Customer Reviews

The Greek's Christmas Baby (Harlequin Presents)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Eden Kouros was about to end her marriage to her husband, Aristide, when a serious car accident left him in a coma. She had become increasingly jealous of the time and attention Aristide had been devoting to his work at her expense, particularly the time he spent with his personal assistant, Kassandra. Eden still loves Aristide, but she had reached the end of her patience and told him so, right before the crash. But there's something she didn't tell Aristide - she's pregnant with their second child.

Aristide doesn't remember anything about Eden. Not their courtship, not their wedding, and not their marriage. He's been relying on information from his personal assistant, and Kassandra hasn't painted a very favorable picture of Eden. She has led him to believe that Eden trapped him into marriage when she became pregnant with their son, Theo. Aristide is a wealthy man, and he believes Eden only married him for his wealth and prestige.

In spite of everything, Eden truly loves Aristide and doesn't want to lose him. She plans to keep her new pregnancy a secret from him until things are resolved one way or another. He already believes she used a pregnancy to trap him into marriage and there's no way she'll let him accuse her of using her unborn child as an excuse to reconcile. If there is any hope of saving their marriage, it must be because Aristide loves and trusts Eden. Will Aristide ever remember why he fell in love with Eden in the first place? Will he be swayed by Kassandra's deceitful ways, or will he trust the evidence of his own eyes, mind and heart?

Aristide Kouros is gorgeous and sexy; a wealthy Greek business tycoon who still holds love and family in high esteem. I hoped all of the obstacles in his path wouldn't prevent him from recognizing Eden's true nature and his feelings for her. I admired the way Eden refused to use her pregnancy to sway Aristide's decision. She stuck to her principles and refused to give in when Aristide wouldn't believe her complaints about Kassandra's devious behavior. I hoped Kassandra would get her due but most of all, I hoped Eden and Aristide would rediscover the love that drew them together in the first place. THE GREEK'S CHRISTMAS BABY is another first-rate story from Lucy Monroe!

The Greek's Christmas Baby by Lucy Monroe is a deeply moving tale of a love worth fighting for.

Eden Kouros was at a cross roads in her marriage to Greek Tycoon Aristide Kouros when they were involved in a traumatic car accident. Eden's joy that her unborn child is safe is overshadowed by the fact that her husband has no memory of her. Eden decides she is no longer going to take second place in her marriage and is willing to do whatever it takes to make her marriage work.

Aristide Kouros is conflicted about this woman everyone says is his wife. His life long personal assistant has painted an unflattering picture of Eden. But his family and Eden's actions show a sweet, loving, generous woman. Aristide isn't sure whom to trust but his body remembers loving Eden. Can he trust his heart to this woman?

The Greek's Christmas Baby had your typical Greek alpha hero in Aristide and no one writes them better then Lucy Monroe. Aristide embodies all those characteristics but is willing to concede when he has blundered and erred. Eden is perfect match for him, you want to cheer when she gives it right back to Aristide. When she is no longer willing to let things slide like she did before it's a treat to watch Aristide reactions. This book has an added treat we get to revisit with Kouros family that was first introduced in The Greek's Innocent Virgin.

From the back cover:

The most special Christmas gift of all...

After a head-on collision with another vehicle, Eden Kouros is overjoyed that her unborn baby has survived. But Aristide, her husband, has suffered a partial loss of memory.

Eden's heart is torn in two. Aristide remembers almost everything--except that he has a wife. Yet perhaps Eden has been given a second chance to save her marriage, which was at the breaking point before the accident: Aristide's body hasn't forgotten the desire they once shared...and she's still carrying their precious, tiny child...

And my review:

I was pleasantly surprised by how enjoyable this book was. I've been weaning myself from most Harlequins, since unfortunately, they seem to be a "catch-all" for authors who would otherwise never be published. Lucy Monroe is obviously one of Harlequin's better authors.

It's pretty much a given that the hero of a Harlequin Presents story will be an alpha male. The problem is that often the heroine is a weak, wailing female who, in real life, would not attract such a man in the least. That's not the case with THE GREEK'S CHRISTMAS BABY. Lucy Monroe has skillfully managed to match her alpha-male hero with a strong woman that a reader can really cheer for and relate to. Also, though the hero was an alpha, he wasn't a domineering jerk, as so many romance heros are. Both the hero and the heroine were likeable, so it was easy for me to cheer them on.

I also liked that it wasn't a series of BIG MISUNDERSTANDINGS keeping the hero and heroine apart. They were honestly trying to communicate, even if things weren't quite getting through properly. (And anyone who's married knows just how often miscommunication can happen in real life! :) I liked that the villanous "other woman" wasn't able to just walk all over the heroine. Again, the heroine was strong enough to stand up to her. It was really the heroine's strength (without being a shrew) that made this book so enjoyable, and raised it above the average three-star level.

My main complaint with this book was that I felt the title was a little misleading. There's hardly any Christmas at all in this book. Christmas only gets a very brief mention within the last few pages, and it's not much more than a passing glance. For a romance, this book delivers. But as a Christmas-themed story, it falls a little short.

One last minor complaint: I felt it was a little unrealistic that after almost losing her baby, the heroine's doctor didn't place an restrictions on her sexual activity. She had been spotting, and the amniotic sac had been pulled away from the uterine wall because of the car accident that she and her husband had suffered. If there is ANY bleeding in an early pregnancy, (the heroine was at six weeks) no matter how slight, very few doctors would allow a couple to make love until well into the second trimester, when the pregnancy is well established, to help reduce the risk of miscarriage. Trust me, I speak from experience! Still, this is a minor complaint, and one that a reader can easily ignore for the sake of the story.

