More than a Convenient Marriage?

Makricosta Dynasty #2

by Dani Collins

Adara kan nog steeds niet geloven dat zo'n onmogelijk knappe man als Gideon uitgerekend met haar wilde trouwen. Toch ging ze een verstandshuwelijk met hem aan, en liet ze toe dat ze gaandeweg steeds meer om hem ging geven. En net nu ze haar hart aan hem heeft verloren, lijkt het er sterk op dat hij haar heeft bedrogen. Er zit slechts één ding ze moet bij hem weg. Maar of dat haar lukt... Gideon snapt niet waarom zijn beeldschone vrouw, Adara, hem al weken op een afstand houdt. Wat is er met haar aan de hand? Wil ze hem soms verlaten? Niet alleen wil hij haar absoluut niet verliezen, ook zou zijn grote geheim dan aan het licht kunnen komen...

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

384 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Published November 19, 2013

About the author

USA Today Bestselling author Dani Collins thrives on giving readers emotional, compelling, heart-soaring romance with laughter and heat, just like real life.

Mostly she writes contemporary romance, but she has also writes Historical Western, erotic romance, and romcom.

Want to be notified of Dani's latest release along with getting sneak peeks, price drops, behind the scene's gossip and other special offers? Join Dani's VIP list. Join Now!

Reviews

[StMargarets · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a review for More Than a Convenient Marriage. I'll review the second one (about the heroine's brother) when I read it.

Edited to add: Read the second story first if you don't want it spoiled. The stories are out of order in this edition.

This is a second chance story that really works. The H/h both have tough backstories, but their grievances are with each other - not mommy and daddy. Oh, their personalities/issues are formed by their backstories but this is a "front story" and we watch them heal, fall apart in the black moment, and the come together in the end because of the healing they did in the first half of the story.

The story opens with the hero following the heroine to a Greek island. Even though he is Greek, he hates Greece and wouldn't be there if he didn't think his wife was having an affair. The heroine is on the island to meet with her estranged half brother (product of a rebound affair her mother had with another man. Heroine's father was bitter about it). She thinks the hero is having an affair with his PA, but she blames it on herself because she's been withholding sex because she has had so many miscarriages. Miscarriages she hasn't even told the hero about. He also doesn't know she even has an older brother. So heroine has a lot of secrets.

Two of these issues are dealt with quickly - PA is fired, brother comes on the scene - there's no infidelity. Now that matter of the miscarriages . . . Hero is shocked and upset that she didn't let him in - but we find that they started their marriage five years ago as a win-win business proposition with sexual attraction added in. Heroine is the one with the business connections in the Greek community in the US and she proposed to the hero to get away from her abusive father. Now that abusive father is dead, she feels like she can find her older brother and have some sort of family life with him since it's obvious to her she will never have children. She blurts out she wants a divorce.

Hero is shocked to the core and fights for her every step of the way. They make good progress - sex, talking, plans for the future - when the heroine realizes she's pregnant - she had miscarried a twin. They're happy but scared - then the bombshell:

Heroine's brother is an investigative reporter and he digs into the hero's past. Hero has been upfront that his mother was a teen on the streets when she had him, but he never told the heroine that he changed his name and made up an identity to inherit the boat from his mentor. Heroine feels used and mistreated and thinks everything he has said and done is a lie. Hero is equally devastated. He should have told her long ago. He leaves her in peace. The heroine's other brother makes her read the entire dossier on the hero so she can understand why he did it. She realizes she is becoming just as bitter and unforgiving as her father. During labor she calls for the hero. Has a boy - names him after the hero's real name. In the epilogue, the hero has a vasectomy so that the heroine doesn't have to go through any more high risk pregnancies. HEA

This was a complex and nuanced look at a marriage between two damaged people who needed each other desperately. Heroine had a backbone and hero had a heart and together they were stronger than alone. I really liked this. My only quibble was a legal one the author never cleared up the identity theft/deception. I would worry this would come out later in a tax audit or something.

