Customer Reviews

Ruthlessly Bedded, Forcibly Wedded (Harlequin Presents Extra)

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

 

 

There is absolutely no doubt when one reads Ruthlessly Bedded, Forcibly Wedded that revenge is at the top of the list. Plus the title clearly states the outcome when the ruthless, proud, handsome, and arrogant Vincenzo Valentini enters the upscale bar where Cara Brosnan works, charms her and whisks her away to his room where he takes her virginity and gives her a night like no other. Then the ruthless billionaire announces who he is, shocking her and walks away! As only Abby Green can deliver, this chaotic romance is such a roller coaster and rocky one. As a reader prepare yourself. Just when you think Enzo can't hurt Cara anymore, well think again!

Vincenzo is on a mission, a mission to make Cara pay for the death of his sister. It's of no matter to him that she lost her brother as well. He's going to bed her as pay back, let her know who he is and walk away. What he doesn't count on is her Irish beauty, but walk away he does to seek revenge. Now he's back in Ireland and is faced with seeing her again because she has a secret, she's carrying his child.

Since Cara's parents passed, she was forced to live with her brother, a brother who treated her horribly. He was so horrible to her, she even stayed in his home and schooled herself, was his chauffer and servant. Now he's dead and has taken the life of a beautiful young girl he hoped to use and gain money from her family. With him gone, she can leave London and return to Ireland to begin a new life, until she meets a handsome Italian, spends the night with him and months later finds herself pregnant. She reads he'll be in Ireland and decides to tell him her news.

As one might guess, Vincenzo doesn't believe the child is his, but when the press get wind of the news, he forces her to return with him to Italy and get married with no options for her other than to stay at his villa. The chemistry between them leaps off the page and as one can imagine it's very hard on them both. Both Enzo and Cara carry a lot of baggage and when one learns the secrets of Enzo's childhood, they realize why the loss of his sister was so hard on him and one can imagine how he feels when he yet again, faces another tragedy, the loss of his child.

From all of this grief, I think Enzo learned the most especially when he realizes the baby was his, that Cara is not the woman he believed her to be and that because he cares, he must let her go. Be prepared to grieve right along with them and cheer when they find their happiness. Ruthlessly Bedded, Forcibly Wedded is an extremely emotional and powerful read, one you won't want to miss!

Allegra was a doormat and was blindly in love with a jerk and they died in a car crash. Vicenzo was a mule headed arrogant jerk and he was going to get revenge for the death of his sister, Allegra from the jerk's sister Cara. I liked Cara she was no push over in all areas of her life except when it came to Vicenzo. Yes it had a great ending but getting there took forever because Vicenzo was such an ass. I would still recommend this book because the story was very good even though I really didn't like Vicenzo very much.

This novel is a total waste of time and money. So, the hero is really mean to the heroine the whole time and says awful things to her. The heroine is a total doormat like another reviewer said. Why would she put up with a SOB like him the whole time just for the sake of her unborn child? As I keep reading on the writer tells the reader where he usually brings his lovers and location is the same place where he has sex w/ the heroine the second time in the novel. That was just disgusting to read about where he takes his lovers to pleasure to usually and that piece of information was seriouslly unneccessary in the novel. Then the writer tells why he acts so cold towards women emotionally, because of what to him during childhood. His mom left him, his sister and father another man. So, from that point on he acts cold towards women, execpt towards his sister. The supposedly "Hero" courts the heroine like he always courts his past lovers with dining, jewelary and etc. The dad was a more likeable character. Why could not the "Hero" be more like his dad? If were the heroine I would have sued his a** for child support or not even contacted him at all and gone back to England to earn money. But, since that didn't happen. She should have sued him for emotional abuse. Also, all the sudden the"Hero" loves the the heroine in the end and wants to let her go because since "if you love something, set it free"; don't get why he says that. The heroine loose the baby. I know this is going to sound mean and unhuman, but here it goes. If I lost a baby and who's father is mean to me in so many ways I would feel actually relived. Why? The relationship was unhealthly from the brginning to the end. This book had so many things that were bad in the story that was just hard to read. This book was just a waste of time and money that I will never get back.

When Allegra, the younger sister of billionaire Vicenzo Valentini, is killed in a tragic car accident, he's out for revenge. Cormac Bosnan, the one responsible for killing his sister and trying to get her money is already dead, so Vicenzo decides to take his revenge against Cormac's sister. He believes that Cara Brosnan was a willing partner in her brothers cruel scheme to get Allegras money. So he seduces her and after confronting her with his real identity leaves her crushed the next morning.
Cara Brosnan couldn't be more innocent (in every way), she hated living with her cruel brother and did her best to go out of his way. After spending the night with Vicenzo she is shocked to find out that his sole reason for approaching her was revenge. And when she realizes that she is pregnant she just doesn't know how to go on.
As Vincenzo finds out that Cara is pregnant he forces her to marry him. But what begins as a forced marriage soon changes when Vincenzo realizes that Cara is not the ruthless person he thought her to be and that maybe he is the one who has to make amends for his own cruel behaviour if he wants their marriage to have a chance.

