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Sons of Privilege #3
The Spanish Aristocrat's Woman
When Count Guillermo de la Cruz announced his engagement to plain-Jane heiress Kara deMontaine just minutes after meeting her, the jet-set gaped in shock. But none was more stunned than Kara. The man of her dreams had just offered marriage—as an act of revenge against his former lover.
She should have said no. But something in Gui's primal stare showed her he was far from indifferent to her. Could Kara tame this royal playboy and show Gui they could find happily ever after…with each other?
She should have said no. But something in Gui's primal stare showed her he was far from indifferent to her. Could Kara tame this royal playboy and show Gui they could find happily ever after…with each other?
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published March 11, 2008
14 people are currently reading
130 people want to read
About the author
Katherine Garbera
803 books661 followersKatherine Garbera is a USA TODAY bestselling author of more than 100 novels, which have been translated into over two dozen languages and sold millions of copies worldwide. She is the mother of two incredibly creative and snarky grown children. Katherine enjoys drinking champagne, reading, walking and traveling with her husband. She lives in Kent, UK, where she is working on her next novel.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
June 11, 2021
I don't rate or review everything I read, so it bothers me a little when I give space in my GR account to an obscure book I would never recommend to anyone ("See this book you've never heard of that was published 13 years ago? Don't read it."), but sometimes a narrative is so wrong I need to memorialize it.
Spoilers below.
The heroine is a size-12 heiress who suffers from low self-esteem because of her size. You might think her character arc would be getting past that and learning to see herself as beautiful, but you would be wrong.
The hero is a Spanish aristocrat who has been sexually obsessed with an OW for 10 years. At the wedding reception for a previous couple in this series, he spontaneously declares to the OW that he and the heroine (whom he had met only a few minutes before) are engaged in order to use the heroine as a bulwark against his ongoing, obvious interest in the married OW.
Ten years earlier, he and the OW had a 6-month affair. He went off for three months to consider whether he was ready to marry her, and she married another man to make him jealous. The sanctimonious hero hasn't touched her since, but...
And this has been going on for 10 years. Sheesh. To make it worse, we get several internal monologues from the hero on the OW's sexy appeal. So there's no indication at all that this attraction has been dulled over time.
The protagonists decide to proceed with the engagement out of a mix of mutual attraction and it's-time-to-get-married. There's sex. There are conversations in which the hero makes clear that love is not in his emotional landscape. There's endless negativity from the heroine re: her body, and her insecurity is preyed on by the OW.
The OW sends a "gift" of lingerie plus an exercise DVD "that would help [the heroine] look better in it." At the family engagement party (to which the OW is invited because she's married to a cousin-by-marriage), the OW calls the heroine ugly to her face...in Spanish, so we're not sure if she meant for the heroine to understand. When the hero finds his fiancée in the garden trying to regain her composure, he says nothing negative about the OW and instead puts the burden on the heroine to find the self-confidence to withstand her jibes.
Then the OW's husband is killed in an attack on the hero's brother and sister-in-law (she's Spanish royalty). The hero brings the distraught widow to his home, where the heroine has also been living in the lead-up to the wedding. When the heroine suggests he should have consulted with her first, the hero says he doesn't have time to deal with her "petty jealousies" right now. He needs to contact his family. He needs to get the OW settled in. The heroine is a distant third priority. He readily agrees that their looming wedding should be postponed because his family needs to plan a funeral.
He then goes to the OW's room ("Even though she'd been crying all evening, she still looked incredibly beautiful.") where they debrief their relationship. Her grief leads him to the surprising realization that she had actually loved her husband. She confesses that she did marry to make the hero jealous and that she had kept the gossip alive over the years to make the hero feel the pain she had felt when he left her. (At no point does he admit to her that he had gone off to consider proposing, so this isn't a full confession on his side at all.) When the OW says she owes the heroine an apology, he asks "why?"
Because she had been deliberately mean to your fiancée twice and you were privy to both instances, useless hero. Way to emphasize that the heroine's feelings still mean nothing to you at the 87% mark.
