365 books in 365 days Challenge ... Book #324

A Deal at the Altar - Lynne Graham 
Mills & Boon Modern
Harlequin UK, 2012
ISBN: 9780263890563












My rating

From the back cover:

"Her indecent proposal! 
Having pulled himself up from the streets of Athens, Sergios Demonides thought he had seen it all. Then Beatriz Blake walked into his office and asked him for a marriage of convenience! 
Independent, proud and unadorned, Beatriz is a far cry from the usual glamorous women who grace his bed. But Sergios doesn't need another trophy - he needs a mother for his late cousin's children. 
The overlooked Blake heiress and the ruthless billionaire strike a deal. But she doesn't read the small print - that sees them sharing a bed!"


This is the latest from Lynne Graham (out in April) and a follow on from her last book - Roccanti's Marriage Revenge.

The heroine Beatriz is forced into approaching the her Sergios about a marriage of convenience - her sister had originally meant to marry him - otherwise her father will stop all his financial support for Beatriz's disabled mother. At first Sergios is uninteresting in Bee, as she is nothing like his usual type of woman, but he realised that she is exactly the kind of woman he needs to help him raise his late cousin's three children. Sergios expects to be able to marry Bee and continue with his life as usual and also expects her to do as he says, but he soon realises that Bee is far from amenable. Bee doesn't like the situation she is in but knows it is best for her mother as well as the three children she has become a mother to. When circumstance forces Sergios and Bee to be closer than they expected, Sergios begins to see that he is wildly attracted to Bee and she means so much more to him than he first thought. But Bee is determined to keep her heart, knowing that Sergios doesn't ever plan on losing his freedom.

I was so hoping that I would like this book, but... oh, I really didn't. And that is mainly down to one fact - the hero had a mistress (yuk, hate that word!) all the way through the book. Regardless of the fact that it was revealed eventually that he hadn't actually been with her since marrying the heroine, that his future cheating was almost glorified throughout the book was really, really unappealing. This kind of thing is not, and never will be, something that appeals to the 'romantic fantasy' that we read romance novels for.
Needless to say, I didn't like the hero. I wanted to like the heroine, and I did - she was very fiery and independent up to a point, but I found her overlooking the whole mistress thing, as well as the fact that she gave up her job, and let the hero give her a 'make over' a little hard to swallow.

Throughout reading this book my mind kept saying "no, no, no, no..."! Not for me, is this book! YMMV.

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