365 books in 365 days Challenge ... Book #287

Forgotten Mistress, Secret Love-Child - Annie West
Mills & Boon Modern
Harlequin Mills & Boon, 2010
ISBN: 9780263877601











My rating

From the back cover:

"He's forgotten their past, but not her body. 
A lavish masquerade ball is no place for plain-Jane receptionist Carys Wells. Used to being unnoticed by the glitterati, Carys feels vulnerable and exposed by the searing gaze of a dark masked man. Little does she know he's the man she ran from two years ago, whose wicked touch is about to become her undoing once more. 
Alessandro Mattani cannot remember Carys, but his body does - intimately. And the red-blooded Italian is determined to claim all that he believes is his..."

This is another book I bought for kindle ages ago and never read.

The hero Alessandro is still coming to terms with the retrograde amnesia he has been suffering from ever since he was involved in a car accident. He comes across a brochure for a hotel in Australia and is immediately struck with the feeling that he knows the woman in one of the photographs. Unable to shake of the feeling, he travels to Australia hoping that maybe he will be able to regain some of his memory. The heroine Carys is shocked to see Sandro, she has never forgotten the way he threw her out of his life and refused her later attempts at contact. Even though she is devastated to learn about the accident, she can't help worrying about what will happen when he discovers that her baby son is his child. Sandro is rocked to the core when he meets Carys, he feels an instant connection to her and somehow knows she is telling the truth about their past relationship, and that her son is his. A life of being surrounded by avaricious people makes Sandro initially suspicious of Carys, but for their son's sake he insists they marry. But as time passes, and with revelations about the forgotten part of his life, Sandro begins to realise that what he and Carys had, and has, goes much deeper. He only wishes that Carys would trust him.

There is something special that Annie West does to what are quite well used plots to make them really enjoyable, and she has certainly done this here. I really enjoyed it. The relationship between the hero and heroine feels very natural and it is full of passion, as well as tinged with sadness. The amnesia plot could be a bit trite, but I was so pleased that there wasn't a sudden 'I remember everything just from one look in your eyes' moment. And I think Annie handled the hero's slow acceptance of his memory loss really well. The heroine is a brilliantly developed character, so strong despite all her problems.

This is a fabulous book; passionate, absorbing, and powerful. Recommended.

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