🎧 ARC Audiobook Review: Ties That Bind Us by Nicole Knight 🔥💍🖤

Strangers ➡️ Lovers ➡️ Enemies ➡️ Family? Buckle up, romance rebels, because Ties That Bind Us delivers a steamy, high-stakes mafia marriage of enemies-turned-lovers that sizzles through your headphones 🎧💣💋.

Ava Moretti is fire in heels—a mafia princess with zero interest in being anyone’s pawn 🔥👑. Nick Caponelli? Cold, calculating, and drop-dead dangerous—the future head of a rival crime family with a voice that could melt steel 🖤🕶️. When these two collide during one very unforgettable night, sparks fly… and neither knows the truth about the other. Until fate—aka mafia politics—forces them to marry. 💍💔

🎙️ The audiobook narration is electric. The chemistry between the voice actors captures every bit of their push-pull tension, lust-fueled standoffs, and emotional vulnerability. Ava’s fiery defiance and Nick’s ruthless charm come alive in the audio, making this an unputdownable listening experience 🔊❤️‍🔥.

💫 What to expect:
✔️ Steamy arranged marriage tension 🔥
✔️ Enemies-to-lovers trope executed perfectly
✔️ Rich mafia family drama with loyalty, betrayal, and high stakes
✔️ A strong heroine who refuses to be controlled
✔️ A possessive anti-hero with just the right amount of softness underneath

🎯 Final Thoughts:
Nicole Knight delivers a bold and addictive mafia romance that’ll have your heart racing and earbuds glued in. Ties That Bind Us is dangerously sexy, emotionally layered, and the start of a saga you won’t want to miss.

⭐ Rating: 4/5 🔥🎧
#ARCReview #AudiobookLove #TiesThatBindUs #NicoleKnight #MafiaRomance #EnemiesToLovers #MarriageOfConvenience💣💋🎧

Mafia romance, with a touch of Romeo and Juliet. This story starts with an accidental meeting, a forced marriage, and a double crossing character. I enjoy the MFC because she is stubborn and reflective as events around her spiral out of control. For me this story was too much of an instant romance which lead to it feeling slightly fake. There is also a surprise pregnancy, child loss, and family trauma

This story had everything—rival mafia families, forbidden love, and so much tension. Ava is a rebellious mafia princess, and Nick is the heir to a rival family. Their chemistry is instant and intense, but things get messy fast thanks to a long standing feud and an unexpected arranged marriage.

Jack Calihan and Allie Shae did an amazing job narrating this book. They really brought the characters to life! If you like forbidden mafia romances, then I definitely recommend giving this one a listen!

I'm going to be 100% honest. The only reason I even finished this was so I could review it, and my Netgalley ratio wouldn't suffer. This reminded me of so many other mafia romances that I have read but just was not executed well. I wouldn't recommend it, I'm sorry.

I received a gifted copy. This review is honest and voluntary.

Arranged marriage Romeo & Juliet, murder, crime, family drama, and sexual tension....all the makings of a good Mafia romance!

I recently read the entire Mafia Academy series by P. Rayne (and loved it) and this book has a very similar vibe,

While this isn't the most original story line, I thought the characters were well described and you could really feel what they were feeling through their inner and outer dialogues.

Also, Nick Caponelli is such a great representation of a Mafia book boyfriend. He was the highlight of the book for me for sure.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5 (rounded up to 4)
Spice: 🌶️🌶️/5

So I started this book but I ended up not finishing it. I didn’t care for the female narrator and the story line was kind cliche. I wish I had liked this book more because I normally love a mafia romance but this was a miss for me.

This was my first mafia romance book I’ve ever read/listened to. It was just ok for me. Certain spots felt rushed. I did enjoy how much Nick wanted Ava though. Liked the female narrator, but the male wasn’t my favorite.

Nick and Ava are meet out in the wild and have a steamy hookup where Ava dips out after and never plans on seeing Nick again….until their father’s (both heads of their respective crime families) arrange a marriage to bring the families together. But is it a marriage between Ava and Nick or….?

This is a definite story of instalove, so if that’s not your thing, you might not be a fan. I personally ended up liking it a lot. There’s a ton of family drama too. I enjoyed the audio. The narrators were pretty good. The story was enjoyable as well.

Thanks to NetGalley, Nicole Knight, and Dreamscape Media for the review copy!

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Tropes:
🕴️Mafia romance
💍 Arranged marriage
😠Enemies-to-lovers
🌅One night stand

Ok. This is my first audiobook ever and for a first-time experience - it’s not too bad. I found it very new and exciting. This book is very easy to listen to and follow along. It follows Ava Moretti who is part of a mafia family and met a green-eyed stranger one night. That stranger turned out to be Nick Caponelli who is about to inherit the mafia’s business from his dad. It turns out that Moretti and Caponelli are not besties in the mafia world, more like frenemies, but their dads want to merge their businesses together and to do that, they decided to do an arranged marriage. I actually did not expect that arranged marriage tho but Nick is down bad for Ava so he did something to make sure that he will marry Ava one day. What a slick guy but I actually like Nick’s character in this book - he’s such a gentleman fr (to Ava at least). There’s so much drama in this book - ex-boyfriend, secrets, family tension. But, I’m not that hooked in the romance plot of it, idk something just didn’t hit between Ava and Nick for me. Overall, I would say it’s an easy read if you want something quick and not much thinking. It was an enjoyable one!

P.S. Thank you to NetGalley, Lexi Blake and Dreamscape Media for giving me this audiobook ARC to listen!