[reeder (reviews) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I fear that the more Dani Collins HPs I read, the more damage I'm doing to the few books by her I really like. For a MOC that transforms into love, I really like The Marriage He Must Keep. This book? Not so much.

I came for the suspected infidelities, stayed for the miscarriages, and then lost the plot (literally and figuratively) with the heroine's reaction to the hero's backstory reveal.

The infidelity plot was incredibly unsatisfying for me. He thinks she's in Greece to meet a lover, but it turns out to be her illegitimate half-brother she hasn't seen for nearly 20 years. Perfect Big Mis plot, tied in a bow. Gold star. She thinks he's having an affair with his PA because PA has been dripping poison in her ears. He...had been considering it because he wasn't currently satisfied with sex with the heroine.

[Lexi] had been offering all right, and perhaps he hadn't outright encouraged or accepted, but he was guilty of keeping his options open. Abstinence, or more specifically, Adara's avoidance of wholehearted lovemaking, had made him restless and dissatisfied. He'd begun thinking Adara wouldn't care if he had an affair. She was getting everything she wanted from this marriage...

So he had looked at his alternatives. The fact was, though, as easy as Lexi would be, as physically attractive as she was, he wasn't interested in her. She was too much of an opportunist. She'd obviously read into his "I'll think about it" response enough to imagine she had a claim on him. -- Chapter 2

"You left me twisting with sexual frustration. Having an affair started to look like a viable option. If you didn't want me going elsewhere, why weren't you meeting my needs at home?"
"I did! I--"
"Going down isn't good enough, Adara." -- Chapter 3

She hadn't been denying him all sexual intimacy, just penetrative sex.

The narrative is going to drop the infidelity issue here, partly because the hero had already fired the PA back in chapter 2 after the allegations were revealed but mostly because the heroine reveals the reason she went for blowjobs over copulation: she had been pregnant at the time and with her history of multiple miscarriages, she was afraid to risk the pregnancy. They now have to work out their mutual misunderstanding of how the other regarded those unborn children.

I get it. The heroine had been keeping the emotional damage from her miscarriages hidden, and purging that is a genuinely powerful part of this story. But I'm still stuck on the heroine being married to a guy who thinks an affair is "a viable option" because he's not happy with blowjobs. Especially when "no infidelity" was a stricture the heroine had put on her MOC proposal in the first place. I'm disappointed that the resolution to the issue is removing the specific target (the PA) rather than lancing the husband's sense of entitlement. I needed a real grovel, not a side grovel. ("Side grovel" being the husband dropping everything to chase after the heroine when he thought she was in Greece for an affair.)

So they return to NY from Greece and continue having great sex without fully opening emotionally to each other, discover that her last miscarriage had only been one of a set of twins, and then the heroine learns the final truth of his backstory.

The hero has been living under an assumed name since the age of 16, when he took the name of the (now dead) rough sailor who had been his mentor so he could claim his possessions as an inheritance.

This isn't a surprise to the reader because we got the full story in the preceding chapter. The heroine, on the other hand, is devastated and boots him out. And I'm just...huh? For the heroine, this is all about trust and honesty and OMG her marriage isn't even legal (more on this in a moment), but she was in full possession of the horror his childhood had been, and I don't understand why that didn't mitigate her understanding AT ALL. She feels conned (what? she had proposed to him). He's a phony, and she threatens to deny him access to the child.

So during/after the birth of the child, they reach a glorious HEA that emphasizes the legality of their relationship status is insignificant compared to their shared love, but now I'm left obsessing over the heroine being fine with them "being married in a common-law sort of way." I'm honestly not sure using a false name invalidates a marriage (though it would undoubtedly be justification for divorce if the spouse didn't know about it at the time of the marriage). But I'm looking at the bigger picture here, which is that these two are power-coupling their way through a b/millionaire business plan and he has undoubtedly signed numerous contracts with that false name and frankly the legality of their marriage is the least of their issues. With the kind of big money they deal with, any shark is going to bite if they discover this weakness. And the heroine's illegitimate big brother sniffed it out rather easily; why wouldn't a business competitor do the same?

