Customer Reviews

Mistress For A Month Three Rich Men (Harlequin Presents)

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

 

 

Back cover:

He wants her, and then he wins her...in a game of cards!

TV star Rico Mandretti has wowed Sydney with his charm, good looks and love of cooking. However, besides pasta, the wealthy Italian-Australian harbors another passion! Renee Selensky despises him but he can't get her out of his head. If only he could seduce her and therby forget her...

Then Rico wins a game of cards-and Renee into the bargain. Now she's Rico's for a month-as his mistress, in his bed...and at his mercy!

I found both the hero and heroine to be both irritating and annoying. The hero kept thinking the worst of the heroine and putting his foot in his mouth. His macho attitude was a complete turn off and the entire book seemed to revolve around the hero jumping into bed with the heroine in every single chapter it seemed. The heroine was not very likeable and I never really got a feel for her. Towards the middle part of the book I found myself skimming through. This definitely is not one of Miranda's better books.

This book was unusual in many ways(point of view, mature heroine who was actually older than the hero, real life issues) but the writer did not capitalize on those strenghts.

The story of Rico and Renee could have been intersting, but the writer did not invest enough time in showing the reader how their love unfolded. The two had known each other five years before the book even started. The reader was not given the chance to experience the meeting, the awareness, the inner struggles of the H/h on their journey.

The hero seemed very passive. The reader is told that he liked, maybe even loved Renee from their first encounter five years earlier, yet he did nothing about it and instead married and divorced another woman in those five years. Even after his divorce, he did nothing but long for her. As his friend said "why didn"t he just ask her out?"

Another weakness of the book is that most of the couples "together scenes" were sexual. Yeah, they were hot for each other, but where was the love? The writer seemed to have a difficult time conveying to the reader the love we are told these two felt for one another.

A minor note: while a applaud the fact that the heroine was, realistically not a 35 year old virgin, her past love life was a little too colorful for my tastes. Talk about extremes. Unnecesary and it took away from the story.

Three stars to originality. To bad, really. It had the potential to be so much better.

I found this one of the most fascinating romances I've read. It's written entirely from the male point of view. I kept waiting to skip to the heroines view point and it never happened. Wonderful.