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I had a choice: either let my father die or marry a monster.
I chose marriage,
Even though it would be my downfall.
Dante Bernardi is a man with secrets,
Scars cover his face and body.
He shuts me out,
While all I want is to love him.
Now, I’m stuck in a marriage filled with rage and regret.
I try my hardest to crack my husband’s shell.
But how can I learn to love the beast,
When he can’t even love in return?

Bound by Duty is the first in a three part series each focusing on a brother from the Bernardi Mafia but can be read as a standalone and has a guaranteed happy ending.

212 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 5, 2022

533 people are currently reading
463 people want to read

About the author

Ivy Davis

69 books253 followers

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5 stars
466 (39%)
4 stars
301 (25%)
3 stars
244 (20%)
2 stars
106 (9%)
1 star
50 (4%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 135 reviews
Profile Image for elara.
231 reviews15 followers
August 16, 2024
i surprisingly liked this?? it’s a short mafia book that technically has no plot but amara & dante were so cute 😭😭
Profile Image for Laura.
393 reviews87 followers
October 19, 2022
I modern take on beauty and the beast with a mafia twist.
The whole book seemed rushed and fast paced. The writing seemed very amateur and quite a few spelling and sentence mistakes.
Didn't feel any of the characters had any sort of connection and the main characters just didn't seem to work well together.
This story is good but this book needs work
Profile Image for Hart's Reader Group.
899 reviews42 followers
June 16, 2022
This was my first book by Ivy Davis. I enjoyed it, mostly, but I could see the critical moment coming from a mile away. I guessed who would betray Amara, and I knew she was gullible, like a little baby bunny in the woods, easily lured to its death by the hawk. As per usual, I don't like how naive Amara was, thinking she could withhold sex from her husband because he was a big meanie head. I mean, come on! She entered the marriage by force, so her going from being scared of him to being dumb enough to TELL him what to do was annoying. I just want to read a mafia romance where the mafia guy softens but not at the expense of the tension between the H/h. He went from scary dude to squishy man lump in a single chapter. Ugh. Lame.

Despite my annoyance with the heroine, I am willing to read Nico and Sandro's books.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Profile Image for Reem.
288 reviews14 followers
July 14, 2022
It’s like beauty and the beast mixed in with a little bit of Cinderella with the evil sisters but make it mafia and set in Italy. It wasn’t bad but, nothing about it screamed something special.
Profile Image for Brittany (Brit.tea.reads).
1,479 reviews441 followers
April 4, 2023
Bound by Duty is a modern-day Beauty and the Beast retelling. Dante is the head of the Bernardi Mafia. He is a grumpy, ruthless beast covered in scars.

𝑀𝓎 𝓅𝑒𝓇𝒻𝑒𝒸𝓉, 𝒾𝓃𝓃𝑜𝒸𝑒𝓃𝓉 𝓌𝒾𝒻𝑒. 𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝐼 𝓅𝓊𝓈𝒽 𝒶𝓌𝒶𝓎 𝒷𝑒𝒸𝒶𝓊𝓈𝑒 𝐼 𝒸𝒶𝓃'𝓉 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝑔𝑒𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝒸𝓁𝑜𝓈𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝓂𝑒. 𝐼 𝒸𝒶𝓃'𝓉 𝓁𝑒𝓉 𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝓈𝑒𝑒 𝓂𝓎 𝒹𝑒𝓂𝑜𝓃𝓈.

Francesco Vinci was caught stealing from Dante, and his only option is 💀 or have one of his daughters take his place. Amara doesn't want her father to 💀, so she offers herself to Dante. He tells her that she will be his forever and that they will get married within the next few days.

Amara is sweet and innocent, and all she cares about is protecting her father, so she agrees, and they get married.

She soon realizes that this marriage isn't what she thought it would be. Her husband wants nothing to do with her, but little does Amara know he is just scared. Dante is covered in scars and thinks that he will scare his new, innocent wife. These two had me laughing. All Amara wanted was to get to know her new husband, and Dante wanted nothing to do with her. She tried everything, and he just wouldn't budge. Over time, things change, and he finally lets his guard down.

