Otra oportunidad

by Lynne Graham

Frankie pensó que nunca más volvería a ver a su marido, Santino Vitale, hasta que apareció otra vez en escena con noticias que la hicieron tambalearse. Su matrimonio no había sido anulado y él quería pasar con ella la noche de bodas que nunca pasó.

Santino lo tenía todo calculado. Si estaban juntos tres semanas, Frankie habría pagado su deuda con él y podría irse de Cerdeña, solicitar el divorcio y olvidarse de todo para siempre...

Pero Santino no había pensado que podía enamorarse de ella otra vez, ni que Frankie se iba a quedar embarazada...

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

159 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.


Lynne Graham was born on July 30, 1956 of Irish-Scottish parentage. She has livedin Northern Ireland all her life. She grew up in a seaside village with herbrother. She learnt to read at the age of 3, and haven't stopped since then.

Lynne first met her husband when she was 14. At 15, she wrote her firstbook, but it was rejected everywhere. Lynne married after she completed adegree at Edinburgh University. She started writing again when she was athome with her first child. It took several attempts before she sold herfirst book in 1987 and the delight of seeing that first book for sale in thelocal newsagents has never been forgotten. Now, there are over 10 million ofher books in print worldwide.

Lynne always wanted a large family and has five children. Her eldest and heronly natural child is 19 and currently at university. Her other fourchildren, who are every bit as dear to her heart, are adopted. She has two9-year-olds adopted from Sri Lanka and a 5- and a 3-year-old adopted fromGuatemala. In Lynne's home, there is a rich and diverse cultural mix, whichadds a whole extra dimension of interest and discovery to family life. Thefamily lives in a country house surrounded by a woodland garden, which iswonderfully private. The family has two pets. Thomas, a very large andaffectionate black cat, bosses the dog and hunts rabbits. The dog is Daisy,an adorable but not very bright white West Highland terrier, who loves beingchased by the cat. At night, dog and cat sleep together in front of thekitchen stove. Lynne loves gardening, cooking, collects everything from oldtoys to rock specimens and is crazy about every aspect of Christmas.

Reviews

[boogenhagen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Re The Reluctant Husband - Lynne Graham is one of the few HP authors that keeps the old HP rule #5 alive in this one.

Back in the dawn of HPlandia, it was established that as long as the marriage wasn't consummated, married HP Hero's could continue to sample the lady buffet. If you were a truly vintage HP author such as Charlotte Lamb, Margaret Pargeter, Lilian Peake, Anne Mather or Robyn Donald- your married H could cheat even after the consummation- as long as the husband and wife weren't living together.

LG likes that trope and she is determined to bring it into the new millennium, cause here we are in the 1998 HPlandia and LG goes with the full enforcement of HP Rule #5 - Married Hero's can sleep with other women as long as the marriage to the heroine is either unconsummated or they are not cohabitating. They can also use any means necessary, including force, to get their promised wedding night that was alluded to by marriage vows.

Now LG doesn't go the forced seduction route, she leaves that for Sara Craven, but the trope is fading by this time in the HP line up and from here on out HP voyagers will mostly see it with HP writers who started in the 1980's or earlier*.

(Anne Mather and Sara Craven, we are all looking at you here.)

(*Some of very newest HP writers have used a married H cheating as well, but they are either not married to the h or they have a sex addict thing going on that they need to get treatment for - either way the context of the cheating isn't quite the same and more often than not is indicative that the H has an illness and needs therapy or is in some kind of fake marriage when he meets his h.)

The story in this one is that the h was kidnapped by her father at age 11 after her parent's marriage fell apart. Her mother is a former lingerie type model and her father was from Sardinia. He dumps the h in a remote village where she doesn't speak the language and needless to say the h was extremely traumatized.

She is forced into a totally alien way of life and has no ability to communicate with the strangers who are her supposed family now. It is a frightening experience for the h and then her father dies and she just wants to get home.

Enter the H, he is the only English speaking person in a hundred mile radius and the h's grandfather asks him to talk to the h. The H is 20, good looking and rich and he is kind to the h in his fashion.

(Tho I have to warn HP Voyagers that I take an extreme dislike to any man who knows the h was forced into living where she was at and when she complains about her kidnapping, he tells her she is not kidnapped and that she should be grateful because there are real kidnapping victims out there.

This H needed a skillet to the head and staking on ant hill for saying that. This poor girl was dumped into a poverty stricken household with no education or opportunities, except to be married off to a goat farmer. Her future was almost destroyed and this H told her she should be grateful. So what happens next is entirely cosmic justice, except the H never gets the full retribution he deserved.)

When the h is 16 she hides in the H's car to run away, she gets caught and the old skool chauvinist that is the h's grandfather forces them to marry. The H buys a local farmhouse for the h - again denying her access to an education and a better life so she could be self supporting- and tho the marriage isn't consummated, the h believes herself to be in love when he visits once a week.

Then the h decides to surprise the H at his flat in the city and she walks in on him kissing another woman. The h is brokenhearted and furious and upset and she goes home to England - only to find that her mother is NOT thrilled to see her and never bothered to look for her.

The H finally does manage a small smidgen of contrition and gives the h's mother money to look after the h and get her an education. But at no time does he bother to check on the h or contact her himself to make sure that she is okay, he is too busy sampling the lady buffet.

Now five years on the h has bought into a travel agency and her male roommate and partner is making the moves on her. The h is uncomfortable with this, she likes her partner fine as a friend but isn't wanting anything more. Even tho the h's marriage was annulled, the h still has a secret yen for her former husband and she is just hoping that time will sort that out of her heart.

The h is forced to go to Italy to negotiate the lease on a holiday villa the h's company wants to use. It is a set up, the H is waiting there for the h because Surprise! the h's and H's marriage isn't annulled and the mother lied all the way down the line.

The mother also took the money the H gave her for the h and used it on herself. The H threatens prosecution as he never got full value from his wedding vows.

There is a huge fight, the h hits her head and then a forced visit to the h's grandfather's is in order and the h is made to feel bad because she did not want to live with people who condoned kidnapping and imprisoned her.

The h, ready to martyr herself as all LG h's are, feels bad for not being nicer to her jailers and thinks that if she says she was in on taking the H's money, she can save her mother from prosecution.

Never realizing that in the UK, she can divorce the H for cheating and given the circumstance, probably get a huge settlement that would support her for a very long amount of time.

The H isn't going to let the h find out about that either, after her business partner insinuates that the h has been spreading her love around, the H gets angry and demands that the h spend three weeks with him and consummates her wedding vows.

The h's mother reveals the h's marriage to the playboy banker to the press and the H's mother is very unhappy that the H is married to someone so 'unsuitable.'

