series and definitely understand the hype. I'm going to try not to binge them all too quickly since I feel like these could possibly give me a book hangover, but you never know. I am a mood reader. 

What's also fun is I saw there's a version of this book all from Luca's POV, so I'm tempted to read that as well, just not sure where I'll get to it in the order. It is listed as 0.5, but covers the same timeline as Bound by Honor. It seems that a lot of people liked it better from what I saw glancing through reviews and actually has a higher average rating on GoodReads. From what I saw it explained his cheating in a somewhat satisfactory way and that the banter between him and Mateo was really great. We'll see when I get to it, but I do want to read it though. 

Have you read Bound by Honor?

Bookishly Yours, 

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Bound by Honor, Cora Reilly, 4-stars, 2 days, eBook, 273 pages, published in 2014