A Forbidden Night with the Housekeeper

by Heidi Rice

USA TODAY bestselling author Heidi Rice is heating things up in this contemporary Cinderella romance tale of innocence and forbidden desire!

A taste of the forbidden… That has him craving more!

Playboy extraordinaire Maxim Duran is the name on everyone’s lips. But the only name on Maxim’s lips is Cara Evans! He can’t believe that housekeeper Cara has inherited his vineyard. But bartering with the English beauty isn’t going to be simple…

Innocent Cara has no doubt that Maxim is trouble — and totally off-limits! She definitely isn’t going to hand over her new home to him. But, as their desire explodes into passionate life, Cara has to What does Maxim want? His rightful inheritance…or her!

From Harlequin Escape to exotic locations where passion knows no bounds.

Genres: Harlequin, Romance, Harlequin Presents, Marriage Of Convenience

224 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Published June 16, 2020

About the author

My name's Heidi Rice, I'm a USA Today Bestselling author. I'm married with two sons (which gives me rather too much of an insight into the male psyche!).

I love my job because it involves sitting down at my computer and getting swept up in a world of high emotions, sensual excitement, funny feisty women, sexy tortured men and glamourous locations where laundry doesn't exist ...

I also tutor a 14-week in-depth online Write a Romance Novel course. So, if you have ever wanted to learn how to write romance from a bestselling author, check it out here: www.profwritingacademy.com/course/wri...

Now I believe wholeheartedly that readers should give honest and open reviews on Goodreads and Amazon and elsewhere. If you didn't like a book you are entitled to say so (even if it's mine! ouch). But you may notice that none of my book reviews are less than four-stars. That's simply because as an author myself I know how pathetically sensitive I am about bad reviews and with that in mind I prefer to spread the love among other authors — and don't do public reviews of books I didn't like. Just thought I'd clarify that!

You can find out about my latest releases and all my other books at www.heidi-rice.com

Reviews

[Vintage · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm at the 29% mark and am I reading the same book as my GR friends?

So far I’ve read more about her nipples than I care to. Honestly, there were three main characters at play: the H, the h and her outer regions.

Anyhoo, the H doesn’t waste any time seducing the young widow and her nipples. It’s all a done deal less than an hour after the funeral so not loving it yet.

Just once when the H is confronted with a scenario with the h married to an older man I would like that one, he NOT jump to conclusions that the (probably virginal) heroine is a gold-digging skank but a nice girl in a jam. Or two, since one is not even a remote possibility that she actually IS a gold-digging skank. Something tells me I am doomed to disappointment.

After proving his sexual prowess on… yes, she IS a virgin. Who would have thought.

He would take Cara Evans as his mistress. That way, they could arrange for her to take the necessary precautions now to prevent an unwanted pregnancy and he could offer her a place to live while he demolished La Maison—at Château Durand.

Le Dude, you are so charming. NOT! She doesn’t need to be your mistress because she owns the joint, the vines, the house etc... so no favors there.

Conclusion
She does a runner when his attorney releases a statement that her marriage with his father wasn’t valid and that they had sex the day of the funeral. What a gentleman!

A part of him was still furious with her, still angry, and still upset that she had run without giving him a chance to explain.

I just love how the great, big, bad Greek, Italian, Sicilian, Spanish, Australian, Brazilian umm French tycoons can dish it out, but can’t take it. After monologuing ad nauseam about “taking care of the situation” if she got pregnant, he gets hurt that she wasn’t going to tell him about the baby.

In conclusion, I am done.

He finds her and it’s a HEA for him as he now has his very own blow up doll to have sex with whenever he wants then stuff her back in her closet own apartment.

Okay, okay, he finally works through his Daddy issues, but way too much “all about him” and not enough about her.

I'll take the oh so politically incorrect Pepe le Pew any day of the week.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Our hero Maxim Durant can't wait to get his hands on his father's vineyard. He is shocked when he discovers that his father's housekeeper has inherited his vineyard. Cara does not want to hand over her home to Maxim but he seduces her and she ends up pregnant. Maxim proposes a marriage of convenience and Cara accepts but she falls in love with her husband. Maxim however can not return her love.

Wow! So all my favorite tropes are here: marriage of convenience, virginal heroine, unplanned pregnancy and alpha hero. Maxim is an incredible alpha irresistible, complex, dark yet so sympathetic. Cara is his perfect foil. And their passion is way off the charts from the first chapter.

I adored everything about this book. I loved how Cara and their son turned this isolated tortured man into a man who loves with all of him. She managed to melt the ice from around this emotionally inaccessible man's heart, and bring out the wonderful father and lover he could be, but wouldn't have been discovered without her.

Great emotional connection and chemistry that absolutely sizzles! I especially loved the epilogue with their baby boy, it was so heartwarming. Hero was so afraid but he finally became such a doting father. I highly recommend! ❤️

[Aou · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best modern HPs, it made me shed a few tears.

[lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

PERFECT👍
This book has it all , the alpha H , the sweet kind h , the revenge plot , the unplanned pregnancy and the perfect ending with the heart warming epilogue ❤
Great job HR
Loved it

[Mtve41 · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very sweet, refreshing read. Made me realize that I should pick up more HR books.

