The Marriage Arrangement

The Santanas Men #2

by Helen Bianchin

Hannah's marriage to Miguel Santanas had given her a privileged, glamorous life. She ran her own business by day, and shared her bed with a passionate, sexy husband by night. Miguel was everything a woman could want—and more!

But this perfect marriage was a social contract uniting two powerful families. Love hadn't been part of the deal. So why was Hannah so jealous of the flirtatious Camille's attentions toward Miguel? Did that mean she felt more for him than she'd realized—and did he feel the same?

Genres: Harlequin, Marriage Of Convenience, Romance, Harlequin Presents, Contemporary Romance, Contemporary, Harlequin Romance

148 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 16, 2011

About the author

Helen Shirley was born on February 20 1939 in New Zealand, where she grew up, an only child possessed by a vivid imagination and a love for reading. She wrote stories for amusement in her early teenage years, and when she left leaving school, she took a secretarial job at a father-and-son legal firm.

At age twenty-one Helen joined a girlfriend and embarked on a working holiday in Australia, travelling via cruise ship from Auckland to Melbourne. Alas, no shipboard romance, as she spent all four days in her cabin suffering from sea-sickness! After fifteen months working in Melbourne, Helen and her friend bought a vehicle and took three months to drive the length and breadth of Australia, choosing to work in Cairns in order to fund the final leg of our journey to Sydney.

It was in Cairns that Helen met her future husband, Danilo Bianchin, an Italian immigrant from Treviso. He was a tobacco sharefarmer from the tobacco farming community of Mareeba. His English was pitiful, and her command of Italian was nil. Six months later they married, and Helen was flung into cooking for up to nine tobacco pickers, stringing tobacco, feeding 200 chickens, a few turkeys, ducks... plus killing, cleaning and cooking the same! Her knowledge of Italian improved, and there were hilarious moments in retrospect. Some of what she endured was cooking on a wood-burning stove, having no running hot water, a primitive shower and toilet facilities, washing uniforms for two soccer teams during the soccer season... floods, horrendous hailstone damage to tobacco crops, hardship, and the stillbirth of their first child. Then, to their joy, Helen's daughter, Lucia, was born. Three years later the couple returned to New Zealand, where they settled for sixteen years. During those early years, they added two sons, Angelo and Peter, to the family.

With multiple anecdotes of farm life in an Italian community to friends, the idea of writing a book occurred. A romance, set on a tobacco farm in Australia's far north, Queensland, featuring an Italian hero. Helen says, "the background was authentic, believe me!" However the hero was rich and owned the farm artistic license! It took her a year to complete a passable manuscript, typed on a portable typewriter at the dining room table. That first effort was deemed too short with insufficient detail. Helen rewrote it. This time it was considered too long with too much extraneous detail. She revised, then sent it to London. Four months later she received a telegram from Alan Boon (Mills & Boon) to say they intended to publish and a contract would be sent in the mail. It was the most wonderful news!

Helen wrote ten more books while living in New Zealand, then in 1981, her family resettled in Australia, on Queensland's Gold Coast. She has since published twenty-five more books. Today, with computer technology, the mechanics of writing are much easier. However, the writing process doesn't change. Helen says that she's having a good day if she can achieve 5 good pages, which she is likely to change, edit and rewrite the following day.

She loves creating characters, giving them life and providing a situation where their emotions are tested and love wins out. For her, the greatest praise is for a reader to say they couldn't put the book down... then Helen knows that she has achieved what she set out to do -- "create a moving enjoyable story which holds the reader entertained from beginning to end."

Helen's hobbies are tennis, table-tennis, judo, reading. She loves movies, and leads an active social life.

Reviews

[Tatiana · Rating 1 out of 5]

OK, so you'll find profanity in this review... and spoilers. I just can't let this go without clearing my conscience.

DO NOT READ THIS BOOK!
It's HORRIBLE! Absolutely horrible and I couldn't sleep without warning the next poor soul who considers reading this horrendous book.


First of all, let's talk about the writing style of this book.

