This is a sweet love story between Cristo Ravelli and Belle Brophy. Cristo has a father who was such a manwhore. He had a long term mistress who is BeThis is a sweet love story between Cristo Ravelli and Belle Brophy. Cristo has a father who was such a manwhore. He had a long term mistress who is Belle's mother. She had been his mistress for twenty years and has five children by him. Cristo was always ashamed of the father he barely knew. After his father passes away he is shocked to find out there is another whole family by his father and they were left with nothing. Cristo is half-siblings with these five children plus he has two grown half brothers that he has a relationship with.
Belle's father was not Mr. Ravelli but her mother's first husband who also passed away. The five children and Belle lived together as brothers and sisters. After the death of Mr. Ravelli, Cristo, his son and executor of his will, goes to their home and property where this family lives to immediately put it up for sale. They will now be homeless and I thought it quite unfeeling for him to put them out of the home they grew up in.
He ends up marrying Belle for convenience and so the children wouldn't be separated. Immediately after consummating their marriage he says some very hurtful things to her. He was still in the top position if you get my meaning when he calls her a gold-digger, blackmailer and social climber and he is convinced. It breaks her heart. Especially since she just gave him her virginity. She quickly leaves the bed and he is threatening to divorce her if she refused to sleep with him.
This is their story, a journey to a HEA. I really liked this and as I have read book two as well but this one was head and shoulders above that. Book two I had many, many problems with and hated the hero. In this book I loved the hero and heroine. The children were super kids and so loving as was Belle's Grandmother.
I highly recommend this but I can't recommend the second book and I am passing on the third. It has some things in it that are triggers for me....more
This book was okay but I am not fond of evil OW who become the evil ex who cause trouble throughout the entire book. That part of the story was troublThis book was okay but I am not fond of evil OW who become the evil ex who cause trouble throughout the entire book. That part of the story was troubling for me because I have triggers and this hit a major one. This ex wasn't just evil but was involved in a kidnapping and tried to do harm to her ex's new GF.
I am also not fond of heroes when they are written as though they aren't too bright. When a woman makes a claim that will affect you and the real love of your life for the rest of your natural lives you need to demand proof instead of dumping the woman of your dreams because of something you did not get confirmation on. Wake up and smell the coffe. This alone left a bad taste in my mouth and I didn't think so highly of the hero after this....more
I was anxiously awaiting word whether this was a safe book or not but I was ready to dig in. I got the all clear as far as safety and was looking forwI was anxiously awaiting word whether this was a safe book or not but I was ready to dig in. I got the all clear as far as safety and was looking forward to this book late yesterday. I have to say I struggled with it from start to finish. It had wonderful, glowing reviews and I couldn’t wait to get started. I was even considering reading it even if it wasn't safe. I am sorry to say my view of this book opposes many of the reviews and since the majority of reviews were positive I am going to focus on why I didn’t like it.
What was missing and why was I disappointed?
First of all the hero was described as ‘not as bad’ as most of LG’s alpha males in the reviews. What I saw was a hero who was far worse than some at times. Here is why. He constantly put the heroine down. It was put-down after put-down. To her face he would tell her that she was basically dowdy, unattractive, too heavy, too awkward, too clumsy, too empty headed, a dim bulb, uneducated, her hair was awful as were her clothing, her posture was bad and on and on. Never a kind or considerate word from him was uttered until close to the end and by then it was too late for this reader. She only saw the best in people where the hero only ever saw the worst. Here is another reason why this was worse for me. This young woman lived with criticism and put-downs from her step-sister and step-mother the whole time she was with them. They didn’t want her to recognise her great curvaceous body or her beauty so they ingrained in her that she was not at all pleasant to look at and taught her to dress in extra large sized frumpy clothing to cover up her curvy hips, beautiful breasts and curby body.
They wanted her to be ashamed of the way she looked. The stepmother and stepsister’s goal was to ugly her up so no one would notice her and therefore would make the stepsister’s beauty even more apparent. Teaching her how to dress insured no one would ever be interested in a second glance. There were times when the hero said such demeaning things to her about her body or appearance or being a non-academic that it hurt my heart. (I know exactly how this girl felt [that is if she were a real person] because I grew up being put down continuously from my earliest memory until three years ago when I finally had to break all contact with this person for I found out she was doing the same kinds of things to my children behind my back. It was like my life was one huge put-down and they weren’t kind about it. In fact they got meaner with it the older they got. They wanted me to feel less than. The one who put me down continuously wanted to make sure I would never outshine...so here are some real life truths: This type of behavior does permanent damage. Damage so deep that it tends to hang on, at least just a little, throughout your life. Not only was I belittled and put down but I was brainwashed into believing that her behavior was normal and this is how all families worked and treated their children. It was for my own good and well-being. It wasn’t until I left home for good that I began to realize that this was indeed not normal. I had been ingrained in this type of behavior and made to think so little of myself that it affected every aspect of my life.) Enough of that but you can see the similarities and why this book affected me negatively. It hit on some very sensitive, touchy emotions and issues. I felt like the hero worked at dehumanizing her but I don’t know that he even recognized it.
