Two years ago, Allie fled an unhappy marriage for France, where she met irresistible Remy de Brizat. But they were driven apart when he discovered her secret. Allie was distraught, and her only comfort was her discovery that she was pregnant with his baby.Now Allie has returned to France, realizing she has to tell Remy about his child. Remy offers her what she always wanted: marriage. But though he might worship her with his body, she knows this wedding is only for the baby’s sake….
Harlequin Presents are one of my guilty pleasures. The heroines are generally limp as dish rags and the heroes are almost always overbearing jerks, but I love them. When I finish a Presents novel my inner non-feminist sighs dreamily and fills up with warm fuzzies. My inner feminist, however, generally tends to stand up and scream, loudly, “WTF?!?!”
This Presents is wholly unique in that it features adultery..knowingly committed. I don’t think I’ve ever read a Presents novel where either character knowingly committed adultery. I’m of two minds about this. On the one hand, I have a really hard time stomaching adultery, no matter how it’s presented or what the “reasons” behind it are. On the other hand, I kind of liked this book and now feel somewhat dirty and well…kind of like a sellout. Hi, I’m Holly and apparently I can be bought. Just give me an asshat hero and a dishrag heroine who cheats on her husband then hides her secret baby and I’m all yours.
Allie took a vacation to get away from her horrible husband and mother-in-law and met Remy, a local doctor. They spent weeks together falling in love until a scheming woman who wanted Remy for herself revealed Allie’s secret. Remy kicked her out and then disappeared, leaving Allie to go back to her husband. Now Allie is back and she’s got a couple surprises in store for Remy. Not only is she now a widow, but she’s also the mother of his lurrve child.
Remy obviously isn’t happy to see the treacherous harlot who stole his heart and then stomped on in again. And he’s even less so when he realizes she’s got a kid – his kid. So he does the only thing he can. He threatens to take her baby away from her. Which is..probably what I’d do. I mean, she used him for sex, ran off with his baby and then came back and said he could visit every once in awhile.
Only there’s a problem. They’re still attracted to each other. And mostly still in love. And the scheming woman who ratted on Allie before is still in the picture and still vying for Remy’s affections. And Allie’s scheming grandmother and Remy’s grandfather are getting married. But the families hate each other because of what Allie did to Remy before. Oh, and the overbearing mother-in-law who refuses to give up her only grandson and heir – even if he isn’t actually her grandson and heir – that Allie can’t stand up to is after Allie to bring her precious grandson home.
So this is the point where I tell you how much I hated this book and it really didn’t work for me and blah, blah, blah. Right? Wrong. Because the truth is, I liked it. It left me with this kind of warm, fuzzy feeling and I..well, I don’t know what else to say. I guess I’m a good crack ho after all.
Even though Remy was a total jerk for some of the book I totally understood his reasons and forgave him for it. Even Allie, who couldn’t stand up go her dead husband’s mother, committed adultery and hid her baby from it’s father (well, not really, she did try to tell but Remy’s family wouldn’t listen), didn’t end up on my naughty list. I liked her. She was definitely a confused woman who needed time to find herself, but she wasn’t a horrible person.
Because they spent so much time together when Allie was on “vacation” I really believed they were in love. So in the end I didn’t feel their being together was contrived or forced. It was easy to see the connection they had.
Overall it had all the elements of a novel I should have hated, but ended up really liking instead.
I’m going to give it a:
4 out of 5
This book is available from Harlequin Presents. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
GASP! The virgin skank heroine isn’t pure and is a cheater. Not your normal HP book.
Almost every book I read has my inner feminist cringing, but I still LOVE THEM!
I’ve never read a Harlequin, always believing they weren’t naughty enough, (not erotica naughty, but naughty in a racy way).
Thanks for the review!