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Una novia para el italiano
Si había un bebé… tendría que haber una boda Increíblemente rico y solicitado, Rafaelle Villani estaba acostumbrado a amar y después abandonar a las mujeres. Pero su libertad se vio de pronto restringida por una cándida fotografía que daba a entender que el codiciado soltero por fin había caído rendido a los pies de la inocente Rachel Carmichael. Unas horas después, toda la prensa afirmaba que estaban prometidos… Rafaelle no perdió el tiempo en intentar seducir a su falsa prometida y, veinticuatro horas después, Rachel estaba en sus brazos… Y sospechaban que podía haberse quedado embarazada. Hasta estar seguro de si iba a ser padre, Rafaelle exigió que ella fingiese ser su prometida…
Kindle Edition
First published November 3, 2006
34 people are currently reading
313 people want to read
About the author
Michelle Reid
387 books637 followersHi, my name is Michelle Reid and I’ve been writing for Harlequin Mills & Boon for the last twenty years, and the crazy part about it is that I only realised it had been twenty years while updating this page!
So, hang on for a minute while I take this huge milestone in....
Twenty years with almost forty books published or in the pipeline ... I know it isn’t a great average when compared with some authors but it sounds pretty good to me!
So what was I doing twenty years ago before I wrote books? Well, I did the all of the usual things, like growing up and attending school, finishing at secretarial college, which I hated, then spent the next several years wandering aimlessly from job to job. Eventually I met my husband, we married and produced two daughters who then grew up and between them presented us with two gorgeous grandsons and one beautiful granddaughter. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Somewhere in between my girls growing up and the grandchildren arriving on the scene, I started writing. To this day I don’t know why, unless it was a natural progression from my never being without a book close by—often several—because books have always been an important part of my life for as far back as I can recall.
So, I started to write, by hand at first, scribbling short stories in notebooks which never saw the light of day. At some point I discovered Mills & Boon Romance books and that was pretty much it for me. I’d found my new love, as in reading romantic fiction and inevitably writing it too.
So twenty years on and almost forty books on, here I am still writing and still loving it!
So, hang on for a minute while I take this huge milestone in....
Twenty years with almost forty books published or in the pipeline ... I know it isn’t a great average when compared with some authors but it sounds pretty good to me!
So what was I doing twenty years ago before I wrote books? Well, I did the all of the usual things, like growing up and attending school, finishing at secretarial college, which I hated, then spent the next several years wandering aimlessly from job to job. Eventually I met my husband, we married and produced two daughters who then grew up and between them presented us with two gorgeous grandsons and one beautiful granddaughter. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Somewhere in between my girls growing up and the grandchildren arriving on the scene, I started writing. To this day I don’t know why, unless it was a natural progression from my never being without a book close by—often several—because books have always been an important part of my life for as far back as I can recall.
So, I started to write, by hand at first, scribbling short stories in notebooks which never saw the light of day. At some point I discovered Mills & Boon Romance books and that was pretty much it for me. I’d found my new love, as in reading romantic fiction and inevitably writing it too.
So twenty years on and almost forty books on, here I am still writing and still loving it!
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
September 11, 2020
I've read this at least a half dozen times. Nothing spectacular but it does something to my feels.
Ms Reid is a damn good writer.
Ms Reid is a damn good writer.
January 10, 2022
"The Italian's Future Bride" is the story of Rachel and Raffaelle.
Was the hair at her crotch the same pale gold colour as the hair on her head?
..made all the more blatantly masculine by the triangle of black curls that swirled between his burgeoning pectorals and then drew a line down his torso to the other thick cluster curling around the potent force of his sex..
..following the path of pale dusky curls into soft female folds between her pearly-white thighs..
That deliciously damp cluster of curls I can see crowning your thighs is crying out to feel me there again.
So, apparently, the characters love pubes. LMAOOOO.
Basically, our h is a big hearted-dum dum, and agrees to help her ungrateful step siblings by kissing the ex-boyfriend to her married and now pregnant stepsister, and so that her step-brother, a sleazy journalist, can take a picture and plaster it over the newspapers in order to save her step-sister's marriage. Confused? It only gets worse.
She ends up getting caught and whisked away to the hero's flat, who also finds his own step-sister hot btw. After these two gems meet and have been panting in lust since their eyes met, they fuck. A lot. They can't get enough of each other's dooch and cooches and BAM!- no-glove-love happens.
Then the hero's like "oh no you aint taking the morning after pill" and shes like hell yeah my last BF was a douche and wasted 6 years of my life but you have a giant potent masculine dong and who cares about me and my farming future let's bang more.
