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Ultimate Temptation
Librarian's note: See alternate cover edition of ASIN B009IJEI70 here.
NANNY WANTED
NANNY WANTED
Must be able to handle children and one particular Italian male... Giulio Falcone needed a willing woman, and Lucy was in his debt... and his house! Only, his interest in her was as much practical as sexual - he needed a nanny to look after his sister's children. Lucy found herself in the wrong place at the wrong time.
She could just about cope with Marco and little Emilia - it was their uncle she was finding a real handful! Tall, dark and deadly sexy - Giulio was the ultimate in temptations and one Lucy was finding hard to resist!
155 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 1997
5 people are currently reading
72 people want to read
About the author
Sara Craven
493 books267 followersAnne Bushell was born on October 1938 in South Devon, England, just before World War II and grew up in a house crammed with books. She was always a voracious reader, some of her all-time favorites books are: "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen, "Middlemarch" by George Eliot, "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë, "Gone With the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell and "The Code of the Woosters" by P. G. Wodehouse.
She worked as journalist at the Paignton Observer, but after her marriage, she moved to the north of England, where she worked as teacher. After she returned to journalism, she joined the Middlesbrough Writers' Group, where she met other romance writer Mildred Grieveson (Anne Mather). She started to wrote romance, and she had her first novel "Garden of Dreams" accepted by Mills & Boon in 1975, she published her work under the pseudonym of Sara Craven. In 2010 she became chairman of the Southern Writers' Conference, and the next year was elected the twenty-six Chairman (2011–2013) of the Romantic Novelists' Association.
Divorced twice, Annie lives in Somerset, South West England, and shares her home with a West Highland white terrier called Bertie Wooster. In her house, she had several thousand books, and an amazing video collection. When she's not writing, she enjoys watching very old films, listening to music, going to the theatre, and eating in good restaurants. She also likes to travel in Europe, to inspire her romances, especially in France, Greece and Italy where many of her novels are set. Since the birth of her twin grandchildren, she is also a regular visitor to New York City, where the little tots live. In 1997, she was the overall winner of the BBC's Mastermind, winning the last final presented by Magnus Magnusson.
She worked as journalist at the Paignton Observer, but after her marriage, she moved to the north of England, where she worked as teacher. After she returned to journalism, she joined the Middlesbrough Writers' Group, where she met other romance writer Mildred Grieveson (Anne Mather). She started to wrote romance, and she had her first novel "Garden of Dreams" accepted by Mills & Boon in 1975, she published her work under the pseudonym of Sara Craven. In 2010 she became chairman of the Southern Writers' Conference, and the next year was elected the twenty-six Chairman (2011–2013) of the Romantic Novelists' Association.
Divorced twice, Annie lives in Somerset, South West England, and shares her home with a West Highland white terrier called Bertie Wooster. In her house, she had several thousand books, and an amazing video collection. When she's not writing, she enjoys watching very old films, listening to music, going to the theatre, and eating in good restaurants. She also likes to travel in Europe, to inspire her romances, especially in France, Greece and Italy where many of her novels are set. Since the birth of her twin grandchildren, she is also a regular visitor to New York City, where the little tots live. In 1997, she was the overall winner of the BBC's Mastermind, winning the last final presented by Magnus Magnusson.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 23, 2019
Re Ultimate Temptation - Sara Craven's contribution to the Nanny Wanted series is a remarkably nematode H coupled with the most martyrish of HP h's.
If you like your hero's mean and your heroine's doormats with a tiny hint of a spine, this is a vintage angst fest just for you. We get not one, but two nematode slime swilling Evil OW and combine that with the sewage slurping relative trope, so there is a lot of angsty vintage goodness in this one to go around.
The story starts with our recently jilted h taking a dubious house-sharing trip to Italy. She doesn't know the women she will be sharing the house with very well, they are the hard partying and out to score type, but she has time off from her ad agency job and is getting over being dumped by her long-time fiance for a woman who has more money and style than she will ever have.
Yes, our h is a nice, modest good girl at heart and only decided to join the other women as a last minute cancellation left the group with an opening and the h desperately needed an escape from the pitying looks of her friends and family.
So one drunken plane trip with the rest of the group later, the sober h is a bit perturbed that the villa they are staying at is clearly a luxury, antique filled showplace and the villa renter is demanding payment in cash.