Two strikes. Two stars. But, really, read The Marriage He Must Keep.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable story! Loved the sweet heroine and the alpha hero. These two went through a lot and they really deserved their HEA. But seriously ALL this author's heroines have fertility issues and that's kind of frustrating as far as I'm concerned!

[Kiki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, let's be honest! The hero was contemplating cheating, so why am I not after his blood?
Well because this idiot didn't want the sex from the OW. He wanted his wife to notice the lack of it in their life. So the lack of sex is not his motivation, the lack of sex with his wife was! He thought if he had an affair his wife would be jealous and give him more attention yet he never asked why she wasn't giving him attention. And she was still giving him BJs so why the fuck he wouldn't ask is beyond me! Communication is the fucking key you dumbass!
So he was keeping his options open! somebody kick him! (well wife did demand divorce, good for her)
However, even though he has never discouraged the OW, he has also never encouraged her.
He did in fact fire her in record time the moment he realised the damage she has done which HE has made possible.
And he did feel like a bastard once he knew the truth, and he paid for it emotionally.
She did kick him to the curb, even if for another reason, but the fact that his wife would NOT share something significant with him, would rather die than share things with him, and "try to keep him physically satisfied" while she was neither mentally nor physically healthy, and the fact that he was contemplating cheating at that particular point was enough to drive him out of any entitlement he ever felt towards her. I guess that was why it was easier to forgive him for that almost slip.
The rest had no bearing for me.
It felt superficial rift needed to be created as the almost cheating was not actually a good enough reason for a conflict to bring the story to climax.
I am just thankful, they used the second reason rather than making him cheat.
I could see her point, she was in fact cheated, and if what he said was true, legally, they were not even married. It was a lot for her to take in specially in that fragile state of mind.
However, I could see their affection, so i believed the HEA.

[Jacqueline J · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this one. It's my first try for this author. I liked the realistic story line. The heroine had had miscarriage after miscarriage. She had reached a point where she was devastated and just couldn't try any more. She didn't even want the hero to come near her with his private parts. Usually in romanceland the heroine is devastated over one early miscarriage. As I've said before one or even two early miscarriages is fairly normal and while not pleasant, (personal experience) is also not all that tragic. Late term of course is an entirely different kettle of fish. But this girl had had many miscarriages that would become overwhelmingly depressing no matter how early or late.

The writing style really worked for me here. There was plenty of POV from the hero which I love. He was arrogant and had taken her for granted and it was fun to watch him realize after she asked for the divorce just how much he loved her.

Sign me up for more by Dani Collins.

[Fanniny Moreno Zavaleta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review on second read...

I was checking my iBooks library on my phone and noticed this one and started reading it and just couldn't put it down even though I was in need of tissues most of the time.

Gideon is the typical alpha with a tragic past, he may have an ulterior motive for wanting to remain married but he did care for the heroine, never was mean to her. I found myself wanting to hug him tight.
Adara (loved that name) had her own demons that constantly haunted her and I really could feel her pain even if sometimes I didn't agree with her choices.



There were some things I had issues with hence it not being a 5 stars, the most notable ones:
1. He was CONTEMPLATING HAVING AN AFFAIR! I forgave him because he didn't do it AND fired that bitchy Lexi. But still it hurt my sensibilities.
2. I couldn't get why Gideon's false identity was such a major issue. He had already told her his past (what he knew about his mom and his life with his mentor and both their deaths), for me it was more worthy that he told her those things than the creation of his new name.

