Dark Desiring

by Jacqueline Baird

His plan had worked--she couldn't leave!

Helen Coulthard arrived in Sicily prepared for a work-filled two weeks. It was only when her "boss" deposited her at Carlo Manzitti's villa that she realized her plight.

Carlo Manzitti--the man who'd swept her off her feet two years ago, the man she'd agreed to marry. Until she'd learned the real reason behind his pursuit of her....

Vengeance for the wrong her father had done him. And it appeared there was no time limit on the pain he could cause her--no time limit on her foolish love.

Genres: Harlequin, Harlequin Presents, Romance, Second Chance, Contemporary Romance, Hqn, Kidnapping

189 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Jacqueline Baird was born on the 1st of April at home in a small village Northumbria, England, UK, where she raised. She went to the local village school, and later an all-girls' grammar school where she passed the University of Oxford General Certificate of Education in various subjects. On leaving school she joined the civil service in the then Post Office department.

She met her husband Jim, when she was only eighteen. Eight years later, after working as a hotel receptionist in a five-star hotel in Scotland and traveling abroad for a few years, she came home and married him. They still live in Northumbria and have two grown sons.

Her number one love is writing. She has always been an avid reader, and she had her first success as a writer at the age of eleven, when she won the first prize in the Nature Diary of the Year competition at school. But she always felt a little guilty because her diary was more fiction than fact. Apart from a spell as a hopeful painter in oils, when she actually did have a painting accepted for the Federation of Northern Artists' annual exhibition her real passion was for romance novels. When her sons went to school all day she thought she would try writing one. Jacqueline Baird's been writing for Mills & Boon since 1988, and she still gets a thrill every time a new book is published.

When Jacqueline is not busy writing she likes to spend her time traveling, reading and playing cards. She was a keen sailor until a knee injury ended her sailing days, but she still enjoys swimming in the sea. She visits a gym twice a week now and has made the surprising discovery that she gets some good ideas while doing the mind-numbingly boring exercises on the cycling and weight machines.

Reviews

[StMargarets · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was thrown by the name on the cover "Jacqui" Baird. Was this the same author as Jacqueline Baird, queen of obsessed heroes intent on revenge? Seems that this is the same author, but like her name being shortened on the title page, this hero's "revenge" is woefully short-lived as it is apparent to even the most dim-witted reader that this hero is obsessed and has been obsessed for six long years. Fortunately for the length of the story, the heroine is dim-witted enough to miss all of the tender glances and the plot holes in the revenge story she has told herself.

The hero's obsessions - let us count the ways.

He bought a company so heroine would have employment after her parent's deaths and so he could keep tabs on her.
He bought the land and built a villa that over looks the place where he first saw her cavorting naked on the beach six years. (Heroine is repressed because of convent upbringing, but swims naked outdoors in a foreign country - discuss)
He kept the engagement ring from two years before and wants a braided gold wedding band because she was wearing her hair in a braid when he first met her.
Sends her letters that were never answered because her father intercepted them.

Heroine should have a note pinned on her - let us count the ways:

Never questioned father's story or asked her stepmother what the hero was really like.
Fell for the OW's story over and over again.
Never asked the hero what he meant by any of his cryptic statements - I've been waiting six years being one of them. Wouldn't a sentient being ask why he would say that when she's only known him for two years?
Actually thought he could take her half-brother away.
Thinks he remembers her favorite food and how she wore her hair because he's planned an detailed revenge (as opposed to a sloppy revenge?) - same with buying the company and treating her to lots of hot sex.

The hero's obsession finally pays off when heroine actually adds two and two and comes up with four concerning the OW. (That's not true and helpful friends has to set her straight. I don't think the heroine was capable of math at that point). After heroine tries to put things right with the hero, we're treated to several pages of the hero painstakingly explaining with charts, diagrams and hand puppets where the heroine had the story wrong. (It's sweet, but a little tedious for those of us who were clued in from the beginning).

[Verity · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was verra good up until the creepiness of hero groaning out loud on the verge of boarding reluctant wifey's boat on wedding nite that he had waited 6 friggin years for this. Stunned by the last-sec revelation, hawt young wife was bothered & turned into an insta cold dish. Well, who wouldn't be, 6 yrs ago he hadn't even known her yet & he was engaged to heroine's stepmom @ the time, before heroine's stepmom ran off w/ her dad. So the big mis was cleared up @ the end when hero fessed up that yeah he was the peeping Tom who witnessed her skinny dipping on the beach, the last time heroine was in Sicily w/ her over-protective dad. Hero allegedly lusted after his fantasy gurl for 6 yrs & hit the jackpot when he met heroine again years later by chance, during her shopping trip w/ her stepmom aka his runaway ex-fiancée.

So math isn't my forte, but I thought it was disturbing cuz :
A) If I'm not mistaken, upon maneuvered reunion, Hero is 36 y/o when the book opens, heroine is 20 y/o.
B) H/h got engaged verra briefly 2 yrs ago, he was 34 y/o, she's 18 y/o, the May-Dec romance was completely legal.
C) 6 yrs ago, he was a 30 y/o dude who got his juices flowing upon peeping on a nekid 14 y/o virginal goddess ???

Otha than that cweepy aspect, hero was a luvly, sweet, besotted, scarred, celibate, visually-impaired, pilot-wannabe alpha. Aaaww-worthy, esp when we're told the lengths he had gone to, in the name of luv for heroine. Such a sucka.

[boogenhagen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Re Dark Desiring - JB's debut HP firmly establishes the tropes she will use for most of her future books-- utterly absurd H threats leading to blackmail, revenge and forced marriage with really evil OW who usually turn out to be wanna be OW's but the h will never believe it to the very end of the book.