Another troubling spot was all the misunderstandings and the way the heroine thought. She had no frame of reference and he did little to let her know how he truly felt so it changed the way she perceived him and how she responded and acted because she was of the belief that he cared nothing for her and that she was only a sex object. She had nothing left to do but protect herself from the inevitable heartbreak that would come from the break up when he grew tired of her or her job as fake wife was done. Her opinions and thoughts were so contrary to what was real and it became disturbing. A little of this I can take but it was throughout the whole book and I became annoyed and frustrated. Their relationship always seemed to be stalled which caused the book to move slowly for me. I struggled to finish it but was determined because I kept waiting for the funny parts and the love story but it was basically non existent until the end and I felt it lacked humor throughout. There were a few comical lines but not near what I expected. He got her help for everything else so why didn't he hire one of the gals from his office who really liked the heroine and have her enlighten her on relationships a little bit at a time so she would become more familiar with life and how the world worked yet leave some of the naivete and innocense in place.
To say the least this book was a disappointment for me. I kept waiting for the laughter that I assumed would be bubbling out of me and, in reality, I found very few comical lines. A few yes but none that really did it for me...except when he caught her sneaking a snack scantily clad in her bed clothes. I did love that. He was gobsmacked.
This is not a book that will go on my re-read list. Once was quite enough....more
This is a bit hard for me to rate. There were parts I really liked and parts that were just so-so. I thought the story moved slowly and***3.5 Stars***
This is a bit hard for me to rate. There were parts I really liked and parts that were just so-so. I thought the story moved slowly and was a bit too long for my taste. I think it could have had the same affect with fifty to seventy five pages less. That is totally my preference. I didn't have many feels when it came to our couple. They certainly didn't burn up the pages like I had expected.
So here is a review of the story itself: Our hero was Trace who was raised on the wrong side of the tracks and seemed to have 'trouble' following him around just waiting to pounce. His dad was in prison and his mother was a wacko who didn't have both oars in the water. She was an emotionally absent parent.
Our heroine is Molly whose entire family works on the farm their father owns. Molly and her father are veterinarians and they have an office on their property and one in town. On their compound they also train dogs for various jobs including service dogs. They also rescue unwanted dogs, train them and find them a new home. A very do-good family.
Molly used to tutor Trace in high school and he felt something for her but knew she was way out of his league...so he didn't even try. (Cop out!) After high school they both arrived at a party at the same time and left together. Molly was a real goody two-shoes but had always had a very strong crush on the 'bad boy.' A woman in their city had it in for Trace and approached him about an affair. He certainly didn't encourage her but told her no-way! It angered her so she told her husband he attacked her when it was the other way around. So that night, after he had been intimate with the virgin, Molly, he ran away telling no one where he was going. The woman's husband is after him and has threatened to kill him. He had every intention of going back for Molly but she had no way to know this. He didn't get the chance.
Some weeks later Molly is very distressed because she's pregnant but she can't locate Trace anywhere. The story goes that he stopped for a drink at a bar the next evening because he was short of money to make his bus transfer. He voluntarily helped the bouncers control a problem and they hired him for the night because they were short of staff. (There was no paperwork for this hire...big mistake.) They paid him with a few free drinks and food. This would hold him over until he could contact his cousin the next day for a wire transfer. Later that evening there was a very drunk man who was trying to physically and sexually assault his girlfriend and Trace stepped in....especially since he was now their bouncer for a night. The guy was going to pummel this poor woman to death and rape her. She kept screaming for help and it was Trace to the rescue! He tried to push the huge man away from her and the man tripped, fell, hit his head and croaked! Trace was found guilty. The bar who hired him acted like they didn't hire him. The woman he saved was paid to lie. The man who ended up six-foot under was going to law school and his daddy was a big bad lawyer who was best buds with the judge. Yep...Trace went to jail for fourteen years. This is what you get in this country when you risk your own life to save someone from a beating and rape. (Personal opinion: I think if Trace would have contacted Molly, her family would have gladly hired a good attorney for him and probably would have been placed on probation--but he didn't. He felt he deserved what he got even though his intentions were honorable.)
