Copyright: 2006
Pages: 185 (paperback edition)
Setting/Type: Contemporary/Series Romance
Grade: F
An illicit affair… Nina’s been left holding the baby, now her evil twin – who attempted to trap a wealthy playboy by getting pregnant – has passed away.
Vengeance – marriage!
Marc Marcello wants his brother’s child – but, he mistakes prim librarian Nina for her trampy twin.
One bride…bedded? Nina poses as her sister to protect the baby she loves. She’ll let Marc buy her as his bride….
Ermm, yes, this book is truly, really horrible and I wonder why I stayed loyal to this author after this totally horrible tale. My first Milburne was The Australian’s Marriage Demand a very pleasant and satisfying guilty pleasure Harlequin Presents read. And the main reason why I keep on reading her books, hoping to find another good one. After this one, however, I decided to give up on her stories.
The plot is nothing new, very HP-ish but I knew what to expect when I choose this one from my library’s shelf.
Nina has a sluttish twin named Nadia. Nadia would sell her grandmother for money… or, in this case, her newborn baby. Since they were children Nina has been the good one, the one who took punishments for Nadia, saved up all her money to help her evil sister out of her misadventures and … in the long run, also looked after the baby her sister felt about as attached to as a mouse to a mousetrap. Nina is, of course, a virgin but being a very adventurous HP heroine she tried her hand at masturbation and therefore lost her hymen (*cough*).
Those “ingredients” alone make the heroine a certifiable doormat, but, the book being a HP, I accepted that fact and decided not to give too much attention to it.
The real deal-breaker in this story is the hero, Mister high and mighty Marc Marcello. He, too, is very typical in his characterization. Italian by birth, with a strong sense of family, ruthless, business oriented and gifted with a hypocritical view towards women (as in women who enjoy their sexuality outside of wedlock or without a serious commitment are whores). In Marco’s opinion his brother, the father of his niece, is, of course, the poor boy that was haunted by the evil vamp and finally cought in her evil web. PUHLEAASE. Grow up man. The time for fairy-tales has passed.
Nina and Marco make a deal before they take their vows, this is going to be a marriage in name only. (Whoever believes that, BLEARGH). When he can’t resist her anymore he starts ravishing her, then accuses her (and her pure and virginal behaviour) of seduction and revenge…
Yep, that about covers the circumstances. Please don’t ask me why I finished it, I definitely need my head examined. I read a big number of HPs and many were bad but this one is the icing on the cake.
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