Still the h does the usual HP h tourist things and there is a dramatic purse snatching moment where the h is rescued by a tall, dark and handsome Italian.
Then the rest of the ladies in the group decide to throw a party and the h gets hit on by tons and tons of very unsavory types. The h is very uncomfortable and trying to escape, when she runs straight into her rescuer tall, dark and handsome Italian.
He looks at her like he wants to grope her up too and instantly makes certain tart harlot assumptions based on the dress the h is wearing that she borrowed from one of the other women.
The h is astounded to learn that her handsome sorta rescuer is the REAL owner of the villa, the guy who rented the place to them is the nephew of the housekeeper. Naturally the H throws everyone but the h out and she is soon shanghaied into being a nanny for the H's sister.
Ostensibly this arrangement is to pay the H back for the damage the furniture suffered during the party the other women held, but we all know it is because the H is just waiting to get his hands all over the innocent h.
So the h reluctantly agrees to nanny the H's sister's children. The complications come in when it becomes obvious that the children's mother is a useless twit and the H's stepmother and her protegee are viperous scum gulpers.
The little daughter of the sister is made a scapegoat for abuse by the H's villainous step-mother and the H refuses to do anything about it. The h steps up as a defender for the little girl, in between getting groped by the H and attacked by the OW.
SC ups the drama stakes by having the second OW show up, with the h's ex fiance in tow. Which of course leads to more confrontations and H tribulations. In fact there are multiple wanna be OM in this and every single one of them is a gropey, grabby attacker of the h.
The H uses these scenes with OM that he walks in on to heap ever increasing amounts of tart shaming upon the h, cause of course she MUST be encouraging all of this. Even as the H makes a point of flaunting the stepmother's protegee OW, (who is engaged to the h's ex,) right in front of the h's face.
There is a ton of bad behavior from everyone but the h and the little girl, when it is time for the big final explosion. The big finale is both OW conspire to make it look like the h stole a family heirloom ring from the evil step mother. The h is afraid that the little girl took it and hid it her room as an act of spiteful retaliation against her bad treatment by the rest of the family, so she doesn't defend herself from the accusations.
The h is thrown out by the evil stepmother and after seeing the H with the other protegee evil OW, goes to board her plane back to England. She is heartbroken and hurt, because the H's unique way of tart shaming and gropey hands moves has completely won her heart in two days or so.
The H shows up at the very last minute to declare that he knows the whole accusation of theft was a big set up. He has banished the evil OW, both the protege and the step mother, his sister's husband has returned to sort out his family and he loves the h and wants to marry her for the big HEA.
The h is soon won over by his roofie kissing moves and the ex-fiance was dumped and sent back to the HP mists by the evil OW - or not as the OW seems to have lost out on the H and may call him up for a rematch.
Either way the H and h have made their true love avowals forever, the h will give up her career and become the full time handmaid and broodmare wife of the H, with time set aside to cater to the sister and nanny her children, along with her own.
SC calls this a win and we leave the two of them getting ready to lurve it up in purple passion bliss for another interesting SC day at the HP office.
So the love story wasn't unusual, but I liked all the old skool vintage touches in this one. Just when you think you have made it through the usual vintage martyred h drama, SC ups the game and we get past fiances, evil wanna be OM, threatened jail time and no on page dismissal of the truly evil OW.
It was well done tropyness and martyrdom tho, so I was won over in the end and recommend this outing for the truly old skool HP voyage aficionado.
If you like your hero's mean and your heroine's doormats with a tiny hint of a spine, this is a vintage angst fest just for you. We get not one, but two nematode slime swilling Evil OW and combine that with the sewage slurping relative trope, so there is a lot of angsty vintage goodness in this one to go around.
The story starts with our recently jilted h taking a dubious house-sharing trip to Italy. She doesn't know the women she will be sharing the house with very well, they are the hard partying and out to score type, but she has time off from her ad agency job and is getting over being dumped by her long-time fiance for a woman who has more money and style than she will ever have.
Yes, our h is a nice, modest good girl at heart and only decided to join the other women as a last minute cancellation left the group with an opening and the h desperately needed an escape from the pitying looks of her friends and family.
So one drunken plane trip with the rest of the group later, the sober h is a bit perturbed that the villa they are staying at is clearly a luxury, antique filled showplace and the villa renter is demanding payment in cash.