Molly was told by a reliable source (Trace's mother) that Trace had been killed in a bar fight and for fourteen years she thought about him and what he was missing out on with their brilliant daughter and the family they could have been. Fourteen years later Trace shows up. He has a dog he trained in prison and he was granted a special favor by letting him keep his dog. This guy was crazy about his dog and most of the time it seemed he loved the dog more than his daughter and the heroine. I think I viewed this one-time bad-boy alpha as a worn out beta during this story. He was quick to try and solve things by running away.
I want to thank this author for the celibacy during their time apart. That doesn't seem to happen much anymore and to many of us it makes a huge difference.
Safety Status: Couple celibate during fourteen-year separation. Hero was a man-whore bad-boy in high school and after. Heroine virgin until hero. OW hits on hero and he tells her NO! He wants no one but the heroine. A short bit of OW drama. Seems women like trying to get this man in their bed but he never succumbed...not even close.
I didn't care for this enough to continue the series....more
At times this story seemed all over the place and it simply didn't flow for this reader.
The hero was awful. He refused to believe ***2.0-2.5 Stars***
At times this story seemed all over the place and it simply didn't flow for this reader.
The hero was awful. He refused to believe in the woman he fell for. She had gone to prison for theft but she had been set up. She was innocent. He even married her still believing she was a thief and he wanted to move her to another country and have her name changed because he was so sure she would be an embarrassment. He refused to listen to her side of the story. The court convicted her so she was guilty and that was that, he thought. Mostly throughout this book I felt sad. The hero caused her so much pain, distress and heartache. He broke her heart time and time again. He just beat her down and I felt beat down, as I read.
He kept secrets about his past and had he shared those with her she wouldn't have gone through such misery.
This is certainly not a book I would want to re-read....more
This story is about Lisa and Alex. Their siblings were married to each other and had just been killed w***4.5 Star Read***
Incredibly Sweet Short Story
This story is about Lisa and Alex. Their siblings were married to each other and had just been killed when a semi tractor trailer ran into their automobile leaving Lisa to raise her sister, Sara's and her husband, Daniel's three-month old baby boy. Alex wants her and baby boy, Jason, to move in with him. Lisa has been crazy about Alex since the day she met him some four years ago. Her description of Alex and why they could never be together: he was a hardcore player according to Lisa's sister and Alex's brother and they had forewarned her to keep her distance. She wouldn't allow herself to get her heart broken by him. It had already been broken a couple times by guys who were just like Alex.
Because Lisa was still working on her college degree and had been living with her sister and her husband, she would be left without a home and the home she was in was much too expensive for her to pay for while going to college, working part-time and raising a baby. Alex asks her to please move in with him and he would share his apartment rent free and help her raise his nephew.
This was a great book! It was short but I loved every minute of it. I highly recommend!!!
This was a safe read! Brief bit of OW drama but hero sets her straight....more
This is really not my kind of book. It had a lovely ending and that's the reason I am giving it three stars. To be honest I am not a fan of other womaThis is really not my kind of book. It had a lovely ending and that's the reason I am giving it three stars. To be honest I am not a fan of other woman or other man drama and to make it worse he had been in a three-month affair with the OW before meeting the woman he fell in love with and married. She was evil personified and worked hard to separate the two. She did! Thankfully there was a very wonderful HEA that saved it for me....more
I should have known there would be problems whenever an evil, conniving, plotting witch of an Other Woman is involved and I rarely have a positive revI should have known there would be problems whenever an evil, conniving, plotting witch of an Other Woman is involved and I rarely have a positive review in these types of situations.
However, I have read books with OW in it but just for a very brief time. This one, however, was in the whole book.
She was simply horrible. Our hero and his wife were separated almost three years but they still loved each other. They married young and then there was an accidental pregnancy that the hero was not happy about and placed all the blame on the heroine and certainly let his wife know on whom he placed the blame. It broke her heart that he didn't want their baby. When the heroine miscarried he only thought of himself and offered her nothing! She was broken by his uncaring attitude and he couldn't even look her in the eye. It was time for her to move on. Then we have the OW appear on the scene. She was a friend of his sisters and he had visited her family some. They were neighbors. But he had no idea what all she had planned. He liked her but I know they were never intimate, in fact I don't believe they even kissed. The hero had given thought about marrying her but never did anything about it. He was pretty stupid for such a bright man that he let this witch stay on his yacht with him for two weeks. Yet he never touched her but she did plenty of damage that almost cost him getting back with his wife.
It was a mess and I felt the story strayed from its path which took me out of the story several times.
Would I recommend this book? No I would not. I also didn't feel the hero was redeemed in the end....more
This was a good read with a very wicked and mean ex-mistress/girlfriend. She was simply pure evil to the point of attempting to p***3.5 Star Review***
This was a good read with a very wicked and mean ex-mistress/girlfriend. She was simply pure evil to the point of attempting to physically harm/kill the heroine multiple times.
