Back Cover:
He must marry or lose control of his empire. But no ordinary wife would do for Australian tycoon Alex Valente. Emotional entanglements were to be avoided; physical attraction was essential.
Struggling designer Olivia Cannington certainly fit both of his requirements… most especially the latter. And she was in such desperate need of his funds, perhaps the beauty would even agree to the second part of his marriage ultimatum: give Valente an heir…within a year.
Spoiler Warning: All my reviews contain spoilers
Favourite Scene: (I always love a scene where, even when angry, the hero makes sure the heroine sleeps beside him)
And then her heart sank just as quickly when she remembered how fast he’d turned away. Angry, she got out of bed and made for the spare bedroom, where she tossed and turned some more. She must have fallen asleep eventually, for she awoke as the bedside lamp was turned on.
She groaned and pulled the blanket up over her head. “Turn the light off, Alex.”
He didn’t answer.
Suddenly the blankets were thrown back and she was being scooped up in his arms. Her eyes flew open. “Alex?”
A pulse leaped along the hard line of his jaw. “You’re my wife. You sleep beside me.”
My Review:
I liked Alex/Olivia together, they had a connection from the first time they glanced at each other. They married because he bribed her into marriage, but he also was clear it would be a real marriage and relationship, though he said he had no expectation it would last. They slipped nicely into a natural relationship. I liked that the hero eventually said that he wanted the marriage to last for more years, in a SD or HP that's a long time to expect a relationship to last, so it was nice to see that he thought he could do long-term. There were fertility issues here. It was kind of nice that the hero/heroine adopted an older child, that's a good thing to promote. And you know, this book brought up an issue for me about having natural children: I know in the SD/HP world there's tons of money and surrogacy could be an option, but I realized I really don't want the H/h to hire a surrogate because it would be selfish of them to put another woman through the pain of carrying a baby she would get connected to and have to give up.
My Rating: 3/5 stars, good read
