Customer Reviews

The Spaniard's Inconvenient Wife (Romance)

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

 

 

Back Cover - Ramón Dario desperately wants the Medrano Company. But the deal has an outrageous condition - marriage to the notorious Estrella Medrano! Ramón won't be forced into anything, least of all a wedding with a scarlet woman!

But Estrella is not what he thought. Ramón can't get her gorgeous body out of his mind. He even starts to believe she may not deserve her reputation! A marriage of convenience - and desire - might be a good deal after all....

My review - Estrella is in the unenviable position of having one man after another bribed by her father to marry her - she has the task of convincing them she doesn't want to wed them - each time her father puts more pressure on her. Ramon is the tenth man he tries to bribe. Passion flares between them, but Ramon treats Estrella with contempt because he, like everyone else, has heard the story of how she stole an older man away from his wife and children & ran off with him. The man died a week later in a car accident, but Estrella has not been able to escape the scandal or her fathers censure. No one has ever asked to hear her side of the story, and it appears that Ramon is no different.

Estrella visits Ramon and passion flares out of control - she offers to marry him so he can get the tv station and she can get her father off her back - she tells him that they can divorce later. They end up on bed making love all night. In the morning, Ramon surprises her by telling her that he still isn't interested in wedding a woman like her. She leaves his house heartbroken - feeling cheap.

Ramon cannot get her out of his mind, he thinks about her and their night together constantly until he can't take it anymore and decides to visit her. He ends up dropping in a dinner party with her, her father, and bachelor number eleven - an old, fat, short man with a good reputation who Estrella's father has told her she will have to marry or be cast out into the street. Ramon takes the scene in and understands whats going on - he sees the shadows under Estrella's eyes and how miserable she is and he impulsively announces to her father that they are going to marry & that he asked her to keep it a secret until they could tell him together.

SPOILER AHEAD - They marry, they make mad passionate love & both come to feel a lot more than lust for each other, but suspect that their love is in vain. Estrella shows Ramon a marriage certificate from years ago - the man who turned her into a scarlet woman pretended he was single and committed bigamy to fake marry her and get her into bed. He is devastated to learn that he misjudged her so badly - it is a great read. My favorite part is when Estrella comes down the aisle in a red wedding gown - she has guts!

Estrella wants nothing more than to be left alone, but her father has other ideas. He's trotting eligible men out left and right, determined to marry his scandal ridden daughter off. Ramon is the next man on her father's hit-list. But this time, Estrella finds a man who ignites her passions. But old scandals interfere and Ramon doesn't even ask her to explain. Yes, yet another man rips at her heart. How can she ever trust him again?

Walker writes another story of hot seduction that will leave you yearning for more.

Daughter of wealthy TV-station owner is both disappointed yet glad that Spanish businessman Hero refused to marry her in order to acquire her father's TV station. Her domineering Spanish father has been trying to marry her off to 9 other previous men he had business dealings with b/c he believes that no one of good social standing will want to marry someone with a scandalous reputation like hers. Heroine is known for ruining a young family's life due to her affair with the wife's husband. Heroine proposes a marriage arrangement with Hero which he turned down after their passionate night together. He later changes his mind & agrees to marry her. Heroine hopes that their marriage will last even though she knows that Hero is only marrying her for sex & for business purposes. Will Hero ever have a change of heart?

I am usually forgiving with authors, given the effort & skill it takes to write a book & get it published. I'm even more forgiving with authors I've read before like Walker who has books I've generally liked. But I had no excuses to give her with this book.

The writing was just bad for somebody as seasoned as her. I could not get engaged in the story because the writing was vague & hard to track & the emotional tone inconsistent. The conversations b/w Hero & heroine were roundabout, their misunderstandings confusing, & their reactions to each other seemed overdramatic. I kept on saying "What?" in confusion & read the pages over again. I felt stupid not being able to track with their conversations from the very beginning. It was like walking in the middle of 2 people's conversation who talked like this: person1: "Remember that girl?" person2: "Oh yeah. That girl." person1: "Can you believe she did what she did?" person2: "I know. I couldn't believe it either" person1: "You know, if I could do it all over again..." person2: "You know it!". Hero & heroine's conversations & Big Misunderstandings were discussed as vaguely as this! I felt like I needed a secret code to decrypt what the heck they were talking about.

The characters were caricaturish (i.e. heroine's selfish father & toad-looking suitor) & unlikeable. Both Hero & heroine were immature, easily given to misunderstandings, & weak-willed. I couldn't figure out if heroine was merely being a doormat, people-pleasing, & dependent on men to make decisions for her or if this was part of the Spanish culture. She'd rather be married off than struggle to get a job for her independence. I was not sympathetic with the way she dealt with her problems. My only emotional connection with this book & characters were frustration at how stupid they talked & how stupid I felt reading it. When I didn't feel stupid, I felt bored & sleepy. What usually takes me a couple hours to read took me 2 days. It didn't help that the point-of-views (Hero, heroine, & the narrator) were disorganized & disjointed. Even the sexual chemistry was inconsistent. The main characters were either feeling negatively about each other & then all of a sudden they'd feel lust-filled & obsessed with the other. I was so annoyed reading this book I couldn't even enjoy the passionate sex scenes, which is pretty much the only good thing I can report about this book.

Definitely skip this Walker book. Her better ones are The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife (Harlequin Presents # 2677) and The Christmas Baby's Gift (Wedlocked! #19; Harlequin Presents #2365).

I usually enjoy Kate Walker's books, but this one was an EPIC FAIL!

The heroine (if you can call here that) is BEYOND annoying. Lord! Cryptic sentences, half-finished stories. Lord, Lady, no one gives a damn how you've been wronged if you can't say it. No one will automatically fiugre it out.

The hero was not much better.

I don't know how these people managed to give it a good review, much less 5 stars. Perhaps 2005 was a different era.

Ridiculous book and a complete waste of money!

Please try Kate Walker's other books - those are gems. This is only good as kinder to make fire. Beyond chagrined that I bought this book with idiot characters.

Just when I didn't believe this second book in the Alcolar Family series could live up to the first, I was proven wrong. Kate Walker is an unbelievable storyteller. She weaves such passion and interest into her storyline and characters as they come to life.

This is Ramon and Estella's story. Ramon is a sexy, strong and sensitive Spanish alpha, one who believes he is not capable of falling in love or in the happy ever after, not until he meets the beautiful Estella. Estella is being sold off to the highest bidder in order to save the family reputation. Estella is very warm, soft, sexy and sensitive.

Ramon meets Estella at her family home where he has a meeting with her father to purchase a TV station. However, there is a glitch when her father wants her married as part of the deal to save the family name from a past scandal. Ramon wants the TV station, the only thing that would truly be his, not something belonging to his past or present family ties.

Personally, I fell in love with Ramon's character; He's strong, sexy, sensitive, intelligent, and daring, the perfect alpha male. Kate has an incredible way of describing Ramon from his background, to his present role in the Alcolar family, business and his feelings and intentions where Estella is concerned. Estella has been accused of being a "fallen woman" by high society. She is warm, sensitive and a real spitfire. When Ramon and Estella are put together, sparks begin to form and fly. This very high paced love story continues with a marriage of convenience and both realize that this mutual attraction is something more.

Once I began to read this wonderful love story, I couldn't put it down. I also encourage you to read "The Twelve-Month Mistress", the first in the series. If you get to know the Alcolar's, you won't be sorry, I promise.