Cara is a housekeeper and last-minute platonic wife to an old man who leaves her his dilapidated house/ mini vineyard when he passes away. This is as payment for all the wages the man owed her. Except reality comes rudely knocking when Cara finds out that there is a strict condition of blocking the sale of this estate to its only buyer- the old man’s son.

Enters Maxim, the hottest, most toe-curling, deeply attentive alpha H. They have their forbidden night and Cara runs away when she realizes that Maxim plans to play dirty.

They meet again and there is an MOC. Cara was a sweet, gentle h while Maxim was the opposite. He was vengeful and impatient and easily riled up. They have a sweet second meeting and Maxim easily surrenders to his want for Cara.

I take away a star because there was almost no sparring between the mc’s. Cara’s temperament was placid and meek and there weren’t many dialogues between the mcs too. A sweet one I might re-read sometime!

[Melody Cox · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.50 - 3.75 Stars

Our hero, Maxim, was quite the man-whore until three months prior to meeting the heroine, Cara. He was faithful to her from the day he met her...even while they were apart for five months. He gets points for that but then loses them for doing something that was significantly ignorant, hurtful and insulting that smashes her heart to smithereens. I felt what he did was close to being unforgivable. They only had the one night together and he was so out of his mind that he didn't protect her...you know how it goes. Too worked up to suit up...tsk tsk. She was a virgin so go figure.

So how did they meet you may ask. Cara was a housekeeper for an elderly man who owned a vineyard and he was forty years her senior. Maxim has coveted this man's vines throughout his life and has vowed to one day own them all. There is a reason for this.

The old man was dying and couldn't pay Cara for the work she did so he asked her to marry him and he would leave her the back pay she earned in his will.

This causes destruction and anger when Maxim finds out the old man married her.

Is there anything that really ticked me off?? YES Maxim had been looking for Cara for five months and he decided, of all things, to go to a Valentine's Ball. That is when he spots her and she sees him with OW, an ex lover she knew about from magazines. He traveled for business and was in a sex-only arrangement with her. It is then he sees Cara and she sees him with the woman. Mind you, he was paying no attention to the woman and his thoughts were only of Cara the whole evening. He had not touched the OW but he had thoughts that he should try to bed her since he had lost Cara and may never find her. But once he picked the woman up he knew he could never touch her or any other woman. It was all over when he saw Cara. He pulled out some bills, shoved them at the woman and told OW to find her own way home and he went straight to Cara. Lost respect for him on that occasion and the incident with the lawyer.

[Ishara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I do love a vengeful alpha hero and Max was a perfect fit. The story is sexy and well written. This book ticked a lot of boxes for me, and goes to my list of great reads for 2020.

[Bibi · Rating 1 out of 5]

*1.5 stars*

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This had an action by the H that I have *never* seen in an HP, and even though it was despicable, I gave it an extra star for originality by the author!

But... I don’t think the h ever even called him on it. I gotta tell you, I sure would have had an issue!

I didn’t like the incongruent remark that ‘if they were wed, he wouldn’t let her out of bed the first week’ when he was seducing her compared with his actions when they DID wed and he not only didn’t stay with her the first night, he left her consistently. A stronger heroine would’ve called him on the total discrepancy between his line and his actions.

Other reviewers have said she was meek, and it’s true. Whatever he dished out, she accepted all too willingly. That didn’t make this a bad story though... she had other good qualities. Her back story made it clear why she acted the way she did. The angst you feel for her is deep! Seriously, it gets you in the feels big-time.

He was both a good and ruthless guy, but he remained likable (no easy task!) thanks mainly to knowing his POV. That he remained celibate once meeting her was a huge plus in his favor. (Adding another star for that on reflection.)

I read it one sitting, so I’d call it a compelling read. The ending could’ve used some oomph in the grovel portion but overall, definitely one of her better books.

[RomLibrary · Rating 4 out of 5]

A taste of the forbidden

That has him craving more!

Playboy extraordinaire Maxim Durand is the name on everyone’s lips. But the only name on Maxim’s lips is Cara Evans’s! He can’t believe that housekeeper Cara has inherited his vineyard. But bartering with the English beauty isn’t going to be simple…

Innocent Cara has no doubt that Maxim is trouble—and totally off-limits! She definitely isn’t going to hand over her new home to him. But as their desire explodes into passionate life, Cara has to ask: What does Maxim want? His rightful inheritance…or her?

[JillyB · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow that was a wonderfully delicious angst fest without evil ow’s or jealousy vehicle om’s.

My first Heidi Rice book and now I’m afraid to read another because this was so good!

Our hero and heroine have an instant attraction to each other. Of course our hero believes it’s just sex and our heroine is too innocent to know what the heck it is and just goes with it.

However as a reader we know that this is not just sex. These two are destined for each other. We sense that these two would find each other over and over again in every century, the pull is that strong!