Still the h does the usual HP h tourist things and there is a dramatic purse snatching moment where the h is rescued by a tall, dark and handsome Italian.
Then the rest of the ladies in the group decide to throw a party and the h gets hit on by tons and tons of very unsavory types. The h is very uncomfortable and trying to escape, when she runs straight into her rescuer tall, dark and handsome Italian.
He looks at her like he wants to grope her up too and instantly makes certain tart harlot assumptions based on the dress the h is wearing that she borrowed from one of the other women.
The h is astounded to learn that her handsome sorta rescuer is the REAL owner of the villa, the guy who rented the place to them is the nephew of the housekeeper. Naturally the H throws everyone but the h out and she is soon shanghaied into being a nanny for the H's sister.
Ostensibly this arrangement is to pay the H back for the damage the furniture suffered during the party the other women held, but we all know it is because the H is just waiting to get his hands all over the innocent h.
So the h reluctantly agrees to nanny the H's sister's children. The complications come in when it becomes obvious that the children's mother is a useless twit and the H's stepmother and her protegee are viperous scum gulpers.
The little daughter of the sister is made a scapegoat for abuse by the H's villainous step-mother and the H refuses to do anything about it. The h steps up as a defender for the little girl, in between getting groped by the H and attacked by the OW.
SC ups the drama stakes by having the second OW show up, with the h's ex fiance in tow. Which of course leads to more confrontations and H tribulations. In fact there are multiple wanna be OM in this and every single one of them is a gropey, grabby attacker of the h.
The H uses these scenes with OM that he walks in on to heap ever increasing amounts of tart shaming upon the h, cause of course she MUST be encouraging all of this. Even as the H makes a point of flaunting the stepmother's protegee OW, (who is engaged to the h's ex,) right in front of the h's face.
There is a ton of bad behavior from everyone but the h and the little girl, when it is time for the big final explosion. The big finale is both OW conspire to make it look like the h stole a family heirloom ring from the evil step mother. The h is afraid that the little girl took it and hid it her room as an act of spiteful retaliation against her bad treatment by the rest of the family, so she doesn't defend herself from the accusations.
The h is thrown out by the evil stepmother and after seeing the H with the other protegee evil OW, goes to board her plane back to England. She is heartbroken and hurt, because the H's unique way of tart shaming and gropey hands moves has completely won her heart in two days or so.
The H shows up at the very last minute to declare that he knows the whole accusation of theft was a big set up. He has banished the evil OW, both the protege and the step mother, his sister's husband has returned to sort out his family and he loves the h and wants to marry her for the big HEA.
The h is soon won over by his roofie kissing moves and the ex-fiance was dumped and sent back to the HP mists by the evil OW - or not as the OW seems to have lost out on the H and may call him up for a rematch.
Either way the H and h have made their true love avowals forever, the h will give up her career and become the full time handmaid and broodmare wife of the H, with time set aside to cater to the sister and nanny her children, along with her own.
SC calls this a win and we leave the two of them getting ready to lurve it up in purple passion bliss for another interesting SC day at the HP office.
So the love story wasn't unusual, but I liked all the old skool vintage touches in this one. Just when you think you have made it through the usual vintage martyred h drama, SC ups the game and we get past fiances, evil wanna be OM, threatened jail time and no on page dismissal of the truly evil OW.
It was well done tropyness and martyrdom tho, so I was won over in the end and recommend this outing for the truly old skool HP voyage aficionado.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 1, 2019
Read this one for all the evil side characters – the romance is fairly pedestrian. Jilted h goes on vacation in Italy and head-of-a-wealthy-banking-family hero falls her at first sight, even though he thinks she is as free and easy as her companions. Their conflict is the hero thinks she’s still in love with her former fiancé and she thinks he’s just using her until he marries his stepmother’s niece.
It all works out don’t worry.
What is more interesting is the roll call of all the characters committing bad behavior in this story:
1.Nephew of housekeeper rents out the hero’s villa to a group of rowdy British tourists.
2.Heroine is part of the group and is belittled by them for her caution - and they leave her behind when they’re thrown out of the villa.
3.There’s a rapey guy who keeps trying to pick the heroine up – first trying to rip her dress off at the party and later when she is out with the hero.
4.The hero’s stepsister is useless and doesn’t protect her children from her toxic mother.
5.Hero’s stepmother is evil – she ignores or belittles the granddaughter and spoils the grandson. Tries to set the heroine up as a thief, won’t give the hero the family ring, etc . .