The hero needs and wants a child, an heir, to leave his fortune to and in return the hero will save the business of the heroine and her mother.
This was a decent story but I do have a problem when there is OW drama throughout. This OW beat all the OW I have been unfortunate enough to read about by far. She tried to kill the hero's wife/child multiple times and all she got was a slight slap on the hand. It was pathetic as the hero didn't press any charges against the Devil OW. Just told her to leave town.
It caused me to look at the hero as a beta who really was stupidly-ignorant not to see what was going on right in front of his face. What was he....a ball-less wonder?? No stones to take care of the hell his wife was going through.
Update 11/30/18 - I read this book for the third time yesterday and the fourth time today. There is just something about this story that draws me. EveUpdate 11/30/18 - I read this book for the third time yesterday and the fourth time today. There is just something about this story that draws me. Every time I read it I end of reading it twice in a row. I just can't get enough of it. I love the heroine so much. There is a scene when she tells the hero that she's pregnant and it is awesome. She just wants him to be happy and she is willing to walk away so he can marry an evil woman who he says is his perfect match for a strategic business union. That took guts and it just gets better each time I read it.
This is a very good book, one I definitely recommend. It's a safe book and once the hero took out the heroine he was never with anyone else intimately. If he was with someone right before he met her at least we didn't have to witness it or even hear about it.
Our hero and major manwhore, Alessandro Caetani, does not do happy-ever-afters. He rarely, if ever, does nice. He prefers ONS or a mistress...maybe both at the same time. When the story begins he has a snake of an evil mistress, Olivia. On the way to a charity function she gives him an ultimatum...become engaged to her or it's over. He chose the later and drops her off at the ritzy hotel where she's staying. It was an impossibility to like Olivia. She was evil and wicked and determined to have Alessandro for herself. No love was involved in their relationship. Theirs was to be a match to benefit their respective businesses and fortunes.
Lilley, our lovely heroine, has a fairy tale dream and she has no idea it's about to come true. Alessandro has been noticing her as she works in his company as a cleaner. To himself he calls her Little Mouse because she's kind of plain and mousy but something draws him to her. She is not impressed when he calls her that to her face. He asks her to go the charity function as his date and waves his magic wand taking her to a stylist where she has a makeover and is adorned in a beautiful gown. Our hero is stunned when he sees her beauty and very sexy body that has always been covered up by baggy work clothing. (She does this because she is not fond of her curvy body thinking she is too heavy.)
He is positive he will let nothing happen between them because he can offer her nothing. But Lilley is hard to resist. Her sweetness, her innocence! They were so drawn to each other. He promises her one night and ends up giving her two. So he leaves town on a business deal and she awakes alone. He has her fired from the business he owns and finds her a job 3000 miles away. He's too weak to have her anywhere near him and remain a faithful partner to the awful Olivia who he has now decided to marry regardless of what he feels.
But what happens when Lilley comes to his home to tell him goodbye on her way to New York and thanks him for the little gift he has given her? Loved this scene.
I had hoped there would be legal consequences for Olivia and was sad it did not play out in the book. Otherwise, it was a memorable story. Even though I have now read this four or five times I am still bothered that there were not more consequences for evil witch, Olivia. At least a good telling off and putting her in her place....more
Camden Rogers is taking a date to the basketball game...a woman he has no desire to be with and he's only doing it because his step-father, the mayor,Camden Rogers is taking a date to the basketball game...a woman he has no desire to be with and he's only doing it because his step-father, the mayor, has been after him to take her out for six months. She's the senator's daughter and the mayor wants them to be a match...the hero does not.
Riley Smith just received a promotion and she's going to celebrate by splurging and going to the basketball game. She notices the couple next to her are having a fight...actually it's the female raising hell b/c the hero isn't paying enough attention to her and he tells her to go ahead and leave. This was only the third time they went out and she was gone before the date was half over. She was evil and causes the heroine some problems but it doesn't last too long. The hero did a great job of telling her off...twice. He only took her out to appease his step-dad who was all about himself and furthering his political career...even at the expense of the boy he raised. There was nothing about the woman he cared for. During the half time Riley and Cam realize they are on the Kiss Cam...and after a short debate they decided to go for it as the crowd chanted and cheered for them to kiss. And boy did they. They could barely tear themselves apart. I was waiting for steam to start coming out their ears it was so hot. They didn't realize a kiss could be so good. The hero absolutely wants to see her again but she wouldn't give him her number. (She has some issues she needs to work through because she was bullied and mistreated a lot as a teen, a poor maid's daughter in a very high class school and it was quite sad.) As soon as she graduated high school she moved away. She has never gotten past it and never gone back, not even to visit her mother. It the place where she was tortured and humiliated...why would she want to go back. She is quite certain she is not good enough for this man she met. For four years she was made to feel like trash. He finally finds her and they are stuck like glue. The two finally do get together and they are stuck like glue. They fall so deeply in love that it warmed my heart and made me a bit jealous. I want a guy like Camden.