This is how it went throughout the whole book: every day the heroine wakes up, goes to the bathroom, has a shower, decides what she's going to wear, describes what she's going to wear in details, how she does her hair and whether it's up in a "fashionable way" or... EVERY SINGLE DAY for two whole weeks or more! And not only every single day, no each day consists of several outfit changes. She comes home, she goes swimming and chooses an AQUA bikini, then for dinner she wears a casual outfit and then she wears an evening dress for whatever occasion they have.

This was endless. Oh, and speaking of bikinis and swimming, I understand the first swimming pool scene, the author wanted to show the chemistry between the H and h, but WHY WHY WHY the second one???!! It was useless, just like all the droning on about her stupid clothes! All she did was go for a swim and think. What exactly was she thinking we don't get to know, we shall find out later! So, what was the great unknown purpose of the stupid swim? The writing style was awful, all she did was describe meaningless clothes and inane daily activities. It reminded me when I was a child at school and they were teaching me how to form complete sentences by describing my day: I wake up, I get dressed, I go to school by bus and so on.

THAT book was painful!

Moving on to the characters:

The heroine was, by far, the most self-centered, annoying and hateful person I have ever seen. She was hateful, hateful, hateful and I can't imagine anyone loving her. For the life of me, I can't grasp why the hero loves her! The only thing that comes to mind is that he's an idiot. Just like her. There’s a difference between being independent and being a bitch! All Hannah did was antagonize him. I mean what is so bad about your HUSBAND telling you to eat your breakfast?? Is it a crime these days or sth? I didn't get the memo. Each single day, just like the clothes thing, the heroine gets FURIOUS with her husband for telling her to eat her breakfast. He CARES you fucking idiot! And, you know, the term "independent" was not created for the single purpose of women using it against men. Being independent means depending on oneself, it does not mean NOT depending on the male species of the earth! It was okay for the heroine to depend on her mom but if her husband as much as lent her a hand she blew up in his face! And guess what, he takes it in stride, just like that! I understand that the author wanted the hero to be a gentleman and all understanding and considering; but all he came out to be was a wuss who lets his wife get away with anything she likes in the name of being independent!

And she was abusive. She kept on hitting him, with no good reason, and then SHE has the audacity to be afraid of HIM hitting HER! WTF! Give me a break with all the independence shit. I am so sick of women authors using independence as an excuse to treat men like shit! I now hate female POV with all that I have. I actually like the male POV much more than all this childish annoying shit that women do to project how independent they are. If you marry someone you lean on him, you don't push him every step of the way claiming you independence because you are insecure about yourself!

Another example: the hero cuts short his business trip and comes early to surprise her and what is her marvelous reaction? She blows up in his face and demands to know the reason of his early return as if he was a child who was found with his hand in the cookie jar! What’s up with that? She is a BITCH, plain and simple. And he's a wuss for not putting her in her place! At one time a psycho woman wants to take him from her and he supports his wife, presses charges against the psycho, puts a bodyguard on her to protect her, and when the psycho tells her s few words she doesn't like what does the great Hannah do?? She waits till she goes home and blows up in the face of her "supportive" husband and throws her shoes at him! She’s a terrible person.

And I didn't get the entire love thing, why do they love each other? All she did was describe her clothes and have sex with him. Repetitive sex scenes that bored me to death! And at the end, after solving the conflict the author extends the book for about 20 pages or so, describing in detail their fucking trip to Hawaii, which has no significance whatsoever. Again, see above note with the endless, meaningless description of daily activities and boring sex scenes.

And the heroine doesn't love her husband; she only finds him sexy and attractive and treats him like shit because oh, "she is so vulnerable"!! What the hell is wrong with this author! The heroine treats the hero like shit all through the book but still loooooooves having sex with him, and can't help loving him! That’s about it. and I can't even think about this anymore. Sorry for writing a lot but you’d do well to heed my warning.

DO NOT FUCKING READ THIS BOOK!