The Greek's Christmas Baby is exciting, tragic at times and a real tear jerker and one of Lucy Monroe's most powerful love stories.

Eden has been raised by a father who was too busy with business to pay much attention to her so when she bumps into the handsome, sexy Aristide Kouros, he not only takes her breath away, he overpowers her with the attention he bestows. Months later into their relationship, Eden discovers she is pregnant and they marry. However, throughout the relationship Eden sees that Aristride's personal assistant, Kassandra also has designs on him.

After their son is born, Eden tries to convince her husband that their marriage is on the brink of separation and tells him she is pregnant again. During this discussion, they have an accident and Astride suffers memory loss and doesn't remember their marriage or problems.

As the story unfolds, Eden is hurt, heartbroken but decides she must make her marriage work as she loves her husband. This is such a heart wrenching and moving story, I suggest sit down and read it when you can devote your time to reading the entire story. The Greek's Christmas Baby is another example of Lucy's powerful delivery to her reader's.

Harlequin Book Summary:

The only proof that Greek tycoon Aristide Kouros has that he is married is a piece of paper. Aristide has no memory of his beautiful wife Eden - although his body remembers the desire he feels every time she comes close...

Eden loves her husband and it's breaking her heart that he has no recollection of their love...But Eden is keeping a secret one that will bind Aristide to her forever...

I didn't expect to like this book. Most of the time Greek male in Harlequin Presents are far too alpha-male which turns me off quickly and the heroine is usually too much of a doormate but I was completely surprised with how much I enjoyed this book. Aristide Kouros was every bit the Greek male that I usually hate. He's extremly wealthy busienss who wakes up after a serious car accident he remembers everyone in his life but his wife Eden which troubles him greatly. All he knows about Eden is from what his assitant Kassandra has told him which is that Eden got pregnant in order to marry him for his money. Which Aristide believes because its the only reason he can think of as to way he doesn't remember Eden.
Eden is hurt that her husband doesn't remember her and even more hurt that he believes all the lies Kassandra has told him. From the beginning Kassandra has done nothing but destroy her in the eyes of Aristide. In the past Aristade as always taken Kassandra's side. She's also feeling guilty because the moment Eden finally couldn't take it anymore and told Aristide she wanted a divorce they ended up in a car accident. Eden is one of the strongest heroines I've read in a long time. She refuses to stoop down to Kassandra's level and she keeps the knowledge of her second pregnancy a secret from Aristade because she refuses to let him think that once again Eden was using a baby to keep him in the marriage.
I liked how Aristide began to realize Kassandra's claims didn't match up to the real person Eden was though his own observations and his family's. I loved when he realized what a wonderful woman he was married to and had her tell him everything Kassandra did to her...and dealt with Kassandra properly. This truly was a wonderful story. I wish there were more heroines like Eden.

This book is so well written, you just have to read it yourself for the experience of how a romance novel should be written. One of the best by Lucy Monroe.

This may be Lucy Monroe's best Harlequin yet. It is an emotional scorcher and a must read. I could not put it down. This was right up there with Pregnancy of Passion.

If you want to read a book that keeps your interest page after page, this is the one. I couldn't put it down because I needed to know the final outcome.

The most difficult part of this book was reading the hero's mistrust of the heroine and knowing that this comes from lies he is being told by his personal assistant\family friend. Eden, the heroine, is a strong character which is many times missing in HP books. The hero, Aristide, can be so annoying at times not supporting his wife against another woman, but some leeway must be given because of his memory loss.

The lunch with Aristide's family, without Eden, was great and made me smile at several points, but I won't go into detail so not to spoil it for others.

This is an excellent, gripping read.

And indeed, I too, am surprised to say such a thing of a Harlequin romance which is normally a nice guilty fluff read. It was worth every cent.

Eden was hastily married by Aristide when she became pregnant during their hot and heavy affair. Although she has declared her love for him, he, typical male, has not once pronounced his feelings for her. Unsurprisingly, this leaves her feeling rather insecure in where she stands in his affections. Especially when he devotes a lot of time to his company, and at the same time with his rather georgeous personal assistant, Kassandra.

Eden issues him an ultimatium in the car, which unfortunately and naturally, distracts him while he is driving and they run into an accident. Aristide is injured and loses his memory of her and the car accident. As he slowly comes to, he is attended by the ever constant and annoying presence of kassandra (who is conveniently his childhood acquaintance) as Eden is stuck in bed trying to recover from a near miscarriage of her second child. Kassandra drips poison in his ear and Eden finds herself trying to fight for her marriage and his affections. Could she win his heart when he has lost all of his good memories of her? And what is to happen to her and her unborn child?

Excellent plot premise, excellent writing. Might have gone down the incredibly cheesy lane, but the author handled it very well. I couldn't stop reading once I started as I anxiously wanted to know what would happen. Some may have found it frustrating that Eden didn't from the start just refute everything Kassandra said. But I felt that Eden's actions were rather realistic as there are times when one knows that no matter what one says, it's just going to make the situation worse or one would just come off as defensive. I also liked it that the hero and heroine weren't acting totally unreasonable or out of line (neither were trying to be delierbately cruel or mean to the other), they were just trying to cope and work through a very trying time.

This book was fabulous. The story was believable and you really felt sorry for the heroine because of the fact that her husband forgot her. Would have been nice if she had spoken some hard truths earlier on to him so he would have gotten a clue but then you wouldn't have experienced her pain when he constantly hurt her, unintentionally by the way. He didn't seem to strike out on purpose but simply because he didn't know her.