The hero is a rich American disillusioned with what he's becoming: obsessive, overly aggressive, workaholic, womanizing. He goes to Europe (Italy?) to visit friends and meets the heroine, a widow who needs help or she'll lose her home. He offers help because he sees her as a challenge and she reminds him of himself before he got a break (to escape childhood poverty). The heroine is self-sacrificing and concerned about appearances of family honour. She thinks he wants to trade his help for the use of her body.
This book is nice enough, but the heroine is such a prude. It seems almost as if the hero is seducing a 60 year old nun. They didn't so much as kiss until page 100. The end doesn't make sense: she was reluctant to go to bed with him because she didn't want love/duty, she only went to bed with him when he assured her it was ok for her to experiment with him, he wouldn't tell anyone about her "fall from grace". But then afterwards, she reacts as if they had a love-match, as if he deliberately mislead her about his "intentions". And all of a sudden he comes back three weeks after leaving her in bed alone, telling her he can't live without her and MUST have her as his wife. I didn't feel connected to the heroine's emotions, I didn't feel that they were in love.
The hero on the cover looks yummy though... cute face and I just wanted to rumple his hair. LOL
Rating: 2.5/5 stars, something went wrong here.