I loved the ridic-ness of their eye-sexing and uber horniness throughout the book- so, so many paragraphs of visual coitus in this one. They were in heat LOLOL (reminded me of the Breeds by Lora Leigh)
Anyways, the story is predictable and I actually laughed a lot at its absurdity! Lots of jealousy, drama, ill-timed paparazzos and hanky panky in this one. The story became stale in the last 1/2- even with her ex drama, otherwise this would definitely be rated higher.
Do enjoy this hero-sharing-sister-leering-step-sibling-mess.
Safe..ish
2/5 (because of how stupid funny this is unintentionally)
P.S.
Finally he let his eyes drift over her hair, where long and sleek straight had been replaced by a mop of silky loose curls that framed her still blushing face.
‘Where did the curls come from?’ he asked softly.
I genuinely thought he meant the pubes Nyahahhaa. Ok Im done byeeee.
Was the hair at her crotch the same pale gold colour as the hair on her head?
..made all the more blatantly masculine by the triangle of black curls that swirled between his burgeoning pectorals and then drew a line down his torso to the other thick cluster curling around the potent force of his sex..
..following the path of pale dusky curls into soft female folds between her pearly-white thighs..
That deliciously damp cluster of curls I can see crowning your thighs is crying out to feel me there again.
So, apparently, the characters love pubes. LMAOOOO.
Basically, our h is a big hearted-dum dum, and agrees to help her ungrateful step siblings by kissing the ex-boyfriend to her married and now pregnant stepsister, and so that her step-brother, a sleazy journalist, can take a picture and plaster it over the newspapers in order to save her step-sister's marriage. Confused? It only gets worse.
She ends up getting caught and whisked away to the hero's flat, who also finds his own step-sister hot btw. After these two gems meet and have been panting in lust since their eyes met, they fuck. A lot. They can't get enough of each other's dooch and cooches and BAM!- no-glove-love happens.
Then the hero's like "oh no you aint taking the morning after pill" and shes like hell yeah my last BF was a douche and wasted 6 years of my life but you have a giant potent masculine dong and who cares about me and my farming future let's bang more.
I loved the ridic-ness of their eye-sexing and uber horniness throughout the book- so, so many paragraphs of visual coitus in this one. They were in heat LOLOL (reminded me of the Breeds by Lora Leigh)
Anyways, the story is predictable and I actually laughed a lot at its absurdity! Lots of jealousy, drama, ill-timed paparazzos and hanky panky in this one. The story became stale in the last 1/2- even with her ex drama, otherwise this would definitely be rated higher.
Do enjoy this hero-sharing-sister-leering-step-sibling-mess.
Safe..ish
2/5 (because of how stupid funny this is unintentionally)
P.S.
Finally he let his eyes drift over her hair, where long and sleek straight had been replaced by a mop of silky loose curls that framed her still blushing face.
‘Where did the curls come from?’ he asked softly.
I genuinely thought he meant the pubes Nyahahhaa. Ok Im done byeeee.
August 12, 2013
This book kept me guessing the whole time. Just when I thought I had the story of the Italian billionaire and his blonde Englishwoman girlfriend figured out, Michelle Reid threw me a curveball. The whole aspect of Rachel having had a previous relationship with an Italian the year before, and therefore having a sort of Italian Kryptonite weakness was different. She wasn't some naive, blushing heroine, although that's not to say she's jaded sexually or relationship-wise. Instead, she's a bit older and wiser for her broken heart, and therefore, Rafaelle has to work that much harder to win her over.
Rafaelle doesn't have the upper hand in this book, which is really fun and a nice change. He's just as much at the mercy of his feelings and emotions. He's vulnerable in a way that I wish more Harlequin Presents heroes were. He is immediately put in a place of jealousy because he knows that Rachel isn't naive about him or his type. He has to deal with the fact that she has a past and it's affected her present and future. It's funny how jealous he was, when she really didn't have a lot of past boyfriends he has to run into. Just one who was frighteningly similar to him, which is very bad for his fragile male ego. What irritated me was that Rafaelle doesn't have enough discretion to keep his exes from kissing and telling to Rachel. I think if I was in her situation (which is unlikely for a lot of reasons), I would have been fairly irritated by the fact that not only do his past lovers feel the liberty to exclaim about his legendary skills in the bedroom, they lack the class and discretion not to do so. Rafaelle shrugs it off, but he's not nearly as complacent when Rachel's past lover shows up on the scene. That whole scene was interesting, and had me glued to the page. I didn't really like the feelings that I had while reading it. It's just messy and in a way that really gets to me. I am pretty particular in my feelings about sexual relationships, and that would be a nightmare to have to deal with a bunch of past lovers on either side. Having said that, it did make for a unique dynamic to this book. In a way, it's really irritating when the hero is a major slam-hound and he gets the sweet innocent heroine for his very own, when most of the time, he certainly doesn't deserve the privilege of being her first! It upsets my sense of fair play, even though I can't say I really like promiscuity on either side.