Profile Image for april ♡ probably reading smut - safety reviews.
1,480 reviews2,605 followers
July 3, 2022
Amara and Dante make a really sweet couple. This was a mafia book but it wasn't the sole focus. Amara's father steals from Dante so he takes Amara in return. It's forced proximity/arranged marriage.

While I enjoyed this book, I found it to be a little tame. I skimmed a lot. There's a little bit of steam but it's mostly a story about Dante and how he overcomes his problems.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Profile Image for Arabella Auberon.
387 reviews12 followers
July 6, 2022
My name is Arabella, and I have gone by Belle for years and years, and that’s not a coincidence. I love Beauty and the Beast, but that is such an over used trope these days it’s getting rather saturated; it’s almost as over used as Alice in Wonderland. I can move on from that, but there are a lot of missing words and down right wrong words which require me to stop and figure out what the author is trying to say, and that I have more trouble moving on from.
There are time discrepancies, at the start of a chapter it states that the three days are a blur, but then on the next page the internal monologue that talks about how her dad will die in three days.


“I pause in front of my door, glancing back as if I could see my father throwing the wood.” What? The wood? What wood? She’s getting into the SUV, what is this supposed to mean? I’m having to spend way too much time trying to figure these ridiculous sentences out.

The ideas are fine, not original at all, and with all of these strange sentences, it just becomes too encumbered to make this a quality story. This book needs a whole lot more editing and attention to what has been written.


5 ⭐️s= Perfect story, exciting, engrossing, well developed complex characters, solid plot with few to no holes, descriptive environments and place settings, great mystery elements, realistic dialogue, believable reactions and behaviors, loved this story so much I’d buy it.

4 ⭐️s= Great story, highly entertaining and enjoyable, exciting storyline, well developed characters and settings, a few discrepancies but nothing that can’t be overlooked. Believable actions and reactions, realistic dialogue, a book I would consider buying.

3 ⭐️s= Good but not great story, noticeable discrepancies, grammatical and or spelling errors, undeveloped characters or unbelievable behaviors but still readable. Nothing majorly wrong with the story, just not interesting enough for me to continue. Would not buy the book.

2 ⭐️s= Not offended by the story, but not interested enough to finish. Unbelievable characters, poor writing, many mistakes, big holes or discrepancies, many spelling or grammatical errors, characters not believable, unlikeable or TSTL.

1 ⭐️= Offensive, extremely poor writing, horrible characters, victimization, gaslighting, blatant abuse, unnecessary violence, child endangerment, or any other highly objectionable behaviors by Main characters. Would never buy this book, and do not recommend it to anyone.

I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Profile Image for Zahra.
15 reviews
January 29, 2025
Obviously I will give 2 stars
I really should stop tormenting myself
I hate the female character, she was so annoying
The plot was not a plot
The events were fast and illogical
Dialogue , om my god , at some point I really wished I had a gun In my hand to shoot the main characters especially the h
The only positive thing is some tiny character development yet that's not so apparent and the fact the author spared us from the big dick cliche , I am really glad , 🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂
Profile Image for Amie.
1,052 reviews17 followers
June 17, 2022
I would recommend this story to anyone that would like to read a mafia version of beauty and the beast. even though the two main characters of this story was brought together by bad circumstances and the troubles of other mafia leaders they still find love and happiness. In all actuality I really like this story. It shows that two people thrown together from a chance meeting and that are complete opposites can still find true love together.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Profile Image for Leanne Bryson.
5,204 reviews22 followers
July 11, 2022
The Bernardi Mafia Series is about the arranged marriages of three brothers from the ruthless Bernardi Mafia in Italy and the women they fall for. When Dante Bernardi becomes the don of the family after his father dies, his brothers think he needs a wife. When Amara's father is caught stealing from the Bernardi's, he is given a choice, die or send a daughter to Dante. Amara volunteers to protect her father and her sisters, so she goes and hopes for the best. The book is full of sizzle, steam, action, drama, twists, turns, betrayal, and more. This series is available on Kindle Unlimited so you can enjoy all three books.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Profile Image for Katie.
1,276 reviews21 followers
February 21, 2023
Dark, Dangerous Mafia Romance

This book is filled with danger, excitement, fear, arranged marriage, deadly enemies, brotherly love and the effects of love on a hardened mafia boss.

