Customer Reviews

The Seductive One (The Marcelli Sisters of Pleasure Road, Book 3)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Brenna Marcelli knows the depths of her desperation when she visits Nicholas Giovanni, CEO of family rival Wild Sea Vineyards to borrow one million dollars to start her own wine label. Her beloved family patriarch and that of Nicholas have fought for decades. Still Brenna feels a need to go around her grandfather as she believes he will hand over the family winemaking company to a newly discovered stepbrother. The vines are in Brenna's heart, but so is Nic, who broke hers when she was a teen.

Nic lends the money to Brenna, but sees this as a different type of investment as he now feels he has the mechanism to avenge what he has heard the Marcelli's did to the Giovanni clan years ago. However, Nic feels Brenna's enthusiasm and acumen as if he was working every vine. Soon he falls in love with her, but may have destroyed his chance for happiness when his scheme begins to show fruit. Brenna knows that déjà vu means breaking your heart twice over the same rascal.

The third Marcelli contemporary romance is a fine one as readers follow the exploits of the only sister whose heart is entangled by the vines. The story line is fun to follow as Brenna battles with her grandfather and Nic. Both these stubborn men soon realize how strong a person she is. Readers will appreciate the latest entanglement of the heart as the Marcelli siblings remain strong characters that are fun to observe and the audience will want to toast at their upcoming nuptials.

Harriet Klausner

Brenna Marcelli has always dreamed of running the Marcelli family vineyard; her family jokes that wine flows through her veins. But family patriarch Grandpa Lorenzo insists that running the winery is a man's job. That's kind of hard to do when the Marcelli's only have four daughters. But a secret from the family's past comes to light that could dash Brenna's dreams. Newly divorced, Brenna returns to the family's Santa Barbara winery/estate and decides to start up a boutique winery, turning to former lover Nic Giovanni for the capital. Making matters difficult is that the Giovanni's and the Marcelli's have had a long-standing feud, not to mention the secret relationship Brenna and Nic had a decade earlier that ended when she chose her family over him. Nic is willing to loan her the money; but at what cost? Sparks fly when the two realize that there are unresolved feelings between the two. Will Nic avenge his family or fight for the woman he has always loved?

Mallery's third in the Marcelli series features a striking couple who are equals. Brenna is no shrinking violet and Nic is her equal in temperament and ambition. The books are best if read in order since key plot points are revealed over the five books. The series (in order) includes: The Sparkling One (****), The Sassy One (***), The Seductive One (****), The Marcelli Bride (****), and the abysmal The Marcelli Princess (**).

The Sassy One, The Sparking One, and The Seductive One are a truly excellent trilogy. If you enjoy Lori Foster, Allison Kent, Linda Francis Lee, Deidre Martin, Rachel Gibson, and Susan Andersen you will love Susan Mallery! She tells an exceptional story with rich characters and a hot love story. I read these over one weekend. I could not put them down. Run do not walk to buy your copies! Enjoy.

I read the Marcelli sisters trilogy all at once. I found Mallery's writing for the first two books dull and a bit boring. In the 21st century, I did not understand how someone could write about this all-consuming pressure to marry at 18 and have babies. Yes, I know they all wind up being independent career women and eventually marry their true loves. But two out of the four marry at 18, one almost marries at 18, all with disastrous results.

This last book, Brenna's story, is by far the best of the three. Her long-suppressed desire for Nic drew me in from the first page. Their love story was passionate and delicious and I felt their pull and draw towards one another mature as beautifully as each step of winemaking was described. While I felt ho-hum about Katie and Francesca's stories, this one saved the day for me.

One huge disappointment with the series is this: Throughout THREE books, the entire focus is the wedding -- planning, talking, cooking, making the darn wedding dresses (a very important part of every book) and WE DON'T GET A WEDDING!! Couldn't Mallery have at least concluded with the slam bang, get-the-tissues-out, fabulous Italian triple wedding that they've been talking about the whole time??? For that alone, I dropped this book a star.

Mildly entertaining, but don't expect too much.

The Seductive One (Marcelli Sisters of Pleasure Road)by Susan Mallery was another hit for this author. There has been a feud between the Marcelli and Giovanni families for decades. The feud started because of lies and may be fueled by more. A great Romeo and Juliet love story with a nice twist. I am off to read the rest of the beginning of the series - oops.
Check out the whole series; The Sparkling One (1),The Sassy One (2),The Seductive One (3), The Marcelli Bride (4),The Marcelli Princess (5 coming out 2007).

she's just the most pathetic cowardly heroine I've ever read about. It never seemed liked she cared much about the hero. She just thought he was sexy. She betrayed him badly when they were young and in love. Later she uses her youth as an excuse and complains that she suffered too but it's hard to be sympathetic because I felt like she deserved her marriage. She wasn't willing to lay it on the line for something better. Then 10 yrs later she comes back to the guy she betrayed and asks for a million dollar collateral free loan. Huh? Throughout the book it's easy to see what our hero has to offer her. Rich, handsome, motorcycle, good guy, etc. But what the heroine offers him is beyond me. Never once in the book did she do something for him. Even the sex was one sided. She's weak, cowardly and self absorbed. The only thing she cares about is her Grandfather's vineyard. I would rather see the hero with his CFO Maggie who was a good strong friend and obviously cared about him. In the end as in all of Mallery's books I've read so far, it is the hero who must grovel endlessly to win the heroine even though IMO her betrayal was much worse and she barely said she was sorry 10 yrs later. Can't imagine why he wanted her. I would never have forgiven her.

Sometimes you must go where your heart tells. That doesn't mean that you are right or wrong. That you'll be happy or sad. That you'll regret what you've done or you'll enjoy it. To understand my saying you must read this book.

This is the third book in Susan Mallery's `Marcelli Sisters of Pleasure Road' series. I wasn't thrilled with the first book, `The Sparkling One' and even less so with `The Sassy One'. But while reading those two duds, I kept hanging out for one characters' story. Brenna.

Brenna is fraternal twin to Francesca and she's been getting all the hard knocks from book #1. In `The Sparkling One' Brenna is dumped by her husband of 10 years -thrown over for a younger woman to become a cliché at the age of 27.

I was most interested in reading Brenna's story because Mallery created her love interest back in book #1. Mallery introduced rival wine-maker, Nic Giovanni, and revealed that he and Brenna had been sweethearts and planned to elope when they were teenagers. But Brenna was scared to be cut off from her family and so she took the easy route and married her (now) ex-husband instead of Nic.

I really liked this instalment of the `Marcelli sisters' series. This third book totally makes up for the sub-par plots and dull romances in book's #1 and #2.

For one thing, Nic Giovanni is H-O-T! He rides a motorcycle, wears black and plays up to being Brenna's forbidden lover. These two have instant chemistry. I didn't even mind that a good deal of their chemistry comes from their past romance - there are no flashbacks, but both Brenna and Nic recount the love of their youth.

I especially liked Nic because he *really* lives up to his `bad boy' label. While seducing Brenna he's planning to buy her family's winery behind her back. I really felt a sense of `will they or won't they?' with this high-stakes romance. Nic was risking so much by falling for Brenna while contriving to ruin her family legacy. There was a really believable struggle between the characters which meant I was 100% invested in the storyline and romance.

I really liked this book. I didn't love it, but it definitely made up for Mallery's first 2 less-than-impressive books in the `Marcelli Sisters' series.

I truly loved this book. It was full of romance and passion. You will fall in love with Nic Giovanni!!! I recommend this easy read love story. I loved it!!

I loved this book. The storyline finally filled in the missing history both of the family and personal back story. This is one of my favorite series.