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.

The Scorsolini Marriage Bargain

Therese knows that she was chosen as the wife of Principe Claudio Scorsolini because of her suitability to marry a crown prince. She agreed to the arranged marriage because she loves him, and so far they have been happy. The time has come for her to conceive an heir, but she discovers that she has endemetriosis and is infertile. How can she stay married to the crown prince if she cannot provide him with children?

This is the third book of the Scorsolini Princes (or Royal Brides) series, and is the best so far. Unfortunately that's not saying much because the previous books were pretty terrible.

Ok, let's get this infertility thing out of the way. I really hate how so many category romance characters interpret low infertility as infertility. Therese discovers that she only has a 10% chance of conceiving naturally, and a 70% chance of conceiving through IVF. She interprets this as her being infertile, and rather than tell her husband what is wrong, she tells him they have to get divorced. Claudio has noticed his wife pulling away from him, and jumps to the conclusion that she must be cheating on her which is confirmed in his mind when she asks for a divorce. She tries to explain to him why they need to break up, but he doesn't want to listen because he doesn't want to hear her tell him about her lover. This whole cheating/divorce thing was ridiculous, and I think it was only done to give Claudio a reason to be truly nasty and say very cruel things to Therese. Therese has been rejecting him sexually because it's physically painful for her. She doesn't have a problem with saying no to him, but she does have a problem with telling him why? Huh? I get that they don't have a loving relationship, but they've been happily married for three years, so it's pretty ridiculous that she can't even tell him that it's painful for her. She needs to have an operation (which doesn't even require an overnight hospital stay) but she doesn't want to arrange it because... well, I really don't know why. Considering it's only a day procedure, I don't see why she couldn't have organised to have it done secretly like all her other medical stuff. I wasn't impressed with Therese at all. She doesn't try to fight to save her marriage. She just sits around and decides a 70% chance of conceiving through IVF is not enough, so she'll have to leave. Considering money is no problem, I'd say 70% chance is acceptable. They could at least try it a couple times before giving up. Anyway, once he finds out the truth, Claudio shines. He doesn't want to let go of Therese, and he is determined to make her realise how much he loves her. He basically manages to save the story, and of course we end up with a "miracle" pregnancy with Therese conceiving on their first go at IVF.

After reading The Greek's Christmas Baby and Blackmailed into Marriage, two brilliant books, I have been on a Lucy Monroe marathon. After the last few duds I have read of hers, I think I'm going to move on to another author now.

His Royal Love-Child

Danette Michael's has been Principe Marcello Scorsolini's secret lover for six months. They agreed to keep their relationship secret in order to avoid the paparazzi, but now it's not enough for her. Marcello makes it clear that he doesn't want to marry anyone again after his wife died several years ago. That all changes when Danette discovers she is pregnant, but she doesn't want to be married simply for the sake of her baby.

This is the second book in Lucy Monroe's Scorsolini Princes (or Royal Brides) series. It's marginally better than The Prince's Virgin Wife, but not much. Danette is supposed to be a smart woman, but she sure thinks like an idiot. Marcello forgets to use condoms half the time, and she excuses this by deciding that he wouldn't mind if she gets pregnant, ergo he wouldn't mind marrying her, ergo he must secretly love her, or at least care deeply for her. What? It's pretty clear to me that if a guy doesn't bother using condoms even though you are not in a long-term relationship, he just doesn't really care about you and he's pretty irresponsible.

Marcello is a jerk. He discovered years ago that he has a low sperm count, and his wife never got pregnant. He assumes that this makes him sterile, but the reader of course knows he's going to get Danette pregnant. As soon as characters interpret low fertility as being infertility, you know there's going to be a surprise "miracle" pregnancy. Although I understand his reasons for keeping his relationship with Danette secret, it doesn't explain Marcello flirting with other women. He claims that he has to keep up his playboy image so that people won't question his sexuality and pry too hard into his private life. Seems more like a very flimsy excuse to play around, to me. I wasn't impressed to say the least.

In the end Marcello and Danette manage to convince each other that they love each other and live happily ever after. They both annoyed me so much that I really didn't care.