Amara & Dante had a rough start to their union because Amara agreed to the marriage to save her father. Dante never believed anyone would agree to marry him due to his darkness and scars. He never thought this deal would come through but now that he has Amara he won’t let her go!

However, his past has come back to challenge his head of the Bernardi Mafia and if he’s not careful he might lose everything he cares about. This is an intense read but you will love the outcome. This is a great start to this series and I can’t wait to see which brother’s story is next. Happy Reading!!
Profile Image for Pam Evans.
235 reviews2 followers
September 10, 2024
Beauty & Beast Mafia Style

Was a quick fun read! Easily could have been a 4 star read, however, there were several editing issues. Misspelled words, words missing letters, grammatical mistakes, and punctuation errors. If those were corrected I would give this 4 star review.

I’m debating whether to read the next book due to this, because once I spot repeated errors I tend to focus on them and not the story.

Action ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Believable storyline & overall plot ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Entertainment 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Spicy 🌶️ 🌶️🌶️
Triggers 🚩
Writing style & written format ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Overall a solid 3/5

Note the lower the 🚩 the better, meaning not many triggers & defines it as a romantic read not dark romance.🥰
Profile Image for Emma.
2,864 reviews39 followers
July 7, 2022
I really liked this. It was so much more than a coerced marriage. We have the diehard mafia don who is scarred for life physically and has a terrible way of dealing with it. We have a mafia war brewing with a low life who is backed by a powerful person most hated by Dante. When he weds Amara, he treats her like Sh#t. She is afraid of him. But when she gets herself together and wants a real marriage, she is brave and goes after Dante to get it. It was realistic how Dante responds to Amara's attempts to get to know him and feel close to him. A very good read.

Reason I enjoyed this book:
Easy to read
Page turner
Realistic
Steamy
Unpredictable
Profile Image for loubie bowers.
247 reviews
July 11, 2022
This is the first book in the series and I really enjoyed it. Though it was a typical storyline for a mafia book it’s still really good and I really enjoyed it. Dante is definitely a typical tortured soul. What happened to him when he was younger has without a doubt formed his personality, to be honest who can blame him. If anything I would have liked it to be longer so the story could develop more and the last few chapters not feel as rushed. A good book though and I’m looking forward to reading the next book.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Profile Image for Sadaf.
84 reviews6 followers
July 27, 2022
This book had so much potential but it died short of that potential.

The book is just over 200 pages so it’s quite a short read. The first 100 pages of the book sort of set the scene, build up and create the environment for the 2 main characters. The story really starts taking off after this but with only about 100 pages left, the author had to cram romance, character development, story building and the mafia plot into it. If the book was longer this could easily have been a 4 or 5 star.

The book subtly touches on beauty and the beast and even a hint of Cinderella with the 2 evil sisters.
Profile Image for Wendy.
1,692 reviews46 followers
August 6, 2022
This book has moments of suspense, romance and there were even a few times I laughed out loud. Some of the dialogue reads oddly, but it doesn't detract from the story.
The story follows the Bernardi brothers and their arranged marriages. The brothers are all part of a Mafia family so how they are to do things is steeped in the rules of the mafia. This first book follows Dante and Amara. The motivations for both aren't clear at first, but eventually both of them fall in love. There is spice here too, but know there is some mental abuse as well.
335 reviews1 follower
August 12, 2022
Dante is a beast, he's head of the Mafia and has no feelings and lives in his own dark. His employee steals from him and Dante to torture the man more demands one of his daughters in marriage. Amara steps up to save her father. I loved her spunk and wholeness dealing with Dante. Even with the Mafia overtones it simmers to to a good story how love can heal wounds. Look forward to Nick and Santos stories.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Profile Image for Tina M.
107 reviews
March 24, 2024
As soon as I saw that this was sort of like a retelling of beauty and the beast I knew I had to read

First of all the sister freakin infuriated me the way that they acted was so outrageous it was honestly so like yuck I could not. I felt so bad and so much anger and pain for Amara and everything she had to go through cuz of that.