The heroine decamps rather than stand by to watch the hero support the OW during her husband's funeral service (good choice, heroine!). He lures her back by having an illustrated fairy tale book made depicting their relationship up to that point. (I'm honestly wondering what the heck was in that story, since it felt like all they did was have sex and argue about the OW.) Then, in a grand gesture, he declares his love and proposes to her in front of their family and friends. HEA...I guess.
The only real character arc in this romance is the OW's unconvincing transformation from mean girl to wise widow. It's not at all clear to me what brought about the hero's realization that he loves the heroine. What is clear is that his obsession for the OW is defused (assuming it is defused) only after he realizes she had loved her husband. So it's not love for the heroine pulling him away from that obsession; it's releasing unexpressed guilt/regret. And the only thing saving the heroine from her low self-esteem is her newfound (and completely unsubstantiated) belief in the hero's love.
I needed a lot of things this book didn't deliver (like a significantly better ending), but the one that stands out is that I needed the hero to condemn the OW's petty cruelty to the heroine. I wanted internal monologues showing he was repelled by her personality. I wanted him to be offended on the heroine's behalf and acknowledge she was justified in feeling hurt, not tell her that she had to grow a thicker skin.
Dear romance authors: please punish OW b*tchiness. Thank you.
Spoilers below.
The heroine is a size-12 heiress who suffers from low self-esteem because of her size. You might think her character arc would be getting past that and learning to see herself as beautiful, but you would be wrong.
The hero is a Spanish aristocrat who has been sexually obsessed with an OW for 10 years. At the wedding reception for a previous couple in this series, he spontaneously declares to the OW that he and the heroine (whom he had met only a few minutes before) are engaged in order to use the heroine as a bulwark against his ongoing, obvious interest in the married OW.
Ten years earlier, he and the OW had a 6-month affair. He went off for three months to consider whether he was ready to marry her, and she married another man to make him jealous. The sanctimonious hero hasn't touched her since, but...
...he did still lust after her. And as a Catholic, he knew that sin in thought was just as bad as sin in the flesh.
Rumors had always abounded about him and Elvira, despite the fact that he'd tried to keep his distance. There was something about her that drew his attention, and his interest never went unnoticed by the tabloids.
And this has been going on for 10 years. Sheesh. To make it worse, we get several internal monologues from the hero on the OW's sexy appeal. So there's no indication at all that this attraction has been dulled over time.
The protagonists decide to proceed with the engagement out of a mix of mutual attraction and it's-time-to-get-married. There's sex. There are conversations in which the hero makes clear that love is not in his emotional landscape. There's endless negativity from the heroine re: her body, and her insecurity is preyed on by the OW.
The OW sends a "gift" of lingerie plus an exercise DVD "that would help [the heroine] look better in it." At the family engagement party (to which the OW is invited because she's married to a cousin-by-marriage), the OW calls the heroine ugly to her face...in Spanish, so we're not sure if she meant for the heroine to understand. When the hero finds his fiancée in the garden trying to regain her composure, he says nothing negative about the OW and instead puts the burden on the heroine to find the self-confidence to withstand her jibes.
Then the OW's husband is killed in an attack on the hero's brother and sister-in-law (she's Spanish royalty). The hero brings the distraught widow to his home, where the heroine has also been living in the lead-up to the wedding. When the heroine suggests he should have consulted with her first, the hero says he doesn't have time to deal with her "petty jealousies" right now. He needs to contact his family. He needs to get the OW settled in. The heroine is a distant third priority. He readily agrees that their looming wedding should be postponed because his family needs to plan a funeral.
He then goes to the OW's room ("Even though she'd been crying all evening, she still looked incredibly beautiful.") where they debrief their relationship. Her grief leads him to the surprising realization that she had actually loved her husband. She confesses that she did marry to make the hero jealous and that she had kept the gossip alive over the years to make the hero feel the pain she had felt when he left her. (At no point does he admit to her that he had gone off to consider proposing, so this isn't a full confession on his side at all.) When the OW says she owes the heroine an apology, he asks "why?"