But even the lack of maternal approval isn't going to keep the H from swinging his lurve club. Soon the H and h are lurving it up in a haze of purple passion and then we get the standard "OOPS, we did not use any birth control".

Which is okay with the H, because the unicorns all ran away from the h the first time they got it going on. So his honor as an cheating nematode married guy is restored, his wife was still a virgin.

The h is fathoms deep in love again, but she believes that this whole set up is a three week pump and dump - tho she gives serious thought to faking a pregnancy to stay married to the H. The h and H spend a lot of time doing the sights of Italy and trying to resist their lurve force mojo.

Then the H goes off on business and the h mistakenly believes she isn't preggers. She tells the H she isn't on the phone and then she goes to buy a pregnancy testing kit to be sure. Guess what, EPT is a lot more accurate than the h's funny twinges and feelings.

The h now really is expecting and she decides to meet the H at the airport to relate her pregnancy diagnosis false negative. Except slinking off the plane with the H is the same woman with whom he cheated on the h the first time.

The h is gobsmacked and leaves the airport to aimlessly wander around while the H does his version of the fifty yard dash to try and catch her. He doesn't succeed, but the h has to go back when she has little money and no passport.

Once she gets back to the family manse, the H is full of pretty decent explanations about how the OW was his gay brother's beard and he almost did sleep with her five years ago, but then he saw the h and did not and now the OW is engaged to someone else, he just gave her a ride in his plane.

He also lets us know that the h's firm reprimand to his mother, who has been grieving over his brother's death for years, prompted the H's mother to allow that the h is an acceptable daughter in law and also for the H's mother to tell the H that she loves him too, her love for him did not die with his brother.

So the h managed to sort out the H's messed up family relations and win the bonafide LG H mother approval seal too. Now all that is left is for the H to confess that he loves the h, has probably always loved her and move on to the HEA.

The HEA is the h's mother getting a rich guy to marry and thinking about ruining another child's life, as she wants to have a new baby. The H and h are living in loving wedded bliss, with a son and LG concludes with big declarations of true love forever for another pink sparkly HEA HP outing.

I am not a huge fan of this book. The h being kidnapped and everyone denying it really hits the wrong tone with me. The H's lady buffet sampling doesn't make him a viable candidate for long term marriage material in my opinion either- LG makes the classic cheating H newbie mistake, she lets the H get away with too many lies.

LG has yet to learn the lesson that if an HP H is going to cheat, he needs to be brutally honest about it, so that when the time comes for the H to be redeemed, we know the H really means it. (I sentenced LG to reading more Robyn Donald in penance for that.)

LG will do this trope again and she will do it so much better that this book seems really convoluted and very dated in comparison. However because LG is still learning her craft and there are some really great scenes and dialogues between the characters, I can't really knock this down to a two star HP outing.

It is five for dramatic wreckiness and sheer outrage and a two for the mostly believable HEA - even if I wasn't buying the build up to it. The H was not my cuppa and the h deserved better, the mother should have gone to jail too, but the big declaration at the end was well done and I wanted the h to be happy.

So I rate this a three with reservations and only recommend this HP outing if you are a die hard LG fan that doesn't mind an H who strays prior to the HP Voyage to HEA bliss.

[Chantal ❤️ · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 CHEATER HERO STARS

This book is SO dated it's unreal.
The hero is caught cheating on his wife and she runs away. He doesn't justify his action as he feels he is right and she is wrong.
See they have a marriage of convenience but he tells her later on that he has always loved her!!!

Does anyone else smell cow manure?



She acts like the good wife and she had to accept it without complaint.
Other than running off and trying to assert herself once!
She started out strong and defiant but ended weak.
Sooo disappointed with that!!!



But honestly the dialogue is what I found great and emotional captivating and this is why I gave it two stars.
The parts or lines that stands out the most for me was when they talk about finding him with someone else and he says "if you had had a gun I would be dead!"
And the line "welcome Back Santa and the Easter bunny!"
Those were very powerful scenes!
I enjoyed those!



Some really strong and lingering dialogue.
That was great.

Just the ideals are dated (cheating is always wrong) or it would be 5 stars if he had manage to follow through on his supposed feelings for her!

[StMargarets · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second time I've read this story and I'm still a bit fuzzy about the motivations of these people. LG doesn't usually overload her stories with characters, but this one felt crowded. The backstory was overly complicated as well and was awkwardly inserted. Add in the H/h abruptly leaving the room or leaving each other or leaving the conversation by indulging in backstory memories and you have a very herky jerky roller coaster ride of a story.

However, the setting and backstory are unusual and there are bits of the LG charm showing through.

So the set up.

Heroine was "kidnapped" by her father when she was 11 and brought to his family in Sardinia. She later finds out her mother was glad to be rid of her. After dumping her, her father dies in a car crash. Heroine is stuck with her grandfather and two spinster aunts. She is willful and confused and tries to run away a lot.

Hero is the second son of a prominent banking family. When he was 19 he and his brother were in an avalanche. The brother died. Hero has returned to Sardinia to lick his wounds and stay with his Great Uncle who is a priest in the town. No one knows his family owns a castle on the other side of the island. He is 20 and heroine is 12 when his great uncle asks him to talk to the heroine since he knows English so well.

The heroine promptly falls in love. Hero feels sorry for her and sends her English language magazines and visits often. At 16 heroine is still trying to run away when she hides in the back of the hero's car. Her grandfather discovers this and forces the H to marry her.

The H agrees and buys a neighboring farmhouse for the heroine to live in. His business is elsewhere but he visits once a week. They do not have sex. Hero thinks she's too young. Heroine is blissfully happy until she surprises him at his flat in town and sees him kissing the OW. Heroine goes back to England to her mother who is not glad to see her. The hero sends money to the h's mother for her education, but the mother keeps it all for herself. Heroine eventually moves out and lives in a flat with a brother and sister who have gone in halves in a travel agency.

When the story opens, the heroine is back in Sardinia for the first time in five years. She is there to convince the owner of a villa to let their company handle holiday rentals. Turns out it's the hero. He's there to threaten the heroine into his bed in payment for all the money her mother stole from him. And - they're still married. The heroine's mother lied about that too.

Heroine is angry, hits out at him, and then falls hitting her head on the pavement. She is out for a day with a concussion. The hero takes the heroine to the village to see her grandfather and aunts. Turns out the mother never mailed the h's letters to them. But they welcome her back and the heroine feels guilty for giving them such a difficult time when she was younger.

The heroine lets the hero think she was in on her mother's fraud so he won't prosecute her. She also lets him think she's no longer a virgin because she doesn't want him to know how much he hurt her.