BUT setting that aside it was an okay read for me, at least it did feel rushed I wanted to see more of Dante and Amara together I wanted to see them interact.. the ending still felt a bit rushed but overall an okay read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
129 reviews2 followers
July 8, 2022
Mafia beast versus innocent beauty


A good story told from both points of view: the hard distrustful Dante and the sweet innocent Amara.

There is violence and betrayal on one hand but goodness and compassion on the other. With a forced marriage and alienation from her family, there is enough conflict to destroy Amara's goodness.

Can they overcome all the obstacles? Can there ever be any trust? Read and find out.

Profile Image for Brandi-Lynn Weiser.
2,191 reviews77 followers
October 25, 2023
This was my first time reading anything from Ivy, and while I didn’t love it, I did like it. I loved the tropes… beauty and the beast/cinderella retelling, mafia, forced marriage, and especially a wounded/scarred Hero. But I felt there wasn’t much depth to the story, just the heroine, Amara, trying to get to know her dark, closed off husband, Dante. There wasn’t any action, and the spice was very mild. I did enjoy Dante’s brother Nico and his humor.
1,638 reviews21 followers
July 11, 2022
Dante is a mafia leader that finds out that an employee style money from him. Amara is a sheltered girl that is mistreated by her sisters that jumps to her fathers aid. Dante doesn't want to have feelings for her and tries to resist. This is a really good book. I enjoyed the beauty and the beast aspect that it has.
Profile Image for KeIana.
3 reviews
July 14, 2022
Couldn’t finish

I liked the idea of the book but the writing was too bad to look over it. The writing was atrocious. It felt like the author was trying too hard. There were no spelling mistakes but I just couldn’t get over the writing. I really wanted to like it but I couldn’t finish, sorry.
2,310 reviews6 followers
July 28, 2022
A Beauty and the Beast Mafia story.

Dante is scarred physically and emotionally. Amara marries Dante to save her father's life. I like how Amara slowly breaks down Dante's barriers. There are steamy, violent and action scenes. I like Dante's brothers and Amara s father. Amara's sisters are no good. I will be reading the rest of the series.
Profile Image for Jen.
1,649 reviews
August 14, 2022
2.5⭐️
Honestly I wasn’t a fan. I just couldn’t get into this story. It had a bit of Cinderella meets Beauty and the Beast vibe to it. The writing style was what really put me off on this book. It felt like the author wasn’t a native English speaker. It just didn’t flow. But that’s just my opinion 🤷‍♀️
19 reviews
July 13, 2023
Good Read

I don't know what it is about a man named DANTE but let me tell u one thing I LOVE THEM!!
Their possessive, controlling, dominant and complete teddy bears!! I wish the author would have written about the fate of Amara bitchy sisters, it
would have been the perfect ending to see if they got what they deserved!
Profile Image for Rachie Torres.
71 reviews
August 28, 2023
It had the makings to be a good mafia romance, but missed the mark. It was cringe in some parts and rushed. I had to skim the book because I was desperate to finish. I didn't want to DNF....I felt in a punishing mood. It's not worth the read for my mafia lovers. Spare yourself - this not a worthy beauty and beast retelling.
Profile Image for Chloe LaPrairie.
25 reviews5 followers
January 15, 2024
awful

The writing was awful, the grammar/spelling errors were atrocious, the MMC was awful, & the FMC was so annoying. I don’t think I’ve ever liked a book less- and I’m not a picky reader. It’s clear that there was no editor to make sure there were no errors, or to ensure that the plot/book actually made sense…
22 reviews
April 27, 2024
Overall liked the book. Honestly not much more to say.

Tropes: beauty and beast retelling, mmc has scars, cold mmc, sweet/gentle heroine, no OW/OM drama

At first I thought the 3 brothers would go with the 3 sisters. God was I wrongggggg!! The sisters are so annoying and immature it hurt to read scenes with them in it.
Profile Image for Kandiemarie.
2,211 reviews3 followers
July 24, 2022
Intense and suspenseful with twists and turns to keep you entertained. I loved this and enjoyed reading it. Definitely recommend reading.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
10 reviews2 followers
July 24, 2022
DNF too many grammatical errors

Grammar issues, typos etc. Storyline was good but the writing was a little tough to get through and I would have been able to overlook it if there were not so many issues.
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