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The Stefanos Marriage
Aleksi Stefanos was out of her league
And Alyse knew she was mad to contemplate playing games with such a man.
But it was the only way Alyse could secure happiness for little Georg, her dead sister's child. She must fool Aleksi - at least until she had his wedding ring on her finger.
Afterward, she could set the rules for their relationship - and for how long it would continue. There was only one loose end in her plan - she couldn't predict Aleksi's response...
And Alyse knew she was mad to contemplate playing games with such a man.
But it was the only way Alyse could secure happiness for little Georg, her dead sister's child. She must fool Aleksi - at least until she had his wedding ring on her finger.
Afterward, she could set the rules for their relationship - and for how long it would continue. There was only one loose end in her plan - she couldn't predict Aleksi's response...
Paperback
First published November 1, 1990
About the author
Helen Bianchin
387 books231 followersHelen Shirley was born on February 20 1939 in New Zealand, where she grew up, an only child possessed by a vivid imagination and a love for reading. She wrote stories for amusement in her early teenage years, and when she left leaving school, she took a secretarial job at a father-and-son legal firm.
At age twenty-one Helen joined a girlfriend and embarked on a working holiday in Australia, travelling via cruise ship from Auckland to Melbourne. Alas, no shipboard romance, as she spent all four days in her cabin suffering from sea-sickness! After fifteen months working in Melbourne, Helen and her friend bought a vehicle and took three months to drive the length and breadth of Australia, choosing to work in Cairns in order to fund the final leg of our journey to Sydney.
It was in Cairns that Helen met her future husband, Danilo Bianchin, an Italian immigrant from Treviso. He was a tobacco sharefarmer from the tobacco farming community of Mareeba. His English was pitiful, and her command of Italian was nil. Six months later they married, and Helen was flung into cooking for up to nine tobacco pickers, stringing tobacco, feeding 200 chickens, a few turkeys, ducks... plus killing, cleaning and cooking the same! Her knowledge of Italian improved, and there were hilarious moments in retrospect. Some of what she endured was cooking on a wood-burning stove, having no running hot water, a primitive shower and toilet facilities, washing uniforms for two soccer teams during the soccer season... floods, horrendous hailstone damage to tobacco crops, hardship, and the stillbirth of their first child. Then, to their joy, Helen's daughter, Lucia, was born. Three years later the couple returned to New Zealand, where they settled for sixteen years. During those early years, they added two sons, Angelo and Peter, to the family.
With multiple anecdotes of farm life in an Italian community to friends, the idea of writing a book occurred. A romance, set on a tobacco farm in Australia's far north, Queensland, featuring an Italian hero. Helen says, "the background was authentic, believe me!" However the hero was rich and owned the farm artistic license! It took her a year to complete a passable manuscript, typed on a portable typewriter at the dining room table. That first effort was deemed too short with insufficient detail. Helen rewrote it. This time it was considered too long with too much extraneous detail. She revised, then sent it to London. Four months later she received a telegram from Alan Boon (Mills & Boon) to say they intended to publish and a contract would be sent in the mail. It was the most wonderful news!
Helen wrote ten more books while living in New Zealand, then in 1981, her family resettled in Australia, on Queensland's Gold Coast. She has since published twenty-five more books. Today, with computer technology, the mechanics of writing are much easier. However, the writing process doesn't change. Helen says that she's having a good day if she can achieve 5 good pages, which she is likely to change, edit and rewrite the following day.
She loves creating characters, giving them life and providing a situation where their emotions are tested and love wins out. For her, the greatest praise is for a reader to say they couldn't put the book down... then Helen knows that she has achieved what she set out to do -- "create a moving enjoyable story which holds the reader entertained from beginning to end."
Helen's hobbies are tennis, table-tennis, judo, reading. She loves movies, and leads an active social life.
At age twenty-one Helen joined a girlfriend and embarked on a working holiday in Australia, travelling via cruise ship from Auckland to Melbourne. Alas, no shipboard romance, as she spent all four days in her cabin suffering from sea-sickness! After fifteen months working in Melbourne, Helen and her friend bought a vehicle and took three months to drive the length and breadth of Australia, choosing to work in Cairns in order to fund the final leg of our journey to Sydney.