And round and round we go.
The h's mother goes to the press, so now the whole world knows the rich banker is married. Nothing much comes of this. They hole up in the hero's estate. Eventually the H/h do go to bed. Then there is pregnancy worry/hope. The hero is adamant he'll divorce her after 3 weeks. The heroine stands up to his parents.

Hero has to leave for business. Heroine thinks they are reconciled and goes to the airport to meet him - and sees he's with the OW. She runs away but calls for a ride home.

Hero explains it was a coincidence OW was at the airport. She's marrying someone else. He's always loved the h - he was waiting for her to grow up. Oh, and his mother told him she loved him and that maybe the heroine wasn't so bad. HEA.

In the epilogue the H/h have a baby and the evil mother has a new, rich husband and she's thinking of having a baby, too. She half-heartedly admits that she wasn't a great mother to the h.

Good lord.

I can't even.

The woman was poison and LG rewards her.

As you can see the bones of this story are good - there was just too much going on and too many contradictory actions/words from the hero to make much sense. But heroine is happy at the end and Texas should be big enough to keep the evil mother out of trouble.

[Danielle The Book Huntress · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book demonstrates one of the truly great things about rereads. With time, you can appreciate a book on a deeper level and a different way from the initial time you read it. I'm pretty sure I had read this, but I didn't remember it. I read this book and it was like I read it for the first time.

One thing I really liked is that the hero and heroine are both sympathetic. Frankie has a reason not to like Santino, and that's his seeming rejection of her and perhaps what she saw as infidelity. But actually, Santino really tried to act honorably towards Frankie in a very difficult situation. They were forced to marry when Frankie was only sixteen by her very old-fashioned grandfather. Santino kenw she wasn't really to be his wife in a real way, and he definitely keeps his hands off of her. I can't fault him for that. There is something really icky about a grown man getting with a teenage girl, even if they are legally married. He knew that Frankie wasn't really for that, even though she had an intense crush on him. And that it was unfair for her, since she was trapped in a tiny town in Italy far away from what she was used to. She latched onto Santino as a lifeline, and he tried to be there for her, but at the same time, it wasn't a good situation for him as a grown man. When he it's clear what he almost does, I'm a little upset at him, but it's understandable.

I liked how their courtship unfolds when they get back together. While it involves blackmail in Santino's part and a misunderstanding on his part, he is very sweet towards her. I think it was very obvious that he had feelings for Frankie, but she continues to erect barriers against him out of her past hurt. She does overcompensate with her insistence on being independent, but it's understandable. She's come a long way from the child bride Santino remembers. And for a man who wants a grown woman as his wife, that was necessary. Frankie's mom is a piece of work, and it becomes clear that many of their problems are rooted in her behavior. But at the same time, I like that Frankie still shows love for her mother despite her major issues.

I recommend reading this if you haven't and you're a new or old fan of Lynne Graham's writing.

This is one of those gems by this author that I didn't appreciate the first time around. I'm glad I did get the opportunity to reread this and appreciate it the second time.

[Vintage · Rating 2 out of 5]

Um, yuck! I have had this on my TBR list for a long time, and, yeah, it's off.

Premise is the H married the h in a pity marriage as she had been dumped on Sicilian ???relatives as both her parents were crap. It was an unconsummated marriage as she was 16. She, of course, adored his big hunky alpha Romero self. She sees him in a clinch with a blonde and leaves.

She's now 21 and something's hitting the fan. For reasons too stupid and convoluted to get into he blackmails her into a real marriage thinking she's a slut. He buys every bad notion about her despite knowing her since she was 12.

I felt sorry for her, and he is unworthy of being a LG hero. I would like to think that the from heroes from The Spanish Groom, The Petrakos Bride, The Italian's Inexperienced Mistress, The Ruthless Magnate's Virgin Mistress and A Rich Man's Whim took him behind the woodshed and taught him a lesson aka an ass-whupping.

[Fre06 Begum · Rating 1 out of 5]

The worst book by the this author the guy was an unrepentant cheat and the female lead was a total doormat with no pride whatsoever! I def felt no love from his part just his bruised ego! Never reading this one again.

[Ivy H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review of a novel read years ago.

This was classic old school Lynne Graham, with a besotted heroine who thinks she is marrying her fantasy man and then finds out he is boning other women because she ( at the age of 16 ) is too young for the bedroom. I really felt sorry this heroine when I read this novel. The poor thing had been used as a pawn in her parents' ill fated marriage and then dumped, by her dad, to live with her elderly grandfather and grand aunts in Sicily. Lynne G loves the downtrodden pretty little heroine who suffers and suffers and when she finally thinks her knight in shining armor has arrived, it all turns to dust.

The H was the requisite sexy Italian hunk who kept the teenage heroine's hormones bubbling all over the place but never touched her in a sexual way, even after their ill fated marriage of convenience. He is to be applauded for not consummating his marriage to a 16 yr old but he did not have to go and screw other women while leaving his cute little wife to spin fairy tales in her head. That part just sucked big time. I was so angry when the teen heroine visited him on the mainland and saw him in a passionate clinch with another woman. He would have been on his way to screw his latest bed warmer had he not seen the heroine watching him with a look of anguish on her face.

After this point in the marriage of doom, the heroine returns to live with her gold digging mother. Unbeknownst to the heroine, the mercenary mother scams the hero out of a lot of money by claiming that it's all expenses for the heroine's education and lifestyle. The bitchy mother only gave the heroine a small portion of the money and claimed that it was part of some insurance payment or divorce settlement. The numbskull heroine buys the mother's lies and invests in a travel agency with her male roommate. The said roommate is a fortune hunter with scams of his own. Eventually the H discovers that he has been scammed and blames it all on the heroine.

By the time the MC's are reunited ( about 5 years later ) the H is full of male vengeance and his double standards are over flowing: it's fine and dandy for him to be spreading himself among his many lovers but the heroine is a major slut for allegedly giving her virginity to her roommate. As usual, the H has it all wrong because the heroine has a platonic relationship with her roommate. This conflict between the MC's only gets solved after the H finds out that the heroine is still a virgin. The "saved by virginity" trope is alive and kicking in this story. What I didn't like was how the H still failed to grovel when he discovered the truth. He waited around for days and acted as if the heroine was his mistress instead of his wife. They did, as per usual, get their HEA but I wished the H had begged for forgiveness a lot more. The heroine forgave too easily and the H's bitchy snob mother got on my last nerve. I also HATED the heroine's mother and wanted to kick the heroine down a flight stairs each time she martyred herself to protect that lying, thieving bitch. Martyr Central seems to be a 5 star resort in many of these HP romances as it's the choice residential area for many heroines...

