Back Cover:
Reluctant mistress, convenient wife
Xandro Caramanis wants a wife. She must be well-bred, willing to give him an heir and accept a loveless arrangement. Ilana Girard is a society beauty with a head for business who understands emotions are not part of the deal...
Ilana accepts Xandro's proposal because she needs his protection. He doesn't realize she's never slept with a man before, and it's reluctantly that she takes her place in his bed...
My Review:
She's a fashion designer who moves in high-society crowds. He's a businessman looking for a sophisticated wife who will give him fidelity and children, the kind of arrangement he wants. He thinks Ilana is the wife for him and pursues her, but his pursuit has consequences: she has a jealous abusive ex-fiance following her moves and he's angry at her involvement with Xandro. After attacks, Xandro moves her into his home, and soon he's comforting her at night and sharing her bed. Is this arrangement just convenience, will it last after the threat of the ex-fiance is removed?
The title makes it sound like she's a "virgin wife", but really they don't marry just to make sex between them legitimate, her virginity wasn't special to the plot, the hero didn't require his wife to be a virgin.
The chemistry between these characters was nice, the pace of the romance was relaxed, the relationship slowly developed from casual acquaintances to dating to lovers to married partners. We saw the passage of dating, courting, seducing with little touches, kisses, and caring. I liked the way the hero assured the heroine was cared for by bodyguards, he was protective. One slight thing was that there wasn't a lot of insight into the hero's thoughts, we never heard his thoughts/perspective except through the emotions the heroine saw in his eyes/words.
Rating: 3.5/5 stars, a nice relaxed romance, I was in the mood for this kind of read after reading a few books where there was high-strung emotions/bitterness between the hero/heroine.