[Vashti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another angst filled read filled with loss,pain,secrets ,and finally love.The heroine after multiple miscarriages decides to leave her husband and go to Greece to visit her half brother who she has not seen since she was a small child.Her husband suspected her of having an affair since she did not want to have sex with him anymore and goes after her.Their marriage had started out as a moc,but each held back their feelings never really talking and getting to know each other.The heroine wanted a divorce because she could not face any more heartaches and miscarriages.The hero wanted his wife back .Told from a dual pov so the reader was in both H/h's head.
Such an emotional read,this author really knew how to ring the emotions with this couple.I felt such saddness for Gideon as his backstory was slowly revealed and Adara just about broke my heart with all her insecurities and physical and emotional abuse she suffered from both her parents.The scene in the hospital with the newborn baby was beautiful.This couple deserved their HEA.

[Penny Watson · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/4 stars

I liked Dimitri's book better than these.

However, it was nice to see an infertility/adoption story at the end. You don't see too many of those, and since I have two adopted children, it was a nice change of pace.

[Tia · Rating 2 out of 5]

What the hell is with these new harlequins, where the male gets the vasectomy? Is that suppose to be something that's hot? It's NOT! It's actually quite retarded and the novel alone wasn't researched correctly. When who have miscarriages and then successfully give birth to a child, are more likely to get pregnant and go through their second pregnancy with little to no complications. Unless they have an underlining medical condition to prevent it. This novel made me want to slap the shit out of the author.

[Esther · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this HP. The emotion and tension between the Hero and heroine came through and kept you turning the pages.

[*CJ* · Rating 3 out of 5]

"More than a Convenient Marriage?" is the story of Adara and Gideon.

There's a LOT to unpack here.

The couple goes through a lot. The basic premise is the second chance into the very broken marriage of the hero and heroine.

The good:
-Dealing with heavier topics like recurrent miscarriages
-Miracle baby
-Addressing parental violence and its impact
-His willingness to work on their marriage
-The decision at the end to have a vasectomy considering the heroine's pregnancy issues

The bad:
-That the hero considered cheating just because the heroine wasn't having sex with him and was unsatisfied with her oral skills
-His coldness and lack of response in the first half

The meh:
-The whole illegitimacy drama

It had its ups and downs but wasnt a bad read.

SWE
3/5

[Aou · Rating 5 out of 5]

You left me twisting with sexual frustration. Having an affair started to look like a viable option.
(…)
“You could have bled to death.” She shrugged that off with false bravado, eyes glossy and red. “At the time that looked like a—what’s the expression you used? A viable option?”

It was a vicious slap that he deserved. While he’d been contemplating an affair, she’d been losing the battle to keep their baby. Again.

Just the dialogue above deserves 5 stars rating.

[Raffaella · Rating 2 out of 5]

The hero and the heroine had a moc, she had to provide a heir but every time she got pregnant she miscarried. Since she had a traumatic childhood, with an abusive father who hit her and everyone around, she learnt to be distant and aloof and not to show her emotions. The hero's life is based on a lie, since he changed his name and afterwards became a billionaire. His wife doesn't know of course. They have a very dry and cold relationship, they never talk about their feelings, the heroine is shattered by her miscarriages but never shows so the hero doesn't know she's hurt (I wonder if he was hurt, since it was also his babies she miscarried... he said he was but he was not so convincing) The heroine after her last miscarriage doesn't want to be pregnant any more so she limits their sex, that until that moment was great, to going down on him. She doesn't explain that issue to her husband because she's a basket case herself, he doesn't ask. He feels rejected and starts to think about cheating on her. Because what do you do when things are not great with your wife? You try to explain what's wrong and find a solution talking to her, since you've been married for years? No, you think that maybe an affair with that b***h of your PA would be a viable option. Really? Really! You think about cheating. This is the worst. I know he didn't cheat, but only because his PA was a little too pushy, not because he respected his wife and their vows... This was great. I think it should have been acceptable if he felt rejected and then was pleased if another woman shows her desire for him, maybe even tempted because he thought his wife didn't want him any more, this is only human, and it was an impulsive reaction, but coldly thinking about cheating as a solution of a problem means that when in the future you will have other problems, as usually happens in lives of human beings, he will use cheating as a solution. No no no. This is completely wrong. Never mind if they have tons of problems of miscommunication, traumas, and eventually they were able to solve them because he wanted their marriage to last. It's so wrong that attitude of his that I couldn't enjoy the book any more. The end was obviously cute, with the miracle baby, their issues solved, great love from them both, but I think that it wont' be lasting. I'm sorry because usually Dani Collins heroes usually are faithful for years, and never thinks of cheating even if they are estranged. That was a big let-down for me.

