Customer Reviews

The Mistress Wife: Foreign Affairs (Harlequin Presents)

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

 

 

The Mistress Wife's blurb on the back of the book says "Can she be...mistress to her husband? Convinced that Lucca, her billionaire Italian husband, had been having an affair, Vivien Saracino left him-even though she was pregnant. Now Vivien has discovered that Lucca might not be guilty. She's determined to win him back, if only for the sake of their small child. But Lucca is in no mood for a tender reconciliation. He will have his wife again, but on his terms...as his mistress!" I enjoy Lynne Graham's books very much but this one was depressing and not her best. I recommend any of her other books because she is normally great and look forward to her new book in Feb.

I have many of Lynne's books in my "keeper box." Unfortunately this one didn't make it there. Even though Lucca was married he acted as a bachelor -- left her at home while he partied, etc.... She is led to believe that he was unfaithful -- not so far-fetched based on his life-style and leaves.

While they are separated he has adulterous relationships. She of course remains chaste and is bringing up their child. As soon as she finds out he was innocent she goes to him to apologize -- his reaction -- he'll still divorce her but wants her as his mistress.

What an arrogant @$%&*@! It was no wonder it was easy for her to believe the worst. Yet instead of trying to make their marriage work, because of his huge ego, since she left him, he no longer wants her as his wife.

In this case, I would have preferred if Vivian found someone else for her HEA. He was always thinking of himself and not of his wife or his child.

There are many other HPs written by Lynne that great -- you can save some money by avoiding this one.

I really like Graham books, but in this case what I didnt like about the book was that she didnt have any strenght at all...She realize that her husband wasnt guilty of adultery as she thought, and try to reconcile with him, meanwhile he wants to make her pay for leaving him when she thought him guilty.

In the end he did sleep with another women still married to his wife. And her character just broke my heart, if there any woman so pathetic as her.. my condolence..

Even though I like the end, I would rather have him suffer more for what he made her go through...

The Mistress Wife by Lynne Graham
Harlequin Presents # 2428 - November 2004

4 1/2 Stars! ~ Vivien's young marriage was strained when the tabloids printed the scandalous story of her husband's infidelity. Though pregnant with his child, she leaves him. Now two years after the scandal, the mistress takes back the lies she told the press about her affair with Lucca. But Lucca's bitter. His young wife had not believed him, and now after the birth of their son, she had restricted his access. So when Vivien comes to him to tell him how sorry she is for having doubted him, Lucca can only see revenge. He takes advantage of her kind heart knowing that her conscience would eat at her, always reminding her of all that she had thrown away based on lies. Vivien may still be naive, but she's must stronger now and has learnt to stand up for herself.

I didn't care for Lucca at first. The way he was portrayed at the beginning was as an immensely cruel man. But as their story unfolds and all their misunderstandings come to light, we see a very different Lucca. Well written. I'm looking forward to reading more from Ms. Graham.

A starlet's tell all about a wild night spent with Lucca had ended his marriage. His wife didn't believe he was innocent even though he told her he was. He barely saw his son and his divorce was almost finalized. Now the same starlet has published another tell all about the lies she told to get fame. One of those lies was sleeping with him.

When Vivien reads the tell all and realizes that what the starlet is now saying matched her husband's previous claims, she decides that she needs to go apologize for what she'd believed.

Lucca's upset with her but he's going to give it a shot with punishing her. Not for revenge, but because he manipulates her as much as possible. Vivien wants to give their marriage another go and Lucca starts up a relationship with her again. In the background is the fact that their divorce is almost finalized.

Lucca is happy to place all the blame of the breakup of their marriage squarely on Vivien's shoulders. And while she wallows in guilt from it, she also takes some time to say, hey, it wasn't all my fault. But Lucca always has an answer for that.

Lucca is a horrible manipulator. He doesn't bother at accept his own guilt, and even when he thinks that some things were wrong, he has an excuse for that. Meanwhile Vivien is a horrible doormat, she accepts that it's her fault and let's Lucca manipulate her. She's such a doormat, that Lucca even tells her that he can't be blamed for all the things he did when she was such a horrible doormat. And she shouldn't complain about them now because it was the fault of her horrible doormat qualities.

It seems like this book would be so horrible. I really can't stand manipulators that never accept their own guilt or see where they're at fault. And I really hate doormats, especially when paired with them.

But this works. And this works because in her doormatness, Vivien agrees with what Lucca tells her, and feels that it's what she should be doing too. Lucca tells her that he was faithful to her while they were married but when she left him, he cheated on her. He's on his high horse of blame laying while Vivien is completely devastated and then says, you're right, I was wrong. Our marriage is over and I shouldn't have been behaving like it wasn't. I should have been going out and having sex with other men instead of thinking I was still married.

And Lucca realizes that while he's trying to get all his perks with his little doormat wife, he's successfully made her feel not married and able to be with other men. Not at all what he intended.

So in the end, all his manipulations of the heroine wound up having him paint himself into a corner. He finally got her to see that everything he did was alright, but in doing so he ensured that she would behave in exactly the same way. And it works with this story. He's still a manipulator, she's still a doormat, and that's how they can be together happily.

This book was ok it wasn't WOW but good ok read. I love lynne Graham but this was not the best of the best. I really did love the club section of the book.

I gave it 5 stars because I think it's excellent character study of both the hero and the heroine, she is a doormat but in the end she asserted herself and learns how to manipulate him.
fantastic, another keeper.

This was probably the most intense love story I've read in a long while. I wanted to strangle both characters. A great study as to why communication is so very important in a relationship. I really loved this book and highly recommend it!