It also firmly establishes that while her H's are usually badly behaving Alpha Italians or Greeks, they are great at making scary threatening earie faces and really, really bad about actually following through on their grand plan o'vengeance. Besides what kind of filthy rich brain dead person MARRIES someone for revenge anyway? With no prenup and a guaranteed baby bonus? (Only in a JB HP, and if those tropes are your cuppa, you will have a marvelous time in the JB province of HPlandia.)

Nevertheless, a JB H will do just those things with his h, and the h will ALWAYS fall for the bluff of some horrible threat that the H completely and utterly never really meant to do anyways. While it doesn't make JB's h's and H's the sharpest tools in the box, it does prove HP travelers a HUGE amount of entertainment and makes JB one of the greats of HPlandia, even if it is only for the reader to have a little ranty moment over what her H's are getting up to in bad behavior and why her h's are tolerating it.

Dark Desiring starts with the h being told by her new young playboy boss that she has to go with him to Italy for an important conference. The h is a bit disappointed because she planned to go sailing with her friend Robbie over the weekend, but she needs the secreatrial/interpreter job as her father and stepmother are dead and she has a granny and a little half brother to help support. So the h cancels her sail with her friend and packs her bag for Italy.

Except the whole thing is a set up, the h's job and the whole trip to Italy are the devious maneuverings of the h's ex fiance to get her firmly in his clutches. The h ditched him pretty hard two years ago when she was 18 and he wants vengeance - or at least that is what he wants the h to think. Two years earlier the h and her stepmum went to Italy to shop and visit the stepmum's family. The h is very well versed in Italian culture, she had summered there every year with her antiquarian expert father up until she was 14yrs old and she speaks fluent Italian.

While the h is shopping, she meets the H and it is love at first sight between the 18 yr old h and the 32yr old H. Over the week that follows, the passion is high and the romance is epic - then the h's dad comes to town and dismisses the h one true love and big engagement as a devious plot by the H for revenge. It seems that the new step mum was actually engaged to the H previously, until she elopes (with the conniving OW's encouragement,) with the h's dad.

The h's dad is extremely protective of his daughter and very embittered that the H's father got him banned from further antiquarian expeditions in Italy when he eloped with the H's fiancee years ago. The h was convent raised and thus used to taking her father's word as law, she is shocked and hurt that the H might have deceived her and goes back to England with her parents. There she starts uni and puts her grand dream of love behind her. Then her parents die in a car accident, she quits uni in favor of a secretarial course that offers a quick path to a well paid job and get on with the business of helping to support her granny and little brother.

But now she is shanghaied by the H, and it soon becomes clear that the H has no intention of letting her go. The H puts the big engagement ring he bought her two years ago on her finger, takes her passport and makes the statement that the h has a little brother - then he parades her as his fiancee in front of his family and friends and sets up the wedding. He has built a villa in a sheltered cove that the h vaguely remembers from a visit 6 years earlier, she had been out walking about while her father had been visiting an old friend and she snuck a little skinny dip in cause it was hot. As she is exiting the ocean in all her nude glory, a man comes along and the h is startled back into her clothes and runs off. The villa happens to be built in that very same cove.

The h infers that the H is going to do something horrible (what we never know,) from his casual reference to her little half brother, so she makes a bargain with the H. She will marry him, be kinda compliant and give him a child if he will let her go after she delivers the baby and she will leave the kid with him when she departs. The H takes that offer and the wedding is on.

We also get to meet the H's friends who have multiple little kids and the h is impressed by how good the H is with them and also how his friends seem to think the H is the best thing since slice bread. The OW is mentioned as having caused considerable trouble between the h's stepmum, her brother and the H when she set her cap for the H but he wasn't interested and so she married the h's stepmum's brother instead and was horrible to everybody forever more until the both the stepmum's and the brother's death. The h is forewarned now about the evilness of the OW, but really she has no clue.

The H then selects a braided wedding ring for the h, as she had her hair braided when they first met and the wedding plans are humming along. The h's granny comes over for the wedding and gives her blessing to the union. Granny wants the little brother to stay with her and some good friends who are moving into her house. The granny insists that she can care for the h's little brother just fine, her married friends are honorary aunt and uncle and lil bro will be going to boarding school in five years anyway and the H is generous to his family. She also explains that the h's mother died from complications after her birth and the doctor blamed the h's father for negligence. This spurred the father into a 180 in his behaviour and he became very conservative and over-protective with the h. But everyone is all settled now and the h and H can get off to a good start on their new life together.

So the wedding happens on the H's father's estate and then we are off to the big reception, where the OW is waiting to get her barbs in. Finally the h and H are alone for the big consummation, the H tells the h he has waited six years for the big lurve club moment and the h interprets that as he has been waiting six years to get even for the stepmum running out on him. She tries to stop the inevitable but it is too late and eventually she enjoys herself, but she isn't very happy about it.

The lurve clubbing enjoyment firmly established, the H does his best to court the h. He takes her out to sight see and cooks for her, cause she can't cook at all, and he shares his uni experiences in England with her. The h is gradually coming around to the marriage deal and the H certainly doesn't seem very vengeful, just infatuated when the OW strikes again. The H and h are returning from a little outing when the OW is waiting and makes the comment that the h is "turning into an obedient Sicilian wife" and the h assumes that the OW was his mistress and the H discussed the h with her.

The H tells the OW off, but the h is oblivious , the H said that exact phrase to her during his threatening moment and the h is bitterly humiliated that the H shared his revenge marriage plan with the OW. Things get even worse when the H takes her to a party where the OW is at and then proceeds to ignore the h to talk with his older friends - including the OW. The h gets buzzed, dances with her old boss who is also the H's nephew and parties with the younger crowd. This makes the H really jealous, but the h doesn't care cause he ignored her for his friends. The H apologizes and the h is happily intoxicated so mutual passion ensues.

