The Italian's Mistress: A Secret Baby Revenge Contemporary Romance

I just started this book and after a chapter or two I can foretell how it ends. Anna is engaged to Lucio and during his absence she is set up by his brother Carlo who drugs her and takes nude pictures of her in his bed leading Lucio to believe Anna slept with him. He breaks up with her and she goes back home where she finds she's pregnant and has her baby. Four years elapse and Anna finds that her baby needs life saving surgery. She happens to meet Lucio on the street and after talking with her says he will help her with the costs of the operation to save her baby's life. Lucio still loves her but wants to take his revenge so he agrees to pay all costs for the child if she agrees to be his mistress for 3 months the length of time he will be in her country. Of course she agrees because she has no way of helping her child unless she does this. At this point I'm saying why hasn't anyone thought to do a DNA test on this baby? This is about as far as I have come so far but after reading numerous Harlequin romance novels I can tell that she was set up by Carlo and never slept with him. I'm assuming that some where along they will find out this is Lucio's baby and that Anna never slept with Carlo but why did Carlo scheme against his brother in the first place? It will be interesting to find out.

I generally like this author. She has a terrible (but completely normal for HP) tendency to pick a few kinds of stories she does well and re-shuffle the formula slightly in her efforts. Despite that fact, the things I dislike about her writing style generally do not overwhelm the individual books themselves, and I have greatly enjoyed her other efforts.I strongly recommend readers who are new to her to look up those past efforts. Don't waste your time here. SPOILERS start now.I generally try to do an assessment of pros and cons when writing reviews, but THE con was so extreme that it's pointless to talk about the pros. It breaks down to one thing: the hero's brother ASSAULTED THE HEROINE. He flat out assaults her- drugs her and takes naked photos that he sends the hero in order to break them up. She lives with the idea that she voluntarily had sex with this man, and lives with the shame of that for YEARS, not to mention raising her son alone because she thinks the kid is the brother's. The hero thinks she cheated on him with his brother and literally treats her like a whore in order to punish her. Neither the hero or his brother ever have to pay for their actions, not even within the family, much less going to jail, which is what the brother really deserves. Dear author, any character who does this in a book needs to GO TO JAIL. DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT $200! The fact that he gets away with it and AS IF THAT WAS NOT ENOUGH the heroine agrees not to tell anyone what he did is SO HORRIBLE. I can't, I mean I just can't with this book. If it wasn't a Kindle book I would have thrown it in the garbage.Plus, even if you don't think that the events as written are assault, it just makes the hero look like a massive weakling- so pathetic that he can't protect the love of his life from his own brother, and so insecure that he punishes her for being assaulted instead of listening to her for even five seconds. Who in their right mind would fantasize about this man? Who buys his actions as the actions of an idealized romance novel alpha male?I do not read the HP series looking for progressive values- I know this imprint in particular is all about alpha males and the doormats who love them, but this crap right here is beyond the pale. An ending so horrible that it actually made me feel icky for reading it. I am so creeped out that I don't know if I will continue reading books by this author, even though when she is good I greatly enjoy her work. Fellow readers, you have been warned.

After 4 years of poverty, working 2 jobs with a child who needed an operation or die, she is forced to prostitute herself to get the money to pay for her son's operation from her ex fiance and supposed uncle of the child. He treats her terribly, she carries guilt that she does not remember. No one ask themselves why the brother had a camera during sex. It all comes out in the last 10 pages, after another pregnancy and she forgives , after all - the younger brother said he was sorry and she loves her ex even though he did not trust her. Give me a break.

what one brother does to another brother's woman is sickening................and that he implores the suffering heroine to keep it secret because he now has a woman that he loves, who is bringing their child into the world was an amazing stretch of novel idiocy. this is truly a icky story of hp proportions to turn anyone ill.

I usually enjoy this author, but I loathed everything about this book. The heroine was wimpy, the hero a massive jerk, and his brother a weasel. Ugh.

I was a bit doubtful about this story due to the premise - Lucio demands that Anna become his mistress before he will give her money for her son's operation. I thought a hero like that would be cold and brutal - totally unsympathetic. However, as the story progressed he did redeem himself somewhat, particularly in his relationship with the little boy. The story grew on me as I read it.

The hero in this story started out a bit mean but he certainly mellowed by the end. It ended up being a surprisingly good read.