As far as sensuality, this book was blistering hot! Normally Harlequin Presents can be pretty sexy, but this one felt a lot hotter to me. Their first time together, wow! I guess you could really feel the heat between Rachel and Rafaelle, and how it had complicated both their lives. Neither really wanted to be so attracted to each other, but there you have it. I liked that they had to figure out what that meant for both of them. Sex isn't enough. You have to have more, and they both find out how much more there is between them along the way, and if their love for each other is worth dealing with the baggage they both carry.
A different kind of story wrapped in what feels like the typical Harlequin Presents package. Michelle Reid definitely writes very well and draws you into the story. This was a read that kept moving right up to the last page, where I was wanting even more of the story.
Rafaelle doesn't have the upper hand in this book, which is really fun and a nice change. He's just as much at the mercy of his feelings and emotions. He's vulnerable in a way that I wish more Harlequin Presents heroes were. He is immediately put in a place of jealousy because he knows that Rachel isn't naive about him or his type. He has to deal with the fact that she has a past and it's affected her present and future. It's funny how jealous he was, when she really didn't have a lot of past boyfriends he has to run into. Just one who was frighteningly similar to him, which is very bad for his fragile male ego. What irritated me was that Rafaelle doesn't have enough discretion to keep his exes from kissing and telling to Rachel. I think if I was in her situation (which is unlikely for a lot of reasons), I would have been fairly irritated by the fact that not only do his past lovers feel the liberty to exclaim about his legendary skills in the bedroom, they lack the class and discretion not to do so. Rafaelle shrugs it off, but he's not nearly as complacent when Rachel's past lover shows up on the scene. That whole scene was interesting, and had me glued to the page. I didn't really like the feelings that I had while reading it. It's just messy and in a way that really gets to me. I am pretty particular in my feelings about sexual relationships, and that would be a nightmare to have to deal with a bunch of past lovers on either side. Having said that, it did make for a unique dynamic to this book. In a way, it's really irritating when the hero is a major slam-hound and he gets the sweet innocent heroine for his very own, when most of the time, he certainly doesn't deserve the privilege of being her first! It upsets my sense of fair play, even though I can't say I really like promiscuity on either side.
As far as sensuality, this book was blistering hot! Normally Harlequin Presents can be pretty sexy, but this one felt a lot hotter to me. Their first time together, wow! I guess you could really feel the heat between Rachel and Rafaelle, and how it had complicated both their lives. Neither really wanted to be so attracted to each other, but there you have it. I liked that they had to figure out what that meant for both of them. Sex isn't enough. You have to have more, and they both find out how much more there is between them along the way, and if their love for each other is worth dealing with the baggage they both carry.
A different kind of story wrapped in what feels like the typical Harlequin Presents package. Michelle Reid definitely writes very well and draws you into the story. This was a read that kept moving right up to the last page, where I was wanting even more of the story.
July 11, 2020
Not my favorite by MR. The heroine basically trapped the hero with a kiss in front of paparazzi cameras to help her stepsister out of a jam. (The stepsister was a married woman with a jealous Greek husband who had an emotional affair with the hero. Heroine looks enough like the sister from the back, and the original pictures were so blurry, they think they can make it look like shoddy reporting that got the name of the hero's 'mistress' wrong.)
The hero, dazzled by the kiss, spirits the heroine away to his lair followed in hot pursuit by the paparazzi - and comes up with the ingenious plan to tell the world they are engaged. None of this really makes sense - so MR relies on the character's physical attraction to force intimacy and move the story along. The problem with having characters going at it like bunnies is that - (1) it gets boring after awhile, and (2) whatever conflict is raised seems contrived if you can't keep your hands off of each other. I guess that was my problem - the whole setup seems contrived - really, the stepsister couldn't deal with her own marriage without her twin brother and stepsister being involved? And remedy was just as contrived - we'll give the paparazzi what they want so they'll go away. Spoiler - they never go away.
The heroine's angst about her user family, the hero's jealousy of the young uncle and organic farm that was just sort of thrown in there and dropped, the heroines previous Italian boyfriend all added to a disjointed feel to the narrative. And I didn't like the message that jealousy=love. Erm. No.
The hero, dazzled by the kiss, spirits the heroine away to his lair followed in hot pursuit by the paparazzi - and comes up with the ingenious plan to tell the world they are engaged. None of this really makes sense - so MR relies on the character's physical attraction to force intimacy and move the story along. The problem with having characters going at it like bunnies is that - (1) it gets boring after awhile, and (2) whatever conflict is raised seems contrived if you can't keep your hands off of each other. I guess that was my problem - the whole setup seems contrived - really, the stepsister couldn't deal with her own marriage without her twin brother and stepsister being involved? And remedy was just as contrived - we'll give the paparazzi what they want so they'll go away. Spoiler - they never go away.