I'm a little torn on the rating of this book. I loved the story-line...a lot. The hero is fantastic and the heroine was great. The love story was out of this world. So what is my problem. The story moved slowly in places with more detail than we needed. I loved it but there was too much filler. It could have been shortened. When it dragged it became frustrating and it would cause me to lose focus and the story was so great you certainly didn't want it to lag.
I do recommend it just be aware it moves slowly. I am getting ready to purchase the second book in this four-book series. ...more
Wow what a book. I loved every second of it and couldn't turn away even for a brief moment.
The Premise: King Zafir of Quamar is ill and his eldest sonWow what a book. I loved every second of it and couldn't turn away even for a brief moment.
The Premise: King Zafir of Quamar is ill and his eldest son, the Crown Prince Adil, had just passed away two months prior! Adil was a piece of work who instead of doing his assigned work as the Crown Prince he spent most of his time aboard his yacht accompanied by a group of American women who were his sex objects. He was an unrepentant womanizer the likes you haven't seen. He was on his third marriage and had children by his wives and a spare or two by mistresses thrown in.
It seems he, his wife and ex wives only produced females and he desperately needed a male heir. After his death the King discovered Adil, had fathered a son with a woman who was not his wife. After having her investigated he found that she was beyond unfit. She only had the child to live off Adil's fortune. From the day she delivered that son her cousin, Freddie, who had trained as a nanny took over the care and raising of the little boy. She loved him beyond measure. Two months prior to the beginning of the book Freddie's cousin, Erica Fredrica, the boy's birth mother, was killed in a skiing accident. Our heroine, Freddie the Nanny (also Fredrica) was left with the boy and attended him very well. Just to help with confusion because I was a bit confused, both cousins were christened with the exact same name which only complicated matters.
So now the story really begins. Our hero, Jaspar, the now Crown Prince was summoned by His Majesty the King (his father) to go after the boy and remove him from his incapable mother who barely ever saw the boy. He was to fetch him by whatever means necessary and bring him to the castle to live where the King could see his grandson before he passed away. Their intent was to let someone from the extended family or close friend raise the child as their own never giving thought to the two-year-old and his needs. Knowing he was illegitimate he would never be allowed to take the throne. Unfortunately they thought Freddie the Nanny was indeed the child's mother which she was not.
Freddie is completely distraught when she learns the child has been stolen and taken to Quamar. She is devastated and Jaspar doesn't understand why this uncaring mother is so upset that her son is gone. She blackmails Jaspar into marriage so she would be welcome in Quamar. Otherwise the king had made certain she could never get into his country...again thinking she was the mother not the nanny. Jaspar is mad as Hades but he gives in to a temporary marriage so that she can help the small child adjust to his new home.
Gosh, this was a great read. I've read it several times. For me, the shining moment in the story was when Jaspar caught his ex girlfriend, who had dumped him five years earlier when she saw her chance to marry his brother Adil so that she could become queen. (Unfortunately she did not know that the king had already chosen his successor and it was not Adil.) The ex was trying to convince Freddy, his wife, to leave him and told her he didn't love her, it was more of a pity marriage. Jaspar was outside the door listening to the whole exchange. He certainly set her straight and let her know he cherished the day she wed his brother because he knew she would have ruined his life. LOVED IT!! (BTW - Jaspar was never intimate with this awful ex. All they had done was talk with family present.
This was a good read but I did get frustrated that the hero always chose to believe his lying conniving assistant (OW) rather than his ***3.5 Stars***
This was a good read but I did get frustrated that the hero always chose to believe his lying conniving assistant (OW) rather than his wife who loved him and only wanted the best for him. That did leave a bad taste in my mouth and happened all the way throughout the book but other than that it was a decent read.
OW EVIL personified. Offenses: Put a bug in the H/h car. Told heroine lies about her husband. Told wife they were presently having an affair behind her back. She would try and convince hero that his wife was crazy or hormonal that she was insanely jealous. OW Fabricated mistruths, well, just plain old lies says it better, about the wife to make her less and less appealing over time. What made this more difficult is that the OW was a family friend of the hero's and he had known her all his life, trusted her implicitly when, in fact, she did not deserve any trust at all. On top of that - right before he met the woman he married he was having a sexual affair with said OW. It was short and without emotions. In fact he put an end to the brief affair when he first laid eyes on the woman who would become his wife.