6.Hero’s stepmother’s niece brings the heroine’s ex to the villa (small world) to make the hero jealous. She is garden variety OW – promiscuous and bitchy and ordering the heroine around.
7.Heroine’s ex belittles her as frigid, won’t loan her money to go back home unless she has sex with him.
8. The grandson tries to get his sister in trouble so she’ll have to go to boarding school
9. The granddaughter knows she is unloved and lashes out at her grandmother and tries to steal her ring, etc. . .
10. So by the time I get to the hero – his slut-shaming for the heroine looking hot in her dress (that he rips) looks quaint.
If you enjoy OTT antics, you’ll enjoy this one. Heroine is ridiculously paralyzed by her love for the hero. I’m assuming that will continue to be her coping strategy once she marries into this crazy family. The granddaughter would make a great next generation heroine.
Boogenhagen has all the details in her excellent review.
It all works out don’t worry.
What is more interesting is the roll call of all the characters committing bad behavior in this story:
1.Nephew of housekeeper rents out the hero’s villa to a group of rowdy British tourists.
2.Heroine is part of the group and is belittled by them for her caution - and they leave her behind when they’re thrown out of the villa.
3.There’s a rapey guy who keeps trying to pick the heroine up – first trying to rip her dress off at the party and later when she is out with the hero.
4.The hero’s stepsister is useless and doesn’t protect her children from her toxic mother.
5.Hero’s stepmother is evil – she ignores or belittles the granddaughter and spoils the grandson. Tries to set the heroine up as a thief, won’t give the hero the family ring, etc . .
6.Hero’s stepmother’s niece brings the heroine’s ex to the villa (small world) to make the hero jealous. She is garden variety OW – promiscuous and bitchy and ordering the heroine around.
7.Heroine’s ex belittles her as frigid, won’t loan her money to go back home unless she has sex with him.
8. The grandson tries to get his sister in trouble so she’ll have to go to boarding school
9. The granddaughter knows she is unloved and lashes out at her grandmother and tries to steal her ring, etc. . .
10. So by the time I get to the hero – his slut-shaming for the heroine looking hot in her dress (that he rips) looks quaint.
If you enjoy OTT antics, you’ll enjoy this one. Heroine is ridiculously paralyzed by her love for the hero. I’m assuming that will continue to be her coping strategy once she marries into this crazy family. The granddaughter would make a great next generation heroine.
Boogenhagen has all the details in her excellent review.
March 1, 2019
2.5 stars
I felt torn on the rating for this one. On the one hand, the family drama pulled me in: the heroine's young charge, Emilia, appeared to be her family's punching bag! On the other, the romance suffered as a result of too much focus on the family's antics and Giulio's questionable commitment to Lucy.
Commitment posed no problem for Lucy however, in regards to her new feelings for Giulio and her role as nanny. She tried her best to protect Emilia, but really didn't have much power considering the circumstances. (Thank goodness for the comic relief of Marco, Lucy's other charge and Emilia's brother, to add some levity.) And despite possessing strength where Emilia was concerned, Lucy transformed into Play-Doh whenever Giulio came near.
Giulio waffled on his feelings for Lucy much more than I would have liked. One minute he was jealous, or angry on her behalf, and in the next he seemed perfectly willing to let her leave without a fight. Maybe that was Giulio just being nice and selfless, but to me it signified a lack of intense passion on his part which made the romance less satisfying.
Giulio might have been the ultimate temptation for Lucy, but he didn't seem to reciprocate the sentiment.
I felt torn on the rating for this one. On the one hand, the family drama pulled me in: the heroine's young charge, Emilia, appeared to be her family's punching bag! On the other, the romance suffered as a result of too much focus on the family's antics and Giulio's questionable commitment to Lucy.
Commitment posed no problem for Lucy however, in regards to her new feelings for Giulio and her role as nanny. She tried her best to protect Emilia, but really didn't have much power considering the circumstances. (Thank goodness for the comic relief of Marco, Lucy's other charge and Emilia's brother, to add some levity.) And despite possessing strength where Emilia was concerned, Lucy transformed into Play-Doh whenever Giulio came near.
Giulio waffled on his feelings for Lucy much more than I would have liked. One minute he was jealous, or angry on her behalf, and in the next he seemed perfectly willing to let her leave without a fight. Maybe that was Giulio just being nice and selfless, but to me it signified a lack of intense passion on his part which made the romance less satisfying.