The heroine's angst about her user family, the hero's jealousy of the young uncle and organic farm that was just sort of thrown in there and dropped, the heroines previous Italian boyfriend all added to a disjointed feel to the narrative. And I didn't like the message that jealousy=love. Erm. No.
March 25, 2016
Nope. This book wasn't for me.
Almost everything in this story seemed off to me. Rachel's background was not enough to make me feel connected to her character. Aside from her weakness, I was so frustrated that she continually made a series of bad decisions. Fortunately, this book wasn't that long so I could finish it in one sitting, or else it might be a DNF.
I gave this one 2 stars because I enjoyed the drama near the end of the story and I felt somewhat satisfied with the ending.
Almost everything in this story seemed off to me. Rachel's background was not enough to make me feel connected to her character. Aside from her weakness, I was so frustrated that she continually made a series of bad decisions. Fortunately, this book wasn't that long so I could finish it in one sitting, or else it might be a DNF.
I gave this one 2 stars because I enjoyed the drama near the end of the story and I felt somewhat satisfied with the ending.
August 12, 2013
I love Michelle Reid's books and this is one of those.
Gorgeous Italian hero and strong English heroine - what's there not to love!!!!!!!!!
Gorgeous Italian hero and strong English heroine - what's there not to love!!!!!!!!!
April 6, 2016
I am not going to rehash the plot, but the characters just did not jibe nor did the plot.
Once again, the heroine and the hero have rotten relatives. The h's get off scot free at her expense. The best part is when the heroine stands up to the H's bratty little sister.
Once again, the heroine and the hero have rotten relatives. The h's get off scot free at her expense. The best part is when the heroine stands up to the H's bratty little sister.
January 26, 2014
This one was pretty fun. I liked that the hero got caught flat footed. It was one of those were the first meeting took over half the book. Not kidding. Usually I find that annoying but here it seemed to work for me. I liked that the hero was a little unsure of her and jealous that she had had a previous relationship with a hot Italian who seemed to be actual competition for him. I liked the whole complicated plot that got them together. It was different and when you read as many HPs as I do, different is something to be prized.
The love scenes were pretty hot and I found the sexual tension between the two of them believable.
Definitely worth the read.
The love scenes were pretty hot and I found the sexual tension between the two of them believable.
Definitely worth the read.
January 22, 2019
Una novelita infumable.
June 24, 2014
Not a perfect read but I LOVED how h had been in a relationship before and with a hot guy, not a dud. That made H's jealousy and h's difficult trusting much more believable.
January 22, 2025
Insta-lust
Heroine threw herself at hero at a party so the paps could get photographs.
Apparently that one kiss was like snow white and the prince or something. Beauty and the beast.
He was smitten. Stricken. He grabbed her. Picked her up, dumped her in his Ferrari and took her to his apartment.
Then he received a phone call from his sister asking whatever the hell was he doing?
Heroine had ample opportunity to leave his flat and go back home but she kept lurking in his house.
He then picked her up and dropped her in his bed and ravished her.
It was all very very improbable. No sane person behaves this illogically.
Even if they are drunk or high. Can they? Does it happen??
After having sex with her he was so enthralled that he took her to Devon to get her clothes because he did not want her to go alone.
Then they proceeded to paint the town red being the wildly in love couple.
What I could not stomach?
The heroine was fooled by another Italian before the hero.
The other man was a car salesman who slept with the heroine during her holiday then dumped her on the last day. Heroine was in love. He was using her.
So then hero was her next Italian. An upgrade.
It was all too pat.
She lost out to one Italian in life. She replaced him with a better model Italian. It was revenge porn.
I never felt even once that the heroine was in love with hero. It was never shown by any incidents planted by author.
We were told she was in love but seemed more like lust and the gold digger syndrome. Like any other girl she liked the moneyed lifestyle.
There was no love.
I felt no love. No emotions. No chemistry.
Just clinical descriptions of them having sex in detail.
This author is better than that. I suspect a heavy hand was employed on her by her publishing guides to produce this stolid concoction. The movie Pretty Woman has a lot to answer for. It produced this whole genre of billionaire gifting the lifestyle to Cinderella. I hate it.
That’s my review.
***********************************************
By some ridiculous contrivance the hero and heroine are pretending to be engaged. It’s all done to save her step sister’s marriage and to protect hero from said step sister’s vengeful husband.
The hero and heroine fall into lust and there is a marathon of sex from the beginning till the last page.
They are young. Hormonal. Somewhere buried in all that lust is genuine love from hero’s side at least.
