There’s nothing this billionaire won’t do to claim his secret baby in this sexy reunion romance by Michelle Smart.
Back from the dead… For her and his heir!
When tycoon Nikos Manolas emerges from eighteen months undercover from his enemies, he discovers he’s a father. He vows to claim his son. Even if it means storming the party celebrating Marisa Lopez’s engagement to another man!
Mourning Nikos’s alleged death, Marisa thought marriage was the best way to support her baby and her business. Now, despite the shock of Nikos’s return, it’s clear their connection is still electrifying! However, Marisa is wary. She can’t bear to give him everything again, only to lose him…
From Harlequin Escape to exotic locations where passion knows no bounds.
Read all of the Billion-Dollar Mediterranean Brides Book 1: The Forbidden Innocent's Bodyguard Book 2: The Secret Behind the Greek's Return
Michelle Smart is a Publishers Weekly bestselling romance author with a slight-to-severe coffee addiction. With over four million copies of her books sold worldwide, Michelle is now embracing the indie book world to write the passionate romance books she knows her readers love whilst continuing to write for Harlequin Mills & Boon. She is also the author of Butterflies, a standalone romantic and humorous time travel novel set in the 1990s.
A bookworm since birth, Michelle can usually be found hiding behind a paperback, or if it’s an author she really loves, a hardback.
Michelle loves hearing from readers and can be contacted directly via her website.
A second chance/secret baby romance, where Nikos ( the H ) returns from the *dead* and surprises the heroine in the middle of her engagement party to another man.
This is the H, Nikos:
This Marisa's story. She's the sister of Elsa, the heroine from The Forbidden Innocent's Bodyguard. I was too lazy to review that novel, where Marisa had been introduced as the older sister, who's raising her baby son alone, after his father had ( supposedly ) drowned.
This is the heroine, Marisa:
I love the back from the dead trope, even though it's an overused soap opera staple. I never tire of that dramatic moment when the character is revealed to be alive and someone else's life gets thrown into chaos, as a result. The most delicious part always occurs when the *dead* person returns to prevent his/her lover/spouse/soulmate from marrying someone else.
In this novel, Nikos had faked his death in order to protect the heroine from a dangerous drug cartel, whose mafioso leaders had been threatening to kill all his loved ones unless he allowed them to use his businesses to sell their products and launder their drug money.
He hadn't known that the heroine was pregnant, at the time of his *death* and believes that she had quickly moved on to another relationship, after he learns of her engagement to a rich businessman named Raul. Although he was jealous and resentful of this development, he'd no intention of breaking up her new relationship, because he had zero interest in marriage and figured that it would just be unnecessary drama.
He only decided to turn up at her engagement party, after he discovered that he has a baby son.
This is baby Niki:
Unlike most HPlandia heroes who immediately offer marriage, when they learn about the secret baby, Nikos isn't hearing wedding bells. In fact, Nikos isn't even interested in reviving his relationship with Marisa. The commitment phobe H makes it clear, from the outset, that he's not interested in a reconcilation but just wants to have shared custody of his son.
I admit that this aspect of the story disappointed me, because I'd been hoping that he'd turn up, filled with jealous/possessive alpha male rage and kidnap her from her engagement party...or something equally trainwrecky.
But perhaps I've been watching too many telenovelas and my expectations are just too lame, cheesy and predictable.
The heroine's relationship with her former fiancé, Raul, had been purely platonic. In fact, Raul had had his mistress tucked away somewhere and the heroine was happy with that arrangement because she's still mourning the *death* of the H.
She experiences even more distress when the love of her life turns up again but is now coldly courteous. It's somewhat anti climactic too, because he's alive and yet she's unable to go back to the way things were, 18 months ago, because he's a totally different person from the man she'd been involved with.
Her first heartbreaking realization occurs when she figures out that he'd have gone on with his life, without bothering to reconnect with her, if he hadn't seen his son.
In fact, he only proposes to her after his grandfather suggests that husbands/ex-husbands have greater bargaining power during child custody cases. He proposes with the specific intention of applying for a divorce within a year. Unfortunately for the heroine, that important detail is omitted during his proposal.
He's making these Machiavellian plans while she's living in blissful ignorance, building sweet daydreams of a bright future with him, especially after they'd started having sex again.
There's quite a lot of push/pull going on between these MC's, which is normal when one remembers that they hadn't parted on bad terms and so it's difficult for both to navigate the new boundaries of their changed relationship. She can't understand why he's changed so much and he's too scared to make a permanent commitment, because ( as per usual in current HPlandia ) he's got huge parental backstory issues.