It was a good read but I won't put myself through it any longer. The heroine was absolutely broken-hearted all throughout the book until the last few pages. Hero was an idiot who ALWAYS chose the OW's side over his wife. ALWAYS!!! No matter what really happened. The OW was so darn smug and felt she had the H around her little finger. The wife felt the same way. She knew she came in second to the OW. Horribly sad for this reader.
Let me say there is no way I would tolerate and ex lover being my spouse's Personal Assistant!! No way...no how! That is a recipe for disaster!...more
A quick summary: Ares Kourakis was a Greek billionaire who was easily bored. He went through women like a baby goes through diapers. There were a few A quick summary: Ares Kourakis was a Greek billionaire who was easily bored. He went through women like a baby goes through diapers. There were a few things he was certain of in his life, he never wanted to give or receive love, never commit to anyone, never enter into a marriage or have a child. His evil father taught him that love was poison and something to be avoided at all costs. It angered his father that his son talked about love and wanted to wait and lose his virginity when he fell in love or got married. His father played a huge trick on him when he was eighteen. He hired a prostitute to come on to his son and then play his girlfriend. He then fell in love with her and asked her to marry him. It is then his horrific father says Hey son, I really got you. That girl you fell in love with was no one more than a prostitute I hired and paid to act like she loved you to teach you that you should never love. My gosh, how could a father ever do that to his child. Then he fell in love again and his father dies. He comes home unexpectedly and heads to see his love, finding her naked and in the arms of another man. It was an absolute mess. The hero was a sorry mess.
One weekend he was visiting a new home he purchased near a skiing resort. His mistress had broken it off with him the night before. He saw a woman that interested him in a bar close to the ski slopes and was just gobsmacked with this young woman. They are intimate and four and a half months later he finds out she's pregnant. He decides he will take care of her and get her through the pregnancy but will never love her or the child. In fact, he is planning to ship her off with the baby and never see her again.
I liked the story but was saddened that she left and it took him four months to go after her. She ended up having the baby alone. By the time he shows up the baby is a month old. I don't like stories where the hero, for whatever reason, is not there for the birth of his child. It had a HEA but I couldn't help but feel for the heroine for every thing she went through because of the heroine.
I tried to read this again in 4/2020 because so many of my reading friends thought this book was worth five stars. I still didn't get that feeling. I despised how the hero treated the heroine. I really did try to get into it but it just didn't happen for me. ...more
I think I am going to write a list of some of the things that transpired. Maybe that will be best since my keyboaaard is not workinRevision of Review:
I think I am going to write a list of some of the things that transpired. Maybe that will be best since my keyboaaard is not workingg well. See wht I mean. It has gone crazy!
Giorgio is the hero and he is a very unlikable character; rude, cruel, self-absorbed, thoughtless, unfeeling, and uncaring. I feel he was left woefully unredeemed in this story and lacked understanding of all the hurt and pain he afflicted on his wife. He was clueless, yet never wrong!
Family: Paternal Grandfather - old, ill and soon to pass. Father who was deceased at beginning. Mother who I believe was close to being certifiably crazy and causes her daughters-in-law hurt, pain and grief which causes trouble in the marriages which the sons are blind to. Three sons who are the light of their mother's life and who fail to see how their mother treats their wives and the trouble she causes. One daughter deceased at three months.
Now let me move to the deceased daughter. She died of SIDS at three-months of age. Giorgio, the hero (to me he is a zero) of this book is the one who found his dead sister at the age of six. The whole family never moved on, the mother wouldn't let them. They practiced their grief every day. It has been thirty-two years since the baby passed and I know losing child has to be horrible but she set in and refused to heal or let her children heal.
This long gone child is the focus of their days. She is talked about and grieved as though she only passed two weeks ago over and over and over.
To deal with grief Mother of family went to bed to grieve for years abandoning her other live children. Giorgio's father dealt with his grief by bed hopping with every available female who would spread her legs. Poor little six-year-old Giorgio was made Head of Household. He got on with the task of raising his brothers. Bathed them, cooked their meals, put them to bed...the whole shebang!
What a horrible sad shame his parents were too selfish to care for their children who remained instead of only focusing on the one who had passed. It was awful. I was so angry all the way through this book.
We see through all of this that Giogio has developed many misconceptions of life, some at the hands of his mother. Example:
1. If your wife acted or felt emotional when chatting with you that meant she was immature, a bit$h and was hormonal. You then tell her to grow up.
2. If there was a problem in the family the man should just go and have affairs and it would bring your family back together. He came close to doing that to Maya, very close.
3. Your wife married you young therefore she must be immature and desires to steal all your fortune...he again calls her ugly names.
4. You feel guilty that you didn't love your wife when you married her. His parents arranged this MOC. She loved him...he cared nothing for her except he liked the sex since he taught her exactly what to do. It has been five years since they married and he has never once told her how he feels about her...again immature because it has to do with emotions.