A bit later on, the h realizes she is preggers - she also thinks that the H cheated on her while on a business trip with the OW cause she called his Rome apartment and the OW answered and implied that she and the H were lurvin it up. The h is mad and heartbroken cause she still loves the H after all. Things are looking grim, the H and h aren't talking to each other and are making glarey faces, the h tells him to find another bed mate and goes on a long term mopey rant. Then the H's other friends show up and the wife explains that the H is totally in love and the OW just married one of the H's other friends - the H had lent them his Rome apartment and got a hotel room the night the h called. The h is happy and relieved and now has to go into HP h shy seduction mode to restore the happy smile to the H and get him to admit his true love.

The h puts on a little slinky number and stands on the balcony and tells the H she loves him. He loves her back and sweeps her off her feet, the h explains about her father and the H swears he wrote to the h after she left but they both figure the father destroyed the H's letter to keep the h at home. It doesn't matter now cause the H never wanted revenge, he wanted the h since the first time he saw her skinny dipping six years earlier - the h had no clue the man she ran from that day was the H, but he knew that body as soon as he saw it again four years later apparently and was delighted that he knew the stepmum to get an introduction.

The H never really wanted to marry the h's stepmum - he just proposed to stop the OW's gossip and he never slept with the OW ever or discussed the h with her, the obedient wife deal is some thing the H's father always says and that all of Sicily knows. The H has also been celibate since the first time he and the h got engaged, which has been two years. Mainly cause the H never gave her up and all his little machinations have been to get her back. His plans got moved up a bit cause he thought the h was going sailing with a man, but the h explains that it was a girl who had a masculine name and anyways they are preggers and madly in love and the world is wonderful for the whole pink sparkly HP sunset HEA.

This one is a pretty good book and great introduction to the JB HP style. It is so obvious the H is wild about the h and she is so clueless about how he feels that it makes for a lot of entertainment. The one ick is that the h was about 14 when the H decided he was in love from one quick glimpse - but the h's age at that time isn't really stressed on, so it is fairly to easy to overlook to enjoy the story.

This one should be read if you want to test your tolerance for all things JB, it hits all of her major tropes and the H isn't as badly behaved as some of her other H's. Give this one a go if you run into it, the HEA is believable and while the h is a bit clueless, she still tries very hard to assert herself which makes this HP jaunt a great time by the end and nice addition to HPlandia.

[Jasbell76 · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 🌟
I really liked this book. I found out this was the first book by Jacqueline Baird. It's very interesting that she used the same writing style in most of her books (I'm telling it in a good way), the angst, the crazy OW, the flashbacks, the connections between the past and the present events of the story, the good people that sorround the main characters, specially the heroine of this story, she wasn't alone 🥺 even though her parents have passed away. I liked Carlo very much, he was very in love with "Helena", I believed his love for her. The grovelling scene was great. I think is one of the longest scene I have ever read in Harlequin books 😅
Helen on the other hand, she was a stubborn and immature at times, but I could tolerate it 😒
The only one thing I missed in the story was the epilogue, I'm a sucker of them, but I'm satisfied both will become parents

[Aou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Too much pride is the best way to ensure lots of needless pain. Lol

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 Stars ~ Helen lost her mother when she was just a baby, and that changed her then carefree father, making him a man determined to protect and provide the best for her. Her father traveled extensively to Italy, and always took Helen with him, making Italian a second language for her and Italy a country she adored. In her teens, her father stopped taking her to Italy and on one trip he came home with a new step-mother, a much younger woman. Maria and Helen got along wonderfully, and Helen welcomed the new brother their marriage created. At 18, Maria took Helen to Rome on a shopping excursion and a chance for Maria to see her family. They bumped into Carlos, Maria's brother's business partner, and the instant chemistry between Helen and Carlos could not be denied. In the days that followed, they spent every possible moment together, and after just a two weeks Carlos proposed marriage. Helen's joy was short-lived when Carlos met with her father, and it was became obvious the two men knew each other. Her father's instant rejection of Carlos and insistence that Carlos had only been using Helen as a means of revenge, as Maria had been Carlos' fiancee until her father stole her, devastated Helen.

Now two years later, both Maria and Helen's father are dead as a result of a tragic accident. Helen and her young brother live with her grandmother. To help support them all, Helen works as a secretary, her fluency in Italian an asset. When her boss insists that Helen accompany him to Sicily for a few weeks, Helen is happy for the chance to return to a country she so loves. Only when she arrives she discovers it's all been a big trick to get her back into Carlos' territory. Finding herself a guest in his villa, she learns he set her up, and he fully intends to have the marriage she promised him. He's angry and bitter that she had shut him out two years ago, and now he will have his revenge. Helen will marry him, or he'll ruin her family.

Ms. Baird quickly brings a mood of immense tension between Helen and Carlos. Helen, though two years older, is still naive when it comes to relationships. She hates the effect that Carlos has on her but doesn't have the experience to fight it. Carlos is one determined hero. He lost her two years ago, and now he's going to have her. I was astonished when he reveals he'd been celibate, and thought bravo to Ms. Baird. Carlos obviously has to wait for Helen to grow up, something she takes her time about, which causes them both a lot of heartache. This is Ms. Baird's debut, and I really enjoyed it.

[Jenny · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am a glutton for punishment. Why do I keep reading this author? her heroines are so childish and immature and vitriolic. It's hard to believe a good man would fall for such a spiteful woman!

[JillyB · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was in the mood for an obsessed hero. This did not disappoint.

Our heroine and hero met two years ago when she was 18 and he was 34. They were introduced by his ex fiancé who ran off and married the heroines dad.

