Customer Reviews

The Santangeli Marriage (Romance Lp)

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

 

 

One let me say that I love to read Harlequin books by Sara Craven (I tend to like the old authors because the "hero" is usually stronger).

So the book is about a nineteen year old Marisa, who was adopted as a child by the wealthy Santangeli family after the death of her parents (who left her with no money at all). Marisa of course is in love with the only child and heir Lorenzo Santangeli, who of course could not have cared less about her. Marisa is essentially emotionally blackmailed into marrying Lorenzo because of the fact that his family paid for all her care and schooling since she was a child. So Marisa marries Lorenzo and finds out about his mistress that he had at the time of his marriage proposal (i.e. couldn't keep it in his pants or do the decent thing and break up with her first). So of course Marisa runs back to London.... So what will happen with this marriage of convenience that is just to provide heirs and settle Marisa's "debt"? *****SPOILERS*****

Spoilers.... The reason I gave this story 2 stars is because the hero was such an arrogant, womanizing, jerk, who could not keep it in his pants. First he proposes to her and he still has a mistress... but it gets worse. Here they are married and he after only a few months of not getting any because they are seperated he has an affair with a married woman. What is so hard about being faithful? I hate when the "hero" can't keep it in his pants. Then he doesn't understand why she is upset when she was in England and not providing any, but he should be forgiven because "he was going to tell her". The hypocrite of course would have blown his top if his virginal bride had of course had sex with another man while they were seperated. The "hero" was an immoral arrogant rat, who would have deserved her cheating on him. He did not fit my standards of a "hero" at all.

As a long time Harlequin reader, I have seen this plot before-many times. I have not, however, ever read a Harlequin as dark and depressing as this one. I found the hero AND the heroine to be unlikable. The story was steeped in misery.

The hero, who knew his bride was a virgin, consummated the marriage in the coldest, more cruel manner I have ever seen. He did it on the floor without so much as a kiss. A scene like that does not belong in a Harlequin romance.

This is not the only jerky thing the hero does. He asks the heroine to marry him while he still has a mistress and commits infidelity after the wedding.

I don't know why the writer thought anyone would be interested in a hero such as this. I guess the writer tried to redeem him by having him take the high road when yet another tragedy was heaped upon the heroine at the end of the book. Bully for him, but that was not enough.

The heroine was bitter and whiney. Craven really did not seem to put much into her characterization. She was more a put upon victim than a likable character. The only emotion she showed other than misery was anger which manifested itself in her giving the hero a BLACK EYE. Like the consummation scene, such a thing has no place in a Harlequin.

I did not like the way the story was written. Too many flashbacks and disjointed conversation and introspection made the narrative hard to follow.

This book was torturous to read and not worth the effort. If you are on an oncredible high, have reached an unhealthty level of happiness and need something negative to take the edge off, read this book. It will take you down a couple on nothches. Otherwise, I recommend this one be skipped.

This book was just ok. The whole infidelity aspect wasn't what earned it a 2 star rating from me. I usually enjoy groveling from the hero. I just didn't care for the infertility at the end. In this day and age, there are just too many treatments available. I wish the author had included an epilogue so we could see how everybody ended up.

The plot had potential, but the execution could be better. There are some similarities and styles that I noticed in her books. Sara like to incorporate a lot of flash back to reveal the history of the characters. It is bit of frustrating the book jump back to past and present. Some of the sex scenes resemble rape where although not unwillingly it was forced/blackmailed and performed with lack of foreplay and enjoyment on the heroine side. Also the hero's point of view is stated clearly to the audience but not professed the same way to the heroine. The hero love his heroine dearly and are always willing to sacrifice and give some space to the heroine/wife. The hero did a lot behind the heroine's back but they aren't really elaborated that much when the heroine finds out. The ending was abrupt and unsatisfying where the hero profess his love to the heroine very quick.

The first sex scenes of "The Forced Bride" resembled rape and the first scene of The Santangeli Marriage" was lacking forplay and enjoyment, and there was a sex scene at "Desire Bride" that the heroine did it because of blackmailed. All the above mention sex scene, the hero was very frustrated and sex was done abruptly as a way of branding the heroine, often without tenderness or foreplay leaving the heroine lacking enjoyment and feeling bereft, confused, and unhappy.

