Back Cover:
He will bed her…
Elise Carlton is looking forward to having her freedom. Years as a trophy wife have left her wary. But there is one man to whom she is not immune….
For revenge and for pleasure!
Vincente Farnese is rich and devastatingly handsome, his own special brand of dark Italian temptation! But it is no coincidence that Vincente has sought out Elise. What will she do when she discovers he wants her only for revenge?
My Review:
I started out feeling really good about this book, it was an interesting premise and suspense was well-built. The chemistry between them was almost a compulsion, and I loved seeing them both drawn to each other and surprised by the intensity of their feelings. The first time they made love was a revelation for them and the hero reacted by panting and murmuring in wonder "who are you", which was really a great image.
But then the hero/heroine manipulate each other, find out the hero's secret motives, and are so cold to each other that it puts a distance between them. There's such distance between them from the moment she finds out she's pregnant (at 2 months maybe?) until their daughter is 3 months old. They don't have sex, they stew in their cold fears about each other and the relationship's future, when they do have sex again it's cold and the heroine uses it as an exercise in control.
The hero/heroine are in conflict because she abandoned his cousin years ago for another man, devastated, the rejected cousin was driven to his death. The hero blamed the heroine, who was a victim of the situation too, and the heroine now stews in her grief over causing the death of her young lover. This conflict is resolved by the hero miraculously discovering that the cousin wasn't the man she thought he was, he wasn't deserving of her love, he was a drug dealer. This was a cheap tool in my opinion, to wipe the slate clean a little conveniently!
Rating: 2/5 stars, a bit drama queenish, and I didn't really feel the "love"
