The Italian Billionaire's Baby Plan

by Flora Lanoux

Italian billionaire playboy Carlo Morelli wants a baby, but he doesn’t want a wife. Used to getting what he wants, he comes up with a baby plan: he will pay a woman one million euros to have his baby and then walk away.

Grace Matthews, an English law student from Devon, is in trouble. She has run out of money to finish her final year of university.

Blind fate throws the pair together in the form of Carlo's cousin, Olivia Givichi, who is also a law student. After much pleading, Olivia convinces Grace to meet with Carlo.

Initially, Carlo doesn’t think Grace is a good surrogacy candidate. Not only is her father a lay preacher, but also she looks like a Renaissance Madonna with her country girl looks.

When Grace first meets Carlo, she doesn’t think that he's great daddy material. Not only does he come from one of the most high-ranking criminal families in Naples, but also he’s a playboy, and she has no hesitation in telling him just what she thinks of him.

And that’s when things get complicated -- real complicated -- as the people in Carlo and Grace's lives get involved, especially Carlo’s father, Arturo, who has terminal cancer. Arturo is determined to see his only son married off before he takes his final breath. And Arturo is used to getting what he wants.

Genres: Contemporary Romance

604 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 17, 2014

Reviews

[Denise Bailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

So we return to the Morelli family. YES!!! I will say up front that this book is not short. It is seriously longer than any of Ms. Lanoux's books and I think this was an amazing decision on her part. If she was going to return to this amazingly interesting family then I wanted her to do it right. There were sooo many interesting characters and sooo many different directions to go. I was also interested to see what would happen if Ms. Lanoux allowed herself to go for it and write a novel and not a novella. Brava!!! She ticked every box I had. We had characters worthy of the rich loving development she allowed for each of them, we had a really interesting story, we had my love of the third person character of her setting, and we had great side characters. Each was given their due and it showed. This was literally a tour de force. Now I want to go back and read the earlier books. I loved that she didn't waste one moment within this book. It would have been oh so easy given the length but the restraint she show speaks to her exceptional talent as a skilled author. We already know the Morelli family so Carlo was not a surprise. What he wanted was something I could see him want and could easily attain. I could see him just wanting to order up a baby on demand. I LOVED that Ms. Lanoux gave us Grace. We needed a strong character to stand up to this incredibly strong force. Grace gave as good as she got. Carlo needed that. That Carlo didn't find her a worthy candidate gave me a chuckle. She was THE perfect candidate!!! Now, by far, my favorite character was Auturo. What a hoot. Someone stronger than Carlo. Again Ms. Lanoux's wicked sense of humor to give us a character who is stronger than Carlo. I LOVED him. He was not going to have any of this messing around business and he was EXACTLY the man to get the job done. Carlo didn't stand a chance. I clearly loved this book and am very proud of the exquisite talent that is Flora Lanoux. She has a gift for crafting stories we love and it is beyond clear she has serious writing chops. Now I usually thank her at this point for my enjoyable afternoon reading but in this case it was a series of days and I loved each and every one of them. Great job! denise bailey

[hobilane]

dnf at around 60%.

there was an excessive usage of exclamation mark/point. it makes the character sound either super excited or anxious which can be quite strange after a while like, calm yo tits why are you getting so worked up for? in my honest opinion, the book was too long and the storyline was a bit strange. i mean, yeah i'm fine with books of the same storyline but there's absolutely no chemistry between grace and carlo at all.
his excuse for wanting to have a baby of his own was..erm, lame.

i tried to finish this book by skipping the pages but it just seemed never-ending.

[Lisa Gemmell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad romance book, liked it was long book, the characters all clicked and even though I could of used a little more chemistry the story was what I expected.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a beautiful well written, well thought out journey that is simply perfect. Definitely worthwhile read