"Ruthlessly bedded, forcibly wedded" is a great book. I just love the way Abby Green tells her stories. Vincenzo and Cara are a great pair and because the whole revenge scheme is not over the top I truly enjoyed reading about their relationship. You get funny, sad, steamy and lovely scenes and all in all I just had a great time reading this book. So if you are a fan of romances I can genuinely recommend this book to you.

If it were possible to give a 'minus 0' review on this book, I would have done so. The whole 'I'm going to get revenge' motivation rationale for seeking the heroine out is plausible, but every single thing that happens thereafter is just so implausible that it offends the senses. I kept wanting to throw this book out without finishing it, but I spent good money on it (used) and couldn't believe the heroine would stay with this abusive jerk. The only character who appeared to be well developed and likeable was Vincenzo's father. The so-called hero was a cruel, abusive jerk. Cara falling into bed with him wasn't plausible. Getting pregnant with protection and him not noticing the condom had snapped wasn't plausible. Confronting him WAS plausible, but then that was the absolutely last plausible thing that happened. Even the sex just wasn't .... ugh! How could you ever let somebody so egregiously abusive even touch you?

My recommendation ... don't waste your time. If you're an el-cheapo used book junkie like I am, I recommend you use the 5-star rating sort feature on Amazon and look for 4:1 specials on some of the older used romance novels from the late 80's/mid-90's (that magical period of time where they started putting racy sex into them, but the sex was still incidental to the ROMANCE).

The two reviewers who didn't rate high are right. Cara was weak, and Vicenzo was an ass. There were times where I would have slapped him for the thing he said. And then I read her reaction, and re-read it, and re-re-read it, because I can't believe she doesn't do anything. She just stands there and takes it. And then she apologizes.

What the hell for? She didn't do anything. She didn't do anything he accused her of, so why doesn't she ever defend herself?

As a victim of abuse, even I'm not that scared and broken down. I at least stand up for myself.

Vicenzo was a horrible person. He was cruel to her throughout the whole book, and it took until the final chapters for him to apologize. That is something that pisses me and lots of other readers off. By the time the hero realizes their mistake, you hate him so much you don't care anymore.

Enzo's sister has just died and the man he thinks is responsible died with her, but his sister is still alive and Enzo is more than willing to make sure Cara pays for her brother's mistakes.

I have to start out by saying I am not a fan of vengeful heroes. There is something so idiotic and immature for someone to care so much about revenge instead of just dealing with their own issues and let god, the universe or the justice system take care of the rest. But I took that with a grain of salt and that being said Enzo lived up to expectations. He is a massive jerk for just about 99.8% of this book and it really bothered me how the true damage he could have/should have caused Cara was never addressed.

The first night they meet Enzo seduces her, he didn't plan it, she was just hot and he couldn't help himself which makes him even more cruel to her after the fact. The morning after she lost her virginity the hero is sitting there and basically tells her she is the scum of the earth and makes her feel like the lowest most disgusting whore because of the way he treated her. Doing that to another human being is horrible but I can't even imagine the deep issues with sex and men that would cause the poor girl. He does apologize for how he acts but not to the extent this horrible act requires.

Of course she gets pregnant and of course after insulting her incessantly he demands they get married. He continues to treat her like a random warm body until she loses the pregnancy. That's where the story turned around and I started to like Enzo. I'm not one to agree with this mommy was bad so all women are bad thing a lot of authors rely on and I didn't let that excuse him in the slightest but he honestly does change. But I got annoyed by constantly trying to test her, like taking her out on this date from hell (he thought she would like it and that would prove she was a bad person)on her birthday to see how she reacts, the date includes taking her to his "bachelor pad," a polite way of saying the place he takes his lady friends to bone them. But he feels real remorse and I couldn't say I forgave him but I think that Cara could. He was truly a changed man by the end, but I'm not sure that can excuse all of his past behavior.

Now Cara is not a spineless doormat. To me she is an extremely damaged person who should be in intensive therapy and not dealing with any of Enzo's crap. At the start of the book she just walked away from a massive car crash that killed her brother and his girllfriend, which to me explains why she does something out of character and sleeps with Enzo. She then miscarries her baby, another massive trauma that keeps her sticking around even when she wants to leave her husband.

The only part I truly disliked was this issue of her owing Enzo money. She couldn't work because she lived in the middle of nowhere and didn't speak the language, so she couldn't start to pay him back, but then he wouldn't let her leave because she owed him money. The whole thing made no sense any way you looked at it.

But if you go into this expecting a hero that is a MASSIVE jerk and a heroine that is about a fragile and damaged as a butterfly that just traveled 2000 miles from Mexico to Canada then this is for you. For what it is, it's good but if you want a hero who is actually close to being a nice guy this isn't for you.

4 stars.