[boogenhagen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is truly a standard HB HP outing (see previous HB reviews) - but this time the OW actually smacks the h in public at a restaurant, the h doesn't call the police and frankly, I was a bit unhappy about that.

The H does get a request for a restraining order going and the OW leaves the country, but I still don't get why HB insists on NO JUSTICE for these sociopathic OW. At the very least, a very public High Society Tabloid Humiliation seems due.

[StMargarets · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is graded on the HB curve.

If the story contains – a "loveless"(but not sexless) marriage, a crazy OW, lots of clothing and grooming descriptions, at least one powder room encounter with the OW, and a rich, rich husband who just wants to take care of the “independent” heroine – then it will earn 3 platinum stars (tastefully arranged in a tennis bracelet or perhaps a cascade necklace).

This HB has all that and a bonus OM to torture the heroine.

Enjoy with yogurt or a crisp salad.

[Dana Al-Basha | دانة الباشا · Rating 5 out of 5]

صرخة قلب لهيلين بيانشين

Years ago, when I was a teenager, this book was amongst my favorite translated copies, I read it in Arabic, from روايات أحلام and I loved it so much I remember reading it over and over again.

Hannah's marriage to Miguel Santanas had given her a privileged, glamorous life. She ran her own business by day (a beautiful boutique), and shared her bed with a passionate, sexy husband by night. But this perfect marriage was a social contract uniting two powerful families. Love hadn't been part of the deal. So why was Hannah so jealous of the flirtatious Camille's attentions toward Miguel? Well, because they loved each other. I really wanted to slap Camille so badly. Hannah is very elegant, and polite. Loved her relationship with Miguel, their swimming pool, social events and family life.

[Debbie DiFiore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow talk about a woman without a soul. The wannabe OW Camille was a nasty piece of work. There was no way he would have looked at her twice! He loved his wife plus the attempted blackmail, the assault in the restaurant and her evil soul were so evident. It was crazy. I loved that these two did talk and didn't let it get to out of control was nice for a change. Her behavior towards the end baffled me! It is like she lost her mind. She was awful to him. I wanted to slap her too! Lol. Oh well they worked it all out and the epilogue was charming. This book pulsed with passion without detailed sex scenes even. You could feel the heat between them. I really really liked this book.

[Lu Bielefeld · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marriage of convenience + heroine in love + hero coveted by another woman + ex lover stalker + describes parties and clothes of the rich in detail.

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 Stars ~ Hannah and Miguel were deemed an ideal match by their parents; their marriage was a logical way to merge the two very powerful families. But Hannah truly adored her husband, and while their chemistry was explosive, she knew that theirs was a marriage of convenience. Miguel maybe a very passionate lover, but Hannah has never confused his affection for love. Living the life of the very wealthy, they have a very active social life that puts them constantly in the public eye. Enter Camile, a very glamourous Paris model, who has set a diabolical scheme to destroy their marriage with Miguel as her prize.

The marriage of convenience is a common plot for Ms Bianchin and she does it wonderfully. I adore her heroes, and while we are rarely privy to their POV, Ms. Bianchin leaves the reader in no doubt that they do love their heroines even though the heroines dare not believe it. Hannah is a strong and independant woman, and Miguel admires her determination to succeed on her on. While their marriage appears to be solid, with Hannah secure that her husband desires her and does value her, Camile's declaration of war with her, shakes her deeply. Ms Bianchin is a master when it comes to evil other women, and in this story we even have an evil other man to add to the tension. I thoroughly enjoyed Miguel and Hannah's story and loved to read how Alejandro and Elise were doing from "Forgotten Husband".