The Prince's Virgin Wife

Maggie Thomson worked as Tom Prince's housekeeper six years ago. She fell in love with him but they parted ways after he decided to marry the beautiful Liana. Unbeknownst to Maggie, Tom Prince is actually Principe Tomasso Scorsolini, the second son of a royal family. Tomasso comes to regret his marriage to Liana who turns out to be shallow and selfish. After she dies, he remembers Maggie who made his home calm and comfortable. He decides to hire her as his nanny to see if she is still as he remembers her. If she is, he wants to marry her.

This is the first book of Lucy Monroe's Scorsolini Princes (or Royal Brides) series. It was horrible.

Tomasso is cold-hearted, arrogant and selfish. Six years ago he almost had sex with Maggie, but she ends up changing her mind because she doesn't want a one-night stand with him. He knows that she is a virgin, but still gets so mad at her rejection that less than a week later he brings home Liana. Maggie had decided to sleep with him after all, and goes to his bed to wait for him, when he shows up undressing and making out with Liana. She leaves his room in shame, and he goes ahead and has sex with Liana. Then in the morning he has breakfast with Maggie and doesn't understand what she is so upset about. Six years later he still doesn't know why she was so upset. He tells Maggie that he was in love with her six years ago and treasured her friendship, but got swept away in lust by Liana. He thought by having Liana and keeping Maggie's friendship he could "have the best of both worlds". So in other words, just having Maggie isn't enough. He repeatedly makes it clear that he doesn't think Maggie is beautiful, telling her that he had decided he is no longer interested in outer beauty. Sure, outer beauty isn't everything, but does he have to make it so obvious that Maggie can't compete physically? It bothers her, but she still let's him bully her into marrying him. Maggie was basically a total pushover. She's fine with being chosen for what she herself terms her "Girl Scout" attributes. She's fine with being mother to Liana's children. Tomasso gets mad at her for rejecting their friendship after he rejected her, and she accepts that.

Overall, I've got to say, yuck yuck yuck. Tomasso is a selfish insensitive jerk and Maggie doesn't mind.

The Sicilian's Marriage Arrangement

Hope Bishop is a shy, quiet girl with a rich but distant grandfather who wants to make her happy. He notices that she is attracted to Luciano di Valerio and blackmails him into marrying Hope. Although suspicious of Luciano's sudden interest in her, Hope is thrilled to marry him and doesn't realise that he has been coerced into it. For his part, Luciano realises that Hope doesn't know about the blackmail, and decides to make the best of a bad situation and seeks to have a good marriage whilst secretly plotting to destroy her grandfather financially. They are happily married for a few weeks when Luciano overhears a conversation between Hope and her grandfather which convinces him that Hope knew about the blackmail all along. He decides to make Hope think that he is having an affair with his ex-girlfriend in order to make her want to break up with him. Hope finds out about the affair (as planned) as well as the blackmail and is devastated. Luciano finds out the Hope was innocent all along, and confesses his love and so on, and they live happily ever after.

This story had potential but I ended up not liking it all that much. Hope makes a nice heroine. She is sweet and shy, but as is pointed out many times, she is not stupid. She doesn't just fall into Luciano's arms when he shows up claiming to want to marry her after ignoring her for 6 months. Luciano's fake affair is stupid, but I guess he gets kudos for not actually having a real affair. His anger over being manipulated and his need for vengeance is understandable, and he does decide that he loves Hope even before finding out that she was unaware of the blackmail. Still, I felt Hope forgave him far too quickly. Her willingness to believe his innocence and protestations of love just didn't gel, and is what ultimately let the story down for me. The resolution was just too quick to be believed, and left me feeling very unsatisfied. It's still worth reading, but definitely not one of the best I've read.

Blackmailed into Marriage

Lia has never had much of a relationship with her spanish grandfather, especially after eloping to the US with her high school boyfriend when she was 18. She finds out that her daughter Kaylee has a hole in the heart and requires life-saving surgery which she cannot afford. Lia's grandfather agrees to give her the money for the operation, but only if she agrees to marry his business associate Damien Marquez. Damien is illegitimate and wants to marry Lia for the sake of her grandfather's title. Unbeknownst to him, Lia has vaginismus which makes her unable to have penetrative sex.

