Customer Reviews

Second-Best Wife (Romance)

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Young college student Gabriella "Gaby" Holt has been studying Italian abroad, taking a nine week immersion course at the University of Urbino, about a hundred and fifty miles south of Rome. She has made friends with a poor and shy Italian boy about her age named Giovanni. The day before she is scheduled to fly back to her home in Nevada and to her studies at the university there, Giovanni invites her to a nice restaurant. Gaby worries about whether or not he can afford it.

Giovanni picks her up in an expensive black car with a chauffeur. The driver turns out to be his older brother Luca, who speaks perfect English and tells her to call him Luke, and the restaurant turns out to be the local castle. It seems Giovanni has not been entirely honest with Gaby. He is going to be the next duke and is wealthy. It also seems that he is bringing her home to introduce her to the family as his intended bride. However, she is not in love with him.

To complicate matters, she feels an immediate attraction to Luke and to further complicate matters, it turns out that the reason older brother Luke isn't in line for the dukedom is because he's forsaken all earthly things. He is going to be taking his final vows and enter the priesthood in only a few days. What is Gaby to do? She doesn't want to hurt Giovanni? And she certainly can't come between a man and the priesthood. It seems the best thing for her to do is go home to Nevada, but perhaps Giovanni and Luke have something to say about that.

Ms. Winters has written a lot of romance novels in the four plus decades that span her writing career and this one is right up there with the best of them.

From the Back:

Heaven Sent?

Luke Provere was all Gaby had ever wanted in a man and more - tall, dark and devilishly handsome. Gaby had taken one look into his smoldering black eyes and fallen - hard. But it hadn't taken her long to discover that Luke was well and truly out of circulation.

He might as well have been married already. With another woman for a rival she would have stood a fighting chance, but the dating game held no interest for Luke and, whatever the temptation, Gaby knew she couldn't argue with God! There was nothing she could do - unless, of course, there was someone up there on her side....

Review: This book was over-the-top, even for a harlequin. Rebecca Winters used to be one of my favorites; The Nutcracker Prince is still on my keeper shelf, but her works seem to have veered into radical leaps of logic and overly dramatic (and I like the Presents series, so that's saying alot). The female lead "fell in love" after one super brief meeting. Given that she was 22, it seems more likely she fell in something else. Strong physical chemistry is key, but if that's the basis of the relationship without knowing anything else about the male lead, something's wrong.

Gabriella Holt loves her friend Giovanni like a brother. They have spent lots of time together as class-mates and now that Gaby is leaving Italy in two days, Giovanni wants her to meet his family, Gaby thinks Giovanni is a poor student like her and is living on a shoe-string budget.

Gaby finds out not only is Giovanni is rich but he is next in line to be the Duke of the house of Provere, but his older brother Luca who should have been next in line isn't because he is about to become a priest, they have an other brother in the Serra Navada who we never hear exactly why he isn't next in line for being the duke.

Luca falls in love with Gaby, and Gaby falls in love of Luca but she tries to get away from his family as soon as she can.

Only Giovanni has other plans. He wants Luca to fall for Gaby and free him to become a priest. So he has a plan and the plan is to get Gaby and Luca to spend lots of time together even if Gaby has to be arrested to achieve that goal.

From the back of the book:' Heaven Sent? Luke Provere was all Gaby had ever wanted in a man and more-tall, dark and devilishly handsome. Gaby had taken one look into his smoldering black eyes and fallen-hard.

But it hadn't taken her long to discover that Luke was well and truly out of circulation.

He might just as well have been married already. With another woman for a rival she would have stood a faighting chance, but the dating game held no interest for Luke and, whatever the temptation, Gaby knew she couldn't argue with God! There was nothing she could do-unless, of course, there was someone up there on her side...'

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