As other reviewers have stated, Ms. Bianchin loves to describe the lifestyle of the very wealthy. The magnificent homes and the glamorous clothes add to the atmosphere of the fantasies she creates. The Harlequin Presents line has always been promoted as the line that will take the reader into worlds where they can escape, and I have always found Ms. Bianchin excels at this. There are other Harlequin lines that have more down to earth lifestyles, for those who find these rich fantasies not to their liking

[Nightwitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh so enjoyable! Our hero and heroine are married; both scions of the moneyed upper classes, they've been married for several years and have a happy and satisfying (in some ways) relationship. The heroine is in love with the hero but assumes their marriage was for financial and practical reasons. An evil French model shows up and starts making trouble (like, literally announcing to the heroine that she intends to capture the hero), and the heroine actually tells her husband (and threatens to divorce him if he takes her up on it). Communication! Not actually a four-letter word, Harlequin Presents heroines!

[Johanna Juntunen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ihana ja jännittävä kirja. Onneksi oli onnellinen loppu.

[Debby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why do Bianchin’s books have heroines who are so bitchy, agressive, hateful, unsympathetic, violent and why do they act like spoilt brats?

And why do Bianchin’s book always have a blonde h and a dark haired evil mean OW?

But okay, in defense of Bianchin I have to say that 98% of the HP books have heroines who are blonde. The other 2% mainly consists of women with red hair. Apparently a woman with dark hair can’t be the love a man’s life, or what is it that almost all the HP heroines have blonde hair?

This book still gets 4 stars because the H is great. He is more than a dream husband. I would advise him to dump the bitch h and find himself a better woman who is worth his attention.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was in the mood for an evil other woman story and this one filled that need. The H was strong and obviously in love with his wife (who for some reason did not believe his feelings). The h was no doormat but tried too hard to maintain her independence at the expense of her relationship. The other woman was such an narcissistic excuse for a woman that I sincerely wanted her to be put down by the h. The h never backed off, but she could have filed charges (and should have) against the OW for assault. The H was steadfast and solid. He never lied to or disregarded the feelings of his wife. Had their communications been more honest and clear, many doubts and insecurities could have been avoided.

[Cecilia · Rating 2 out of 5]

What is enjoyable about this one is the hero's obvious (to the reader) affection for his wife, the heroine, while she continues to be oblivious. Occasionally, she is comes perilously close to too-oblivious, making me feel some impatience with her, though this is not overwhelming. What I would've liked to see more of was some sense of relationship-building - that is, some scenes where the growth of the hero's feelings happen. Instead, it's all established before the beginning of the book, and most of the scenes with hero and heroine are fairly fraught as the conflict is introduced.

The main source of the conflict was what really lowered its quality for me - a crazy Frenchwoman who has apparently decided she's going to steal the husband for herself. I think she actually had fangs, she was so over-the-top. To give Bianchin some credit, there are no scenes of hysterical recriminations where the heroine believes the crazy woman, and hero declines to defend himself, or believes some crazy thing the Frenchwoman says, or anything truly dumb like that. Whew. But the villainess is such a caricature (and a device that Bianchin has used in other books, to my dismay), that it spoiled what otherwise might have been a lovely marriage-of-convenience story.

[MJ4S · Rating 5 out of 5]

A classic Helen Bianchin novel. This time the hero, Miguel Santana, is very much in love with his wife, Hannah. But he never told her for some reason (but it's very obvious he does). Him not saying the words makes Hannah very insecure about their marriage. You see, they had agreed to a marriage of convenience (or so Hannah had thought), and she had fallen in love with him in the interim.
I understand it's scary to reveal your feelings to someone, and neither of them do, but a lot would have been solved if they would have said the magic words and the wannabe evil OW would not have hurt Hannah so much with her insinuations.

[Dwayne · Rating 1 out of 5]

What.the.hell.was.that?

There is no real plot in this book. The only real thing that keeps it moving is Hannah's constant jealousy. That's it. If at any earlier point Hannah decided to finally wake up from hibernation and open her eyes, her brain and common sense would have easily figured out that she was just adding wrinkles to her forehead over nothing. Then the book would end, because there would be nothing - absolutely nothing - left. Would have save precious time it would.

And one more thing that saves time? Not reading this.