[Caro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me gustó mucho y es la primera novela que leo de esta autora. La historia es bastante realista y me encantaron los personajes, lo que ocurre en una de las escenas (donde ella está embarazada y vestida con una camisa del prota) me hizo sonreír como tonta.

[Romance_reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

A contemporary romance in the true sense of the word. the book featured a mature power couple with marital issues, who're willing to work through it. I liked that the H admired the h and even said that she gave him 'his self-worth.' I also liked that the h was willing to try, even with all her initial misgivings. They talked almost everything out from the very beginning like the 21st century emotionally aware individuals that they're supposed to be and I was genuinely surprised, they didn't find their HEA in the first three chapters of the book; and H's shady past seemed like only a plot mechanism to reach the M&B word limit. Other than that, this was a nice decent read, albeit minus the intensity and angst that I really enjoy in Harlequins. (although there are some steamy moments between the two, it felt more textbook than passionate or romantic). Three stars!

[Shatarupa Dhar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, so the author in her note to readers at the beginning of the story reveals how Nic is, or was, a Makricosta. This is his half-sister's story, Adara Makricosta. And the remaining two books in this series are about his half-brothers, Theo and Demitri. Ooo...what family dynamics! As the author says, there is so little to go on in the first book about more of Nic's mother's side of the family that I never could've imagined how he was related to this series.

Gideon Vozaras is following his wife, and they're in Greece now, all the way from Britain. He suspects her of having an affair (don't they all!). He has a reason though, she lied to him about visiting her mother. And instead, she was in Greece instead of Chatham. Both Gideon and Adara think the other is cheating. His PA gives Adara the impression that she's in dalliance with her husband. And with the secrets that they kept about their past from each other as well as their current problems, it didn't help their cause. She wants a divorce, after suffering yet another miscarriage and not telling him. Because, they don't communicate. That was one of the conditions of their self-arranged marriage. A peculiar arrangement, indeed! He can't afford to go through with a divorce, especially with the merger of her hotel chain and his luxury cruise ship business so close. Because divorce meant the skeletons in his cupboard would come out, and he had a fair share of them.

Suffering from depression, anxiety, and rejection, constantly thinking about Gideon and his PA, Adara has come in search of her elder brother, Nic. She wonders why Nic hasn't reached out all these years. Neither to her nor her younger brothers.

I am so, so, so happy that this story started with Nic and Adara! A beautiful reunion between the siblings which I imagined ever since Nic mentioned that scene in the first book to Ro while cuddling her. So sweet! Though the actual reunion comes quite late in the book because he's not at his home when Adara goes to meet with him.

Adara, being the eldest in a family of three siblings with an abusive father, it couldn't have been easy for her. All that bottled up emotion, the neglect and the fear, together with her present emotional state of a number of miscarriages.

It was really cute to see Nic trying to hurry up and finish his business so that he can be with Adara asap. And also humorous to see Gideon worry after realising who Nic was! Scared of the big brother, eh?

I'll give a spoiler here. When they very sweetly eat oranges half and a half and kiss in the process, I wonder where do the seeds go? Haha! Totally turned a sexy scene into a hilarious one in my head. What to do... I'm reading Americanah alongside and read that in America they have only the seedless oranges. And since I never had them, it felt strange reading this.

