THE ITALIAN COUNT'S DEFIANT BRIDE by Catherine George

The Italian Count's
Defiant Bride
by
Catherine George

Harlequin Presents #2830
June 2009

On her eighteenth birthday Alicia Cross dropped her purse and fell into the arms of Count Francesco da Luca. Alicia knew who he was immediately because she had grown up with his smiling face on her bedroom wall. He had been her favorite rugby player.

Within months they are married. Within hours she runs away from him.

Years later Francesco is in Cardiff for the Wales/Italy rugby game when he sees Alicia again and makes sure they speak. After all, they are still married.

This is a cute story.

Francesco is a likable character, even though during the years of his wife's absence and after he gave up on finding her, he had "allowed" beautiful woman to give him pleasure, he is not a sleaze.

Alicia is a character that started out as a young girl and matured into a strong woman who could finally speak for herself and decide what it was she wanted.

However, there were some problems with this book. Let's start with the most obvious. How many years went by between when Alicia and Francesco were married and when they "met" again? We know she went to college and gained a career. So was it five years? Ten? Twenty? It makes a difference.

How old is Alicia now?

How old is Francesco? When they met he actually thought Alicia was younger then eighteen. He was already retired from rugby. Was he thirty-six? Twenty-two? Somewhere in between? Was he a perv?

When the author doesn't want Lady Mischief to know the important facts about her characters then Lady Mischief will fill in the blanks and it may not turn out well for the story. When the Heroine is in her twenties Lady Mischief does not have a problem with the Hero being older, but when the Heroine is in her teens the Hero had better be in the same generation or else he comes across as a child molester.

The reason for the runaway bride was simple and a simple conversation would have taken care of it, but how often do people actually resolve things with a simple conversation. There was nothing unforgivable to keep these two lovers apart, so their reconciliation is easy to accept.

If not for the questions about how long they had been apart and the age thing Lady Mischief would have marked this book up. It is a good book and has a solid rating of:

Yours forever between the covers of a book,
Lady Mischief