The h and H are enamored with each other immediately. Within two weeks they are engaged and have picked out an engagement ring. Things are heating up and the hero wants to put a ring on it although the heroine is so hot she would have given up her V card at anytime. Things started heating up at the pool(like lets do as much as we can) and the hero had them cool off in the pool.
The heroine's over protective papa comes home and wrecks it. He says hero is out to avenge being dumped by fiance ... he spews a few things more and the young naive heroine runs off believing that her papa was correct and the hero cant be in love with her. Our book opens two years later. I call the next part of my review How do I love thee, Let me count the ways......I will share some of the hero's obsessions which will have SPOILERS! So stop reading now..... 🛑❌🛑❗️❗️SPOILERS

This is how much I love you...

I buy up a company, employ you, even though you are inexperienced , and have my nephew befriend you.

I get you to Palermo by having my nephew tell you this is a business deal, meanwhile he takes your passport and you are now my hostage

I blackmail you into marriage saying I will take your brother away(seriously I could win every poker contest, because I’m totally bluffing)

I look at you tenderly but you do not notice(oh and I do this a lot)

I make sure your favorite food is served to
You(hmm focaccia)

When you cry, it destroys me so that I tenderly undress you and lay you on your bed

I saved the engagement ring we picked out together ...2 years ago

I moved up my kidnapping scheme when it was apparent you were going to go away for the weekend with “Robbie”(oh Robbie was a girl, my nephew did not know that)


I wanted braided gold wedding rings because when I met you your hair was in a braid(oh wow! 🥰)

I told ow to stay away...in fact I told her we didn’t need her machinations...I also told you I have never ever even considered the ow as a romantic interest🤢

I made you breakfast(it’s ok you don’t cook, as long as you keep the heat up in the bedroom)

I, being a virile Sicilian, stayed celibate for two years!! I was set up on a date once, but embarrassingly my noodle didn’t want to doodle.

I was so distraught over losing you I got in a car accident which has affected my sight ..and gave me a scar(ooh but scar adds to my sexuality)

Since you’ve been gone...I have aged...I need you to give me vitality and spark

I have been rearranging my business interests so I never need leave you for business trips ever again

I sent you a heartfelt letter 2 years ago, leaving my heart open( you never responded...I know it was delivered...oh I guess your dad could have intercepted it🤔)

I came back for you...but it was your dads funeral...you were walking with a man...maybe my timing is a little off

There are more things, but I think one of my biggest things was...

I built a house at the cove where I first spotted you No, not 2 years ago, but 6 years ago. You were frolicking nude in the surf. I was entranced ...I started to move towards you but you skittered away when you noticed me..Of course you were far away...in the distance I’m pretty sure you looked older than 14 to my 30 year old eyes...not to mention we don’t want to turn off the readers of our story by saying I was attracted to a 14 year old girl, so let’s go with my advanced eyesight, long distances, and your overly mature body😉

This book checked off the obsessed hero for me. At times, the heroine’s immaturity and lack of faith in the hero got to me, but then I realized she was a very innocent 20 year old...raised by a single overprotective father and educated by nuns. She had to come to the realization that her papa’s views on things were skewed.

All misunderstandings are cleared up and these two are definitely each other’s halves. While loving it up, there is more pounding(not in bedroom) and the H admits he has someone engraving Villa Helena on the plaque outside. Plus baby obsessive is on its way....so it’s all very lovely in HP Land!

[Leona · Rating 4 out of 5]

oh, I do so love a Hero..who knows what he wants!!!

[Megzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this one. The characters were well developed and likable. I read it in one afternoon.

[Su · Rating 2 out of 5]

I could enjoy the book more if only h was not so childish and idiotic.

[رومولا الن emmajain-book · Rating 3 out of 5]

قرأتها بعنوان الرغبة المظلمة
بترجمة منتدى روايتي
روايةومليئة بالرومانسية
أحببت العلاقة بين هيلين وكارلو
ممتع ككل الروايات وخفيفه

[Vee · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars

Typical oldies where the H was ott alpha arrogant male that was besotted with the clueless, easily manipulated h. Wanted more for the ending like maybe several years after the baby was born or something but overall a good read.

[April Brookshire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another cheesy cover, but at least she isn't pregnant or holding a baby. I really liked this one. The hero loves her so much but pride and her youth kept them apart for 2 years. Obviously from the wedding dress and their smiling faces they got their happy ending.

[Soma · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't Like this one!
There were lots of misunderstanding between the H and h that it could have been solved if they just sat down and talked!

[Lizzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first Jacqueline Baird book! And turns out it was her debut too, and what an enchanting debut it is (some of the kinda-creepy timeline issues notwithstanding)

Set entirely in Italy (mostly Sicily but the flashback is based in Rome), Dark Desiring follows the romance of a young English girl, Helen Coulthard, with Carlo Manzitti, the Sicilian who had wooed and planned to marry her two years prior to the events of the book... presumably for revenge. It's one of those "revenge" books where the "revenge" is really a cover for winning the heroine back, because she won't be easily convinced he actually loves her and he's pretty scared anyway of being vulnerable to her. So while the H does make some threats, most of it is bluff, and he's really more cranky than angry.

The book begins with 20 year old Helen (h) flying to a Sicilian coast on a plane that her boss presumably borrowed from his uncle. She has vague memories of skinny dipping at this coast 6 years prior - on one of her father's final visits to Sicily before he met and later married her stepmum Maria - and being frightened away by the sight of a man. In any case, she believes she is there on secretarial work until she encounters her boss' uncle, at his villa. The uncle is the 36 year old H, billionaire Carlo Manzitti. Not only is her boss Carlo's nephew, but Carlo also bought the ENTIRE COMPANY and installed the nephew there and found out where she was and ensured she got and accepted the offer to work there...just so he could get Helen there and demand she marry him.

2 years ago, Carlo was introduced to Helen as a friend of her stepmother Maria, and business partner for a venture run by Maria's brother. It seems like love at first sight for both, and they waste no time touring Rome and kissing like there's no tomorrow.

