Valentino's Love-Child

Faith Williams and Valentino Grisafi have been lovers for almost a year. The relationship has been strictly physical with no intention of making it anything more. Then Faith discovers she is pregnant. She knows that Valentino will do the honourable thing and propose to her, but can she marry a man who doesn't love her for the sake of their child?

Valentino was actually a pretty decent guy. After his wife died six years ago, he swore that she would never be replaced in his heart. He cannot resolve his feelings for Faith with his feelings for his dead wife; loving Faith feels like he is betraying his wife. Faith also lost her husband six years ago in a car accident. Unlike Valentino, she has worked through her grief and been able to let go of her husband. She loves Valentino and accepts that he doesn't love her, though she knows that he will marry her when he finds out that she is pregnant. She doesn't mind the idea of being married to a man that doesn't love her, but then she discovers how adamantly opposed he is to the idea of marriage (before he finds out about her pregnancy). Marrying someone who doesn't love her is one thing. Marrying a man who actively doesn't want to marry her is something else. Faith breaks up with Valentino before telling him that she is pregnant. He subsequently finds out about her pregnancy and proposes to her. She turns him down saying they should at least wait until the baby is born since she may miscarry anyway. Valentino finally admits that he loves her and wants to be with her regardless of the pregnancy, but he can't stop feeling guilty about it. They resolve their issues and live happily ever after.

Overall this was a nice read, but everything was resolved far too quickly. It just didn't flow. Suddenly Faith believes that Valentino loves her. Suddenly Valentino is able to finally let go of his wife. Some of this abrupt emotional change is put down to the Faith's hormonal changes due to pregnancy, but I found that something of a cop out. There is this big build up where you slowly learn why Valentino has been holding himself back from Faith and he gradually begins to accept how he feels about her. He struggles through about 95% of the book, then, bam! Right at the end, he's happy and all right with everything. Since this is a category romance, I knew there would be a happy ending and I knew he'd sort himself out, but I still felt blind-sided by the suddenness of it all. This abrupt ending stopped this from being a great book, but it was still very enjoyable.