Giving space for the wife and involving flashback are found in the following
"The Forced Bride"
"The Santangeli Marriage"
"Innocent On Her Wedding Night"

I normally love Sara Craven's work, but this book was disappointing. It took me a while to recognize why. The book does not reflect the development of their relationship - why and how they fell in love. Overwhelmingly, the book focuses on the tension: she found out her family owed the Santangeli's for suppporting them; their mothers planned for them to marry; he wanted a virgin bride to give him children. That part of the story dominates the book so much that in the end when they suppposedly fall in love, you're not sure why. They spend 150 pages miscommunicating, making erroneous assumptions about each other, misunderstanding each other, and they spend 20 pages discovering they had fallen in love. The reader is left wondering just when that happened and why. Is it just based on the physical? They don't spend any time talking to one another or developing a relationship, they don't do anything together, have fun, etc., so I was stunned when suddenly they were in love. The kicker for me was also that she found out she couldn't have children. So I'm reading this book that is really depressing, then she can't have children. The reason for the storyline making her infertile is not clear to me. The only thing I can assume is that Ms. Craven wanted to establsh that Lorenzo loved Marisa so much that even her infertility did not matter even though the main reason he married her was to have children. It's a real downer at the end of the book. You don't feel good about this story. It's a sad ending. I read this book and just found it disappointing and depressing.

To make or break a marriage - Lorenzo and Marisa both had pride and temper down pact what they needed was more hope and faith. It would seem that Lorenzo had that and continued to fight against his natural inclinations of pride and temper while Marisa, being the younger of the two, needed to find the hope and faith.

They had a marriage of convenience that started out wrong. She believed he just wanted an heir off of her and she felt that she was forced to marry because of the money that his family gave to support her and her cousin's family all those years when she was growing up. One believes that Marisa's only problem with this marriage was that she felt forced, and used, in this marriage, yet we later find out that she was terribly hurt at the age of 15 when he said some pretty damaging things to a young girl who was just searching for her place and perhaps some love. Marisa wanted him to see her as a woman not a little girl and so she "casually lost" her bikini top in the pool. Of course, Lorenzo overreacted and called her a name that he really shouldn't have and I don't think he could ever have gathered the possible ramifications of what he did.

And so this story goes with both the H/h saying or doing things that they really shouldn't have done or said, but they don't stop to think about the consequences until it's too late. Yes Lorenzo had a brief affair with a married woman when he was estranged from his wife but she had continuously pushed him away and he did not take rejection well "so when all his overtures had been ignored he'd looked deliberately for the most practical form of consolation he could find." Lorenzo did feel regret for his choice in having that affair with the other woman as well, but he couldn't change the past he just wanted to build from that and learn from their mistakes.

I felt that the roles were reversed this time around as it's the h that is carrying the baggage instead of the H. The heroine really needed to feel loved because of things in her past, losing her parents at a young age and being around that nasty cousin, Julia. Because of the incident in the pool Marisa built a very sturdy wall around herself and Lorenzo had his work cut out for him. She needed more tender loving care than he realized and he went at it all wrong in the beginning, but I think when he retrieved her because of his father's ill health not gossip, he had decided then that he would take a whole other approach. He wanted to try to build their marriage from the shambles that it was left in.

I liked the hero and even the heroine in all her stubbornness. I think Ms. Craven did an excellent job of showing both sides in this marriage. I believe there is a happily ever after and perhaps they will even find that other elusive thing that they were told would be beyond them.

I would also like to try to answer a couple of the previous poster's questions that they felt weren't answered: The castle purchase: I don't believe Lorenzo purchased the castle for Marisa because; at the end she states, "Perhaps Adriana was right, she thought, as later they walked from the garden, hand in hand, knowing they would never come back there. That they had all they needed." I think that sums up the castle purchase as well as the heir question. As for the nasty grandmother, I think earlier after the spat at the house Lorenzo told Marisa that the grandmother's future visits would be - discouraged.

I could barely get through this book. It had no light moments at all. She was an uptight drama queen and he a clueless dolt! Also, it was just a constant rehashing of the same issues over and over. The heroine chose to make the marriage totally unworkable because she "had been forced into it". Not really, she chose to go into the marriage. She could have said "no" pretty easily but once having said "yes", why not try to make it work? I was very annoyed with her!

I loved the story but it had unresolved issues. I was surprised at how the ending was so abrupt, almost 2 pages at the end where the heroine and hero make up at the end.

Sorry some spoilers:


Issues left dangling was the whole baby issue where it was barely touched on at the end. How did the hero feel about it? He didn't make it clear to the heroine except to indicate that he was upset but was told by the doctor not to upset the heroine over it. What happened to the nasty grandmother, was she put in her place and told never to darken the doorsteps again? The castle, the author, made to state was bought and being renovated, I had a feeling that it was maybe by the hero?. The whole I love you at the end was very rushed so you almost didn't believe it.

The book wasn't that bad and had very emotional overtones, but I gave it 3, and not because the hero cheated-because I felt the heroine made him live in misery over that-but because I just felt dissatisfied at the HEA.