Heroine was such a ditzy blonde one couldn’t be sure. She got had by another Italian before hero. I found the details of it surplus to the story and it made me respect the heroine less. She enjoyed the sex with the other man. That’s a solid no from me.
She met the other man kissed him and disappeared with him towards the end. I felt like beating her up for her sheer stupidity.
How did she keep embroiling herself in such situations?
She lied to the hero.
No.
In between all the sex they travelled by private jet and ate out at restaurants with hero’s high flying friends and watched the opera.
Quite boring. Too much sex. Very little emotions.
Heroine threw herself at hero at a party so the paps could get photographs.
Apparently that one kiss was like snow white and the prince or something. Beauty and the beast.
He was smitten. Stricken. He grabbed her. Picked her up, dumped her in his Ferrari and took her to his apartment.
Then he received a phone call from his sister asking whatever the hell was he doing?
Heroine had ample opportunity to leave his flat and go back home but she kept lurking in his house.
He then picked her up and dropped her in his bed and ravished her.
It was all very very improbable. No sane person behaves this illogically.
Even if they are drunk or high. Can they? Does it happen??
After having sex with her he was so enthralled that he took her to Devon to get her clothes because he did not want her to go alone.
Then they proceeded to paint the town red being the wildly in love couple.
What I could not stomach?
The heroine was fooled by another Italian before the hero.
The other man was a car salesman who slept with the heroine during her holiday then dumped her on the last day. Heroine was in love. He was using her.
So then hero was her next Italian. An upgrade.
It was all too pat.
She lost out to one Italian in life. She replaced him with a better model Italian. It was revenge porn.
I never felt even once that the heroine was in love with hero. It was never shown by any incidents planted by author.
We were told she was in love but seemed more like lust and the gold digger syndrome. Like any other girl she liked the moneyed lifestyle.
There was no love.
I felt no love. No emotions. No chemistry.
Just clinical descriptions of them having sex in detail.
This author is better than that. I suspect a heavy hand was employed on her by her publishing guides to produce this stolid concoction. The movie Pretty Woman has a lot to answer for. It produced this whole genre of billionaire gifting the lifestyle to Cinderella. I hate it.
That’s my review.
***********************************************
By some ridiculous contrivance the hero and heroine are pretending to be engaged. It’s all done to save her step sister’s marriage and to protect hero from said step sister’s vengeful husband.
The hero and heroine fall into lust and there is a marathon of sex from the beginning till the last page.
They are young. Hormonal. Somewhere buried in all that lust is genuine love from hero’s side at least.
Heroine was such a ditzy blonde one couldn’t be sure. She got had by another Italian before hero. I found the details of it surplus to the story and it made me respect the heroine less. She enjoyed the sex with the other man. That’s a solid no from me.
She met the other man kissed him and disappeared with him towards the end. I felt like beating her up for her sheer stupidity.
How did she keep embroiling herself in such situations?
She lied to the hero.
No.
In between all the sex they travelled by private jet and ate out at restaurants with hero’s high flying friends and watched the opera.
Quite boring. Too much sex. Very little emotions.
March 16, 2018
Had forgotten how Amazing Michelle Reid`s stories actually are!
"The Italian's Future Bride" follows the story of Rachel trying to save her sisters marriage by using the Cynical and Hot tyccon Rafaelle Villani (actually trapping him) and after that they got thrown into a fake engagement.
Trust me on this,in it`s own way this is a different story with a lots of romance i just with a dreamy sigh enjoyed.Rachel have had a past affair that broke her heart who also was a Italian-Rafaelle with his OTT EGO cynical broodiness were the typical arrogant hero of Reids,the only difference was that he are a lot more vulnerable than most of them when it came to his loving Rachel,and that made him so much more beautiful and human in my eyes.Both Rachel and Rafaelle hates that they want each other-and fall both madly in love along the way.I just love how cute Rafalle was when he got furious with jealousy!! and how he didn`t want her to leave at the end-Gosh how romantic it was.My romantic heart just melted at the end..!
"The Italian's Future Bride" follows the story of Rachel trying to save her sisters marriage by using the Cynical and Hot tyccon Rafaelle Villani (actually trapping him) and after that they got thrown into a fake engagement.
Trust me on this,in it`s own way this is a different story with a lots of romance i just with a dreamy sigh enjoyed.Rachel have had a past affair that broke her heart who also was a Italian-Rafaelle with his OTT EGO cynical broodiness were the typical arrogant hero of Reids,the only difference was that he are a lot more vulnerable than most of them when it came to his loving Rachel,and that made him so much more beautiful and human in my eyes.Both Rachel and Rafaelle hates that they want each other-and fall both madly in love along the way.I just love how cute Rafalle was when he got furious with jealousy!! and how he didn`t want her to leave at the end-Gosh how romantic it was.My romantic heart just melted at the end..!