It was nice to meet Nic, Rowan and Evie. Especially Evie's antics, a baby being a baby is always cute. And among all of them, it's their mother, Ellice, who's been dealt the worst hand. First kept away from her eldest son and then cancer chipping away her life when finally she's free from her horrible husband. There is so much bitterness in her that she couldn't even be happy for her own children. I felt equally angry at her and sorry for her. Not that Gideon had it any better. Delphi Parnassus, his mother, also has a sad story. Knowing about his childhood was sad, but his and Adara's confrontation was heartbreaking. There is so much pain all around, in all the character's lives. Theo, the next brother, whose story is in the next book, stars here too. Instead it a few years back though can't seem to recall it.

The epilogue sums it up nicely and naming their baby Androu is the best thing there was. This one's a keeper.

P.S. The name of this one is perfect. Because Gideon and Adara's marriage is indeed so much more than a convenient one and it questions the convenience of it...

On a cheeky note, they could have given a cover for this like the first book, just that instead of strawberry, there should've been an orange.

[Reads by Starburst · Rating 4 out of 5]

More Than a Convenient Marriage did start off not that great for me but as the story progressed I started liking it and it turned out so much better than my expectations. Adara and Gideon’s non existent communication leads their marriage to a breaking point and when they finally started communicating, it was so refreshing to see a hero and heroine not brooding over a problem but letting it out instead. Their passion was so hot and high on the steamy factor that it got my pulse racing every time without fail.Read More

[Annie Burrows · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the way the hero and heroine found their way towards love after starting out in a marriage that was supposed to only have been part of a business deal.

[Dalimar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tiene Spoiler:

Una novela buenisima,muy recomendable para todas las harlequineras como yo.Me gusto porque aunque si es el típico matrimonio de conveniencia por otra parte es muy original,todo es al revez a la típica Harlequin,pues ya ellos llevan tiempo casados.Si ella se casó con él para huir de su padre maltratante y poder controlar los negocios.Gideon se casó con ella,aunque le gustó desde la primera vez que la vió,su matrimonio de conveniencia fue mas bien para poder beneficiarse de nombre y buena reputación.Ya que el pobre tuvo un duro pasado.

Me dio tanta pena el pasado tan doloroso de Gideon,como fue su infancia y que él no fuera el típico hombre perfecto.De hecho falsificó su identidad para poder heredar el dinero que dejó su jefe de la infancia,Ya que con la muerte de madre se vió obligado a trabajar fuertemente de niño.

Otra cosa,su esposa no es la típica chica Harlequin,que de que el protagonista la ve en ropa interior,ya queda embarazada.No ella aborta todos sus bebes.Me gustó como al fin pudo quedar embarazada y como ellos tratan de salvar su matrimonio.No se enamoraron de un día para el otro y ella se dio su lugar cuando se enteró de la falsa identidad de Gideon.

De verdad,que es una muy buena Harlequin.

[iamGamz · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

This book is full of unhappy secrets, feelings of insecurity and misery. And it was a darned good read.

Adara married Gideon to get away from her abusive father. Her father was a dirty piece of work who was verbally, emotionally and physically abusive to his wife and kids. The man should have died much sooner in his life.

Anyway, she and Gideon had a MOC that was the equivalent of white toast and a boiled egg. It was bland, boring and horribly polite. They scheduled everything and didn’t impose on each other. She had “red light, green light” nightgowns for carnal relations, for Pete’s sake! Can’t call it sex with these too. It’s too bland for that.

Anyway, it all went the same for five years until she suspected that he was banging his Personal Assistant. Then she took a trip to Greece without telling him. He found out and then learned that she went to meet another man and he followed her. And things got shaken up!

There is so much unhappiness in this book that I had to walk away from it a couple times. There were also moments when I hated the H. He seemed so cold and cruel in the beginning. But as the story progressed and they actually started to share their childhood traumas, you began to understand the whys of how they became the people they did.

It was a very emotional read and very worth it, imho.

Now I have to go read the first book in the series since, I’m n my brilliance, I started on book two. Duh!