Lia is very bitter towards both her grandfather and Damien for using her daughter's life to blackmail her into marriage. She doesn't realise that Damien didn't know about this. An even bigger obstacle in their marriage is her feelings regarding her inability to have sex which caused a lot of problems in her first marriage. Damien deals with both these things as only a romance hero can. He is incredibly gentle, loving and understanding with Lia, eventually gaining her trust and her love. Lia's grandfather eventually realises the error of his ways and makes up with her, apologising for using Kaylee's health to manipulate her.

I loved this book. It was heart-wrenchingly beautiful. I was going to say the characters are realistic, but as I write this review I realise that Damien is really too good to be true. Plus, they sort out their sexual problems much to quickly and easily to be believed. Nevertheless, it was a great story and I'll definitely be reading more of Lucy Monroe's books.

The Greek's Christmas Baby

Eden and Aristide Kouros survive a head-on collision, but Aristide awakes from a 3 day coma with no memory of Eden or her pregnancy. She has been unhappy in their marriage due largely to his neglect as well as the manipulations of his personal assistant Kassandra, who is determined to break the marriage up.

Aristide is your typically obtuse alpha hero. He thinks Eden's absence from his side whilst he was in a coma is a sign of her lack of love, even when she tells him that she herself has been bedridden in the hospital (in a different room). He feels that she should at the very least have arranged to be moved into a bed in the same room as his. Personally I found this whole thing quite strange. First of all, why didn't it occur to her, or at least his family, to move her into his room? Plus, it would have been a very simple thing to verify with the hospital doctor that it was under his instructions that she was unable to be by Aristide's side. Even though Kassandra boldly lied to Aristide about Eden, why didn't his own family tell him that she was in another room and unable to be with him? Even if they didn't know exactly what was wrong with her, they must have been informed that she was unable to leave her bed. Then when his mother admits to Aristide that his marriage was not what it should have been, he immediately assumes it's because Eden is a lousy wife. Conceited much? Anyway, his family eventually sets him right on that, to his great shock. I didn't like Aristide much at all, but he redeems himself admirably towards the end by firing Kassandra and loving his wife.

I really liked Eden. She occasionally does stupid things, but realises immediately afterwards when she has handled things badly (usually due to over-stretched emotions, rather than blatant idiocy). Overall she deals with Aristide and Kassandra with dignity, never whining or begging, but just taking a solid stance. She doesn't like the way Aristide behaves and let's him know, but also doesn't try to change or manipulate him. Eventually Aristide realises the kind of loving woman she is, by observing not only her, but also her relationship with his family. Once he realises that Kassandra has been lying, and he acknowledges his own love for Eden, he acts decisively to fix their relationship.

Overall this was a fantastic book. Kassandra, as the Evil Other Woman, is somewhat over-the-top, and I can't help wondering if Aristide would still have figured her out if she hadn't over-played her hand. Plus, what is with these heroes who have no problem keeping their ex-lovers around? Am I just not modern and sophisticated enough to think it's bad form to make your wife associate regularly with your ex-lovers?

The Italian's Suitable Wife

This book begins with Enrico DiRinaldi in a coma after coming to the rescue of a woman who was being mugged, and ending up shot and hit by a car. Gianna Lakewood has loved him since she was a child but he has always treated her as a little sister. Rico wakes from his coma to discover that he is paralysed from the waist down, with an uncertain prognosis. He shortly dumps his sexy model fiancée and bullies Gianna into a quickie marriage.

Rico's paralysis makes him impotent, which is highly unusual in a category romance hero. Of course the reader knows he will have a happy ending and will eventually be restored to full functionality, but we have some unique love scenes including a digital deflowering. I can't help but think the author has little knowledge (and performed no research) on lower body paralysis and rehabilitation. Rico seems to have no trouble getting changed, bathing, and hopping in and out of bed even though he is paralysed. He uses a rowing machine as part of his rehabilitation; I can't even begin to picture how you're supposed to use a rowing machine when you can't use your lower body. It's not important, but missed details like this were a little jarring.