5. He had been still whoring around until two weeks prior to their wedding.
6. Also wanted to add in here that Giorgio's mother was obsessed with him having a baby asap. We find out near the end that she wanted him to have a child so she could substitute it for the one she lost 32 years ago.
7. Five years after he married Maya now he is worrying about a prenuptual agreement and is plotting to leave her destitute. He really shows the love!!...more
This is a safe read. Both were celibate during time apart. (HURRAH!) I just completed my fourth read-through. Although I liked it the f***4.5 Stars***
This is a safe read. Both were celibate during time apart. (HURRAH!) I just completed my fourth read-through. Although I liked it the first time, I was a bit torn but I understand it better now. The first time through I made some hasty judgements because the hero was so horribly mean at the beginning of the story but it takes a couple of chapters to understand that he had good reason to be, but those reasons had been lies told by the heroine's evil cousin who was trying to blackmail the hero into marriage and he quickly begins to piece it together.
Lena is our bluntly honest heroine and she has been treated badly by her cousin since her parents' death when she had no choice but to go live with her Cousin's family. She was more of a slave/maid than anything, living in their unfinished attic, put-down and mistreated daily for more than ten years. She was even expected to relinguish her small salary for being the maid so the other employees could be paid. This was done out of meaness and spitefulness...there was no financial cause for this and she gave it up willingly so her dear friends, the maids and butlers, could continue to draw the meager salaries they were paid.
Then we have Alejandro, our hero, whom at the beginning seems to be an unreasonably mean and nasty man. Fortunately that doesn't last long. Because of Lena's cousin's lies, he was made to believe the worst about her and I could understand why he felt the way he did. Lena was also fed lies by the evil cousin which made her think of the hero as a monster. Once you're in the second chapter you begin to understand the evilness of the nasty, slutty cousin. The H was fed nothing but horrible lies for a year as was the h. The evil cousin was actually trying to steal the good cousins baby because she was sure that was the only way to blackmail the H to marry her. He didn't want to ever love anyone nor did he want a child and he definitely planned to never marry. There was a while that I despised him but when the reasons for him being the way he was came to light, and he had some fairly good reasons, I began to understand him. He grew on me and he also changed for the better since he no longer had the burden of the secret he had been keeping since his youth.
Lena's cousin wanted Alejandro badly. She wanted to acquire the title of Duchess and his billions of dollars but she was not able to have children. She also knew her cousin was pregnant by the H because he dumped the cousin once he met Lena. He had not, however, been intimate with the evil one...thank goodness. That would have been a little too much sharing for my taste.
This turned out to be a great story once I understood Alejandro. I enjoyed it but I would have liked a little more happiness earlier than it happened.
The villian in this story gets his own book in the sequel: Nine Months to Redeem Him also by Jennie Lucas....more
Enjoyed this sweet story of past lovers reuniting with a few exceptions. There is a secret child, and others finding long earned happiness. The coupleEnjoyed this sweet story of past lovers reuniting with a few exceptions. There is a secret child, and others finding long earned happiness. The couple was separated for four years.
But, be aware that this hero, at least to me, appears very immature for his age and thought everything was someone else's fault, especially the ex-love of his life. It took a very good while before he owned up to the responsibility of what he pushed away and his wrong doings. He regretted it for years but only tried to call her twice...I think that says it all!
Safety: They split after two years together because she wanted some type of commitment from him (she was pregnant and he made it plain he never wanted marriage or a child...so she walked.) During the two years they were both faithful.
There is a major-man-whore alert for this hero. We don't have to witness him sexing other women but believe me, he did and it mattered not who it was. He was a horn-dog of the worst sort.
After these two run into each other again they were not with anyone else....more
This was a sweet short story that I read online at Harlequin.com twice and at the end of another book three times. I love this short story!
This story This was a sweet short story that I read online at Harlequin.com twice and at the end of another book three times. I love this short story!
This story is about Lucy Peyton and Jeff Hartley, the man she was going to marry. Unfortunately Lucy's best friend and maid of honor was jealous of Lucy and the night before the wedding Lucy found her best friend with her arms around her fiance as she kissed him. All staged and on purpose.
Lucy immediately called off the wedding without listening to the man she loved and had already decided upon sight that he was having an affair with her best friend. Not true of course. The best friend had schemed to break them up and had taken Jeff by surprise when she threw her arms around him and kissed him.
I thought it was somewhat silly because of the way Lucy and Jeff loved each other and were so devoted to one another that she refused to listen to his side of the story. She packed up and moved away only to return two years later when her family ranch was in trouble. This is when she and Jeff reconnect.