[Tiffany · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay angsty harlequin.

[Susan in Perthshire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fabulous second chance story with really fabulous h/H/. Thje hero thought Adara was having an affair (and vice versa) but they end up giving their marriage another chance and this was the part I loved.

One of the big fault lines in their marriage was the lack of openness. Adara (and by the way, why would a Greek girl have an Arabic name?) and Gideon have been married 5 years in a mutually beneficial business arrangement with benefits. In that time she's had several miscarriages which have traumatised her but she never allowed him to be with her, seek comfort from him or let him know how upset she was. She didn't even tell him about the most recent miscarriage. When she finally admitted this, the hero admitted how upset he had been. He tried to share as much of his past as possible to explain why he was as he was - all except the detail about changing his identity.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story, rightup until the big reveal - forced on the Hero by the half brother Nico. Then the heroine responded in such a horrible, unsympathetic, self-centered way and told the hero he would never see their baby and she kept it up until her other brother convinced her she was in the wrong. I really loathed her at this point.

Dani Collins sometimes frustrates me - she writes really, really well but sometimes she just does something which really annoys me and this transformation of lovely Adara into a bitter, vicious harridan is one of them. As she finally realises, Gideon has always behaved well and in the time they were working on their marriage - he was not deceiving her. Anyway, I've taken off a star! Otherwise, I think it's one of the best Mills and Boon stories I've read.

[Desere · Rating 5 out of 5]

In More than a convenient marriage? the author tells of rich, powerful off the hook sexy Gideon. He has everything a man could ever want including a beautiful wife. At least that is what the outside world thinks and sees.

The real life of Gideon involves his loving wife Adara filing for a divorce, and as we all know is one heck of an embarrassment to a Greek ! He won't take it lying down but he will take Adara lying down in his bed over and over again until she realizes this is no longer a business arrangement this is a marriage made for keeps.

I ADORED this book it was filled with such raw emotion from both the hero and heroines's side I was constantly bawling my eyes out, tissues were everywhere and had I let the outside world in they would have thought I was trying to overcome a serious loss, red, puffy eyes from start to finish! The one thing that stood out for me the most was how the hero and heroine don't bottle up their problems they actually let it out and got to talking.

The message I took from this book was that communication is vital in any relationship, no matter if it's a business arrangement of a romantic involvement. Without communication everything that you think has been slotted into place by a mere look or a nod of the head, it will crumble if you don't actually voice our thoughts.

5/5 star review
"From the ashes of heartache and misery a new life is borne"

[Nightwitch · Rating 2 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this - it felt like a very raw portrait of a marriage rent by, among other things, infertility and the suspicion of adultery, high-emotion but relatively low-drama… and then we’re introduced to the heroine’s brother, his wife, and their adopted baby with her “Oriental” eyes. Oh God. This kind of racist comment is why I DNF’ed the first book I read by this author despite liking her writing, but why Harlequin didn’t catch onto it I don’t know. I also… don’t love the way the book progressed from there. The hero and heroine discover that while she miscarried one baby, she’s actually still pregnant with the twin, but don’t worry, it’s no longer a high-risk pregnancy. I don’t know what it is about infertility, but it just feels too real to have a Harlequin category happy ending treatment. (I’m also unimpressed with the revelation that the hero’s mother’s name is Delphi Parnassus. Come on, can you at least try?)

So, in short, this became another DNF for me - because while the author is really good with emotions, I just don't trust her to not creep me out.

[RomLibrary · Rating 5 out of 5]

More than a Convenient Marriage?

It started with a signature

Rich, powerful, with a beautiful wife, Greek shipping magnate Gideon Vozaras has it all. Except, his perfect life is a facade….

Gideon can't afford the public scrutiny of divorce, but if his past has taught him anything it's to fight dirty to keep what's his!

No Longer Forbidden?