Carlo as an openly besotted lover has zero chill. He meets the woman of his dreams on Thursday, shows her the sights and kisses her the same evening, attends to family duties over the weekend before meeting her again the next Monday, proposes to her on Wednesday, picks engagement rings on Thursday, plans to speak to Helen's dad on Friday and take her to meet his dad over that weekend (there is also "almost makes love to her on Friday" but from the looks of the writing he clearly didn't plan that). Luckily for him Helen knows no chill either and is absolutely down for this whirlwind courtship, even though her stepmother is a bit nervous about the age gap between the two.

Here to throw a bucketload of ice over the lead couple's no-chill courtship is the h's father. The dad is 100% convinced that Carlo targetted his daughter to avenge the slight of the stepmum's marriage, since he was actually the fiancé that the stepmum had to ditch to elope with the dad, and his family was responsible for the dad's entry into Sicily being barred henceforth. Carlo refutes wherever he can but because certain aspects of the father's story have a grain of truth...poor Helen is totally convinced by the end of the dad's tirade that Carlo never loved her and cynically wanted to hurt her family.

(We later find that while the h was crying her eyeballs out in the garden, the H was a few steps short of begging the dad to let him marry her and left only when he was 100% sure the dad wouldn't listen. Also, the stepmum - who btw ONLY had an issue with the union coz of age and the deplorable lack of chill from both of them - catches one glimpse of the argument between the dad and Carlo and literally scampers away, petrified. More on this stepmum later because boy do I have a few thoughts regarding her!

Also! Carlo is so distressed by this turn of events that he accidentally crashes his car, gets a lifelong scar over his temple and is left with partial blindness in one of his eyes).

Hurt, the h goes to university and closes herself off to other people, especially other guys. The dad and her stepmum die in a car crash a year later, leading her to drop out of University, apply for a secretarial course and earn for her Grandma and half-brother.

So now she's trapped in this villa at the coast with her ex-fiancé, and he's demanding that they revive their engagement, meet his dad and get married that Friday (still no chill, I see). She can't escape, because Carlo's nephew had her passport, and her surviving family cannot know this is under duress because if they do Carlo implies he is capable of spreading rumours about her stepbrother's parentage. Helen won't risk calling his bluff, so she accepts and goes along with the plan but makes it clear as often as possible that she's not happy.

Still, the brief courtship period isn't devoid of its secretly tender moments from either side. There's the family heartily approving of Carlo's choice of bride, there's her weeping in his arms when she learns of her stepmum's brother's death and him tenderly taking care of her, there's Helen getting her favourite focaccia for breakfast (even though she knows she told Carlo about it in passing only once), and there's Helen trying really really hard to remind herself that she dislikes him, yet melting everytime she sees his scar. The next day, unsettled with his tenderness and her own reaction to it, she gets Carlo to agree to a condition where she will leave him after their first child is born (Carlo thinks this is some crazy, impulsive shit that she's going to realise she won't be able to do later on, so he pretends to agree).

The two meet some old friends of Carlo, Also and Anna. Helen finds herself warming up to them and finds out some more background about Carlo and her stepmum. Turns out he was good friends with the siblings until a woman called Caterina came along. She was initially interested in Carlo but married Helen's stepmum's brother when rejected, then started spreading rumours about him and the stepmum. To mitigate the damage of those, Carlo offered to stage an engagement. Helen also finds out that Caterina instigated her dad and stepmum into eloping without informing Carlo, even though Carlo would have happily agreed to end the engagement. Helen is surprised by this information but can't quite believe that her dad was wrong.

And this is where her grandmother (who was brought from England along with her stepbrother for the wedding) comes in. She notices Helen's nervousness the night before the wedding, and gives her some insight into her father's own background. At Helen's age both he and her birth mother were free-spirited, impulsive people who flouted convention, but their recklessness cost them the mother's life when Helen was born. She died of a disease and the father was faulted for negligence (I think they were trying to do a home birth without much experience, rather than go to a hospital). Shattered by this, he becomes extremely protective of his family - close to paranoid - and jealously guards them. The Grandma hints that it was possible that the dad may have gone overboard with whatever reservations he did have about Carlo, because Carlo clearly seems to love her.

The wedding goes without a hitch but the same can't really be said about the wedding night. It starts off great, their chemistry is still amazing, but just before they have sex Helen hears Carlo whisper about how he's waited for this for six years and freaks out (because they had met only two years ago and "six years ago" was clearly when the h's dad and stepmum met). In short, the wedding night's a disaster, and though they do continue to make love, Helen is on her guard (the narrative implies that she keeps her hands on his shoulders rather than run them over him, showing her reluctance to take the intimacy further).

Still, their first fortnight is rather bittersweet and not as bad as Helen was expecting. She's wary but touched about the surprise romantic gestures he pulls - cooking for her, giving her a rose in a coffee mug (because his housekeeper is possessive of her kitchen so he can't find a case), showing her Mt Etna over helicopter, teasing her in a vineyard. However, seeing Caterina brings back her earlier prickliness and she tries to mask her jealousy with bitchy remarks about their arrangement.

Those two weeks however give Helen more time to grow into her feelings for Carlo and by the end of the fortnight, when they attend a party Caterina had invited them to, Helen and Carlo finally become closer to each other emotionally as well as sexually. Helen is finally to openly desire and want him, and Carlo is ecstatic, even though he does have to travel the next day to Buenos Aires to tackle an oil spill issue from one of his shippings.

Helen is happy to wait for him and is looking forward to giving their relationship a fresh start, acknowledging that she loves Carlo and that she feels Carlo does genuinely have feelings for her. She also guesses by this time that she's pregnant and can't wait to share the news, but on his return when she tries to call his flat in Rome (he was supposed to stop over there), she hears Caterina on the phone.

