Customer Reviews

The Greek Tycoon's Blackmailed Mistress (Harlequin Presents)

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

 

 

Lynne Graham has written an extremely and entertaining read with revenge being the main goal with Ari Xenakis hot on the heels of Ella Smithson. He's a proud man who vows never to marry. However, seven years earlier this very same woman said no at their engagement party, embarrassing Ari in front of their entire families. Now he holds the cards, as their niece has been orphaned and he has custody.

Ella can't believe what her sister has done, completely leaving her out of the will and not letting her raise Callie especially since she gave her eggs to her sister so she could have a child. Her sister upon giving birth ignored her plus her own family were furious that she didn't marry the billionaire. They have all disowned her because she chose medicine over marriage. Now Ari has made demands that she become his mistress and takes on the day to day caring for Callie on his terms.

Ari is a very inflexible proud Greek and believes for the most part a woman should be at home taking care of her man. When Ella chose a career over marriage to him, he was furious. He's the ultimate alpha male, set on getting what pleases him. However as they spend time together in and out of the bedroom, he sees she's a different Ella and one with secrets of past abuse in her family. He doesn't understand why he never knew this was going on in her home that that some of her reasons for not committing to him were based her stepfather's treatment of Ella and her mother.

Their past and spending a large amount of time together especially in Greece, makes Ella realizes she's in trouble and knows he has the power to break her heart again. Their passion leaps off the pages plus her time spent with Callie and their bonding very sweet to read. Will her heart survive and will there be a second chance for them? You'll just have to read this amazing love story but have some tissues ready while they come to grips with the past and accept their love actually never died as penned by the very talented Lynne Graham.

Don't let the silly title and poor cover art fool you. This is a good Harlequin. The best one I have read in ages.

I loved the fact that Ella, the heroine, was a fully drawn character with strengths, weaknesses and a career. She, and her family history, was far more complicated and defined than anything I have ever read in a Harlequin. This character and her world were really brought to life. Good job Lynne Graham.

The hero was hot and well drawn. Even though it was not said until the end, the reader really got the sense that these two never stopped loving each other during their years apart.

The book seemed to run out of steam at the end-too much wrapping up-but that small shortcoming was not enough to overcome the general success of this book. Well done.

This was a good read and I would recommend it. I did have a bit of problem with the hero being too vengeful. Vengeful people don't make very good spouses for the long haul. This was the sole reason why I didn't give it 5 stars.

The Greek Tycoon's Blackmailed MistressHeroine Ella years ago refuses Ari the Hero's marriage proposal even though they loved each other because he was a selfish jerk--wanting her to give up her dreams of being a doctor to settle down and have his babies and serve him like a slave. Fast forward seven years later the heroine is a doctor and the hero is a mega tycoon and alpha male times infinity. He never forgot that she didn't pick him over her own life and the plot opens with him getting an opening to take revenge. The Heroine two years before gave her eggs to her sister so that the sister who is a total jerk could have a child. The sister had the child but she and her husband died but left the hero as legal guardian of the child. The hero has no interest in the child except to use her as a pawn to get the heroine back via revenge. The heroine naturally wants to know the child since she is of course the biological mother. In order for her to do so she is required to give up her medical career, live with the Hero as his Mistress, like it in form of total surrender and submission. She was required to give up her self respect, reputation, dreams so that she can get to even spend time with her daughter. She is called a whore by her own mother and everyone is able to look at her and marvel at how he has degraded and humiliated her. Why is this romantic? I find it incomprehensible. I found this book highly disturbing on one basic level: the issue of emotional and mental cruelty, which I thought was crossed on more than one occasion via the hero. For example: he forced her to leave her very sick daughter and attend a party with him---when they could very easily have stayed home (and she's a doctor for crying out loud--someone who chose that profession because of a nature to help the sick). Then, while at the party he welcomes the attention of other women and flirts with them and has the NERVE to feel affronted when she leaves him there high and dry. The writer then attempts to feed us a line that he was trying to get a rise out of her--to see if she felt possessive about him...I suppose if you feel a man disrespects a woman when he flirts with another woman infront of her--then you'll feel like I did--that it's never acceptable. Obviously, Ari is no gentlemen and the writer tries toe xplain why. I did get he's flawed and complex but I felt that he would therefore be a bad risk as opposed to hero material. The writing was good and there was enough bad boy attractiveness there to lure us in, so much so, I became emotionally invested in the characters. However, I did not feel as if justice was served in the story or that the hero redeemed himself to my taste. I could not put the book down because the storyline drew me in...waiting with much angst, fascination and...well hope that the writer would vindicate him--but she did not. Not really. The heroine made her deal with the devil and what we got was the explanation for why he was like that. I still have to give the book a five because it was a good book--good because it's not an easy thing to create that level of passion in a reader for the characters via the HP genre.

This book grabs you from the first page and it's fabulous. I could not put it down thank god I'm on vacation. buy it read it and love it as much as I did.

Alpha male all the way- that's the best way to describe Ari in this book, and Ella? A strong heroine. I call this a good combo or recipe for a good book. Ari and Ella had history, where they were briefly engaged, so 7 years later, after becoming the sole custodian of Ella's niece, Ari decided to blackmail Ella into living with him and taking care of her niece, Carrie. I liked the scene where Ella threw a fit because she was so jealous to see Ari with other women at the party. They never really stopped loving each other even after so long, they also had great chemistry which is a must for me in any romance read. If you love super rich alpha males and glamourous settings, they you would enjoy this book.