The limits of his control

Rowan O'Brien is the only woman ever to have tempted Nicodemus Marcussen's steely control—but she was always forbidden.

Years later, tragedy brings Rowan back into Nic's life—and when deeply buried secrets begin to surface, they are forced to confront their darkest desires! (

read second book first

[Harlequin Books]

"Set against a fitting backdrop of the lush Greek Isles, Collins' latest tearjerker should come with tissues. Her couple is the epitome of miscommunication, but watching hem finally 'get' each other is worth every page. Oh, and the love scenes are jaw-dropping sizzlers!" RT Book Reviews, rated 4 1/2 stars

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book. This book is a fun quick read. The chemistry between the main characters was well written. I'm so glad there was a HEA in the end.

[Ada · Rating 4 out of 5]

Estuvo interesante

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I enjoyed most about this book was seeing Adara and Gideon rebuild their marriage by establishing an emotional honesty intimacy between them in order to have a solid, strong marriage. Their marriage may have started off as business deal but feelings developed along the way, but without coming clean with one another about their wants and needs, but they rectified that in this story, knowing that was the only way for their marriage to survive in the long wrong. It was refreshing to see that type of honesty in a book that depicts fantastical romance. It just made the story and their romance all the more special, and I really appreciated that. It was amazing to see them to do the work in order to make it work between them.

What I really liked was the fact that they acknowledged that it was both their faults that their marriage crumbled before their eyes, and it was, and a big part of the was due to the lack of honest between them. They had to learn to open up and trust one another, even if it meant being emotionally vulnerable to the other person, but they did it, knowing this was important. And I really liked that they took responsibility for that because it just showed how much growth and maturity they had to go through in order to get to that point. Again very refreshing, but it was also very beautiful too.

And with their fair share of issues in the marriage created a certain amount to tension and angst between them, which at times could become painful, but became worth it in the end. I liked them seeing them fight not only their attraction but their feelings for one another. They needed to both let their guards down, which made it all the more angst. It was cool to see their struggles, but it was even cooler to see their triumphs, making it all the more sweeter in the end.

They had this really intense connection and had it from the very beginning. Of coarse it was shown more on a physical level because that was safer for them both to admit to than the emotional component. But it was always there from the very beginning this strong connection and they had to learn how to accept that and embrace it by doing anything in their power to due so in order to have that lasting relationship. The bond was very clear.

Their physical intimacy was strong and intense as well and very passionate, but it was marred a tad by the emotional issues that were surrounding their marriage not only with each other but within themselves as well. There were reasons that she shied away from the physical intimacy with Gideon, but until she was ready to be emotional honest, she couldn’t be physical honest with him. And I loved seeing that progression. The more they could trust, the hotter that their passion would be and that was really beautiful to see that caring reflected in that way.

I enjoyed both Gideon and Adara and sympathized with both. They both had legitimate gripes of their marriage, but they needed to come together in order to make it work, and they did. And did so beautifully. It didn’t mean there were not up and downs along the way especially revolving him keeping a secret from her, but they pushed through so they could get the happily ever after that the deserved. They were just easy to root for them and their romance because it was clear that they belonged together.

Overall this was a really well done concerning a second chance romance in a marriage. It’s an honest portrayal and showed that it wasn’t always easy but anything worth having isn’t. And I loved seeing their struggle, their pain, their passion, and just everything cultivating into a really intense love story by two people who belonged together just had to find a way, and they did. It was really hard not to root for these two because it was clear they were meant to be. It was just satisfying all the way around once I saw the work that they put through plus the connection that they truly had. It was a great story.

[Debra · Rating 3 out of 5]

More than a Convenient Marriage

There were two stories in this book. The first one is about two people who were torn apart from those they loved when children. Now as adults they must come to terms with the fact that neither had a perfect childhood. But together they are invincible.
The second one is about her long lost older brother. How because of betrayal from his mother he was sent away at a young age. Now we read about his trials and tribulations of being accepted by his bio father. And the one woman he should not want.