January 16, 2021
قرأتها بعنوان اشاعة حب بترجمة منتدى روايتي
قصصة ممتعه
قصصة ممتعه
November 12, 2011
Great story about Rachel, who trying to help out her rather selfish half-sister, gets entangled with Rafaelle Villani and almost immediately is ensconced in his apartment as the media go to town with their supposed relationship. But sparks fly and they begin an affair and then must wait to see if Rachel is pregnant or not.
Another steamy story from Michelle.
Another steamy story from Michelle.
August 7, 2014
A wonderful passionate read full of twists & turns with surprises in every turn of the page. The author adds a little cool element with the "Italian Kryptonite" which adds some spice to the romance. A very interesting fun read. There is a story about the half-sister but not sure of the title.
March 25, 2014
Ending way too abrupt. Not my favorite story. Didn't like how the hero did not trust/believe the heroine practically until the last page of the book.
October 11, 2017
This story was...okay.
Rafaelle Villani is a eligible Italian bachelor until a photo set up has him engaged to Rachel Carmichael, a woman he only met that day who threw herself at him to stage a photo opportunity to protect her sister's marriage. When Rafaelle claims his fake fiancee, Rachel fears she may have conceived a child leading Rafaelle to demand her remain his fake future bride until they can solve this whole mess.
I liked the idea of the story when I first picked up the book. Two people thrown together due to crazy circumstances seemed like a good time. As I started reading, I realized that the story had more going on to it than what the synopsis on the back cover suggested. If only it had been a good thing rather than not.
Rafaelle starts off as a self-indulgent, arrogant, rich Italian man almost bored with the women of the upper class constantly throwing themselves at him. By the end of the story...not much seems to have changed. Rafaelle is still thinking of himself a lot, is extremely arrogant and seems to be concerned with sex rather than emotions.
Rachel is no better seeming to only be there to fulfill Rafaelle's desires. She just seems to be something new to him rather than a true woman who he can care about. We don't get much out of her character other than her relationship to other mentioned characters and how she relates to the opportunity that she took for those characters. By the end of the story I was bored with her and was surprised Rafaelle wasn't.
My biggest issue with this, other than the underdeveloping of the characters, was the lack of building the relationship between them. We get very little about them, their backstories or moments between them where something other than a strong sexual desire was being felt. It seemed that they were together strictly out of lust rather than love, even at the end when the two ended up together.
The ending also left much to be desired. There is a lot of small threads that fill the narrative of this story, including the lack of concern for Rachel from her 2 siblings, Rafaelle step-sister not caring for Rachel, Rachel's previous boyfriend who was also Italian and who broke her heart leading to distrust of men, especially Italians, Rachel's possible pregnancy, Rafaelle's money and Rachel's farming background and how they interact to each other.
Although a couple of these threads are tied up, there are still a few that are left to the side. Even the ones that are tied up and done so in such a quick way that it is not satisfying. At only 187 pages it is no surprise that once you got close to the end that these threads were going to have to be solved quickly to get to the happy ending. Had the story had about 20-50 more pages, those could have been tied up much better and more realistically.
Overall, the story was okay, but I don't know if I would be picking this up again anytime soon.
Rafaelle Villani is a eligible Italian bachelor until a photo set up has him engaged to Rachel Carmichael, a woman he only met that day who threw herself at him to stage a photo opportunity to protect her sister's marriage. When Rafaelle claims his fake fiancee, Rachel fears she may have conceived a child leading Rafaelle to demand her remain his fake future bride until they can solve this whole mess.
I liked the idea of the story when I first picked up the book. Two people thrown together due to crazy circumstances seemed like a good time. As I started reading, I realized that the story had more going on to it than what the synopsis on the back cover suggested. If only it had been a good thing rather than not.
Rafaelle starts off as a self-indulgent, arrogant, rich Italian man almost bored with the women of the upper class constantly throwing themselves at him. By the end of the story...not much seems to have changed. Rafaelle is still thinking of himself a lot, is extremely arrogant and seems to be concerned with sex rather than emotions.
Rachel is no better seeming to only be there to fulfill Rafaelle's desires. She just seems to be something new to him rather than a true woman who he can care about. We don't get much out of her character other than her relationship to other mentioned characters and how she relates to the opportunity that she took for those characters. By the end of the story I was bored with her and was surprised Rafaelle wasn't.
My biggest issue with this, other than the underdeveloping of the characters, was the lack of building the relationship between them. We get very little about them, their backstories or moments between them where something other than a strong sexual desire was being felt. It seemed that they were together strictly out of lust rather than love, even at the end when the two ended up together.
