365 books in 365 days Challenge ... book #127

Alessandro's Prize - Helen Bianchin
Mills and Boon Modern
Harlequin UK, 2011
ISBN: 9780263886627


My rating





From the back cover:

"In the game of love...he plays to win!
Finding her fiance in flagrante delicto rocked Lily Parisi's world to its core. But now Lily's determined to get on with her life - minus a man! A break in Milan sounds ideal - until she bumps into Alessandro del Marco, an enigmatic face from her past, and her plans come a little undone...
Alessandro has always wanted Lily, but never pursued her. The attraction between them is intense, but Alessandro always maintains control. Until suddenly he finds it impossible to keep away from Lily - and she finds it hopeless to resist..."


Like the previous book I reviewed, I bought this for my kindle and from the back cover blurb I thought it would be really exciting. The book is OK.

The heroine Lily goes to visit her godmother after breaking off her engagement. There she meets the hero Alessandro, whom is her godmother's sort-of adopted son. Alessandro is immediately drawn to Lily's gracefulness and calm nature, and wants to get to know her more. As he does he realises that he wants more with her than a short-term relationship. Lily is not interested in a relationship especially after the disaster of her engagement and she is trying to make a new life for herself in Milan. She enjoys getting close to Alessandro but with problems coming from her ex fiancé she is reluctant to get hurt again and tries not to let Alessandro in.

This is a very tender and warm romance, that has two very nice characters. But I do feel that the story is very slow moving, almost EVERY details of the character's movements are described and with hardly any 'breaks' that I felt it got rather tedious. There are a couple of elements that I think could have been taken further to add more depth and excitement to the story (e.g Lily's stalker-esque ex and Alessandro's rough childhood). What I did like though, is the actual courting of the characters, which is unusual in a romance novel and very pleasant to read.

Overall I do feel a bit let down by the story. I question whether this would be more suited to the Cherish line of the Romance side of the RIVA line, in my opinion it's not quite powerful enough for a Modern.

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