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Passionately Ever After: Dynasties: The Barones (Silhouette Desire)

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This is the story of Maria Barone and Steven Conti. If you are familiar with the Barone series, the Barones blame the Contis for a string of misfortunes that has plagued their family because of a curse that Lucia Conti placed on the Barones when their grandmother eloped with her fiance years ago. Maria and Steven met at a party months ago and fell in love. When Maria found out she was pregnant she fled out of fear of what her family will think. Steven doesn't understand why Maria left, she claimed to love him but paniced when he asked her to marry him. When Steven finds Maria and realizes she is pregnant, he is overjoyed and upset that she didn't tell him. He insists that they marry immediately, Maria refuses and asks him to walk away but Steven will not take no for an answer.

This could have been a better story if Maria was more likeable. She comes of as petty and immature because she is afraid of a curse and that her family will be mad at her for getting involved with a Conti. The selfishness of her actions asking Steven to walk away from his own child made it hard for me to accept her as a likeable heroine. Steven, however, was a great character. He was willing to stand up to his family and be a man and I kind of think Maria wasn't good enough for him. Still a decent story, thank goodness for STeven.

A millionaire by the time he was twenty-five, Steven Conti wants the one thing he cannot have; he wants to marry Maria Barone. Despite his family's claim, he does not believe that her family has been sabotaging Baronessa Gelateria, his family's chain of Italian ice cream shops that also distributes products nationwide. Unfortunately, when she learns of her pregnancy, Maria disappears leaving only a note saying that she needed to get away and time to think. Not knowing of his expected child, Steven eventually traces her to Silver Valley, Montana.

Seven decades of misfortunes have befallen the Barone family as a result of the Conti family's curse, resulting in unceasing enmity between the families. Despite his best efforts, Steven fails to convince Maria that the tragedy her family has suffered is only coincidence. So now she worries about how the curse could affect her child. At seven months pregnant, Maria cannot hide her pregnancy from Steven when he finds her, but she cannot yield to her heart's desire and marry him. So Steven refuses to leave Silver Valley without her.

Author Metsy Hingle brings the Dynasties: The Barons continuity to a satisfying conclusion with PASSIONATELY EVER AFTER. With her inexhaustible charm, Hingle confronts powerful tangles of the heart and family. Indeed, Hingle faces one of the greatest challenges of a continuity by deftly bringing to a conclusion the many threads of the previous installments including cousin Emily's amnesia and Derrick's and Bianca's kidnapping, as well as various engagements. Despite the necessity of completing previous stories, the plot moves quickly with legal and family angst to hold the reader's interest. PASSIONATELY EVER AFTER works amazingly well as a standalone, though it will have readers seeking other installments in the series. PASSIONATELY EVER AFTER comes very highly recommended.

Maria Barone fled to Montana to decide what to do about the love child she was carrying. Her star-crossed romance with millionaire Steven Conti could never have a happily ever after due to a family curse that forever linked the two families. When Steven arrives to discover that he is about to become a father, nothing can keep him from trying to convince Maria that the curse is just an old wives tale, initiated by his bitter aunt who was left at the altar by Maria's grandfather. Making matters worse for the couple is the kidnapping of Steven's sister, and Maria's cousin is the prime suspect. Can Steven convince Maria that the two were made for each other?

This is the last in a series of 12 novels regarding the Barone family, and I quickly discovered that without the background, the reader is sort of lost. Basically it is a modern (yet somewhat dated) take on Romeo and Juliet, the only problem is that neither of the lead characters is all that interesting, and what separates them is pretty mundane. It really did not capture my attention, which is surprising, since I usually devour books by Hingle.

This is the last of the series on the Barone family, but even though there was a resolution, the heroine Maria is not a fitting heroine. She is more interesting and more likable in some of the earlier Barone books. In this story, she is pathetic in her fears, and the storyline drags on. She frets over the same issue (the Conti curse and her family's reaction to her lover) throughout the book instead of facing things. It doesn't take long for her refrain to get tired. Her lover Steven Conti is a more interesting character, but you really wonder why he puts up with her. You realize that the curse would still be in effect because of the baby -- whether she was with Steven or not -- so denying him doesn't even make sense. I was glad things were tied up at the end, but other books in the Barone series were much better.

HE'D TRACKED HER DOWN...

...in the snow-covered Montana mountains. But in his runaway lover's glistening eyes Steven Conti could see she still loved him, still wanted him. And from her rounded belly he couls see she hid his unborn baby. Nothing would stop Steven from taking them home to Boston - his woman and his child....

From thier first night together, Maria Barone was branded by his kiss; she could belong to no one but Steven. But he was a Conti, and she a Barone - sworn enemies and feuding rivals. Maria wanted Steven, as a husband, a lover, a father to her baby. But could they find happily-ever-after - or had she fallen for the one man she could never keep?

12th in Dynasties: The Barones series