The ending also left much to be desired. There is a lot of small threads that fill the narrative of this story, including the lack of concern for Rachel from her 2 siblings, Rafaelle step-sister not caring for Rachel, Rachel's previous boyfriend who was also Italian and who broke her heart leading to distrust of men, especially Italians, Rachel's possible pregnancy, Rafaelle's money and Rachel's farming background and how they interact to each other.
Although a couple of these threads are tied up, there are still a few that are left to the side. Even the ones that are tied up and done so in such a quick way that it is not satisfying. At only 187 pages it is no surprise that once you got close to the end that these threads were going to have to be solved quickly to get to the happy ending. Had the story had about 20-50 more pages, those could have been tied up much better and more realistically.
Overall, the story was okay, but I don't know if I would be picking this up again anytime soon.
June 1, 2023
Subpar effort from Michelle Reid, who I usually really enjoy. The premise is fun (if pretty silly), but the story doesn't live up to it imo. The hero is a typical alpha playboy who disdains all the women who are forever throwing themselves at him; the heroine doesn't have much personality at all beyond being stupid (I get kind of defensive when reviewers call heroines TSTL, but she really is an idiot).
After they meet because of her and her half-siblings' scheme, their connection is primarily based on mutual sexual attraction. That's fine -- there are definitely some hot scenes -- but it got tedious that all of their interactions quickly became sexual. We don't see them talking about much else or enjoying doing other things together, so it's hard to really buy into them developing romantic feelings on either side. And possibly because sex is so central to the relationship, the conservative sexual politics of this book felt very prominent, even more than the standard HP. The heroine isn't a virgin but she makes up for it in puritanism. After the main characters get swept away by passion and have unprotected sex, the hero initiates the safe sex conversation and the heroine is horrified by him even obliquely mentioning STIs. She doesn't use birth control because she doesn't "sleep around" and she's appalled that he would even ask if she does. (I rolled my eyes so hard at this. Girl, you just fucked this guy raw but him telling you about his sexual health and asking if you might conceive is crossing a line? Grow up!) We got not only the anti-abortion lectures but also some railing against Plan B, from both main characters.
I was disappointed not to see more of Elise and Leo -- despite Elise's importance in setting the whole plot in motion, she never actually appears in person. If MR had written a book about them I would read it for sure (he takes her for granted so she has an emotional affair then tries to cover it up ).
That being said: when I read HPs I'm here for DRAMA, and this book does deliver some, particularly toward the end. That was fun, I just wasn't sold on the ending.
After they meet because of her and her half-siblings' scheme, their connection is primarily based on mutual sexual attraction. That's fine -- there are definitely some hot scenes -- but it got tedious that all of their interactions quickly became sexual. We don't see them talking about much else or enjoying doing other things together, so it's hard to really buy into them developing romantic feelings on either side. And possibly because sex is so central to the relationship, the conservative sexual politics of this book felt very prominent, even more than the standard HP. The heroine isn't a virgin but she makes up for it in puritanism. After the main characters get swept away by passion and have unprotected sex, the hero initiates the safe sex conversation and the heroine is horrified by him even obliquely mentioning STIs. She doesn't use birth control because she doesn't "sleep around" and she's appalled that he would even ask if she does. (I rolled my eyes so hard at this. Girl, you just fucked this guy raw but him telling you about his sexual health and asking if you might conceive is crossing a line? Grow up!) We got not only the anti-abortion lectures but also some railing against Plan B, from both main characters.
I was disappointed not to see more of Elise and Leo -- despite Elise's importance in setting the whole plot in motion, she never actually appears in person. If MR had written a book about them I would read it for sure (he takes her for granted so she has an emotional affair then tries to cover it up ).
That being said: when I read HPs I'm here for DRAMA, and this book does deliver some, particularly toward the end. That was fun, I just wasn't sold on the ending.
Read
July 27, 2011Rachel Carmichael believes in family, even if her half-brother and sister do not. When her half-sister, Elise Castle, is pictured flirting with another man by her husband, she and her half-brother, Matt, convince him it was actually Rachel in the picture. To convince him completely, they have Rachel kiss the man so they can present proof it wasn't Elise, but Rafaelle Villani was not a man to let Rachel get away with bringing the spotlight on him.
Rafaelle is used to woman throwing themselves at men. Fake woman, fake breasts, fake desires have left a bitter taste in him. Finding yet another woman who seems to presenting falsehoods galore, makes him risk some falsehoods of his own. Announcing their engagement, and then thoroughly seducing Rachel, he has commited them to a future together, at least for pretend and for now.
An OK story. Glad to see them together, but the issues with her family were only partially addressed.