Devastated and heartbroken, she reverts to her old attitude around Carlo, telling him that now she's pregnant he would need to find someone else to "satisfy his baser instincts". A previously happy Carlo now completely closes off to her, refusing to even talk to her or acknowledge her presence. But during a visit to Anna and Aldo's place, she finds out that Caterina was actually in Carlo's Rome apartment with her new husband, as he had loaned it to them for their wedding. She also finds out from Anna that Carlo is crazy about her, and that even though his family (and particularly his dad) support going lengths to take revenge on slights, Carlo is of a far more romantic bent of mind so revenge was never a priority.

Hearing all this causes Helen to completely reevaluate her past with Carlo, and how much of what she believed of him was her father's projection. She also acknowledges that she can't live without him and that she needs to fit their current situation whatever way she can. So she dresses up in a sexy lingerie piece he had bought for her earlier and confesses her love to him this time. Carlo tries initially to resist, but wholeheartedly responds the moment she does that. Still, before they actually make love he demands that she promise to keep every vow they made in church from now on, rather than place any more "stupid conditions".

The next morning sees the two in the afterglow of that night, and it's now time for explanations. Carlo makes it clear that he never had time for any petty revenges or vendettas - that's more his father's thing. He had actually seen and fallen for Helen when he first saw her six years ago, skinny dipping at the coast a week after his engagement to her stepmum. He was pretty sure he'd never be able to go through with a wedding and was secretly relieved she eloped. By the time he met Helen again he was elated that Helen was related to the stepmum so the latter could then make an introduction.

He also fills in the details on confronting her dad and the aftermath. Turns out he'd assumed the whole elopement thing was water-under-the-bridge on both sides and didn't realise Helen's dad would read into it differently until he started talking. He was in fact totally ready to laugh it all off before seeing Helen's face and understanding that she believed what her dad said. He comes as close as he possibly can to begging the dad for her hand, and doesn't even get the stepmum's support coz she's too terrified of the conflict to vouch for him. He would have tried to follow her sooner but he winds up in the accident, and then his dad has a stroke the same year which means he has to stay behind and take care of him.

He still kept in touch with the stepmum over that year, and she promised to bring Helen along with her at some point and reunite the couple. Unfortunately for them, both Helen's parents and the stepmum's brother die around the same time, and while Carlo attends the dad and stepmum's funeral, he refrains from talking to her both because of the timing and because he sees a man holding her (turns out it was an older neighbour she regards as a father figure). There was even a point where his nephew, seeing how lovelorn his uncle has become, tries to get him to have some fun but his noodle, as boogenhagen would put it, doesn't doodle.

It was at this point his plan to win Helen back was set in motion, and they were actually supposed to bring her to Sicily that November, but shifted it to much earlier because his nephew (Helen's boss) learned from her that she was going sailing with someone called "Robbie" (turns out "Robbie" was a girl named Roberta she had met at a sailing club) and wanted to make sure she didn't get engaged or in any other serious relationships before Carlo married her.

He also explains that Caterina really is a perpetual shit-stirrer and that he never really liked her. All the times he was meeting and being friendly with her had to do with getting hold of her husband's (his late best friend's) shares of the business they owned so he could have some ownership. As one of the other reviews mentioned, Carlo spends most of the final chapter presenting graphs, diagrams and flowcharts of where Helen had gotten it all wrong...and while that might be tiring for some, I personally enjoy seeing the tubelight finally flash in the heroine's brain lol. I'm a masochist. The more the heroine frustrates me with her sheer inability to see when a guy loves her, the more entertained I am.

Suffice to say the HEA is satisfying and I can totes imagine these two loving it up in vineyards, over phone (YES this book had an *almost* phone sex scene) and in every water body known to humankind.

This book is a real treat primarily because of the hero. He's besotted, he's alpha, he's pretty obvious (to the reader and to every who is not Helen) about his feelings for her. There's no H PoV (so far I think the only Harlequin author I know who has consistently done H PoVs was Penny Jordan) but you get a pretty good idea even when he's supposed to be the mean guy that he's crazy about this girl. There are all these lovely little details that the heroine dwells on for a second before reverting to her dad's perception of him - how his hair has slightly greyed in the time they were apart, his choosing a braided wedding ring because her hair was braided when they first met, the pain in his eyes when her snappy comments cross a line. He's basically a romantic who knows the girl he loves has lost her trust in him, and he would rather regain it through his actions rather than convincing her verbally.

Again, I tend to find sheltered heroines endearing, and there's a lot of that in Helen. She does tend to grate with her refusal to let go of her father's perception of Carlo, but tbh she was brought up under an authoritarian father and grew under the tutelage of convent nuns, so there's a lot of shame and self-loathing tied in with the memories of her time with Carlo. So I can see why trusting him and letting go takes her so long. It isn't just that Carlo seems to represent values she doesn't like, it's that she doesn't entirely like who she was around him, and needed to understand that her feelings and their intensity were normal and natural. You can see a gradual breakdown in the way Helen see her father's worldview, and her reluctance to admit how wrong he truly was because she wants to preserve her hero-worship of him. Yet it is inevitable for her to realize that the dad's paranoia could have possibly cost her a lifetime of love and marriage with a man completely devoted to her, if Carlo hadn't fought to break through those walls.

While we're on the subject of her dad, I found myself being frustrated with another character in the book - her stepmother. She is viewed generally as this wonderful young woman who is loved and valued by the people around her, and it's also specified that she is timid and isn't a fan of confrontations, but her passivity I found frustrating. I understand that she's a bit afraid of going openly against Helen's dad. I also understand that she had her own reservations of the match between Carlo and Helen owing to their age, reservations which she had left go of before she died, seeing as she kept in touch with him and wanting the two to meet again. But it boggles my mind that she did *nothing* on the home turf to change HELEN'S view of him. Especially considering she knew Carlo, was still maintaining a friendship with him against her husband's wishes and was rooting for the couple, the least she could have done was to secretly let Helen know the truth. Sure there was a policy in the house to never bring up Carlo's name again but the stepmum was already flouting that by secretly talking to him. She could have just made sure Helen knew the truth too. But then again, without the stepmum not doing shit, we'd have less of a story I guess.