[Xai Xai · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too Robotic ! Too in sync! I could not fathom why the Heroine was angry with her hubby. He was ideal....too ideal. The OW didn't stand a chance yet I felt the hero was grovelling for no reason. Had there been a passionate declaration from the Heroine then it was have made up for her cool facade and that's where the 4th star was lost. Okay read not boring with the fact the Heroine was independent and fought for her love despite his intervention. She did make her stance known

[Tia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poorly written, not enough information for it to be totally enjoyable. However I loved how the husband immediately took command to punish the woman causing all the drama. It made the book more enjoyable.

[Su · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very childish writing.

[Mudpie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The 3* go to the hero, who was tender, protective and generous! The heroine was TSTL. Was proving her independence much more important than her safety? She underestimated the villains, once again too stupid to expect the worst. Then she got angry with the only man who could protect her? Her anger after the play night was totally irrational and no excuse for her shrewish display. Even she was wondering why was she so bitchy, but the mouth and hands were out of control. I lost all respect for her when she threw her glass of water in Miguel's face. For once once I'd like Miguel to spank her! She was obviously spoiling for a fight! Instead he whisked her off to Hawaii for her dream vacation! She even got upset every morning when her HUSBAND told her to have breakfast...or take an aspirin for her headache. Just unbelievable...he cared! TSTL woman, SMH.

From the start of the book, it was obvious to us Miguel loved Hannah. He knew her so well, her every expression and tones of voice. Hannah only realised her love for Miguel when psycho Camille made a play for Miguel...so her profession of love for Miguel when they got married was totally unbelievable! She was still on the rebound from hurt ego, after falling for conman gigolo in Paris, so marrying Miguel was her escape. I do believe Miguel when he said he'd loved Hannah from the very beginning. He had NO reason to marry for convenience, they were so rich and powerful already.

The supporting cast of characters was lovely. Luc and Camille were OTT caricatures...

2001 story...did people still use the Walkman back then? At the very least they were using Discman to listen to CDs, no? Haha!

[Carole Copeland · Rating 2 out of 5]

So so

The book was ok however I can't believe the price I paid. I would wait til I ran across this book in a used book store. It had a good, if kind of out there, foundation but it was a continually wash rinse repeat. The author takes you through there day, eat, drive to work, conflict with crazy lady, home, eat, go out, sex, repeat. Then there's a conflict between the main characters that doesn't make since. I hate that this portrays the heroine as stupid when confronting a possible homicidal person just to show independence instead of being smart and accepting her husband is right about precautions and not a form of control.

[Angela_t · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorites

I love the chemistry and tension between H & h. I love how they're both equal, financially and that she is also independent. I'm glad this didn't have the overblown angst and misunderstandings that is so typical of HP, which is my pet peeve.
My only wish was that the hero gets tested too and shows his jealous or possessive side. But alas, it didn't really happen.

[Shubhi Jain · Rating 3 out of 5]

The only thing that was different in this book was the heroine actually had a career instead of being broke and a waitress.

I was just on a reading spree of books like these. Better than the other book I read today. Hero and heroine knew talking surprisingly. I feel this book is stretched a lot, it could have been a short story.
Enjoy

[رومولا الن emmajain-book · Rating 3 out of 5]

صرخة قلب من روايات احلام

من سنين قرأتها وها انا اعيد قرائتها احببتها كثيراا

هيلين بيانشين من كاتباتي المفضلات في سلسلة عبير واحلام

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

You come in half way through their marriage and so I think you miss a lot of them getting together even if it wasn't for love at first.

Its a HEA ending and I did enjoy their story it was sweet.

[Mitchelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm not really sure why I don't like it. I just don't. Sorry for the rating but that's what I felt :(

[Maria · Rating 2 out of 5]

¿Conveniencia o amor?

[Nikki · Rating 1 out of 5]

There was no stakes. Not a lot of conflict. Skip.

[Halah Ahmad · Rating 2 out of 5]

weak heroine , she gave me headache ..

[Teresa Lovin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

I read this book a long time ago and it's just as good the second time around. These books are very good.

[CorkyNSam92 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. I have read it several times. I give it 5 stars because the H is great.

[Misnoawl · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25***