Why 3 stars ? I guess because the story line did keep me glued to the pages. It irritated me at times but in a weird way I remembered enjoying it. Perhaps my rating may change if I re-read it.

[Marajean · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very young heroine is kidnapped by her father from her school. She'd lived in London with her mother and her father took her to another country and dropped her off with HIS father in a very poor spot. The hero, as an adult, was the only one who spoke english. The heroine wanted to go home but the hero convinced her that she had to be a good and obedient child for her grandfather. The heroine confesses that she feels that her father kidnapped her, the hero tells her that kidnappers are violent people and she should NEVER think that her father was a kidnapper. Despite the fact that her father kidnapped her and dropped her off in a foreign country with his father whom the heroine had never seen before. All so he could blackmail his ex-wife into coming back to him.

The heroine worshiped the hero because he was the only one around who she could talk to. She grew up with no education aside from how to keep a proper house. When she's 16 she tries to run away and hides in the back of the hero's car. He doesn't see her until he's well on his way and he immediately drags her back to her grandfather. Of course it's early morning so the grandfather demands that he marry her since he's ruined her.

The hero agrees and the heroine is happy because she loves him so much.

The heroine does everything she thinks will make him happy and the hero spends every week in the town working at a bank and living in an apartment there. He only comes home on weekends. He refuses to have the heroine stay with him during the week.

One day the heroine gathers up her courage and goes to town to visit him. She's too nervous to go in the bank but sees him leaving the bank and going to his hotel. She follows him and he's walking with a woman. When he and the woman get into the elevator she's right there. The doors start to close and her hubby and this woman just start kissing passionately. Before the doors manage to close completely the hero spots the heroine.

Heroine, despite her earlier unsuccessful attempts, manages to get on a plane and go back to her mother. According to her mother she's practically suicidal.

Now the heroine has bought into a business for tourists. It's floundering so right before her big vacation she has to go back to the country she'd fled and try to get some hotels for her company. When she's there she's confronted by the hero who says the annulment she thought they'd gotten hadn't happened. He wants her to spend her vacation living with him and giving him sex and then once her vacation is up, they can get divorced and go their separate ways.

The heroine agrees because her mother has been taking money from the hero for years claiming to give it to the heroine.

She tells him that she was in on it so he wouldn't prosecute her mother and evict her from her home.

The book only hit the okay mark because of the ending. When she goes to the airport to meet him and sees him once again with the same woman he was with at the apartment years before. He's happy to see her until he realizes how badly he's screwed up.

But there were too many things wrong with it for me to really like it.

The hero of this story thought he was being a hero to the heroine. It was really annoying and all she could say is she really needed him when she was younger. The hero is all about leaving her with her grandfather and having her make do for no particular reason. The moment he was saddled with her, he wanted her to go to school and become a better person. Basically she was trapped with her grandfather and living a life that she didn't want but he told her that was her life and she wasn't allowed to think what she did. Yes she was. Yes, her father did kidnap her. It happens all the time and shouldn't be treated like she was an ungrateful brat.

Furthermore, they try to establish what a horrible user her mother was. But later the evidence leads to her not being that bad.

She gives the heroine money to start her own business. She claims to want the hero to pay since her daughter came back to her suicidal. And nothing ever came up about that either. Supposedly when she came home again she was suicidal but that was all that was mentioned.

And as for the other woman. The hero wasn't sleeping with the heroine because then they could annul the marriage easier and she was young. That's fine except he lead her to believe they were in a real marriage. And when this other woman who was a friend decided to jump his bones, he was right with her, was going to his apartment to have sex with her. The ONLY reason why he didn't through his own admittance was the fact that he saw the heroine and chased after her. Then he says that he just abandoned the other woman with no explanation and she was mad at him. Like the heroine or the reader should care that the woman he was cheating on his wife with was left behind with no explanation. Give me a break. And the heroine is just happy that he didn't have sex with that woman so he didn't cheat on her.

He was TRYING to cheat. The only reason why he didn't cheat is because he got caught. He had plenty of other women in the years since. And he tries to convince the heroine that sex and love aren't the same and he'd love her without the sex. But obviously if he's not getting any he's going to go out and happily find it somewhere else. Probably with the first woman who goes after him.

And furthermore, he never bothered to even tell any of his family he was married. Not even that he was married to help her out and planning to get an annulment. Admittedly his family wasn't all that great, but if what he was doing was so great and wonderful, why the big secret?

Also the grandfather. The heroine wasn't going to visit him. The hero drags her out there to see him and then says basically how dare she visit the country and not visit the man who'd raised her. When she gets there the grandfather says to her that if she hadn't shown up with her husband he wouldn't have let her in the door. So basically he didn't want to see her either unless she was doing what he thought she should. In this case, living with her husband. And that makes me wonder what the grandfather said to her mother about taking her back.

But the grandfather is good and wonderful and the hero is good and wonderful. The heroine is a selfish immature brat, and the mother is a selfish vain woman who only cares about money.

This book would have made my day if the heroine had let her mother go down for what she'd done. Told the hero where he could stick his offer, gone to visit her grandfather and told him she wouldn't be back either. Then she could have rode off into the sunset with a spine to find someone that really cares about her.

But I can't hate it because I love when she tells him if he's there she won't get in the car and he gets her a new bear.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were enjoyable elements to this story, a very unusual backstory for heroine, some things to liven up the tired old trope of a virgin pining for a man for 5 years but at least her love and pining was believable (it usually is ridiculous), given her youth and how ignorant and manipulated she was. There were some Twilight Zone moments, where you have to wonder if it's upside down day:

1) it's not kidnapping if an 11 year old is stolen from a parent and dumped in a foreign country with old non-English speaking relatives in abject poverty with no access to education for 5 years because they weren't violent criminals? But it was all ok because she earned the unconditional love of her devoted grandfather--Oh, wait, grandfather tells her that he wouldn't have allowed her into his home without her husband--so it's actually conditional...love.

2) The hero needs to blackmail the girl who adored him and who he once betrayed and destroyed into 3 weeks of being used for sex before being discarded because he is so principled, and a principled man must take vengeance when he is wronged (because he paid for schooling heroine never had). What????

3) And he knows that he was worshipped by her and the center of her universe but doesn't check on her for 5 years and just moved on with his life (meaning other women). Well, she was suicidal, but that's ok, even though she had no education and nothing to live for but the hero and he knows she obsessively worships and reveres him, no need for him to involve himself in the aftermath of her finding him kissing passionately/about to have sex with another woman. What's really important is that he's now free to sow all those oats...and even though he slept with other women, he didn't sleep with that particular one that day, so he's a peach.