To put it simply: he thinks he's unlovable because his drug addicted parents never nurtured him the way they should've and raised him in a dangerous environment. He's cut himself off emotionally from others because he's scared of being rejected again. His solution is to avoid emotional entanglement wherever possible. But he's able to love his son whole heartedly, because an innocent baby won't reject him.
When the heroine discovers the truth, she dumps him, cancels the wedding and goes to the airport with her child. But before doing that, she gives him a good verbal coal raking:
What impressed me the most, in this novel, was the H's immediate move to action, after he's been dumped. Nikos didn't wait around for a few weeks or months, before chasing after the heroine to grovel and reconcile. He followed her to the airport, where he confessed his eternal love and humbly begged her to stay with him.
This variation from the usual mini separation that occurs in 98% of modern HPlandia novels, coupled with a lovely epilogue, helped to elevate my final rating. Plus, Michelle Smart delivered on the emotional quotient, which is always important to me. It wasn't difficult, at any point in time, to believe that these MC's shared an intense connection.
Safety: No OW and no cheating ( emotional or physical ) despite the fact that the heroine had been engaged to another man. Both MC's were celibate during the months when the H was supposed to be dead.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Hero faked his own death to protect his girlfriend/lover, friends and family from the cartel’s. After 18 months they have been caught and taken care of. He decides he’ll just have one more glimpse (from far away) of his girlfriend and never reveal himself or what happened. She was becoming too important to him and that scared him. But he gets quite the surprise.
Heroine had grieved and lived with heartache when her boyfriend/lover dies. She lost her father, had a baby and almost lost the family business. Decides that becoming engaged was best so her child will have a father figure, as well as he will help her run the business. Big mistake as she learns he’s a loser.
But she also gets the shock of her life when the only man she’s ever loved isn’t dead but alive and well. He wants his son.
The two embark on journey of reconciliation, forgiveness and love.
Emotional and heartfelt love story. The two characters had lots of chemistry.
UThis should have been a real tear jerker read for me but sadly it was not. The Greek hero was presumed dead for the past 18 months and is now miraculously returned from the dead and shows up at his lover's engagement all hail and hearty. The poor heroine had suffered tremendously in the past 18 months since the presumed death by drowning of the hero.His body was never found.He had been stashed away in remote Alaska so a drug cartel could not use his company and loved ones for leverage against him. In that space of time,she wished for death herself but only the discovery that she carried her presumed dead lover's child gave her the will to carry on.Her beloved dog and father were dead,caused by a drug cartel that wanted her father and his company to transport their drugs,the same cartel that was after the hero. Their reunion 18 months later had all the makings for a truly great angstfest,but for me ,it missed the mark. I blame it on the hero. I usually tend to love the heroes more than the heroines,but that was not the case in this book.I felt him to be too cold. There was a nice epilogue and he improved somewhat. 3.5 stars.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
The hero was really hard to take in this book. He faked his death, to protect the heroine, and break up with her at the same time. He came back 18 months later and he realized he had a son. He was still planning on finding a new mistress because he had moved on. He was over her but needed relief from is 18 months of celibacy. There is even a scene where he goes to one of his nightclubs actually searching for a hookup. He didn't but The intent was there. His thoughts throughout the book were despicable. Even after he proposed marrying her to protect his parental rights. She doesn't know it but he's planning to divorce her in a year because his list for her should be gone by then. This is at her he was sleeping with her again.
The heroine totally had a near nervous breakdown when she heard of his death. The only thing that got her through was her son. She asked another businessman about a marriage of convenience to help her run her company and be a Father to her child. She realized she couldn't do it and was going to break up with him and the hero appears. She faints. It was very emotional for me especially now much she loved him and he was already to discard her because he didn't do love. Bad childhood again and it just makes me crazy. Grow up and get over it. Yeah his story was tragic but that doesn't mean you treat women as disposable. She overhears a conversation and realized he doesn't love her and is planning to divorce her as soon as he had control and that was a heartbreaking scene.
She leaves and presto chango he changes his mind. No thank you very much. He almost ruined the book for me.
He was celibate and loved his son and that is why i gave it three stars.
I'll start this off with how much i love the author. There's not a lot of HP writers trying new things and Michelle's stories always feel super unique. I thought I was in for a real treat after an explosive opening. So many secret baby stories and this one had a unique discovery Niko and Marisa's backstory with faking deaths and cartel's should have been a set up for a much more compelling read. The sex scenes were fantastic but the development of the relationship in the second half of the book dragged. Even the epilogue was just okay.
