Bound By Duty

Written by Cora Reilly

Narrated by Ava Lucas

Dante Cavallaro’s wife died four years ago but her memory still haunts him. On the verge of becoming the youngest head in the history of the Chicago Outfit, Dante needs to remarry or risk appearing weak. 

Valentina is chosen for the role. 

She, too, lost her husband, but her first marriage has always been for show. Even after her husband’s death, Valentina carries the weight of his secrets with her— to protect the honor of a dead man and herself. 

With her wedding to Dante, her castle of lies threatens to crash. 

Valentina fears the wedding night might reveal her secret, but her worries prove unfounded when Dante ignores her. Soon, her fear turns to confusion and anger. 

Valentina is tired of being ignored. She’s determined to get Dante’s attention and desire, even if she can’t get his heart that still belongs to his dead wife.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cora Reilly
• Release date: Feb 24, 2020
• ISBN: 9781094266794

Reviews for Bound By Duty

[Charlotte · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Valentina and Dante have a marriage of convenience which is mentioned throughout the story to ensure the reader understands the trope.

Valentina has a strong sense of loyalty to her friend which I love. It helped with the secondary plot running through the story and I'm guessing her book will be the next one in the series. Valentina played a few different cards from start to finish and I wanted to see her used more by Dante when it came to getting the information he needed.

Dante tried to play the "I don't care for you" card from the get-go which would soon turn into the "I've always loved you and wanted to rip your clothes off" card. Dante's emotions seemed a bit mediocre and when he did declare his change in feelings I wasn't swooning as much as I wanted to. He's definitely got the stand off ish personality I love and crave in my grumpy men but something was missing.

I'll be carrying on with the rest of the series because there's one character I'm so intrigued about.

[Tran Nguyen · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

audio skipped chapters again. Very frustrating. I’m not sure why it keeps skipping like this.

[vincent fleming · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love the voice actress. I think she did an amazing job. The story was so addictive making it hard to break from.

[sheryl · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This mafia romance series is fantastic. I was worried with only a female narrator but she did a wonderful job.

[Lola Dru · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

3.75 ⭐

Val was such an interesting character, but Dante was rather blank and I blame the lack of his POV for it. He was detached and hid his emotions, but without a glace behind his schooled features, it was hard to believe his slow, but sure change of heart towards Val.

Again, I wish we could've gotten more dreama throughout the book, not just at the end. This time, we got more mafia and a stronger female character.

[Virginia C · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Awsome read slow at first but worth the wait. Great narration.

[Feeh Sarzano · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

3.4 expected-way-more ⭐️

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.

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 by Valentina's pov but I got bored a lot of times, even sleepy, and really annoyed with both of them.

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).

The audiobook was amazing and really well narrated. Listened in 2x (some moments in 3x).

[caleb · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Dante is everything !! ??? Loved reading his and Val’s story. It was such a refreshing experience.

[K · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I've got to find better books. This isn't even a romance. They don't like each other, they're just the closest attractive person to each other. Worse, it's not even interesting. I didn't think you could write a boring mafia book, but here it is.

[Pam Denmark · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a very good listen….lots of drama, romance, and just enough hot scenes to make you smolder! This is a dark mafia romance with suspense, HEA, and NO Cliffhanger!

[Alisha · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The voice actress is the best part of this audiobook. She deserves 5/5 stars, but the story is a 2, the characters are 1s and the spice is a 3.5.

Nearly DNFed this when she's yelling at him that he doesn't try to touch her, but then when he says he will, she stops him by saying that would be r*p*. Um what? Where is the logic?

The story improves when things pick up in the second half, but these characters never become relatable or any more complex.

Too much exposition.

Another bad tiktok rec, but i at least finished this one on 1.8x speed

[Franka · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very good story! And great narration! I am looking forward Bibiana's story!

[Michella Patane · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this one. Dante and Valentina’s story will grab you from the beginning and the secrets and twists will you until the end. Great narration. Can’t wait to read the next one in this series.

[jackie shephard · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Really good story and I’m loving this series so much

[blckrose books · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Goe amo los clichés entretenidos, solo que Valentina si me desespero en ocasiones.

[magdalena · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really liked the storyline of the book. Although some of the names were pronounced incorrectly, the narration was also very good