But real problem is that he knew her too well from the past so should have cared deeply for her, so the whole using her for sex and planning to ditch her was abhorrent. All evidence points to his knowing that she still loves him. But he repeatedly tells her not to confuse sex with love.

This could have been a great read if she had moved on with other men and had the freedom the was his stated reason for letting her go. He didn't even feel badly about being a cheater, is surprised when she points out his betrayal of vows and dishonesty...that was a great speech, but there is not even a response...it just dies on the vine. Missing from this book is her response after he tells her not to confused sex with love...she should have said that she won't because while she thought she wasn't worthy of love, now she knows it wasn't her, it was him...that the right man would revel in being loved, so she needs her freedom to find a faithful man deserving of her devotion.

[Daisy Daisy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read this title a few times over the last 20 year or so and it always makes me very uncomfortable despite the outcome.

Make no mistake the h was kidnapped by her father then dumped on elderly relatives and treated poorly because she was left in the dark. The H could have helped her and didn't and while she had a massive case of hero worship for him as a child as an adult he should have done the right think by her not married her and dumped her in the very village she was trying to escape.

He was also a cheater mccheaterson who got caught and although the h was very dramatic when she caught him it did finally wake her up to the fact that she was in a very unequal relationship dynamic and gave her the impetuous to escape. Don't forget this h is 16 at the time. His relationship with the OW was also unhealthy and he paints himself in a very bad light with his actions. All the way through the book he rides roughshot over the h's wants/needs andI don't care what the H says, if he had truly cared about the h he would have checked up on her and realised her mum wasn't looking after he interests. I did like when he fell in the bath and I awarded an extra star for that chapter alone.

The mums "redemption" at end where she is planning to have a baby after making such a mess of the h's life is unforgivable. Check out Boogenhagens comprehensive review of this for the full lowdown.

[Raffaella · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the best book of our LG but I could understand the hero for some time.
He has known the heroine since she’s 11 and he’s 20, he has helped her through a very difficult family situation and then at 16 he accepted to marry her to be able to take care of her financially. He was also very attracted to her and she had a crush on him and threw herself repeatedly to him and I think he was decent not to take up her offer. He was adult while she was only a teenager without experience. He only wanted to pay for her education and allow her to grow up. She saw him kissing another woman and left him.
Five years later he’s back for her and I think that from that moment on I hated him a lot. He was abusive and slut shaming and of course she was a virgin. I hate this double standard. I hate that she stayed celibate and he very likely wasn’t.
She was also stupid since she lied to protect her awful mother who stole from the hero for years and lied to her.
So the hero thought she had kept his money for years . Honestly I hated them both and the book disgusted me since they had sex and he planned to send her back to her place after three weeks.
I’m not in the mood anymore for these awful stories.
Oh he was going to sleep with ow when she saw him. He admitted he was so aroused by the teenage heroine that he would have slept with ow if he hadn’t been caught.
Thank fug.
I rated two stars out of desperation because lately I can’t find anything that keeps me at least interested.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful reunion story. Hero and heroine were married when heroine was still almost a child. Of course it didn't work out and heroine abandoned him when she saw him with OW. Years later they meet again, they realize that their love is not dead and hero wants the wedding night they never had.

I loved, loved, loved this book from the first explosive chapter till the last one. Lynne Graham USED to write such great heroines. Frankie is honest, warm, sensitive, funny. A breath of fresh air. I adored everything about her.

Hero is charming and sexy. You could tell he never got over Frankie. I liked how he didn't want to consummate marriage with his child bride and how he let her free to mature and live her own life.

Last but not least I liked how things changed after Frankie became a mother. She forgave her own deceitful mother and made amends. Plus hero's cold mother accepted and embraced Frankie and her grandson with all her heart! Such a sweet book!

[Jacqueline J · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't think I was in quite the right mood to read this one. I was rather grumpy and so the situation here bothered me more than it might have otherwise. I cringed along with the heroine at the memory of how she had acted towards the hero as a 16 year old. I mean seriously who hasn't a few of those cringe worthy memories lurking about? I did enjoy the heroine who was so hot tempered and a little wild. Kind of reminded me of old movies from the 50s and those red headed heroines.

The hero didn't quite gel for me. I didn't really get the feeling that he had been pining for her for 5 years. If so maybe he would have checked up on her in that time and realized that her mother was stealing the money he provided for her. After all he knew the mother didn't want her and had had to be paid to take the heroine back as a teenager.

So ultimately so-so. Still I nearly always enjoy LG's books so there is that

[Melluvsbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this one for the old skool forced seduction and torrid embraces.

It fails to get 5-stars because of course LG made sure that there is no true villain, which I find annoying. And the fact the H was cool with the h leaving him “to grow up” after she’d seen him kissing another woman. At least the separation was only 5 years, BUT STILL. His assumption that she’s been sleeping around while she’s been off in another country “growing up” was annoying, especially since he did absolutely nothing to see her or intervene.

I don’t really care all that much about the “cheating”, TBH. She was 16 when they married and separated. She really was too young and he had little reason to think they would ever have a real relationship. I’m not sure why he never annulled the marriage. I don’t think that’s explained. I think LG would like for us to believe it was because he really did love her, but then the implied sleeping around wouldn’t make much sense. I guess it’s never explicitly stated that he was sleeping with OW during the separation, but I think we’re intended to draw our own conclusions.

Anyway, this might have been 3 star except for the airport scene when he’s horrified and devastated when he realizes what the h must think, when she sees him with that OW AGAIN. I loved our calm cool hero losing his sh*t and taking off at a sprint to get to the h. 😈 I got a little teary.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Debbie DiFiore · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just reread this and I am confused as ever about it. I know he didn't sleep with the original woman but it was never clear if he had been with anyone else. I am sure he was so I didn't change my rating. He ws going to sleep with that woman if she hadn't seen them so that was bad. I know she was only 16 but he was married and it is an old time HP but he was a man. He had needs but I just hated this book. Why I read it again I have no idea and I wish I hadn't. He did say he moved on with his life and I guess that was what the other readers saw that made them think he had lots, I just don't want to know. I wish the author had made it clearer. And I can't believe this is the same author that wrote a Spanish Groom but i digress. It just made me sad. Very sad and a little depressed despite the HEA. This is definitely a DNR (Do not Read again). I wish I had a magic eraser for my brain.

[Mtve41 · Rating 4 out of 5]

An almost 5 star read I still hadn’t discovered and that too from LG! My friends have done justice to their pov’s on this book. I liked it enough to not be able to put it down. The plot was a little far fetched. It reminded me of my teenage days when boys didn’t want to commit to girls! The girls would carry their hearts on their sleeves and seemingly meet a bf they could dream a future and marriage with. However the boys.. they’d dream of every excuse under the sun to break a perfectly working prospective relationship.