I do recommend this sweet second chance. It is a safe read as neither of them had been with anyone else during their two-year separation....more
Blake Ford is a wealthy man and his biggest aspiration in life is to become a father. Too bad his wife didn't want the same. She is a model and recentBlake Ford is a wealthy man and his biggest aspiration in life is to become a father. Too bad his wife didn't want the same. She is a model and recently failed in her attempt to become an acting star. She didn't want to risk a pregnancy messing with her body. (Selfish much?!)
They decided on a surrogate but the wife is still unconvinced and really wants no involvement. She certainly doesn't want to raise a child and simply did not want children in the first place. She only agreed because her and her husband were having problems and she wanted to hang on to him because whenever she failed at something he was always there to pick her up and dust her off. Actually, the whole time they were 'trying to conceive' she was still taking her Birth Control Pills unbeknownst to her hubs.
So they hire a surrogate and when she left their employ and home after the birth of their son our hero didn't understand why the surrogate, Bella McAndrews, didn't want to be a part of his son's life. He found it difficult to comprehend how she could not want to visit the baby she had carried in her womb. But what our hero didn't know is that his wife basically threatened her away and told her that if she didn't stay away permanently she would be the cause of her husband divorcing her. Bella was quite naive. She was raised on a farm in Iowa with a ton of siblings which she helped raise as the oldest female. I don't feel she knew much at all about how the world works which made her not only very naive but also gullible!
When Blake's wife left and they divorced there was only one woman he wanted in his and his son's life...Bella! He had a plan...
First, he would hire her to be the child's nanny and he would begin building a relationship with her. He already liked her a great deal and thought she would be an excellent mother...and wife, just what he and his son needed.
Second, he hoped as they built that relationship she would see they would make a great family, the three of them and any other children that may come along!
Our hero had a very bad childhood with a mother who did not love him and left when he was eight-years-old. He wasn't sure what love really looked like and as children do - he blamed himself for his mother's abandonment. Blake decided after his divorce that love would not enter into a relationship. Unfortunately Bella was not privy to that bit of information.
The reason I did not rate this higher is because I'm not fond of stories where and ex of any type is included and tries to break up the new couple, digs in her claws to try to get back the man she left. Then there was Blake's sister who was his ex-wife's best friend and she was doing all she could to make Bella feel insecure so she would leave him. She also tried her best to get her brother, Blake, to end his relationship with her. He was strong and he had no problem letting his ex-wife know that he had no interest in her any more and he shut the sister down pretty quickly, too.
Would I recommend? Yes, unless you have triggers which include exes. ...more
***Safety Issues in this Book for those with Triggers.***
The Prologue begins with Lucius Devlin awaking to find his overnight guest had already vacate***Safety Issues in this Book for those with Triggers.***
The Prologue begins with Lucius Devlin awaking to find his overnight guest had already vacated his bed. Her name is Lisa and she has wanted to marry Lucius for a long time. They used to be and item but Lusius broke off the relationship because Lisa is not trustworthy. Now they're just occasional f-buddies. He knows she would be a terrible match which is why he broke it off. She's the kind of woman that would wipe him out financially in no time at all. The pay out is all it seems she's after.
Geoff is Lucius' best friend and works for him. (Pay attention to that...Geoff and Lucius are best friends and have been for many, many years...) So when Lucius sent Lisa on her way the first time he broke it off with her she went after Geoff, his best friend, because he was also wealthy. Are you ready?? When she and Geoff have an argument or disagreement and she gets angry or doesn't get her way she goes back and starts sleeping with Lucius again until Geoff asks her to come back. Yes, her husband's best friend!!! And the really sad part is that Geoff knows she goes to Lucius when they argue. Lucius is sleeping with his best friend's main squeeze, the woman his buddy loves. Apparantly this back and forth situation has been going on a good while. It was certainly not a one-time thing. While she is still at Lucius' already having climbed out of his bed after their romp in the sack she receives a phone call and it's Geoff. He has already found out that she has spent the night with Lucius again and he proposes over the phone...to try and keep her away from Lucius and she says yes. (If my understanding is correct, Lisa only started dating Geoff because she thought it would force Lucius to put a ring in her finger...it backfired! Geoff tells Lisa that he wants to start a family right away and she wants to as well. So about a year or so later now Lucius is raising their baby which was left to him in their will. The couple had been killed in a train accident. Now he is searching for a nanny...or maybe a wife by contract.
What the heck kind of man sleeps with his best friends' gal. I just have no interest in finishing this book. It upset me enough reading two chapters. The hero had no respect for the woman and none for his best friend. He caused his friend a lot of pain. I don't know how Geoff can still call him 'friend.' And who would want to leave their child to be raised by the biggest manwhore the town had ever seen....more
