Year of the Category Challenge Twofer: The Spanish Groom by Lynne Graham and Blackmailed Into Marriage by Lucy Monroe

Folks – she used the word DEFY! How can I ignore that for any length of time? I couldn’t – I had to go out, get the book and read it. Part of me was thinking that I really was not going to like this book but I was wrong.

It all started with a ring…

Cesar Valverde was the man with everything–stunning good looks, wealth and a bachelor lifestyle. But Cesar knew it would please his ailing godfather more than anything if he got married, preferably to Dixie Robinson. Well, perhaps a temporary engagement to Dixie would be enough to please Cesar’s godfather.

And ended in marriage…

But Cesar discovered Dixie was a beautiful, sensual virgin, and he couldn’t help but make love to her. Cesar’s bachelor days were over! Within a week, he was standing at the altar, and Dixie was his bride–though unbeknown to Cesar, she was now also the mother of his child!

Dixie Robinson works at a bank owned by Cesar Valverde. She got the jobthrough a friend of hers who happens to be Cesar’s godfather, Jasper, and the man that has raised Cesar since he was 12. She’s really an inept worker and can’t seem to do anyhing right but make coffee and fetch things – but everyone loves her to death…except Cesar.

and this, one of my favorites:

Dixie has financial issues because of her step-sister and is currently in debt. Cesar finds out because they do random credit scans at the bank and being in debt is grounds for dismissal. Cesar is more or less overjoyed that he gets to fire Dixie and get rid of her once and for all. But Cesar then finds out that Jasper’s health is failing and Cesar wants to make Jasper’s last days happy ones. So he concocts a plan to pretend to be engaged to Dixie (yes, the same woman that annoys the hell out of him).

While Dixie is resistant to Cesar’s offer at first, she soon figures out that it’s prison (for her debts) or Cesar. Cesar appears to be the lesser of the two evils. Or is he? His plan to make Dixie into someone that he feels is an appropriate fiance for one such as himself – a slim line Dixie Mark Two. lol

Dixie finally agrees – seeing no other options and goes with Cesar to his home – where she is promptly put into the servants quarters. Cesar arranges to have new clothes, new hair and make-up, diet and a fitness trainer to come and “help” Dixie. This is where Cesar starts seeing the real Dixie. She puts on the exercise clothes that were purchased for her and Cesar sees that she doesn’t need to diet and exercise at all he loves her body the way she is. Not only that but despite the crappy situations she keeps her humor about her and makes him laugh.

The couple finally flies to Spain to be with Jasper but find that Jasper isn’t as sick as was made out. Yes, he has heart issues but with the insertion of a pacemaker he should be fine. Jasper is elated with the engagement and makes Dixie and Cesar get married for real – before his operation – because he wants to be in attendance.

I could go on with more of the story but that would take forever. There were so many little things about this book that captured my attention. At first it was just Cesar and what an arrogant man he was and so frigging demeaning to Dixie! I mean some of the things he said to her were awful and would have had me in tears – and I’m a person that can give as good as I get. But as the story went on we watched as Cesar started seeing the other sides of Dixie that he hadn’t known about and getting to like her.

This brings up my major beef with the book and that is the fact that even though the book was technically 3rd person pov we got very little from anyone else besides Dixie. We got a line or two here and there from other characters but as I said, very little. I wanted to see some stuff from Cesar. You could tell that he was coming to admire her, and possibly love her, but we were left guessing by his actions. Drove me a little bonkers.

For Dixie’s part she was stuck in the rut of seeing the nice/kind/sensual things that Cesar did but not taking them seriously. She was of the mindset that to Cesar this was strictly pretend and that everything he did was for show. But whether she realized it or not Cesar was redeeming himself in small ways in what I came to realize was the only way he knew how. He wasn’t someone who was good at communication but he was doing the best he could. For all of Dixie’s thickheadedness she just couldn’t see that he was trying to redeem himself. I saw it and I loved it. Especially when he finds out that she’s pregant with his child.