Lastly, a HUGE shoutout to Ms Baird for not only giving her hero brown eyes, but actually CALLING them brown rather than "dark". Don't get me wrong, I love my blue/green/tawny/gray/silver eyed heroes but it's rare to see a hero or heroine (so far, at least) with actual dark brown eyes, and as a brown-eyed girl myself it warms my heart to see loving descriptions of those.

Overall I thought this was a lovely book and I managed to enjoy a couple rereads out of it! 4.5/5

[iamGamz · Rating 3 out of 5]

**SPOILER ALERT**

3 Dark Desiring Stars

“You didn’t really think I would let you get away from me so easily, did you, Helena? You should know that what’s mine I keep. And you are mine, aren’t you, cara?”



When she was 18, Helen Coulthard met Carlo Manzitti, the man of her dreams. Two weeks later he proposed and she was thrilled, until she learned from her father that he apparently had ulterior motives for wanting to marry her. She ran away and went on with her life.

Two years later, a supposed business trip with her boss turns into a nightmare when she realizes that Carlo, still wanting revenge for the wrong her father did, and for her leaving him, arranged her trip and is now forcing her to stay and marry him.

Dark Desiring was all about the “feels”! Helen was terrified of how Carlo made her feel. She wanted him, but fought it with all she had. Her assumption that he was after her for revenge was misguided, but never corrected by Carlo.

Carlo was the quintessential hot Sicilian alpha. He didn’t have to explain anything, he just expected to be obeyed and everyone to fall in with his plans. Helen’s disregard for what he wanted and his feelings made him angry and lash out, repeatedly. His desire for Helen was something he could not hide and everyone but Helen saw it.

I love angsty books like this and the older Harlequin Presents does them so well. Helen was the typical heroine who tries to fight her feelings, but eventually gives in. I found her a bit annoying and childish for not just talking to Carlo and getting to the bottom of their issues, but her “head in the sand” attitude made for a good story. Carlo is a bit creepy. Apparently he’s been lusting after Helen since he saw her swimming nude six years earlier, when she was just 14 and he was 32! Granted, he waited until she reached 18 to approach her, but still, she was a child.

I totally enjoyed this book and would recommend it to readers who love a little angst with their romance.

[Roub · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was one hot read! i loved how the hero was absolutely besotted! i found myself rather disliking helena. she was so mean to him! i did not find her explanations gud enough! she behaved like an immature kid two years ago, which she was plainly. but after two years, i think she wud have re-assessed the situation. it's pretty obvious dat a man bent on revenge wud not have been serious about marriage! add to dat, let alone love, carlo was not even in lust wid maria! so i dunt think ders any doubt about his motives. all the aggressiveness lied on her father's shoulders. he nearly ruined his daughter's life by his possessiveness and his hell-bent obstinacy on separating the couple!

[RomLibrary · Rating 5 out of 5]

His plan had worked--she couldn't leave! He buys her red teddy.
Helen Coulthard arrived in Sicily prepared for a work-filled two weeks. It was only when her "boss" deposited her at Carlo Manzitti's villa that she realized her plight.
Carlo Manzitti--the man who'd swept her off her feet two years ago, the man she'd agreed to marry. Until she'd learned the real reason behind his pursuit of her....
Vengeance for the wrong her father had done him. And it appeared there was no time limit on the pain he could cause her--no time limit on her foolish love.

[Fiona Marsden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good solid revenge reunion plot with a gorgeous hero in pursuit.
Two years ago the heroine dumped the hero when her overprotective dad told her the hero was only planning an evil revenge on the family because dad stole the hero’s fiancée.

Now the hero has lured her back into his power to carry out his revenge. Not actually on the family but on the heroine, for dumping him.

I enjoyed this and the ending was satisfying.

[Poonam · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[ANGELIA · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a good story, though it got a bit frustrating when the h acted like a dim bulb once too often and seemed clueless to how much the H loved her. (Everyone else knew, even the snarky OW!) True, he made their reuniting after two years seem like payback time, as he made some threats to get her to marry him (innocuous ones, had she but realizes) but her pride and stubbornness kept her from both admitting her true feelings and realizing his.

To that effect, she took things the wrong way, like when he said on their wedding night he'd waited so long, he meant to be with her, but she took it to mean getting his revenge! (DUMBO!!) Also, she should have wondered why he's said six years, when they'd only met two years ago? Perhaps it had something to do with a nude swim she thought she was taking in complete privacy, then discovered she had an audience??? She ran away not seeing him, but he sure saw her!!!

It would have been both romantic and erotic, except that she was only 14 at the time and he was 30! Gives it a YUCK factor! Why couldn't the author had made her 17, they meet a year later, and it wouldn't have seemed so bad?

The whole trouble was, when they met the h was a sheltered, overprotected daddy's girl, who pretty much worshipped her old man, not knowing he was an ex-hippie who was afraid she's turn out to be like him and her late mother, so a convent school, keeping her away from guys (the two dates she had he turned into a disaster) and marrying a younger woman from a traditional Sicilian family who would be a big sister/guardian seemed like the perfect solution until the H entered their lives! Ironically, he was the wife's ex-fiancée, and Dad puts a revenge scenario on the whirlwind romance, telling the h he only wants her to get back at him for stealing his girlfriend! Yes, convoluted but when you're only 18 and worship the ground your father walks on, it's not surprising you believe him rather than a wealthy, sophisticated, gorgeous 34-year-old man, who could have his pick of 100 women so shy settle for a nobody like you, despite a lot of sex chemistry???

