The Spaniard's Marriage Demand

by Maggie Cox

From a Spanish seduction—

Spanish film director Leandro Reyes's handsome features and commanding presence made women go weak at the knees. But he made Isabella feel as if she was different from all the rest. Only in the cold morning light did she realize that she was just another notch on his belt.

To a Mediterranean marriage—

Or was she? Their passionate night together created a lasting consequence that Leandro could not ignore. His to demand that Isabella marry him!

Genres: Harlequin, Harlequin Presents, Romance, Mills and Boon

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 1, 2006

About the author

Maggie Cox loved to write almost as soon as she learned to read. Her favorite occupation was daydreaming and making up stories in her head, and this particular pastime has stayed with her through all the years of growing up, starting work, marrying and raising a family. No matter what was going on in her life, whether joy, happiness, struggle or disappointment, she'd go to bed each night and lose herself in her imagination. Through all the years of her secretarial career she kept on filling exercise books and the "joy oh joy" her word processor with her writing, never showing anyone what she wrote and basically keeping her stories for her own enjoyment alone.

It wasn't until she met her second husband and the "love of her life" that she was persuaded to start sharing those stories with a publisher. She settled on Mills & Boon (Harlequin) as she had loved romance novels since she was a teenager and read at least one or two paperbacks a week. After several rejections, the letters that were sent back from the publisher started to become more and more positive and encouraging, and in July 2002 she sold her first book A Passionate Protector. Since then she has continued written.

The fact that she is being published is truly a dream come true; however, each book she writes is still a journey in "courage and hope," and a quest to learn and grow and be "the best writer she can." Her advice to aspiring authors is: "Don't give up at the first hurdle, or even the second, third or fourth, but keep on keeping on until your dream is realized because if you are truly passionate about writing and learning the craft, as Paulo Coehlo states in his book The Alchemist: "The Universe will conspire to help you make it a reality."

Reviews

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

English librarian heroine (Isabella) is in Northern Spain to walk the Camino (Santiago de Compostela) and interview the pilgrims on the walk for a book she is writing about it. Her sister (Emilia) who is a journalist for a women’s magazine wants Isabella to go to a bar while she is in Spain, and try to get an interview with handsome, reclusive, art-house film-director Leandro Reyes since Emilia discovered Leandro was going to be there. Isabella doesn’t want to, but ends up going to the bar where Leandro is meant to be at. Leandro notices Isabella and they start talking, but when he discovers what she wants, he turns her down. He is very reclusive and private. After she apologizes and turns to leave, they get to talking about the reason Isabella is in Spain and Leandro offers to tell her what he knows about the Camino. They become very attracted to each other, and later, go to a hotel and make love, knowing they will never meet again. But eighteen months later, Leandro goes in search of the girl he hasn’t been able to forget, only to discover he has a son…

I really liked Isabella, she was a wonderful heroine, sweet and caring. I was quite interested in her walk of the Camino. She tried to contact Leandro about the baby but she couldn’t reach him. I liked Leandro, especially at the beginning of the book, though there were times when I thought he was very high-handed, and demanding towards Isabella after he learned about the baby. (He lost his beloved father by a drunken driver after he parted with Isabella so he was afraid of getting too close to anyone again.) But later on in the book he realized how wrong he was and he was more open with his feelings for Isabella. Baby Raphael was cute, and I also liked Leandro’s mother.

Another enjoyable read by Maggie Cox.

[StMargarets · Rating 2 out of 5]

No new ground here:

Librarian heroine has a ONS in Spain with a privacy-fanatic director hero. He makes a point to not give her his phone number, so she is unable to tell him about his secret baby. Hero finds out when he travels to London for business and looks her up for a booty call. Then he demands she move to Spain and marry him.

Heroine gives in at every demand and even feels guilty for the time hero missed with his child. Hero is no alpha – he’s just a control freak with a bad temper. There is no word if he was celibate during their 18 month separation – but he did confess he never thought of the heroine in that time.

The only interesting element in this story is that the heroine was in Northern Spain walking the Camino Santiago, a pilgrimage of 500 miles over 35 days as research for a book she was writing.

[AvidReader · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh dear god the (awful) hero!
It would’ve been so good if the hero showed even one iota of caring, understanding and loving towards heroine. She was too sweet for him and I didn’t like that.
She wasn’t angry that he transformed their passionate night to a one night stand, she wasn’t angry that he didn’t even give her a forward address or phone number, she wasn’t angry all her efforts to tell him of her impending news went down th drain!
(Where as I get angry if he even misplaced my pillow🙄).
And let’s not forget about the jewel in the crown, his accusatory tone when he asked why she isn’t breast feeding the baby...Dude her body.. her convenience!
I was ready to bang my head from his constant snapping, attitude and shutting her out. He wasn’t ready to trust her with single crumb.

Only brownie points for him was he remained celibate for 18 months, he came back for the heroine and his occasional jealousy.
No epilogue and the ending was rather abrupt.

[Tia · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was an okay novel. The hero was so close to losing the heroine forever, the emotion the author poured out in the speech, the heroine made right after hero and heroine made love, had me in tears.

[Maria (Lectumari) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Este libro me dejó con la sensación de haber vivido una película romántica… pero de esas intensas, donde el amor no es tan fácil como parece 💔
La historia entre Leandro e Isabel comienza con una atracción fuerte, casi inevitable… pero lo que parecía solo pasión se convierte en algo mucho más complicado.
💭 Él está acostumbrado a tener el control.
💭 Ella no está dispuesta a perderse a sí misma por amor.
Y ahí es donde todo cambia…
Lo que más me atrapó fue ese choque entre ellos:
esa lucha entre lo que sienten y lo que realmente necesitan. Porque no siempre amar es suficiente… y eso duele.
✨ Este libro me recordó que:
El amor verdadero no se impone, se construye… y a veces también se pone a prueba.
💔 Tiene drama
💚 Tiene pasión
✨ Y sobre todo, tiene emociones muy reales.

[Leggiamoperchè · Rating 5 out of 5]

Per Isabella Deluce, libraia e cacciatrice di testi antichi, la corte del famoso e affascinante regista spagnolo Leandro Reyes è una vera sorpresa. Grazie al suo aspetto fiero e al fascino innato, lui potrebbe avere ai sui piedi qualunque donna desideri. Ora è lei il suo obiettivo. Isabella sa che il rischio di diventare l’ennesima tacca sulla testina del suo letto è alto ma, complice la dolce sensualità delle notti andaluse, non riesce a resistere al desiderio travolgente che prova per lui.
Voto: 9/10
~Supergirl🦸🏻‍♀️~
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Per ogni informazione contattateci in direct e votate nei commenti il post con 1⭐ fino a 5 ⭐

[A · Rating 1 out of 5]

There are no limits to how much the h panders to H in the name of love and is content on earning the "doormat of the year" award.

[WritingMood · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hero was an inconsistent, inconsiderate mess.

[Gogol]

I was surprised at how distinctly stupid this book was. And yes, I’m aware of the irony.