Customer Reviews

The Innocent's Dark Seduction (Harlequin Presents)

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

 

 

Roark Navarre, a ruthless business man that wants to buy land that the recently widowed, Countess Lia Villani owns. Roark hopes to build skyscrapers on this land and that these will become his legacy when he is dead. So now all he has to do now is get the countess to agree to sell. So Roark Navarre goes to the charity ball held in the Countess's honor. There he meets and bids for a dance with the beautiful, dignified, and young countess. Roark of course wrongly assumes that Lia is a gold-digger, who had married her much older husband just for all of his worldly goods. Lia seems to be the one that gets away when she actually runs away from Roark. Well it seems Roark likes a challenge and for revenge he believes he will get her property and her in his bed...

Lia ends up giving him her virginity before she even knows his name. Once she knows his name she realises this is the same man who ruined her family over 10 years ago. What is she to do now that she is pregnant with his child? A man who is ruthless and cold-hearted, and doesn't want children.

(SPOILERS) If you don't like the older Harlequin presents authors you might not like this book. Male lead is a bit of a bastard, (no he's actually a complete bastard). Loved the book even with the male character.

All in all I was thoroughly disappointed by this book. In all honesty, I only picked it up for vanity reasons to begin with: the heroine and I share a first name and my name isn't all that common.

Thankfully, the first name is all that I share with the heroine. She is a complete pushover and her reasons for loving Roark and marrying him are completely beyond me. I also did not understand why she married an old Italian man after the passing of her parents, the reasons stated in the book did not strike me as valid reasons and if the old Italian guy was as nice as she claimed it was, he would have helped Lia without her marrying him.

Roark is just a completely unlovable guy and in their marriage he treats Lia as if she is his personal prostitute. No amount of bad childhood the guy had suffered can justify his treatment of Lia. Which made it impossible for me to believe she loved him.

Secret baby plots are not amongst my favorites, but if written well, can be appealing. However, the Innocent Dark Seduction is not of them. With Lia's lack of backbone and Roark's complete and utter lack of lovability, they probably deserve each other.

I really hated this hero. Tortured soul or not his treatment of the main character was deplorable. She forgave him with little fuss and it was wrapped up without them discussing any of their problems. This hero was too horrible to be forgiven, just because he came to his senses. Do not buy this book if you are looking for some great or even slightly romantic hero.

OMG am i glad i choose to ignore the two negative reviews and choose D.Blackers review instead and bought this. couldn,t put it down. it has angst galore. Yeah the hero was a right bastard, but the author gave a plausible reason for his cruel behaviour and he sufficently groveled at the end. The heroine was very brave and put up with alot of heartache, but thats why i read these stories, for the angst and happy ending. the sex scenes were also fantastic. Look if you like stories with lots of angst and conflicts, where the hero has to be brought to reason and grovel then read this book. if you only like books with with sugar cones and lovey doveyness where the hero is so good its nauseating , then don,t read this. I liked it alot, thank u D. Blacker.

It's been a few weeks since I read this book, but I remember really liking it overall. The hero is a bit of a jerk (my kind of jerk, mind you) at the beginning, but as with most alpha males in harlequin romances, he falls hard and redeems himself. This book also had a few surprisingly steamy sex scenes which were well-placed and moved the story along.