The Greek Tycoon's Innocent Mistress - Kathryn Ross
Mills and Boon Modern
Single title-
Harlequin Mills and Boon, 2007
ISBN: 9780263853780
Reprint-
She Can't Say No to the Greek Tycoon By Request
Harlequin Mills and Boon, 2011
ISBN: 9780263884340
My rating
From the back cover:
"Taken for the Greek's revenge!
Cat McKenzie is set to inherit a fortune - and Nicholas Zentenas will ensure the money stays out of her family's hands. Nicholas has waited years for revenge on Cat's father, who almost ruined him in a dishonest deal, and he believes Cat is just as bad.
Cat's never met such a commanding man, and when Nicholas offers her a lucrative business contract, and a weekend in Venice, she's powerless to resist. Now Nicholas is in danger of finding that Cat is not at all what he thought - starting with the fact that she is a virgin!"
This is the second book in the By Request omnibus, and unfortunately this has become the lowest rated book in my challenge. Before I get into the nitty-gritty of why I didn't enjoy it, I just wanted to point out that, obviously, this is my opinion and I fully understand that each reader is different and therefore may disagree with my thoughts, which is perfectly fine.
The female character Catherine is three months away from her 21st birthday and if she is married before that date then, as per the conditions of her grandfathers will, she will inherit the entire family fortune. Catherine has an unhappy family life, her mother died when she was young and discovered that she had a half brother from an affair her father had. Her father and half-brother are also little better than con-men, who she has had to spend her education trust fund on bailing them out of one scheme after the other. They are bitterly angry that Catherine was left the family fortune and have been trying to force her to marry some of their 'associates' and then to try and get hold of the fortune.
The male character Nicholas was once in business with Cat's father but he was conned, he has vowed revenge on the family. He has somehow found out about the conditions of the will and is under the impression that Cat is in league with her family and just as duplicitous. He plans to get Cat to marry him then take the inheritance away from her and then dump her.
Once he starts to get to know Cat he starts to realise that she is perhaps not what he thought but cannot let his feelings get in the way of his revenge plan.
I usually like the revenge plot lines, and thought that this had great potential as a good story. However I just could not warm to it. The male character was written as little more than a misogynist, he spent most of the book talking to Cat like she was something nasty on the bottom of his shoe, and Cat just seemed to take it. Some of the story was also implausible, such as the fact the Nicholas had hired a private investigator to check Cat out and he reported that she was involved in a scam her brother pulled in Crete, yet in actual fact she was not involved but instead paid back all those affected by the scam, any PI would have been able to get this info, so he must have hired a really crap one. There was a pregnancy that just seemed to be crow barred in there for no reason, and when Nicholas revealed that he was adopted all seemed to be forgiven and that was it...he's forgiven, lets be together forever!?
I found it very hard to read, at times I actually had to put the book down, take a couple of deep breaths and go back to it. In my opinion it was a poorly executed story and an example of taking the Alpha-male concept way too far...
I feel warn out by all that, I don't like being overly negative about anything, however I'm not one to be afraid of expressing my opinion!
Xx
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