Ties that Bind Us by Nicole Knight. was a good read.

Ava Moretti, is a stubborn and defiant mafia princess, and a chance meeting with Nick Caponell, leaves them both hot under the collar but he is the heir to a rival crime dynast. Their families want them to marry and the chemistry between Ava and Nick and they had my pulse just racing.

Read if you like:

Mafia romance
Enemies to lovers
Arranged marriage….

The writing was really good for a debut. It was really steamy… Really solid banter. It was a solid plot, lots of drama and suspense along with the romance…

Thank you to netgalley for the opportunity to read and review the audiobook.

Ties That Bind Us by Nicole Knight is an arranged marriage between rival families, mafia romance. Ava and Nick both come from mafia families, but with very different upbringings. Nick may be the future Don, but he has the support and love of his family. Ava has always been a pawn to her father and treated as property. Narration was performed by Jack Calihan and Allie Shae. The story was entertaining and kept my attention. I thought the author did a great job developing the character backgrounds and story. Overall, the book was good and the narration was excellent!

Thank you to NetGalley, Dreamscape Media, and the author for this ALC in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed Nick and Eva story. A true love mafia enemies to lover romance. Who would have thought a one night stand could turn into so much more.
I adore Nick's character. He is strong, loving, and protective. I was frustrated with Ava always running away and making stupid childish decisions.
Happy all the hurt turned into more for both characters.

Romeo and Juliet but make it mafia and you've got Nick and Ava. Nick is next in line to take over the Caponelli mafia and Ava is the youngest Moretti. The two meet by chance but it's nothing but fate when the two cross paths again. An action-packed mafia romance with steamy scenes and emotional moments, Ties That Bind Us is a deep romance.

Thank you NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook!

Ties that Bind Us is an arranged marriage mafia romance with protagonists from two very different families, one abusive and controlling and the other kind and supportive. We see Ava and Nick navigating their relationship as Ava struggles to accept Nick's emotional maturity as sincere. They're actually very sweet together and have a fairly normal relationship, but for all the odd shark jumping required to instill the danger of the world of organized crime. There is a bit of open door spice in the beginning, but it definitely trails off and is closed door in the last half of the book.

Sooooo good! If you are a fan of mafia romance, specifically arranged marriage, this is a must read. What I loved was the consistency of the relationship between the Ava and Nick. While they definitely had conflict and adversity, I really appreciated that there was no game playing for the sake of it or punishing each other for plot purposes. Those two felt so pure and mature from that perspective and I loved it.

I can only hope that the author releases more books, I would love to get the story of the siblings and next gen.

The plot was enjoyable to read. However I did feel it was rushed at times. Blokes the female narrators but didn't i didn't think the male narrators voice suited the characters

Ava Moretti and Nick Caponelli are from rival families but they meet when their eyes meet across the bar when Ava is out on a blind date gone wrong. When she tries to leave out the back, he intercepts her in the kitchen and then they spend an unforgettable night together...until she ghosts him the next morning. Neither gave their names or knew each other. Nick immediately set out to find her and Ava went back to her life of law school and trying to stay out of her father's way. When their paths crossed again it is when their fathers strike a contract to combine families through marriage. Nick is blindsided when he thinks he is going to marry Ava but finds out he is bound to her sister. When he comes up with a bargain for her father, he will marry Ava and her sister will marry another man who will bring ties to him that he is looking for. There are twists and turns and secrets and misunderstandings. Add in the Russians and the competing mafia families and a father who treats his daughters as chattel. Nick and Ava do not have the typical love story but what they do have is something special.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the audio-arc of this book.

This was a pretty solid mafia romance. Hero and heroine have one night together, but our heroine, Ava, has no desire to be in a relationship, so they go their separate ways. That’s not the end for them though. They later discover just how connected their families are (both mafia) and Nick, our hero, in an attempt to link both families, is suddenly arranged to marry Ava’s sister.

While this was incredibly tropey, I did really enjoy it. The two main characters had good chemistry, and there was enough of a plot going that it kept my interest.

I think if you are a fan of Catharina Maura or Ana Huang, you would enjoy this book.

The narrators did a great job and suited both of our main characters.

2.5 ⭐️ ARC review of the audiobook.

This was my first mafia romance, and it was fine.

Nick and Ava meet and have a one-night stand with neither of them knowing who the other is. Turns out they are children of rival mafia families who later decide to band together and they end up in an arranged marriage. And it all spirals from there.

I enjoyed Nick and Ava’s relationship. They had great chemistry and it felt very realistic through their trials and tribulations.

The rest of the story was just fine to me. Every time some issue would come up or something bad would happen, it would be figured out/ resolved too quickly and that just made it less fun for me. I kept hoping for a twist and I didn’t get it. I also would have wanted to see more about the families and their businesses to show more that they’re the “big bads” of the crime world that they said they were.

Also, I don’t like when authors use characters to talk themselves up, making them sound too cocky. I prefer when characters talk up different characters to explain their personalities and skills.

For the audiobook specifically- it was good. I liked both VAs and felt they did a good job conveying the story.

Overall, it’s worth reading if you like mafia romance with very light spice. It’s out now, so check it out!

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the ARC. 🖤

I received the ALC and I enjoyed it even though I wasn’t a fan of the male narrator. He just didn’t give me the vibes of a mafia boss.
I did enjoys the pacing and the female narrator.
I enjoyed the dual POVs but I didn’t like how they started each POV before the “present time” of the past chapter. It was a bit confusing.