Rafaelle is used to woman throwing themselves at men. Fake woman, fake breasts, fake desires have left a bitter taste in him. Finding yet another woman who seems to presenting falsehoods galore, makes him risk some falsehoods of his own. Announcing their engagement, and then thoroughly seducing Rachel, he has commited them to a future together, at least for pretend and for now.
An OK story. Glad to see them together, but the issues with her family were only partially addressed.
August 17, 2015
The Italian’s future Bride had many aspects that could have turned it into a great romance, and even though I prefer MR stories where the hero is the one and only I still thought it had a lot of potential because the Heroine not being the innocent we usually get helped the plot, however somehow I got to know what the hero thinks and how much he was hooked on the heroine and how she made him feel and it was intense, but we got too little from the heroine, so she had one lover before, an Italian Don Juan loser, her feelings for him were not very clear and i wanted to know more , i wanted to feel that she loved the hero with the same intensity he did her and that her ex didn't compare to him and this was not really illustrated as clearly as i would have liked. I wish there was more explanations and angsty revelations, somehow I felt sorry for the hero because I did not connect with the heroine and I felt he deserved better. But it was entertaining and well written like most MR books.
December 26, 2010
I'm not sure why I liked this as much as I did. I found myself wanting an Epilogue in a bad way!
December 11, 2023
As usual Michelle Reid does not disappoint. Full of emotion.
December 8, 2014
A huge yawn.Don't bother reading it. Terribally predictable.
September 21, 2014
This is absolutely my favorite Michelle Reid book, my favorite Harlequin book ever, even.
December 4, 2015
1.5 stars. Meh I wanted confrontation between step siblings and H/h they were mean and deserved to be kicked in the arse.
March 12, 2021
First off I am a big MR fan. But I didn't like the ending of chapter three when hero drags heroine into his bedroom and says "Now I want what I want..." The heroine says "no" and she tells him that he is frightening her. He doesn't back off until she faints. Yuck, Yuck, Yuck.
The book was written in 2006 and even back then if a woman said "no" it meant No. So I hated that bedroom scene - it read like hero was going to force her to have sex with him. I almost stopped reading the book.
On the positive side, I like the reason why the half-sibs plot to save the sister's marriage. It's a crazy idea but this is the land of mills and Boon! It's a fresh plot. But I think after the hero turns the tables on the heroine and takes her back to his apartment, even though the sexual sparks were flying, I think he should have backed off and spent some time getting to know her while they were "engaged", a bit of verbal sparing, hand holding, staring at each other with love-struck eyes etc while out in public, ie dinner, a few parties etc rather than almost-forced one-night-stand sex followed by more one-night-stand sex, not very romantic - too much lust, not enough loving, too much arguing, I didn't like either of them, they were both irritating. I got to chapter six and gave up.
I also don't like how MR uses the words 'unclipped' and 'breastplate'.
Not my favourite MR novel. I gave it 3 stars because I think a lot of readers would like the angst/fighting/sex scenes. But really it's a 2-star book for me.
The book was written in 2006 and even back then if a woman said "no" it meant No. So I hated that bedroom scene - it read like hero was going to force her to have sex with him. I almost stopped reading the book.
On the positive side, I like the reason why the half-sibs plot to save the sister's marriage. It's a crazy idea but this is the land of mills and Boon! It's a fresh plot. But I think after the hero turns the tables on the heroine and takes her back to his apartment, even though the sexual sparks were flying, I think he should have backed off and spent some time getting to know her while they were "engaged", a bit of verbal sparing, hand holding, staring at each other with love-struck eyes etc while out in public, ie dinner, a few parties etc rather than almost-forced one-night-stand sex followed by more one-night-stand sex, not very romantic - too much lust, not enough loving, too much arguing, I didn't like either of them, they were both irritating. I got to chapter six and gave up.
I also don't like how MR uses the words 'unclipped' and 'breastplate'.
Not my favourite MR novel. I gave it 3 stars because I think a lot of readers would like the angst/fighting/sex scenes. But really it's a 2-star book for me.
April 4, 2019
Michelle Reid tends to be one of the better harlequin novelists but this book was too off for me to really get into. Harlequin is always a guilty pleasure that I indulge in when I want to read alpha males. It’s the equivalent to me eating fast food around midnight. Overpriced junk food that i either regret or want to indulge in again as soon and often as possible. Reading this book was okay but in way worth the heartburn - remember my fast food analogy.
The plot was too convoluted without enough payoff and the insta Love was just too much.
The plot was too convoluted without enough payoff and the insta Love was just too much.
March 1, 2018
3.5 stars ⭐️
December 3, 2021
Almost entirely carnal. Went from 0 to 60 in under a second. Not sure (ok I am sure) where this one fell on the believability scale but hey, it's MR and he's a hot, gorgeous Italian so.
April 25, 2023
Crude at times and didn't care for sordid cast of characters.
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