Betrayal: A Bella Terra Deception Novel (Scarlet Deception)

Secrets of Bella Terra, Revenge at Bella Terra, and Betrayal at Bell Terra are a trilogy and the books must be read in order or the reader will never be able to follow the unfolding mystery which was never quite resolved as far as I am concerned. But I say nothing about it because "spoilers, sweetie."I read these as part of an on-going project to vet potential additions to a booklist a friend is assembling as a service to the people in her group, adult children of parents with PTSD. The people with PTSD are the three male leads, brothers, and each stars in his own novel. By the time we readers meet them, these men have done their homework for the most part, with an exception and to be fair, the guy is in a trap. They all live on the family property, Bella Terra, and cherish their beautiful earth. Bella Terra is a fascinating place.Something I appreciated is that one of the brothers voluntarily committed himself to psychiatric treatment and did hard work. Another brother dove into what he is really good at and broke the cycle. The third brother, well, he's trapped in a situation.Very much enjoyed reading these and if there wasn't that one detail which I feel still needs resolution, I would have given it four stars. Of course, as I am of Italian heritage, I really enjoyed that it was important to the family to maintain their Italian heritage. Very enjoyable people with wonderful depth to their characters. The plot spanned three books and was complicated enough with lots of twists and suprises to warrant three volumes.

Christina Dodd pulls out all the stops in this third and final book of her Bella Terra Trilogy. A Trilogy about three brothers, raised partially by their grandparents when their feckless but charming father manages to marry and divorce or abandon the women in his life. A loveable, useless rogue that shows us the damage neglect can cause.I will say this from the start. I LOVED THIS SERIES!! Now I have enjoyed Christina Dodd for a long time. Amazingly longer than even I realized, back to a series written and published by silhouette (I think) called her Lost Texas Heart Series.. all the way to her PNR books about the Wilders and the chosen and toss in her governess series as well! She is a gifted writer who manages to make the characters define the story even when it is filled with avenging princes, deals with the devil and a mystery of a lost bottle of wine, Christina Dodd manages to treat us every time one of her books goes to print.With that being said.. Betrayal had to be one of her best books ever! Noah Di Luca, the charming well adjusted youngest Di Luca brother has some serious secrets he is hiding that could literally destroy his family. He has always been considered the brother who managed to escape the fiasco of their father's trainwreck of a life and yet he too has some secrets he has kept hidden. His life hasn't been quite so easy going and he has spent his entire adulthood protecting his family from someone.. A secret he has never shared.. Even going so far as to give up the love of his life.. To push her away and force her to get on with her life. A life without him.Penelope knew at 18 that she had found love and was forced to realize and accept that some love isn't returned. She has spent the last nine years getting on with her life. She has been married, widowed, watched her mother die and finally discovered who her father was. She is back in Bella Terra for one reason and one reason only. She wants to meet her father. Instead she headlong into her past. Barely in town she meets Brooke Di Luca, another member of the Di Luca school of Road Kill, not knowing that Brooke has found her HEA with her Di Luca, Penelope engages in first a friendship then a accepts a job. Only to discover that this job comes with the Di Luca's! Most especially, the ever so charming Noah.What she thinks is an easy designing job quickly draws her into the family mystery. Discover where the missing bottle of wine is.. meet her father (of course he has to be the Di Luca's oldest enemy) stay alive and most importantly stay away from Noah Di Luca.. who runs hot and cold and she never quite knows what to expect from him. All she knows is that the fire is still there, the love is still there and she has no clue how to combat it.Since this was the third book in the trilogy, there is so much that has been explained in the first two books.. READ THEM FIRST!! Ms Dodd does a wonderful job with her romantic suspense and manages to twist and turn her way throughout the story. We are sure we know what is going on right up to the end.. and of course we never quite do. This book has plenty of depth, turmoil and suspense to make just about any reader happy. As far as I am concerned the only thing wrong with it is, well it's over. We may see the Di Luca's in another book at some point but I seriously doubt we will see them as they are in these books ever again. And they are so wonderfully charming and charismatic, completely swoonworthy!! I think every girl should get a Di Luca!! and if not she should read this series..Shauni

"Betrayal: A Bella Terra Deception Novel" is a wonderful conclusion to the Di Luca boys series. The book is filled with suspense, romance and action. For 9 years Noah Di Luca had known his life was in danger and was afraid to love and be truly happy. He did not meet his mother until his 19th summer and when he met her he discovered she was the leader of a band of international thieves. She had plans for him to take her place as the leader of the family of thieves. The girl he loved was back in Bella Terra and so was his evil mother who placed a collar around his neck set to detonate and kill him if he did not find a missing a bottle of wine containing a fortune in pink diamonds. Although Penelope Aloso was the love of Noah's life he had rejected her 9 years ago. She had returned to Bella Terra to meet the father whose identity was not revealed to her until after her mother's recent death. Penelope had moved on with her life; she tried to avoid seeing Noah because seeing him again rekindled all of her feelings for him.

For my mom. Loved the book

Love reading her books

Judging from the other reviews so far, I am not part of the majority for this book. However, I have to say I was disappointed by this book.I anxiously awaited this book because I loved the first two. I couldn't put them down until I read every bit of them. This book though, I found myself skimming through. The excitement from the first two just wasn't there. The love story between Noah and Penelope was practically non-existent. All Penelope thinks about is how mean and unreliable Noah was and how he broke her heart and then she jumps in bed with him without so much as a decent conversation. Then he disappears again without any explanation. Then when she finds out he's got a bomb around his neck and he says "oh, I've done all those bad things to try and protect you, will you marry me?" She just says yes. Come on, really? The whole thing just fell flat for me.If you haven't bought it yet, get it from the library instead. You'll want to know how it all ends but I don't think it's worth purchasing.

Christina Dodd writes a great suspense story!