Born in Blood Mafia Chronicles - Bound by Honor
Bound by Honor is the first book in the Born in Blood Mafia Chronicles series by Cora Reilly. It's the complex love story of Aria and Luca, two seemingly polar opposites married off as part of a Mafia arrangement. Both were born into the Familia - Luca in New York and Aria in Chicago - and are married as a sort of peace agreement between the two factions.
I felt really bad for Aria at the beginning of the novel. Her mobster father just informs her that she'll be marrying a total stranger and she's just expected to go along with it, regardless of how she feels about the guy. She's basically just a piece in a pretty vicious game of chess, and it was sad how she just accepted it out of love for her family and this twisted sense of duty to them. She was obviously scared of her husband, especially after Grace's nasty warning at the wedding, and a good chunk of the plot ended up revolving around her fear and avoidance of being with him, if you catch my drift. WAY too much time was spent dealing with that issue, and after a few chapters I was totally bored by it.
Luca was pretty intriguing at first in that scary, Mafia guy way, but my curiosity quickly turned into disgust when he cheated on Aria. I just thought the whole thing was tacky, unnecessary, and didn't add anything to the story. His attitude after being caught red-handed (and I mean that literally, since his cousin lured Aria into catching him in the act) just made things worse. I mean, he kills a guy who spiked Aria's drink in an attempt to have his way with her, but what Luca did was somehow okay? Yeah...no. Go somewhere else with that, ya hypocrite. I just really, really disliked him after the cheating fiasco, and it kind of ruined the story for me. Damn you, Luca.
I'll confess that I started this series hoping it would be just as awesome as the Boston Underworld series, but overall I found it underwhelming. There were many noticeable grammar and spelling issues, too, and while I hate to sound nitpick-y, that definitely detracted from the story. I enjoyed the next two works in the series much more, so I won't say it's a total flop, but this definitely isn't my favorite Mafia series.
I felt really bad for Aria at the beginning of the novel. Her mobster father just informs her that she'll be marrying a total stranger and she's just expected to go along with it, regardless of how she feels about the guy. She's basically just a piece in a pretty vicious game of chess, and it was sad how she just accepted it out of love for her family and this twisted sense of duty to them. She was obviously scared of her husband, especially after Grace's nasty warning at the wedding, and a good chunk of the plot ended up revolving around her fear and avoidance of being with him, if you catch my drift. WAY too much time was spent dealing with that issue, and after a few chapters I was totally bored by it.
Luca was pretty intriguing at first in that scary, Mafia guy way, but my curiosity quickly turned into disgust when he cheated on Aria. I just thought the whole thing was tacky, unnecessary, and didn't add anything to the story. His attitude after being caught red-handed (and I mean that literally, since his cousin lured Aria into catching him in the act) just made things worse. I mean, he kills a guy who spiked Aria's drink in an attempt to have his way with her, but what Luca did was somehow okay? Yeah...no. Go somewhere else with that, ya hypocrite. I just really, really disliked him after the cheating fiasco, and it kind of ruined the story for me. Damn you, Luca.
I'll confess that I started this series hoping it would be just as awesome as the Boston Underworld series, but overall I found it underwhelming. There were many noticeable grammar and spelling issues, too, and while I hate to sound nitpick-y, that definitely detracted from the story. I enjoyed the next two works in the series much more, so I won't say it's a total flop, but this definitely isn't my favorite Mafia series.
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