I felt the same with Santino and Frankie. They marry young and Santino doesn’t want to consummate marriage with a 16 year old so he sends her away. And he can’t stand her idolizing him either. Now at the current time when they meet again 5 years later, he keeps hurling at Frankie that she should watch herself and not make the same mistake (attachment) to him again.

It was soon like Dr. Jekyl and Mr Hide. At one time he’s confess how he loved her all this time and she felt the same. While the next moment he’d say that she’s immature and she’d lie through her teeth to prove that she hated him then as she did now.

This went on in circles like a hundred times. But I kept reading to see where their story lead. It’s not LG’s best but it was different and very angsty. I also hated how the h would keep defending her wreck of a mother!

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

I'm not entirely sure what to make of this book... I liked it, but not all of it. It is certainly classic Lynne Graham in it's style, which is definitely a good thing, however I feel that certain elements needed to be toned down a little.

I find it frustrating when authors include a hero that refuses, point blank, to believe anything the heroine says. The constant accusations of lying get old real fast and this ends up feeling like it is a desperate attempt to get as much conflict into the story as possible.

The heroine had a really interesting background, different and quite daring and it is used nicely, but I couldn't work out why the hero was always angry with her - she's hardly to blame for the crappy life she's had.

The love story between the hero and heroine is nice, but the overall angry atmosphere of the book as a whole overshadowed this a little in my opinion.

This isn't an easy read, but it is a classic angsty story that keeps you interested.

Originally posted at http://everyday-is-the-same.blogspot....

[Penny Watson]

They lied about the lies, and then changed their minds, and then told the truth but the other person still believed the lies, but then actually changed their mind about the lies, but didn't tell the other person, and so they thought they still believed the lies.

I am so confused.

This book made me want to pull my hair out. And drink. Both. At the same time.

[Aayesha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lynne Graham's heroines walk a very, very thin line with me. Most of the time they teeter over the edge and fall off, but sometimes they make it through. A hit or miss. I either love them, or hate them.
This heroine was not one of the (very few) ones I loved. While on one hand I did like her innocence and her love and passion for the hero, I found myself hating her for being so childish and immature most of the time. 80% of the novel was filled with her throwing tantrums and spitting fire.

Yes, I don't like fiery heroines very much. I like it when they're quiet. And quiet doesn't necessarily mean docile. Quiet heroines have a kind of inner strength, they have patience and subtlety. I like my heroines mature. And I hate childish, tantrum-throwing heroines. Oh God I've had enough of immature, selfish, bitchy-sounding heroines!



I hope the next book I read finally has a likable heroine



The hero I absolutely loved. God, I love Graham's heroes! They are so *shudder* alpha! I love their high-handedness and their gentleness. I love how they're so male from outside yet so very tender from within. And Santino was just amazing




Another thing I love about Lynne Graham - the sizzling chemistry and passion in her books! I can't describe *ahem* any more.




This book was a good one, the plot was well executed and the characters were likable enough (except for the heroine and her mother). It was full of angst and emotion, exactly how I like em. It was just that the heroine was too much of a spitfire for me to enjoy the book. Otherwise it was a good read.

[MBR · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Reluctant Husband by Lynne Graham, first published in 1998 is one of those books that I have seem to have missed out on when I initially discovered Ms. Graham’s books. The story is one you have to read taking into consideration how the heroine’s most formative years were disrupted because of the volatile relationship between her parents. I cannot even fathom going through half of what she did and come out “normal” in any sense. With that disclaimer, I move onto my review.

When the story begins, the heroine, Frankie Vitale is 21 years old, “forced” to travel to Sardinia, the last place on Earth she wants to be in all because of work. While her colleague thinks the visit would be therapeutic for Frankie, she believes otherwise, and with good reason. The reason being, 29 year old Santino Vitale, the man she married, the one who broke her heart years ago.

From the start, it is evident that Frankie’s mother does not hold much affection for her, but to discover the extent of her lack of care towards her only child as you read along is nothing short of astounding. Frankie does not have a normal childhood by any standards as I mentioned earlier, at eleven years having been forced to move to Sardinia with her father, who had thrust her into the care of his parents and left.

The kind of trauma that any child would go through being forced to endure a world that is unfamiliar, lives by different values to what she has been brought up, where no one speaks English; well I can only imagine. The only ray of hope that shone for her then was none other than Santino, and it is only natural that Frankie holds onto him, only to have her heart shattered after a marriage that is forced upon them.

Santino had plans for his future which did not include a naive wife coming along for the ride. While Frankie learnt that lesson the hard way, she had been returned to her mother like the unwanted baggage she was, and she had never intended to return to the place that still haunted her, if she were to be honest with herself.

Coming face to face with Santino, who proclaims that their marriage was never annulled, and that he now intended to bed his wife, the wife that he has invested in all through the years, of course it comes as a shock to Frankie, who resists him at every turn. But the intensity of the desire that awakens to life between them is not something easily denied as Frankie finds out the hard way, and succumb she does, as does Santino.

I quite enjoyed The Reluctant Husband as the story unfolded. I am of the opinion that I may not have enjoyed this story half as much if I had read this when I was younger, and perhaps unable to empathize as much with the plight of Frankie and understand where she was coming from.

Santino is the classic Graham hero – all out alpha in a way that makes for a swoon-worthy hero. It is also evident that Santino feels much more for his lawfully wedded wife than he lets on, especially when he proclaims of how much he had actually desired his very young bride and resisted the urge to act on it at every turn. It is also unrealistic to expect that he would not have taken other lovers along the way; it would have been more realistic had Frankie too taken on a lover since then, but Ms. Graham does love her virgin heroines, who tend to serve their purpose.

Like most novels by Ms. Graham, this too delivers taut sexual tension and scenes of passion that explodes from the pages. There are few authors who can do this kind of tension between characters AND deliver on it in a way that leaves the reader satisfied on all counts.

Ultimately, the story won me over because for all the angst and heartache, the main protagonists manage to have conversations with one another which sheds light on their shared past which helps them reconcile their differences and move onto a happier future together.

Recommended for fans of Lynne Graham and those who love category romances featuring married couples, who initially lose their way and find their way back to one another.

Final Verdict: Littered with misunderstandings, angst, and heightened sexual tension means The Reluctant Husband delivers the kind of stellar read that Ms. Graham is famous for!

Rating = 4.5/5

For more reviews and quotes, please visit A Maldivian's Passion for Romance

[iamGamz · Rating 4 out of 5]

So much drama!
The book starts with Frankie, the h, returning to Sardinia to look at possible vacation rentals for her travel company. She is then kidnapped by her estranged husband, Santino, who wants his unfulfilled wedding night.

