VALENTINO'S LOVE-CHILD (Harlequin Presents #2820, May 2009)

VALENTINO'S LOVE-CHILD

By Lucy Monroe

Harlequin Presents #2820

May 2009
Contemporary Romance

Faith has suffered great loss in her life and has relocated to a sunny Sicilian village to live a quiet life and to create her art. She meets Valentino and they become lovers. They have been lovers for almost a year.

Although Faith has been his lover longer than any of his previous mistresses Valentino will never love her or marry her. He had promised his dead wife he would never put another in her place in his heart or in his life.

Faith thinks she can never have a family of her own. And then the condom breaks.

Faith's hopes for a future with Valentino start to build when he begins to act out of character, but they are soon dashed against the cruel rocks of his honesty. Her expectations are not unreasonable. She is led to believe he is thawing in his attitudes. She is really a very likable character.

There are two problems with this book. On page 9 the dead Sicilian wife's name is Ranata on page 36 her name becomes Maura which I always thought was an Irish name. For several chapters I thought Ranata and Maura were two different women and I wondered how many women he had loved and pledged his eternal devotion to. "Maura" is mentioned often throughout the book and is integral to the romance. When you have to go back to re-read names or struggle to find out which character is which it detracts from your enjoyment of the overall story.

My other problem was the ending was too rushed. I have felt this way about all Harlequin Presents since they shortened the length of the books. I keep waiting for the authors to adjust to the shorter length by making adjustments in the body and making sure there will still be a satisfying wind-up at the end. But it hasn't happened that way. Everything gets rushed in the end. And we are told what happens rather then being allowed to observe it happening.

The story is wonderful. It made me cry, it made me care, it made me laugh. It did everything a good story should. The overall writing is strong it would have rated a five, but due to the above mentioned problems I could not give it a higher rating then .

It wasn't just the name change, but the name it was changed to. It just didn't fit the story and so detracted from it.

However, this is a MUST READ book.

For more information about Lucy Monroe's books please visit the author's website at: http://www.lucymunroe.com

Yours forever between the covers of a book,
Lady Mischief

Brand Spanking New

Welcome. I am Lady Mischief. I am a voracious reader and I am very opinionated about what I like and what I don't like. I hope you will visit me often and share your views with me.

In the past I have been known to read as many as two or three books a day, but life has caught up with me, or as some would say, I now have a life (?) and only read two or three books a week. As a result I am promising just one review a week.

Each Sunday morning there will be a new review posted. But there may be an extra review or two throughout the week as an added bonus, if I am lucky and can read incessantly.

I will not only be reviewing the latest releases, but also books that have been sitting on my TBR (To Be Read) shelf for ages, e-books, audio books, self-published books, whatever falls into my greedy little book bag.

I am going to have a rating system. . Five (5) equals a totally awesome book. A book, I believe in my egocentric way, everyone should love. Four (4) means a great book. A must read by anyone's standards. A book earns three (3) by being a good book. A book any author would be proud of writing. Two (2) is maybe okay. I didn't particularly care for it. There may have been mechanical problems. Bad editing, names changing mid-book, etc. One (1) this book is a wallbanger. If a book doesn't receive a you can imagine why.

Every book I read begins with a baseline of three rating. The rating goes up and/or down as I read. I believe every book I am going to read is a good book, until proven otherwise. If I don't set my expectations too high by expecting every book to be a four or a five I will not be disappointed, in fact I am more likely to be pleasantly surprised.

I chose as a ratings meter because they are suckable, bite-able, yummy, and refreshing. Just what you need to help cool you off.

In the weeks and months to come there will be contests and quotes, interviews and give-aways. Be sure to visit often. Whenever you leave a comment with your name and e-mail address you will automatically be entered into the contest ending that Saturday at midnight eastern time.

I am planning to have a lot of fun with this, I hope it will be fun for you too.

Yours forever between the covers of a book,
Lady Mischief