MS has much better books. This start off so good, I just wished the steam remained the whole way through.
The Secret Behind the Greek’s Return is emotionally thrilling, passionate and exciting second chance story. The tale commences immediately and continues to flow gorgeously and coiled right around my heart; this was enhanced by knowing the background from Book 1.
Marisa discovers Nikos, the father of her baby is alive, during her engagement party to another man! I can’t add much more about the plot, the book blub covers the plot perfectly. Marisa and Nikos now need to figure out how he fits into Marisa and their son's life. I would mostly like to focus on the feeling the book emotes for this review.
Michelle Smart is incredible at inciting feelings and passion, drama and intrigue. She's an auto-buy for me for these reasons. I thoroughly enjoyed The Forbidden Innocent's Bodyguard (Book 1, Marisa’s sister) but this one was next level. The scene where Marisa confronts Nikos about his deception is second to none. Niko’s calm reaction really helped set the scene about his character and opened him up for a journey of redemption. The crucial reunion at the conclusion was like a movie scene playing out in slow motion.
The Secret Behind the Greek’s Return was a fantastic conclusion to the Billion-Dollar Mediterranean Brides. It can be read as a stand-alone but I highly recommend reading book 1 to enhance the story. Especially when Marisa asks her sister’s partner for help.
If you're a fan of exciting, fast paced, 100% emotional stories, is this one for you? YES!!!!
I liked it alot. Hero and heroine were both celibate during the 18 month separation. Was a bit disappointing that hero had every intention of never seeing heroine again when he came back but only didn't because of his son, I would like to think he wouldn't have been able to stop himself from pursuing her again since all his actions he did were because he loved her (faking his death so she wasn't killed to get to him, had her watched over etc). I liked both hero and heroine, the heroine was such a lovely person and wasn't immature or vindictive even though hero hurt her. Hero was very damaged and I liked that his feelings for heroine were so strong that they overrode his conscious thoughts and intentions of getting laid on his return from exile. P.
3.5 stars ◼️◼️▪️• It was just okay. The hero is dark and damaged which explains why he says and does things that made me roll my eyes. The ending was very abrupt and HUGE drama unfolded in the last 10 pages and they quickly made up before the book was over which felt rushed. Overall, glad I read it but I’m also glad it was short.
Tooo over the Top to be believable. The H fakes his death as there was a threat from drug cartel to use his business but his biz partners can run the biz without him! The h is a virgin and in love with H when he dumps her/fakes his death and goes in hiding and she obviously turned out to be pregnant. The story begins with them meeting after 18 months and the h was going to dump her fiancé before their engagement party or immediately afterwards. It just gave me a lot of whiplash as there was no coherence of plot or sense.
I wanted to like this one more, but Nikos is so cold to Marisa when he returns and then coldly proposes marriage so he can guarantee custody of his son. (Marisa doesn't know this). I do love the lecture Marisa gives him when she realizes what is going on, that earns an extra star from me, but what bothers me is the throwaway line from Nikos about how if it hadn't been for their baby, he wouldn't have sought out Marisa after he returned from the dead. That's just too cold for me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Very, very nice story. Usually I loath it when the H is irresistible and the h can't help herself, but this time she showed great maturity and strength throughout all the book. I would've rather the H suffered a little more at the end, but overall this book was fantastic.
It was really not believable. It could have been good, but the whole faked death was silly. How did he have her watched but no one mention her pregnancy?
I just love secret baby tropes! Great book, good storyline and a HEA we all need! Loved the couple and their love for their son and the conclusion to their share grief.
This is the 2nd book in the series, it was very well written with great characters. The h had went through hell, the cartel killed her father and was trying to take over her family’s business, her lover was dead. She discovers she is pregnant while all this is happening. The H had faked his death due to the threat from the cartel. The H wasn’t going to let the h know he was alive until he found about his son. It’s a page turner. Great ending.
When tycoon Nikos Manolas emerges from eighteen months undercover from his enemies, he discovers he’s a father. He vows to claim his son. Even if it means storming the party celebrating Marisa Lopez’s engagement to another man!
Mourning Nikos’s alleged death, Marisa thought marriage was the best way to support her baby and her business. Now, despite the shock of Nikos’s return, it’s clear their connection is still electrifying! However, Marisa is wary. She can’t bear to give him everything again, only to lose him…