Customer Reviews

The Sicilians Passion

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

 

 

Interior-designer heroine has instant attraction with arrogant Sicilian Hero who makes it clear only wants a temporary sexual affair. Heroine agrees with their arrangement, against her better judgment & her normal nature b/c of her powerful attraction to Hero. Even when she finds out he was engaged to another woman when they 1st become intimate, she continues their affair. Both continue to seesaw between struggling with & giving into their passion for each other until it comes to a critical point.

I don't like to read books where the main characters are involved in infidelity. Kendrick wrote this book so well that I actually liked it! Hero was an arrogant, judgmental, & insulting jerk at the start, which made me think I would hate this book especially when it was revealed that he had a fiancee when he had sex with heroine. But I could see his inner struggles re: his feelings for heroine that, towards 2nd half of book, I was warming up to him. I liked that heroine was strong & independent & went into the affair with her eyes wide open. She gave no excuses. She had hopes for a better r/s with hero but was realistic enough to not put much stock in them b/c Hero made it clear that their r/s was temporary. Overall, the 2/3 of the book led me to believe that their r/s was not going to last, esp since Hero was portrayed well as noncommital to heroine. But scenes from the last third of the book pushed the r/s past their usual. I think hero needed that push for his well-controlled & -hidden feelings for heroine to surface. Dialogue was good. Sexual chemistry & love scenes were passionate.

Recommended.

Released originally in 2001 and later re-released in Kindle in August last year, The Sicilian's Passion by Sharon Kendrick is one of my favorite Harlequin romances. I remember re-reading this romance more than 3 times in fact, and its being around 3 years since I last revisited Giovanni and Kate's tempestuous affair born out of their mutual attraction towards one another.

27 year old Kate Connors is an interior designer who is pretty much happy with who she is. Her clients are mostly the rich and sometimes the famous and that is how she crosses paths with Giovanni Calverri, tall, dark and with looks good enough to make the average woman swoon at his feet. The 34 year old Giovanni is used to women reacting towards him the way Kate does from the onset of their introduction. But the difference this time around is Giovanni feels as helpless as Kate in disguising the need that flares to life deep inside of him to claim the red headed beauty who tempts him unlike any other.

Furious with himself more than anyone else about the desire he feels towards Kate, it is a triumphant Giovanni that races towards Kate's apartment to do his godmother's bidding, secure in the knowledge that Kate had engineered the meeting that was about to happen between them. Things however go totally in the opposite direction as soon as Giovanni steps into the apartment, the desire that they both inexplicably feel towards each other refusing to be denied when there was nothing holding them back. However with the initial bout of lust sated, the self loathing that Giovanni feels starts festering, the truth about his relationship status driving him away as a thief would slink away into the dark night.

Though Kate comes to know of Giovanni's betrayal, she cannot help but yearn for everything she felt in his arms, nor can she forget the answering need that had kept them locked in each other's arms all through the night. And when Giovanni turns up at Kate's apartment, now a free man willing to indulge in an affair that would satisfy his lust for the English woman once and for all, Kate takes what he offers knowing that she doesn't have it in her to say no to Giovanni in any form.

Thus begins a most passionate affair that spans different corners of the globe until the inevitable happens and forces both Giovanni and Kate to confront their feelings of the more tender nature towards each other. The journey that they take towards the happily ever after is one that is filled with angst and lots of passionate, off-the-charts sexy moments that just makes my senses hum, no matter how many times I re-read this number. I love stories where the author doesn't beat around the bush but gets to the heart of the matter which is why this book remains as a favorite of mine even after such a long time.

Giovanni is a hero who has got everything going for him from his good looks to his passionate nature that left me breathless every single time. A man who has always lived by the rules that had governed his life, Giovanni is a bit lost himself when he has to give in to the possessive streak that courses through him even from his first encounter with Kate. Kate is a heroine who is well matched to our Giovanni in her independent nature that asserts itself and makes Giovanni confront just more than his need for Kate's body throughout their unusual affair. I loved how well they seem to complement each other, in bed and out of it, and loved seeing how Giovanni changes throughout the story. The epilogue tucked in at the end serves to be one of the reasons I will continue to re-visit this story time and yet again, because lets face it; a beautiful happily ever after is one of the major reasons why we love romances as much as we do.

Highly recommended to fans of angst filled Harlequin romances with a hero who has enough passion sizzling through his body to knock your socks off!

Rating=5/5

I really didn't like this one. I couldn't believe that Kate would sleep with Giovanni so quickly, but even more awful was that she accepted him back even after she found out he was engaged to another woman. Maybe I'm too much of a prude, but Kate seemed like a decent woman having not had a relationship in two years and being careful for she met Giovanni. I don't get how she could do what she did.

I'm only on page 74 and I don't think I'll even finish this book. I just don't feel the love.

Description from the book back cover:

Will the Sicilian's passion turn to love? It was just plain physical attraction. That didn't mean it was any 'big love' or anything, did it? Interior designer Kate Connors was just a mistress to the very passionate Sicilian businessman, Giovanni Calverri. And sex was all it was ever supposed to be. Until the day when everything changed. When fate forced them to put their steamy arrangement on hold - and think about what they really had together ...