In the end Tumperkin was correct. She said I would thoroughly enjoy this book and she nailed it on the head.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5

Then Orannia, on the same Lynne Graham review last month, left this in the comments:

When I couldn’t decide whether to read Tump’s suggestion or the book, Blackmailed into Marriage by Lucy Monroe, that Orannia sent me I decided to read both and that’s how this twofer thing came to be. I know – long ass post. Just deal with it.

Lia had turned her back on her rich aristocratic family. But now she needs their help to save her daughter. Their response – to sell her off to the highest bidder. Damian Marquez prizes Lia’s blue blood – he was stripped of his own title at birth. Lia is the perfect brood-mare, who can provide him with an heir – and a spare!

But, as the wedding night looms, Lia knows the truth will out – because Damian doesn’t know she can’t be his in the marriage bed…

When Lia was 15 her father died. Her grandfather, a wealthy Spanish businessman, cajoled Lia’s mother into moving from the States to Spain where Lia’s life was taken over and controlled. When she was 18 she eloped with Toby, a boy that she had known in the US and stayed in touch with.

When the story begins Lia is now 24, her husband is dead and she has a small daughter, who I think is about 5, who needs heart surgery that Lia cannot afford. She has brought her daughter back to Spain to try and get the money from her grandfather. When he finally will sit down and talk with her he tells her that he will only give her the money that she requires if she will marry his business associate, Damien Marquez.

Lia has not only met Damien but has already had some pretty heated kisses with him. She doesn’t want to marry him but she promises to because she will do anything to get her daughter what she needs. She also knows that once Damien finds out her secret – the fact that she can’t have sex – he will dissolve the marriage. She’ll get the money for keeping her promise, her daughter will get the operation and Lia won’t have to be married anymore. Yeah, things don’t always work out as planned, especially when they involve Damien Marquez.

Damien is determined to make the marriage work. He is so physically attracted to Lia he can’t stand it, but he also gets attached to her daughter and finds what he’s been looking for his whole life – a sense of family. You see Damien is the illegitimate son of a very wealthy man. He is the oldest but since he was illigitimate he didn’t inherit a thing from his father’s estate and neither side of his family acknowledges him at all. So when Damien is told by Lia, on their wedding night that she can’t have sex he doesn’t accept it lightly. He forces her to tell him exactly what the issue is so that they can deal with it together.

Lia has what is called Vaginismus. It’s the contracting of the vaginal walls to the point that it’s completely closed off and makes intercourse impossible. Lia and her previous husband were very young when they got married and they weren’t equipped to deal with the issue. Lia had gone to the doctor but was told that it was all psychological and if she just had a glass of wine and relaxed before sex it would all work out. Since that never seemed to do the trick her husband was not understanding and made her feel like less of a person because of it. She allowed the issue to be forced and conceived her daughter, which she loved with all her heart, but wasn’t willing for that to happen again. Damien made Lia realize that even if they could never have children because of the lack of penetration there were many, many other ways of being intimate with each other. He proceeds to show her those ways, along with the patience of a thousand saints. He also discovers that there could be a way to fix the problem.

At first I thought that Damien was going to be an uncaring man who was only interested in sex and he didn’t care if Lia thought she couldn’t have it or not. But he turned out to be a kind, thoughtful, understanding man who showed his love in many different ways, even if he didn’t realize that’s what he was doing. He hadn’t grown up with love so doubted its existence. When Lia finally accepted that she loved him she was hesitant at first to tell him, but she finally did and said it over and over . Damien didn’t think she was sincere – he felt it was more gratitude for his financial support and the consideration he has shown to her daughter that was behind her feelings. But soon Lia made him believe and it was wonderful to see. He was definitely a man who deserved love.

As much as I liked Lia in this book I thought that Damien made the story. If it wasn’t for him I’m not sure I would have liked the book quite as much as I did…I read it all in one sitting and quite quickly as I couldn’t manage to put it down (good thing the kids were already in bed).

Rating: 4 out of 5

Thank you to Tumperkin and Orannia for their wonderful book suggestions. I only have 1 more month in the challenge so now have to figure out how to end it with a bang.