Because she had been deliberately mean to your fiancée twice and you were privy to both instances, useless hero. Way to emphasize that the heroine's feelings still mean nothing to you at the 87% mark.
The heroine decamps rather than stand by to watch the hero support the OW during her husband's funeral service (good choice, heroine!). He lures her back by having an illustrated fairy tale book made depicting their relationship up to that point. (I'm honestly wondering what the heck was in that story, since it felt like all they did was have sex and argue about the OW.) Then, in a grand gesture, he declares his love and proposes to her in front of their family and friends. HEA...I guess.
The only real character arc in this romance is the OW's unconvincing transformation from mean girl to wise widow. It's not at all clear to me what brought about the hero's realization that he loves the heroine. What is clear is that his obsession for the OW is defused (assuming it is defused) only after he realizes she had loved her husband. So it's not love for the heroine pulling him away from that obsession; it's releasing unexpressed guilt/regret. And the only thing saving the heroine from her low self-esteem is her newfound (and completely unsubstantiated) belief in the hero's love.
I needed a lot of things this book didn't deliver (like a significantly better ending), but the one that stands out is that I needed the hero to condemn the OW's petty cruelty to the heroine. I wanted internal monologues showing he was repelled by her personality. I wanted him to be offended on the heroine's behalf and acknowledge she was justified in feeling hurt, not tell her that she had to grow a thicker skin.
Dear romance authors: please punish OW b*tchiness. Thank you.
May 2, 2021
3 ⭐⭐⭐ - OK decent reads
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Emotional cheating
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Emotional cheating
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Hadn’t realized that being almost six feet tall and big boned would make most men a little hesitant around her.
Kara was tall, a bit on the solid side and known for her charitable work.
She knew who he was. He was in the tabloids all the time for his escapades around the world.
Guillermo always had a beautiful woman on his arm. Never a pudgy heiress like her.
Dang it, she was trying to be more comfortable in the size-twelve body that she had. Nothing could get her down to a zero. Nothing. She’d dieted more times than she wanted to admit.
“Make me smile?” she asked, unable to believe he really would. “I’m the fat sister. The nice sister. The one no one pays any attention to.”
With her long, thick black hair, olive skin and exotic eyes, Elvira looked like a Mediterranean sex goddess as she sat at the center of a table surrounded by her crowd of admirers. Gui would like to think he wasn’t one of them, but he refused to lie to himself and Elvira had always been his weakness.
The fact that he’d resisted her charms since she’d married his old friend Juan was something he prided himself on, but he did still lust after her.
Instead, he was fixated on a woman—Elvira. He’d been obsessed with her since he was eighteen.
She wasn’t a classically beautiful woman like Elvira, and she’d never draw men to her the way that his ex-lover did, but there was an innocence about Kara that was refreshing.
“Indeed. So why are you looking at her when you think no one will notice?”
It didn’t help matters that at some point, Elvira would seek him out. She always did. And he always waited for her.
“Countess Elvira de Castillo y Perez, meet Kara deMontaine. Kara, this is the Countess Elvira.” “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Kara said, curtsying to the older woman. “Aren’t you a sweet child,” the countess said. “Run along and play with your friends. I’d like a word with Guillermo.”
With Elvira, he felt passion and jealousy.
He’d used her as a weapon in his private war with Elvira. To show the other woman that she no longer had the power to make him insanely jealous.
“A man who has to resort to this type of action to keep a woman by his side isn’t much of a man.”
“Well, making that woman jealous…though to be honest, you probably should have picked someone more on par with her. She really is a world-class beauty.”
“That’s the woman he’s rumored to have loved and lost. Elvira de Castillo y Perez…She’s married to Count Juan de Cuaron y Perez.”
Because she’d sensed there was more to him and Elvira than simply old friends when they’d talked on the dance floor.
