2.5 stars that could have been a 4
This was my first Millie Adams, and it had lots of interesting moments and broke lots of HP conventions, tho maybe not always for the best.
It starts with the h jumping from her boyfriend's balcony, trying to escape the sight of him having sex with another women. She's all lingeried up and ready to let Alex have sex with her for the first time, so the timing is not good. She ends up in his brother's bedroom, and before you know it, they are naked and on the bed. So, technically, she is cheating with her potential brother-in-law and he is having sex with his brother's fiance. And then, news comes that the brother, Alex, has been killed in a car crash in the early hours, still oblivious to the shenanigans next door.
Now, this is how it starts. We find out subsequently that Constantine and Millie have been magnetically drawn to each other for months. He's been dubious about her motives and she's been fearful of letting her darker desires surface (her mum resented her and she felt unloved). After the funeral, their passions get the best of them again. At no point does either of them think of contraception, so you'd think it wouldn't be a surprise when the H sees a photo of Millie with a big bump. The family assumes that the baby is Alex's, and the family is delighted, so Constantine proposes so that the baby will be protected and grow up a Kamaras.
Some of the language is a bit overwrought, some of it very good. The author writes historical fiction and you can tell.
“Darling,” he said. “Do not lie. It insults us both. You have wanted me from the very moment you first set foot in my parents’ house. And the more cruel I am to you, the more you seem to want it.”
“And you must know,” he said. “How I have wanted you.”
Constantine is tortured, and unlike so many HPHs, with good reason. He and his twin sister were kidnapped at the age of 8 - he was held hostage for two months, his sister disappeared. He blames himself, and has clung on to mental control for years through work, work, work while his parents and brother enjoyed the gazillions his labours brought them.
When the h, newly confident in her emotions and determined to be a good mother to her twins, admits she loves him - he panics and leaves her on an island for 3 weeks!
As other reveiwers have pointed out, if there had been some better plotting - earlier descriptions of them first meeting, first sex after the funeral, ending not so rushed- this would maybe be a more conventional HP. And there was some bad editing - the h admits she didnt love the brother, then she loved him a bit, then she loved him very much, all within the same chapter! But it was interesting, the MCs had good chemistry, and I'll look out for this author again.