The other thing that makes this story different is that both the hero and heroine know from the start that she is in love with him. Gianna is willing to lose her job and home because she loves Rico. She doesn't follow the usual, and inexplicable, reaction of most category romance heroines of trying to protect herself and deny her feelings. It's quite refreshing.

My main complaint was Rico's feelings. I just didn't really get the feeling that he really does love Gianna. He claims that he heard her telling him she loved him while he was in a coma, and that is what convinced him that he needed her to be his wife, rather than his fiancée Chiara. Well, I can certainly see that he was disillusioned by Chiara and decided he wanted a doting supportive wife who loves him, which he would get in Gianna. I couldn't believe that he actually loves her though, and is anything but selfish in his reasons for marrying her. He gets what he wants, and he supposes she will be happy because she gets him. He does admit this at the end and feels guilty about it, but I still wasn't convinced that he really loves Gianna. Nevertheless, this was a lovely story and I highly recommend it.

The Greek Tycoon's Inherited Bride

Phoebe agreed to an arranged marriage with Dimitri Petronides four years ago, but has decided to call it off because she is in love with his brother Spiros. At the same time, Dimitri has been blackmailed by his grandfather into going ahead with the marriage without further delay, and Phoebe is informed by her father that the family business will be destroyed if she doesn't also agree to the marriage.

We first met Phoebe, Spiros and Dimitri in The Billionaire's Pregnant Mistress and already know that Dimitri will end up marrying Xandra and Spiros will elope with Phoebe. It's still fun seeing how it all comes about from Phoebe's perspective though. Spiros is really torn between his genuine love for Phoebe, not just as a lover but as her best friend, and his love and respect for his brother. He knows Dimitri is a good man and believes he will be a good husband, but he also wants Phoebe to be happy. I love his anger when he finds out Dimitri has not been acting the dutiful fiancée and there's a wonderful scene when he punches him in the face. I've got to say, he had it coming. One big question was why Phoebe couldn't just marry Spiros, since that would still achieve the goal of joining the two families. Various reasons are given for this, but none of them really hold much weight. Whilst this story lacked the passion that was in the Dimitri and Xandra's story, it was a really nice read.

The Billionaire's Pregnant Mistress

French model Xandra Fortune and greek tycoon Dimitri Petronides have been lovers for a year when Dimitri's grandfather has a heart attack. He blackmails Dimitri into accepting an arranged marriage with a childhood friend. Meanwhile Xandra has discovered that she is pregnant. Dimitri tells Xandra he is getting married, she tells him she's pregnant and ugliness ensues, resulting in him throwing her out of their apartment. Dimitri really comes across as a real jerk, but he spends the rest of the book feeling guilty and trying to win back Xandra whilst accepting that he has probably lost her love forever. This guilt went a long way to redeeming him in my eyes, and by the end I think I actually liked him. Of course he has a background angst story to explain his lack of belief in love, but it's silly and not really much of an excuse (like most romance heroes' so-called "terrible" pasts).

Xandra and Dimitri's reunion is surprisingly free of bitterness. There are some disagreements, but overall I found Xandra to be unbelievably mellow towards Dimitri. I kept expecting her to take him to task for the way he threw her out, and just when I was coming to terms with this being a fluffy feel-good story with no ugly scenes (apart from the initial break up) there was a nice big confrontation. Turns out she had just been bottling it up. I was pretty relieved when we finally reached this scene because it made them seem a lot more realistic.

The final resolution and accompanying long awaited confessions of love were a little abrupt, and there's a cheesy sort of epilogue. Nevertheless I really enjoyed this book, and am looking forward to reading The Greek Tycoon's Inherited Bride which tells the story of Dimitri's jilted fiancée who ends up marrying his brother Spiros. You didn't really think that there would be any lose ends with anyone not getting their happy ever after, did you?