Because Kara knew one thing with absolute certainty—she wasn’t the type of woman who’d make Elvira jealous.
“What about Elvira?” Tristan asked. “Last time I checked, Tris, she was married.” “You know what I mean.”
“I’m a size twelve. You may not know what that size is, but it’s big. Large. I’m a large girl, Gui.”
“There is nothing between Elvira and me, and there hasn’t been in over ten years.” “Are you pining for her?” “No. And I’ve told you I won’t discuss her with you.”
“I was thinking about marrying her, but I was young and had to be sure.” “Oh, Gui.” “Don’t pity me. I came back to Madrid, unsure if she was the woman for me. And finding her married to Juan convinced me she wasn’t.”
Gui was torn between wanting to go home and going to Elvira. For ten years he’d waited for her to need him and now she did, and he wondered why he was even contemplating going to her, but he turned the car in the direction of her home and drove to her house.
A feminine voice. Gui hadn’t come alone. And she had a sinking feeling that he’d brought Elvira with him.
“Gui…I need you.” “I know you do, Elvira. And I’ll be back to check on you in a few moments. I need to call my parents and make sure they are fine.”
“She’s grieving, Kara. And she’s an old friend. I couldn’t turn her away.” “Of course not,” she said, walking toward the doorway.
“I don’t answer to you. Even after we are married.”
“I agree. It is important. I hadn’t even thought about our wedding. We should definitely postpone it.”
“You forgot about it? I think that says everything I needed to hear.”
September 13, 2021
This is the third and final installment in the series Sons of Privilege. And my absolute favorite. This book was way better than the first two.
I absolutely adored both Gui and Kara. They've met at a party where they were both invited. They were immediately attracted to each other and acted on it. Gui’s being a perfect gentleman offered her marriage. At first, Kara was really hesitant and couldn't believe that someone like him would marry her. But he was her dream guy, and she loved him, so she accepted his proposal even though she knew the reason why he asked her to marry him - as an act of revenge against his former lover.
I can totally relate to and sympathize with Kara's self-doubts. And there was a time where I wanted to smack Guillermo in the face for being so insensitive to Kara’s feelings. And I don’t blame her for leaving him. I loved how Kara’s character evolved from being a timid woman to a very sexy, passionate, and more confident with her sexuality.
And what I loved the most was when Gui proposed to her. It was adorable. I actually fell in love with him.
If you are looking for a quick and fun read that will make you cry, laugh, frustrated, and fall in love, I highly recommend this book!
I absolutely adored both Gui and Kara. They've met at a party where they were both invited. They were immediately attracted to each other and acted on it. Gui’s being a perfect gentleman offered her marriage. At first, Kara was really hesitant and couldn't believe that someone like him would marry her. But he was her dream guy, and she loved him, so she accepted his proposal even though she knew the reason why he asked her to marry him - as an act of revenge against his former lover.
I can totally relate to and sympathize with Kara's self-doubts. And there was a time where I wanted to smack Guillermo in the face for being so insensitive to Kara’s feelings. And I don’t blame her for leaving him. I loved how Kara’s character evolved from being a timid woman to a very sexy, passionate, and more confident with her sexuality.
And what I loved the most was when Gui proposed to her. It was adorable. I actually fell in love with him.
If you are looking for a quick and fun read that will make you cry, laugh, frustrated, and fall in love, I highly recommend this book!
June 1, 2013
There was a lot of potential for this book to have been good but many things let it down.
The writing style of the book was very weak and the ending was done very poorly. The one issue between the couple which formed the basis of the plot was resolved in a very bad and contradictory way.
Overall a very badly written book that needed a lot more work before it should have been allowed to be published.
The writing style of the book was very weak and the ending was done very poorly. The one issue between the couple which formed the basis of the plot was resolved in a very bad and contradictory way.
Overall a very badly written book that needed a lot more work before it should have been allowed to be published.
