Back Cover:
She's carrying his baby--so she will be his bride!
Italian billionaire Francesco Mastroianni was captivated by Anna. But their passionate affair was cut short when Anna's father attempted to blackmail Francesco into marrying her. Seven months later, Francesco is shocked to see Anna again. She's struggling to make ends meet and she's visibly pregnant! If she's carrying the Mastroianni heir, that can mean only one course of action for Francesco: marriage!
My Review:
Mmm! This was kind of nice. They had a whirlwind holiday romance, and he was about to propose, but then he "found out" she was supposedly a gold-digger, he dumped her in a bitingly short letter that implied he'd moved on to other women. The heroine hates his guts and thinks him a cad and womanizer. When he realizes she's pregnant and it's his baby, he wants to support her financially but he's bitter about her using him last time for money. She scared him off women, which I liked, I'm glad he didn't rush blindly into bed with other women, it's a trite way for a man/woman to soothe their ego and it's over-used. I liked seeing him distrust women and throw them off him, because he wasn't ready to open himself up with women again. Slowly he started to see that he might have been wrong about the heroine.
As soon as the baby is born, he falls fathoms deep in love with his son, and he makes an adorable daddy. The hero proposes a marriage of convenience because he wants control over her, and it disheartens him to propose this way, to the woman he loved and dreamed of marrying for love a few months ago. They spend time together after the baby is born and they give in to the passion between them. The sex means this marriage isn't going to be just for convenience, they start to talk more about what lead to their break up in an effort to set things off on the right foot, and the hero learns to trust that the woman he loved is as guileless as he originally thought, and that she never had any intent to use him for his money.
Rating: 4/5 stars, this was a very passionate read, highly steamy, driven by a great conflict. The hero was agressive and strong, but he had a huge vulnerability to the heroine and was capable and open to love. I loved that the hero was celibate after his break up with the heroine, because nothing hurts more than for the heroine to pine away pregnant with the hero's child and suffering while the hero sleeps around.