She’d been in love with Santino since childhood and they were forced to marry with she was 16 and he was 24. They never consummated their marriage because he was good guy. Unfortunately, she caught him in what appeared to be a compromising situation and ran away. He let her go cause she was 16 and needed to grow up.

Years later, he trucks her into returning to Sardinia and kidnaps her because he believes that she and her mother have been scamming money out of him and that she is living with another man. He is pissed and wants revenge.

Lots of drama. The h is still immature but she’s of age now soooo sex happens and that makes everything alright. In spite of the silliness, I still enjoyed this book. It’s a lovely, classic LG and I adore her work. It’s a book that has serious re-read potential.

[Su · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not one of my favorite Lynne Graham books. Normally I like her books. This one is not handled well. It could have been a forced marriage where love grown slowly on H`s side or love and passion were existing from the beginning. This story was incredulous. A 24-year-old billionaire H marries a 16-year-old dirt poor h out of pity! Not only that even though he doesn’t love her, he finds her extremely desirable but despite of so-in-love h begs for it before and after marriage H doesn’t touch her (even during the 6 months’ period of married life when they lived together). That 24-year-old needs a medal! Moreover, his reason is not romantic at all. He really intended to let her go!

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the ending and the description of the scene when she went to the Fiumicino airport to meet him and he was with the ex-OW and he realized that he was in deep doodoo.
"A brilliant smile began forming on his lips and then, with a speed of light, he appeared to register what a deep, dark hole he was in and, ditching the smile for an appalled look, dropped his briefcase and the funny furry thing he was holding and broke into a most uncool sprint, his startled security men charging his wake."
He was clearly distraught at her disappearance. And that's halfway towards a good ending for me.

[Corandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

[Kate McMurry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vintage, extremely passionate, reunion romance from 1998

At the start of this novel, Francesca (Frankie) is 21 years old. Five years ago, when she was only 16, her grandfather insisted that she marry Santino, who was 24 at the time. She first met Santino when she was 12 years old, a few months after she had been dropped off by her Sardinian father in a tiny village in Sardinia, where he surrendered her to the care of her paternal grandfather, Gino, and his two unmarried sisters, Maddalena and Teresa. Frankie only spoke English at the time and could not understand anything anyone was saying to her for several months, until Santino, a 20-year-old Italian man, came to the village to visit his uncle, a local cleric. Since Santino spoke English, his uncle and Gino entreated him to talk to Frankie and convince her to stop running away. Initially, Santino was like a big brother to her, who helped her to survive the trauma of being forcibly transplanted from a ritzy lifestyle in London with her divorced mother, Della, to an extremely impoverished environment in a backwards, rural village, which had misogynistic attitudes more suited to the early 19th century. Frankie received no formal education during the years she lived in the village, since she already knew how to read and write, and that was all that Gino considered necessary for a lowly female. Her aunts trained her to be subservient to men and instructed her in sewing by hand, cooking on a primitive stove, keeping a garden, and raising hens. In spite of Santino's encouraging her to accept her new lot in life, Frankie continued to periodically bolt. Her father had died in a car accident shortly after bringing her to the village, and she was determined to return to her mother. Neither Santino nor Gino had the heart to tell her that her narcissistic mother was more than happy to permanently offload her daughter onto her in-laws. The final instance of Frankie's fleeing the village occurred when Santino's uncle died, and Santino came to the village for what Frankie despairingly realized would be the very last time she would ever see him. Unable to face continuing in the village without his mitigating influence, she hid in the trunk of his car before he departed, and he did not notice her there until they were hours away from the village. When he finally discovered her, he was outraged and, in spite of her tearful pleas, insisted on hauling her back to her grandfather and aunts. But due to Gino's antiquated attitude regarding female chastity, he insisted that her reputation had been ruined, since she had been with Santino overnight, and none of the men in the village would ever marry her if he refused to make an honest woman of her. Though she did not admit it to herself at the time, Frankie was complicit in ensnaring Santino into wedlock because, when Gino asked her outright if she had been deflowered by him, she did not tell the truth and admit he had not touched her. Even though Santino knew very well that he was being unjustly and archaically entrapped into marriage, he went through with the wedding anyway, because he had grown very fond and protective of Frankie over the years, and he knew that her life would be ruined if he did not marry her.

Santino purchased a well maintained farmhouse in the village near Gino's house that was the height of luxury to Frankie after living four years in the tiny, ramshackle house of her relatives. She was madly in love with Santino and would happily have consummated their marriage, but he felt like a predator even contemplating sex with his teenage wife. He also believed that he would never be able to get out of their implausible marriage without totally destroying Frankie if he added the bonds of sex to her already worshipful attachment to him. But Frankie was so beautiful and sexy, it was a huge effort to keep his hands off her.

Frankie had no idea at that time that Santino came from a wealthy banking family, and he had not told his parents about his marriage either. He spent his weekdays working at one of his family's bank branches in Cagliari, the capital of Sardinia. Frankie only saw him on the weekends, and it was the joy of her life to fuss over him and play house. Then one day, after they had been married for six months, she suddenly got a yen to go see him at his office in Cagliari. Unfortunately, when she got there, she caught him in a moment of weakness, when he was about to cheat on her for the first time since their forced marriage. She screamed at him and ran away to Della in London.

Soon after Frankie's arrival, Della assured her that she had gotten Frankie's marriage annulled, but Della lied. She had actually convinced Santino to not divorce Frankie right away, by informing him that Frankie was suicidally depressed and needed time to adjust to losing him. (In truth, Frankie was quite bad off, but not that bad.) As a result, Santino agreed through their mutual attorneys to pay a huge alimony to Frankie, all of the money to be handled by Della, since Frankie was so young. Della spent the next five years sending Santino fake receipts for all kinds of education and enrichment opportunities that Frankie never actually had, because Della was embezzling Santino's alimony from Frankie in order to to prop up her extravagant, hedonistic lifestyle.

At the start of the novel, Frankie has been part owner of a travel agency with her best friend and the friend's brother, Matt, for three years. When she turned 18, Della gave her a fairly large sum of money, which was only a small fraction of what Santino had paid in alimony. Della lied to Frankie and told her it was from an insurance policy her father had taken out before he died. Frankie believed that investing in a travel agency would give her financial security. But at the present time, the travel agency is struggling, and Matt is insisting that Frankie go to Sardinia to view some vacation villas, which would be a good place for them to send tourists and thereby increase their bottom line. Frankie does not want to go back to Sardinia, and her hesitation proves to be valid because, as it turns out, the whole thing is a setup. After all these years, Santino has finally decided to check in on his wife in person, and he has used the villas, which are his property, as bait.