Had the h been older I would have been annoyed as heck with her, but since she was only 18, I can excuse her melodrama, running off heartbroken, refusing to speak to the H, and still thinking the worst of him two years later. (Though with all the manipulating he did to get her back in his life, that is kind of understandable.)

The worst part is everything could have been straightened out a lot sooner, if only she'd answered a letter he'd sent her by registered mail, so he knew it arrived! Somehow, she never received it! Want to bet who was responsible for that???

There were some silly parts to this, like the h making the foolish statement that she'll marry him and give him the son and heir he wants and then leave! Leave her baby??? Yeah, right!!! Also, the way she acts at a party when she's jealous of the OW, drinking too much and dancing/flirting with a lot of guys to get back at the H, making you realize just how immature she is. you get another example of that when she makes a scene in the store when the H picks out a sexy red negligee for her (which she late uses to seduce him back to her.) The same goes for when she lets the OW get to her just when things were going right between her and the H, setting them back to square one. Too many incidences of her immaturity.

Of course, had he come right out and said he loved her and pay back/vengeance had nothing to do with it, all that nonsense wouldn't have happened.

I also think the stuff with the car accident could have been skipped, it just added to the drama, and there was enough of that already.

I liked the end, when they both (finally) put all their cards on the table. And there was no one else for either of them those two years. The h had occasional dates but made sure they kept their hands to themselves, and the H tried sleeping with a woman, but he just couldn't get it up! Both of them concentrated on work and family, the h trying to forget him, the H determined to get her back.

A good story, though frustrating at times.

[Lillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve decided that I’m going to start summarizing all of my Harlequin reads because they really blend together and I’d like to go back and remember what the book was actually about.


Also, I feel like Princess Irulan because I am typing this through speech to text.



The book starts off with the heroine, Helen, going on a business trip to a Sicilian island. She is reminiscing about the time she spent there with her late father. Her boss is accompanying her, and he drives her to a beautiful, large villa after confiscating her passport so that they can “quickly go through customs”


SURPRISE!!!! The villa belongs to the hero, Carlo, who set the trap for Helen to be in his house and in his custody. Queue some body betrayal.



Flashback to two years earlier: Helen is in Rome with her father and young stepmother. She meets Carlo, who at this point seems to be acquainted with her stepmother. They spend a whirlwind week falling in love and she accepts his marriage proposal and Bulgari ring. SURPRISE AGAIN!! Helen’s father finds them and angrily informs Helen that Carlo is only trying to marry her because her young stepmother was actually engaged to Carlo and Carlo wants revenge for Helen’s father marrying her instead. Carlo doesn’t really deny any of this and drives off in a huff after heroine tells him it’s over.


Back in the present day, Carlo forces heroine to marry him by threatening to try and gain custody of her little half brother if she refuses. Apparently the timeline could work out for him to be the father and DNA testing wasn’t a thing in the 80s? They get married and he wants a baby immediately. Potential OW rears her head. Helen still thinks Carlo has nefarious motivations for marrying her, but she’s only 20 at this point so I don’t blame her for being kind of dumb. There is push and pull for a couple of weeks and they finally seem to settle in but he is called to deal with a serious business accident and has to leave her.


While he is away, Helen pines for him and realizes she is pregnant (first cycle hag 😒). The night before he is about to be home, she calls the apartment she thinks he is at and the OW answers and stirs up trouble. Helen is ticked and is cold as ice to Carlo when he gets home. He’s pissed. Helen cries to a lady friend who knows Carlo well. Lady friend informs her that Carlo is madly in love with her and that OW actually just got married to someone else and isn’t a threat to her marriage.


Helen runs home, puts on some lingerie, and goes to apologize to Carlo. Carlo is grouchy at first then forgives her once she confesses her love. He then spends literal pages explaining how hellish his life has been without her the past two years and all of the attempts he made to contact her in that time. He spills his guts to her and also informs her he’s been celibate this entire time!!! It was very satisfying.


Overall I really enjoyed this! It was VERY similar to other Harlequins I’ve read, but the pages of love declarations at the end made it a standout book.

[Last Chance Saloon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rarely have I read a romance with a heroine so lacking in intellect. Sometimes they are innocent and sweet, or naïve, but this one is so dumb that everything needed to be explained to her. There is no way she could have attended university at LSE, even for a year. I am astonished she could leave the house on her own and find her way safely back. The hero is not that much smarter. Why did he fall for her, except for her looks (lots of comments on how nice she looks in this dress and that)? Plus the car accident - that seems a little vague?
3 stars as it started with potential, but a little muddled - and yes, dull whilst waiting for the heroine to catch up with the reader as her powers of intuition were nill.

[Phénix · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mad at him over Caterina, thoight she was his mistress then BBS.
She thought he was laughing with Caterina at her, then BBS.
He said she was eminently suitable for sons aka incubator then BBS.
She thought it was all revenge, then BBS.
He said he had waited six years for this, she thought the six years meant Maria and revenge, then BBS.
She said no and tried to get away, then BBS.
She was furious for responding to his kiss, then BBS.
She was embarrassed and angry in front of his father, then BBS.
She thought he hated her, then BBS.

We can do a similar list of the never ending miscommunication from both sides

[Nikki · Rating 1 out of 5]

We need to drop the revenge or the other woman, both is too much for this couple to overcome. Heroine is in the dark about everything and is just moved around like a doll. Our hero never seeks out the heroine to explain. Wish the stepmother had womaned up and talked to her husband cause he was acting like an ass. But our hero is just so distant and mean with the heroine, its no wonder she reacts the way she does. Eh skip. Too much for the small book.

[Debby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love a besotted hero!! Love the romance. Sizzling hot sexual chemistry. The man can’t keep his eyes and hands off the woman and I love that. The desire he feels for her is so sexy.


Absolutely worth the read.

[More Books Than Time · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun but silly plot and characters.

[Eliana]

Old books

[Nubeluz · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5*