August 7, 2015
I really enjoyed this one. I had a hard time with how negative Kara was about her own body. It was very hard to see how she saw herself and how lonely she seemed. But, it had a great ending to me.
January 22, 2021
Light yet enjoyable romance
3 stars
Heiress Kara deMontaine has always been self-conscious about her weight and body image - so she is the most stunned when delicious international playboy, Count Guillermo de la Cruz, announces their engagement just moments after the pair first meet. Unfortunately the man of her dreams has only offered marriage as an act of revenge against his former lover.
Kara should have stopped the charade before it began, but the way that Gui looked at her made her believe she was a beautiful woman. But could she really manage to tame the playboy and convince him they could have a happily ever after together?
This was a light, quick read with enjoyable characters and a very readable storyline. Kara's insecurities made her a character that you could identify with and root for while Gui was definitely someone to fall in love with as he genuinely couldn't understand why anyone wouldn't find Kara attractive.
However, there were some negative points of the book and these reason that I only gave it 3 stars. The first, and biggest was that I couldn't understand the motivations of the characters, particularly Gui. We also very rarely scratched the surface of the emotions of the characters and it just wasn't deep enough for my liking. The story was also wrapped up too neatly for me to really believe in it.
It was still a light, interesting read but not one of the best stories I have read. However, if you like a sexy Spanish hero and a shy heroine then you still might really enjoy this book. 3 stars.
April 18, 2021
Did not like this one. The relationship made no sense to me, they didn't know each other, she didn't have a crush on him for years and yet he Said they were engaged and she just agrees and has sex with him all in a few hours. I could see it happening if they knew each other before or something but they were basically strangers and only knew mutal people. Then the whole Elvira plot is just ridiculous that heroine got engaged to hero and stayed engaged after all the times hero dismissed how cruel Elvira was to heroine. Heroine was so weak willed and insecure that was sick of her. Np.
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October 6, 2025Dnf at 40% …you meet a man 40 seconds ago and now you’re contemplating being engaged to him knowing he is using you to make another woman jealous?!? Then 50 seconds later you’re letting him touch your goodies still knowing he’s using you!?! Oh lordt! And the constant “I’m flabby” and “my body is not like the other girls” comments by the FMC — I just couldn’t anymore bc gah damn it a size 12 is a great size to be ! Reading slump resumed —
January 16, 2026
okuduğum en saçma kitaptı... ama arada beynimi resetlemek için bu şekil saçma aşk romanlarına ihtiyac duyuyorum... o açıdan eğlenceliydi, yalan söyleyemeyeceğim... Ama edebi açıdan hiçbir katkısı olmadı.
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April 30, 2020I reviewed this back in 2019 for my YouTube channel, Op Shop Romance!
https://youtu.be/iCjWROBIFxc
https://youtu.be/iCjWROBIFxc
June 4, 2014
As a defense against his feelings for a married ex lover, count Gui declares that Kara is his fiancée. Attraction then flares between the two and they decide to make the farce into a real engagement of convenience. The jealous ex and Kara's insecurities contribute to most of the angst until the two protagonists acknowledge love.
Not too bad a plot. Decent read book. But also not inept of those that one would be compelled to read again and again.
Not too bad a plot. Decent read book. But also not inept of those that one would be compelled to read again and again.
July 20, 2013
This the third and final book of the Sons of Privilege series.
For a man that in the previous two book said he would never marry he sure changed his mind fast. I also felt the end was wrapped way too FAST! I would have given it a higher rating but the end was just way too SHORT!
For a man that in the previous two book said he would never marry he sure changed his mind fast. I also felt the end was wrapped way too FAST! I would have given it a higher rating but the end was just way too SHORT!
December 16, 2010
Good book
July 12, 2019
Trama semplice e scorrevole, si legge in un soffio.
Il vero incanto è, come in tutti i romance che si rispettino, il figaccione di turno ;)
Il vero incanto è, come in tutti i romance che si rispettino, il figaccione di turno ;)
February 23, 2008
Good story, weak ending.
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