Giulio might have been the ultimate temptation for Lucy, but he didn't seem to reciprocate the sentiment.
November 11, 2014
this was a frustrating book to read... The heroine seemed to fall in love a little too easily(within 48 hours of meeting the hero) and the hero was blowing hot and cold throughout. It was hard to make out whether they actually felt something genuine for each other. there was not enough romance, but several evil plots and not-very-interesting sub characters. This is more of a drama novel than a straightforward Mills&Boon love story. It's also, not my cup of tea!
April 27, 2017
Leído el 04/12/2010
June 9, 2018
I enjoyed it. A decent read.
The H is a sweetheart, the h is lovely, and the niece needs therapy because of her witch of grandmother.
The H is a sweetheart, the h is lovely, and the niece needs therapy because of her witch of grandmother.
February 16, 2022
Whoooa, there is SOOOO much happening, and nothing having time to flourish. We’ve got a heartbroken heroine hanging with party fools, a hero who is smitten with the heroine but doesn’t express his feelings til the last 3 pages, the loser ex magically showing up with the girl he dumped the heroine for, the bimbo sister in law, poor on the side kids(save that girl child!!! She is being abused!!!! By her grandmother and brother!), abusive terrible mother in law, and spoiled stupid other woman. Then a sprinkle of exmachina characters that barely appear. It’s too much, and so many coincidences that make the reader not take the story seriously. Skip, not romantic, not fun, not well paced.
own-but-wont-read-or-wallbanger
November 4, 2019Must be able to handle children and one particular Italian male…
Giulio Falcone needed a willing woman, and Lucy was in his debt…and his house! Only, his interest in her was as much practical as sexual�he needed a nanny to look after his sister's children. Lucy found herself in the wrong place at the wrong time.
She could just about cope with Marco and little Emilia�it was their uncle she was finding a real handful! Tall, dark and deadly sexy�Giulio was the ultimate in temptations and one Lucy was finding hard to resist!
Giulio Falcone needed a willing woman, and Lucy was in his debt…and his house! Only, his interest in her was as much practical as sexual�he needed a nanny to look after his sister's children. Lucy found herself in the wrong place at the wrong time.
She could just about cope with Marco and little Emilia�it was their uncle she was finding a real handful! Tall, dark and deadly sexy�Giulio was the ultimate in temptations and one Lucy was finding hard to resist!
March 28, 2019
Other reviews have better overviews. I enjoyed this, and it's complex enough to enjoy at some much later date, again.
March 11, 2017
Honestly, I can't feel the romance :-/
December 9, 2017
روايات احلام
-233 المطلوب امراة:
سارة كريفن
كان الكونت جو ليو فالكون حلم كل امراة وقدم يد المساعدة ل لوسى عندما احتاجت وتوقعت ان يطلب شيئا بالمقابل كانت لوسي مدينه له .. والكونت يريد مربية لاولاد شقيقته . فقط فلماذا تشعر انها اخطات فى قبول عرضه ! ولماذا هذا الاحساس بانها اختارت المكان الغير مناسب والتوقيت غير المناسبّ! قد يكون خطؤك الوحيد يا لوسي هو في بقاؤك قريبة من هذا الرجل.
-233 المطلوب امراة:
سارة كريفن
كان الكونت جو ليو فالكون حلم كل امراة وقدم يد المساعدة ل لوسى عندما احتاجت وتوقعت ان يطلب شيئا بالمقابل كانت لوسي مدينه له .. والكونت يريد مربية لاولاد شقيقته . فقط فلماذا تشعر انها اخطات فى قبول عرضه ! ولماذا هذا الاحساس بانها اختارت المكان الغير مناسب والتوقيت غير المناسبّ! قد يكون خطؤك الوحيد يا لوسي هو في بقاؤك قريبة من هذا الرجل.
December 22, 2020
One of the Harlequin plots I dislike the most: Rich Italian guy convinces youngish English girl to substitute nanny his niece and nephew in recompense for having been with a group staying in his chateau illegally. Of course they fall in love and of course his step sister's extraordinarily nasty mother is conniving to have him marry her niece and frames the heroine for theft.
I managed to finish by skimming the last couple of chapters
I managed to finish by skimming the last couple of chapters
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews