Customer Reviews

The Prince's Virgin Wife (Harlequin Presents)

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

 

 

Maggie fell in love with Tom Prince six years ago. A struggling student, she had taken a job as Tom's housekeeper. Just when she thinks that Tom was also beginning to fall in love with her, he suddenly finds the beautiful woman of his dreams. Although Tom still wanted Maggie as his friend, she knew it would be impossible for her to stay and watch him be so happy with another woman. Now that the years have passed, Maggie takes a job as nanny for the children of Prince Tomasso Scorsolini, only to discover that Tom Prince and Tomasso are the same person. Tomasso used an alias while at school so that he could try to be a normal student. His wife has since died, and Tomasso is determined that Maggie is the perfect woman to be wife to him and mother to his children. He'd married for love once and found that the woman underneath the beauty wasn't who he thought she was. He's never forgotten Maggie, or the warmth that was always part of her nature. However, Tomasso has hurt Maggie before, and she's not sure if she wants to give him another chance to devastate her heart.

I adore Lucy Monroe. I can't read her books fast enough. From her Mercenary Series and Harlequin Presents stories, to her stand alone romances, Lucy Monroe's books are always on my Must-Be-Read list. I've never read one that I had difficult time with, until The Prince's Virgin Wife. Tomasso's choices six years before, and the way that he deals with Maggie and those choices left a bad taste in my mouth. It just soured the book for me. I never felt like Tomasso truly felt sorry for the way he had treated Maggie. Add to this a rather rushed ending, and I was left feeling dissatisfied. However, I have to say that I was most certainly intrigued by Tomasso's brothers, who are slated to have their own books as part of the Royal Brides Trilogy and will be impatiently waiting for their future books!


Melissa
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

If these two were meant to be together, how could Tomasso fall in love and marry someone else after knowing Maggie for two years? I just couldn't buy his attraction to Maggie after his very real rejection of her six years before. I understood that he wanted his best friend back and thought she would be good for his children, but the love and passion of his life? When he preferred his first wife over Maggie six years ago? Not likely.

I was recently introduced to the books of Lucy Monroe and up until this book enjoyed every one of them. I even bought this book after reading the reviews and praises on this page!

Maggie had to be the most pathetically weak character I have ever encountered. When she parts from Tomasso at the age of 20 it seems that the six years in between before they meet again are spent in a void. She seems to have never even attempted to make friends or date during this time. It was like she was waiting for her life to start again when Tomasso came back into the picture. Then to top it all off when Tomasso made it clear that he didn't love her, she decided that she could live without him loving her back (as she deserved and should have expected in a healthy relationship)as long as she could marry him and have his children! After all, he treated her with respect and loyalty and what else could a woman ask for.' Major gag!!!

As another reviewer mentioned, I also felt that the ending was rushed when Tomasso suddenly realized he had always loved her and they fell feverently into each others arms! I was too disgusted by then by Maggie's grovelling and pathetic devotion to a man who not only didn't deserve her, but never came across as truly loving her to me, especially to stoop so low as to use his two children as emotional blackmail to get her to marry him. That may have been okay, if underneath it all he was really doing it because he loved her and needed her with him, but I still felt at the end of the book that he just wanted the convenience of a woman who would adore and take care of him and his children and if she loved him all the better, since then she would never leave him!

Monroe's follow up book "His Royal Love-Child" had an equally innocent character in Danette Michaels, but she had a backbone and enough healthy respect for herself that it was okay with me when her lover Marcello didn't return her feelings at the beginning of the book.

I just felt that Maggie needed some serious counseling on learning to love herself in spite of her shortcomings, before she tried to find validation through a man. She just seemed to need Tomasso to convince her that she was worthy of him. And Tomasso needed to grow up and become a real man! Alpha male? I don't think so. Arrogant pig is more like it.

I love to read romances of every variety of character and storyline, but this is the first one in years that truly disgusted me and made me want to ask for my money back. And I even paid full price for it! I'm just hoping "The Scorsolini Marriage Bargain" is better!

Six years before Tomasso (Tom) had hired Maggie to be his housekeeper. He told her to never try to seduce him or she would lose her job. She agreed but he later changed the rules. Maggie had been upfront with Tom when she told him that she would only sleep with her husband but for some reason he conveniently forgot that at the time. He calls her "bella" and she believes it is another girl's name. Before consummating the act he discovers she is a virgin and is shocked. Why would he be shocked as she had told him that she was raised to stay out of men's beds until she married? Maggie puts a stop to the seduction. Tom avoids her for awhile and finally Maggie decides to give in. She is waiting for him in his bed when he comes home with another woman and they are making out in the room with Maggie in the bed. The light is turned on . . . all are surprised! The next morning Maggie is understandably upset and Tom says they didn't have a relationship that he did not break any promises to her and she shouldn't be acting like this. (Really she was willing to give her virginity to this man that didn't even promise marriage, but of course he can't put that together.) Months later Tom marries the girl that he had brought to his room that night. He invites Maggie to their wedding and she says they don't have that type of relationship, he was her boss not her friend, and she doesn't ever intend to see him again after graduation.

Tomasso's wife is now dead and he needs someone to help take care of his children. He wants Maggie for this job, but first he wants to test her. So he investigates her and manipulates her situation to get what he wants. He comes across as cold and calculating and it is made worse by the fact that Maggie tells him that growing up she knew her place in the family was dependant on what she did for them. She wasn't loved. This is what he is offering her though, the same type of life. She won't be loved but she will be a princess, wife, and mother because of what she can provide for Tomasso: calmness, smoothness in everyday life, love for the children, efficiency in running of the household, etc. However, Tomasso does want her to be in love with HIM as he believes it would make her happier. (really? Because one-sided love is so fulfilling?)

Tomasso coerces Maggie into marrying him, he has already told the children and she doesn't want to disappoint them. She tells him we had "one night", she did not make a lifelong vow. He says, "In giving yourself to me, you did that very thing. It is the way you are made." (Hhhhmmm . . . I don't remember him offering marriage 6 years before when he was trying to have "one night" with her and then finding another woman within a week of being turned down.

I would have liked Tom to have had his epiphany sooner than the last two pages of the story. As it was I felt like he got his cake and he got to eat it too! If Liana had some of Maggie's character and didn't die then he would still be with her and loving it. I would have felt better about the whole story if Maggie had another relationship in the interim instead of just existing.

STUNNING IS ALL I CAN SAY! THE PRINCE'S VIRGIN WIFE has all of Lucy's wonderful qualities in a love story, passion, promise, tenderness and a few of life's lessons to remember.

This is the first book in the Royal Bride Series. One learns that Tomasso Sciorsolini hired Maggie Thomson six years earlier as his housekeeper while both were attending college. As the Prince was proud and wanted to be known not for his status, he becomes Tom Prince to those on campus and a friend to his new employee, Maggie as well.

Their friendship grows until one evening when things get a little out of hand. Maggie isn't ready for a physical relationship and is wary because at her initial interview she is warned there can and will never be any physical relationship between them or she would be "fired".

In order to survive his attraction for his housekeeper, Tom, stays away from home and meets the beautiful Liana and ends up marrying her. From this union two beautiful children are created.....Gianni and Anna. However, their Liana dies and Tom is in need of a nanny and remembers how well Maggie took care of him and sets out not only to hire her for the position but also decides she might also be a suitable wife and mother for his family.

While I adored Tomasso, Maggie is the "strength" in this story. What an incredible character this author has created. What I loved the most is that this strong alpha cares for her due to her inner beauty and strength, not for her outside appearance, even though she is lovely herself. Their journey together at finding love was very tender and full of promise.

Monroe reminds her readers of things one should practice daily, like love, strength, kindness, tenderness and putting others first. Thanks for this lovely and breathtaking story, Lucy.

Loved it read it in a day and can't wait to read the other brothers....

I love romance novels that have to do with kings, prince's & shiekhs its a little fantasy that helps you to get carried away.
This was a good book Maggie and Tomasso were greet together.. I thought it would be interesting to see Tomasso's older brother's(Claudio Scorsolini) story he and his wife (Therese) was acting a little weird in the book makes you think if their marriage is also a marriage of convenience even though they have been married for a while.....GET IT YOU'LL LOVE IT


A SEEK PEAK OF Therese & Claudio story....

Duty-bound to marry and bear the King an heir...

Principe Claudio Scorsolini had strict criteria when he selected his future wife - she must make a suitable figurehead for his people and provide him with an heir...

Claudio's convenient union with Therese is hailed a success: his subjects have fallen in love with their future queen, and she's performed her duties in the bedroom - to Claudio's immense satisfaction...

However, Therese has secretly fallen in love with her regal, dutiful husband. How can their marriage survive when she knows she can never give Claudio a child?

I bought this because it was by Lucy Monroe and now I'm wondering if it's a completely different author because it wasn't anything like her other books. Just so so.

I found "The Prince's Virgin Wife" entertaining, but must admit that I was not in love with the hero, Prince Tomasso Scorsolini. I thought he treated Maggie poorly in the beginning when she worked for him and only wanted her later when he needed a mother to care for his kids. Tomasso is the kind of hero that grows on you. His arrogance and ego is a bit much, but he comes around with the help of Maggie. There were some convincing passionate scenes which is always a welcome in Harlequin Romance novels.

The book held my interest and I didn't want to skip parts just to get to the end. It was entertaining. Later in the story it is good to read how Maggie wins Prince Tomasso heart and he discovers that he needs her just as much as his kids needs her.

The plot is really original. First we have Prince Tomasso. Second in line to the throne, he left his homeland to pursue his college education in the states. There at college, he changed his name, for he did not want to be known as royalty.

Then comes Maggie, who has had a difficult childhood, and it is about to become cinderella. She worked for Tomasso six years ago. She fell inloved with him, but left his house, for she could not stand to see him with another woman.

Lacking maturity, Tomasso picked the wrong woman to marry, and he had to pay the consequences. Now he needs a wife of convenience, and sweet Maggie is perfect for the task.
Now Maggie is working for Tomasso, and it did not take a long time for the fire of passion to heat again.

The story is beautiful, great technique in writing, and the perfect start for the upcoming series. The children in the story are wonderful as well.

The best is about to come with the following books of the Royal Brides trilogy.

Wow, another great book by lucy monroe. I have read all of her books and i have yet to find one that i didn't like. It's such a touching and heartwarming story about ones true love, you can't help but love it. This book is 5 stars in my review because that's exactly what it deserved. The passion between Tom and Maggie were so hot i literaly thought the pages were going to burst into flames. The little children, Giannia nd Annie, were so cute you just couldn't help but love them. If you're lokking for a great read and passion then you defently need to read this book because i couldn't put it down and read it in just one whole day. I loved Tomasso and Maggie's relationship, it left us all yearning and wanting more. I can't wait for lucy's other two books about Tomasso's brothers: Claudio and Marcello.