This is a very unusual LG novel. I've read everything she's ever written, and I haven't seen anything like the backstory setup for this reunion romance. Prior to their five-year separation, Frankie and Santino knew each other for four highly significant, formative years of Frankie's young life. He was her BFF and her salvation, the only thing keeping her sane during the extreme culture shock of moving from sophisticated, city life in the late 20th century, to a backwards village stuck in the early 1800's. It was like time traveling and getting trapped in another era.

Though LG would never write a story like this nowadays, with such rampant misogyny on all sides, there is a quality in her early writing of 25 years ago that is not always present in her novels today, an extreme amount of passionate intensity between the romantic protagonists. Though Santino can come off at times as an obnoxiously patronizing alpha hero, in his and Frankie's backstory, he exhibited a great deal of fond kindness toward Frankie. In particular, he made a compassionate choice when he married Frankie and, understandably, was at a loss as to the least harmful way to handle his vulnerable teenage bride. Frankie has a volatile personality and, in many ways, Santino helped raise her from age 12 to 16, and he would understandably have felt like a predator if he had become sexually involved with someone whom he'd known since she was a child, and who was anything but a mature adult at the time of their wedding. He also did not consider himself truly married to her, because he had no intention of staying married.

In that regard, it is not clear, because nothing is overtly stated, if Santino had mistresses during the five years they were separated. The pivotal scene where Frankie caught him cheating, actually did not amount to more than a kiss. But it is not spelled out at all in this novel what other women might have been in Santino's bed while they weren't together. Frankie definitely considered herself not married to Santino after her mother informed her the marriage was over, and she dated multiple men while they were separated. As readers, we are encouraged to not view this as her cheating on Santino, since she remained a virgin until she finally got together with Santino during the course of this novel and consummated their marriage. But many readers do consider Santino's potentially having other relationships besides Frankie after they got married when he was 24, including his interrupted attempt at a quickie with another woman that caused Frankie to flee from him, as his being a cheater. I'm in the camp that believes that, technically, neither Frankie nor Santino was an unforgivable type of cheater.

I will admit, however, that a significant reason that I personally don't generally enjoy reunion romances is because, almost invariably, one or both of the former lovers gets involved with other people while they are separated. This isn't necessarily cheating, since they are broken up. But, to me, their behavior is in direct violation of the deepest goal of romance, convincing readers that these two lovers are true soulmates, who cannot possibly want anyone else after they have been with each other.

Overall, I really enjoy the intense passion between Frankie and Santino on every page in which they appear together after they have reunited. There is not a single word that I skipped in this novel, which is almost unheard of for me these days. I am such a jaded romance reader, I almost never run across a novel, from one year to the next, which I do not skim any part of. In particular, I rarely read every sex scene in romance novels, but I never skim an LG sex scene. They always have exciting sensuality without any crudeness, and all of her sex scenes contribute to the forward progression of the rocky courtship of her protagonists. I also appreciate that LG never uses foul language anywhere in her novels, which is especially welcome to me during sex scenes.

[Mizuki · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was lured to read this novel because of its manga adaptation (the manga is quite lovely). In the manga adaptation, the male lead seems to be decent and wholesome enough but in the original novel, the male lead is a douchebag starting from the middle of the story and he treats the heroine horribly, I have no taste for it, damn!

Plus not to mention there is the touchy issue of the heroine first got married to the male lead when she was only 16 years old (okay they didn't do the sexual routine back then), don't like don't read!

Additionally, I found myself quite liking the description of the then-teenager-heroine living with her conservative grandfather and aunts in a rural village.

[RomLibrary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frankie thought she'd seen the last of her husband, Santino Vitale—until he breezed back into her life with some earth-shattering news. Their marriage wasn't annulled, and now he intended to claim the wedding night they'd never had!He had it all worked out. Within three weeks Frankie would have paid her dues and be free to leave Santino, file for divorce and forget all about him forever.But Santino hadn't reckoned on falling for Frankie all over again—or that now she could be expecting his baby…

[رومولا الن emmajain-book · Rating 4 out of 5]

قراتها بعنوان زوجه مدفوعة الثمن

[Isa Centeno · Rating 2 out of 5]

A pesar de todas las críticas negativos de este libro a mi se me gustó.

Santino me pareció un hombre centrado dispuesto a luchar por lo que desea y capaz de ser tanto un alma vengativa como un esposo maravilloso.

Por otro lado Frankie es una de las protagonistas más inmaduras, ridículas y obtusas que he leído en todo este tiempo. Siempre andaba chillando, llorando, haciendo una pataleta sin justificación alguna. Me parece que Santino fue un campeón a la hora de manejarla y soportar sus estupideces.

Ahora bien, tienen 10 años de diferencia y cuando se casaron ella tenía 16 años y él 26 años, la diferencia de madurez era abismal así que le doy cierto crédito a Frankie por sus niñerías.

La historia gira en torno a una pareja casada por conveniencia debido a que Frankie se subió a escondidas en el auto de Santino, cuando éste se dio cuando la llevó de regreso con su familia pero ya era tarde, ella ya era una mujer sin inocencia ante la comunidad así que fue obligado a casarse con la niña.

El matrimonio duró apenas seis meses juntos sin acercamiento de algún tipo pero Frankie estaba estúpidamente enamorada de él así que toda su vida se cayó a pedazos cuando lo vio besándose con una rubia luego de ir a hacerle una visita al banco donde trabajaba.

El matrimonio se separó y luego de 5 años Frankie cree que el matrimonio se anuló, la sorpresa es cuando de reencuentran y ella descubre que no solo siguen casados sino que Santino la acusa de haberlo estafado los últimos 5 años donde él pensaba que la estaba manteniendo y brindándole toda la educación que necesitaba.


Todo es culpa de Della, la madre de Frankie, una mujer frívola y sin escrúpulos que no dio ni un centavo a su hija pero Frankie es una estúpida que decide protegerla y aceptar la proposición de Santino de pasar tres semanas en su cama a cambio de no demandar a su Della.

En fin, ya todos sabemos como acaba esto así que viven felices para siempre no sin que te den ganas de arrancarte el cabello de la frustración que da no poder torcerse el cuello a Frankie por sus niñerías.


En fin, todo digno de telenovela.

[niteskycs · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars, i really liked the angst and i liked francesca’s character but having no insight into what santino thinks sucked because his words and actions were so contradictory. tbh this man does not deserve her at all but oh well. one thing that was nice was the small italian town setting with all the relatives, it’s something that always works well for me in an hp book.