Quickly, the H is 31 and the h is 21. Each of them have had rough, love deprived, childhoods. Our heroine is sweet, understanding, wanting to be loved, but she is not a door mat! Our Hero is anti love because he is too afraid of loving and being loved. They come together fairly quickly and quite fantastically I may add(HR does some very sexy imagery). Most of the story is about them developing love along the way with some road bumps for angst! In the story we get the POV of both the h and the H. I am leaving this spoiler free, because this is worth discovering as it unfolds!

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won a copy of this book from the author, I was not required to give a favorable review. This was a great love story about two people who found each other through the death of another. Cara was working as a housekeeper for a gentleman who owned a small vineyard that he had run into financial problems, he asked her to marry him just days before he died because he told her that would mean she would get the salary she was owed from his pension. Maxim started his life as the bastard son of the man who's vineyard he was trying to get when he died. He has made himself into a multi-billionaire and when he shows up at the funeral it surprises her. But what they both find out is that the older gentleman left the vineyard & house to her. But what happens next hurts them and then heals them.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it

[Dawn Livingston · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked the premise of the inheritance, the whys, the relationships/connections. The characters were fine, nothing to particularly dislike.

Bored? Worse ways to pass a day.

[Stefanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I super love it 😍

[Renae · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rocky in the first half, but smoothed out by the end. While "alpha" heroes are par for the course in a Presents novel, the dude in this one was just a bit too much. The way the revenge scenario in the first half plays out sees the hero basically ruin the heroine's life and publicly humiliate her, all so he can prove a point to a dead man. But when, five months later, he realizes she's pregnant (natch), we see a different side of him, and then the book becomes typical fairytale fare: a glamorous wedding, a beautiful French chateau, delicious food, beautiful clothes, and brilliant sex. I'm not sure that the fantasy of the second half outweighed the asshole alpha bullshit of the first half, but Rice certainly knows exactly what it is that keeps readers coming to Presents: attractive billionaires showering their largesse on hardworking, lower class women with difficult pasts.

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[Myra Wardhana · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a sexy read! Was not expecting the instant chemistry brewing so fast from the beginning of the book between Maxim and Cara.

[iamGamz · Rating 2 out of 5]

It took two days to drag myself through this book. Nuff said.

[Susan in Perthshire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another of Heidi Rice’s brilliant stories. This time the hero’s French and the heroine is a feisty, emotionally intelligent woman. Fabulous read!

[Ezzo · Rating 1 out of 5]

LOL, this was bad really bad. I kept reading, well I skimped it to be honest, just to see if it could get any worse,AND IT DID.
Story wise , nothing major happens and it is a very boring story.
It starts with them having sex the same day they meet , which is on the day she is burying her husband which is also the H’s father.
h still a virgin, H has a thing for her nipples for the first half of the story.
Then they separate for 5 months. -she runs away and you guessed it right she is pregnant.
Then they get together for 4 months, during which he leaves for a few weeks.. so basically they get together for 3 months.
They have sex, they do not talk, do not communicate, and when they do the conversation is cheesy as fuck. She says she loves him he says he will try to love her and their baby and the story ends with him saying “I adore you and the baby”.
He is not a bad hero, just one dimensional boring character and for her she is a first class doormat who is willing to take whatever he gives her.

But what is really REALLY bad is that the author actually tells you what you are supposed to feel instead of writing events and dialogues and evoking the intended feelings.Something happens, so we are told that now there is a feeling of sadness, now we are angry, then time to be happy. Even at the end when things were coming full circle, and they were meeting at the same place they met the first time ..SHE ACTUALLY TELLS US THAT. LOL I mean we can figure that out on our own, it is not like lots of action took place from page one till the end that we are going to forget .

[سارة محمد سيف · Rating 4 out of 5]

رواية (رغبات حائرة)

مات بيير وترك لها منزل وكروم، ورغم أنه وعدها بإمكانية بيعها لكليهما لتجد بعض المال للمعيشة إلا أنها تفاجأت بالوصية وشروطها..

حتى أن ماكسيم ثار غاضبا أكثر مما كان متوقعا، فالشرط يتعلق به دونًا عن غيره.

ومع خلفية كليهما في طفولة غير آمنة والشعور بأنهما ليس كافيين لأي حد شكل نوعا ما رابطة خفية بينهما زادت انجذابهما لبعض.

ومع وجود حمل غير مقصود، زادت تلك الرابطة.. لكن لتستمر يجب عليهم المصارحة ومحاربة أشباح الماضي.

[anisa fitri zakirah · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's an okqy read. Kind of fast forward i guess. They had sex the first time they met, need more angst before that. She got pregnant, and he insisted on married. The hero was very sweet actually, though he was so scared of his own feelings. And the heroine was too naive, and too trusting, it frustrated me.

[Isa Centeno · Rating 2 out of 5]

El prota al comienzo del libro: Soy malo, perverso y me como mujeres como tú en el desayuno.

El prota luego de descubrir que la prota era virgen: Eres mía *se convierte en un patoso torpe que daña todos los buenos momentos*

[nm · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5.

[Sarah Macnellan]

Note to self: refer vintage's review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

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

قرأتها بعنوان رغبات حائرة
من ترجمة منتدى روايتي
ممتعه و خفيفه