It was in Cairns that Helen met her future husband, Danilo Bianchin, an Italian immigrant from Treviso. He was a tobacco sharefarmer from the tobacco farming community of Mareeba. His English was pitiful, and her command of Italian was nil. Six months later they married, and Helen was flung into cooking for up to nine tobacco pickers, stringing tobacco, feeding 200 chickens, a few turkeys, ducks... plus killing, cleaning and cooking the same! Her knowledge of Italian improved, and there were hilarious moments in retrospect. Some of what she endured was cooking on a wood-burning stove, having no running hot water, a primitive shower and toilet facilities, washing uniforms for two soccer teams during the soccer season... floods, horrendous hailstone damage to tobacco crops, hardship, and the stillbirth of their first child. Then, to their joy, Helen's daughter, Lucia, was born. Three years later the couple returned to New Zealand, where they settled for sixteen years. During those early years, they added two sons, Angelo and Peter, to the family.
With multiple anecdotes of farm life in an Italian community to friends, the idea of writing a book occurred. A romance, set on a tobacco farm in Australia's far north, Queensland, featuring an Italian hero. Helen says, "the background was authentic, believe me!" However the hero was rich and owned the farm artistic license! It took her a year to complete a passable manuscript, typed on a portable typewriter at the dining room table. That first effort was deemed too short with insufficient detail. Helen rewrote it. This time it was considered too long with too much extraneous detail. She revised, then sent it to London. Four months later she received a telegram from Alan Boon (Mills & Boon) to say they intended to publish and a contract would be sent in the mail. It was the most wonderful news!
Helen wrote ten more books while living in New Zealand, then in 1981, her family resettled in Australia, on Queensland's Gold Coast. She has since published twenty-five more books. Today, with computer technology, the mechanics of writing are much easier. However, the writing process doesn't change. Helen says that she's having a good day if she can achieve 5 good pages, which she is likely to change, edit and rewrite the following day.
She loves creating characters, giving them life and providing a situation where their emotions are tested and love wins out. For her, the greatest praise is for a reader to say they couldn't put the book down... then Helen knows that she has achieved what she set out to do -- "create a moving enjoyable story which holds the reader entertained from beginning to end."
Helen's hobbies are tennis, table-tennis, judo, reading. She loves movies, and leads an active social life.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
August 29, 2017
Re The Stefanos Marriage - MOC for the child's sake is Helen Bianchin's trope this January of 1992 in HPlandia. The h is the older sister of a girl who was seemingly discarded by her Greek lover, she accepted his proposal of marriage, became preggers and then never heard from him again. Sadly complications with childbirth led to the sister's demise and the h, a successful boutique owner who is comfortably well off, steps up to the plate to care for her fiercely loved little sister's son.
Enter the H, he is the stepbrother of the man who fathered the child. He wants an heir and custody and has more money than Bill Gates, so he plans to get it. Sadly his stepbrother had a bad auto accident and died as well, but not before the H's family found the letters the h's sister had written revealing the existence of a child. The H is the typical HB uber Alpha domineering male and the h is a fiery shrew who vows to have custody of the child on her own.
After the lawyers suggest marriage between the two of them to simplify the adoption and so the h won't lose her claim to the H's greater status, the H and h marry under a slew of arguments and roofie kisses. There is the usual HB patented staccato elegantly phrased arguments, with the h providing a few extra facial smacks to the H to liven up the periods while we are waiting for roofie kisses to occur. The h's secret plan, (and probably would have worked given the divorce/custody laws of the time,) is to marry the H for a year or so, wait until he majorly messes up and then divorce him and file for sole custody.
The H naturally is wildly attracted to the fiery h and after meeting doting paternal grandparents and various social outings and omelets and fresh fruit and showers and mineral water and coffee and designer clothing, the h starts to realize that she is wildly attracted back. One very forced seduction later and the h is in a bit of a mess. The lurve club mojo force is strong and the h is really liking it, not that she is going to let the H in on that tidbit tho, she still continues to pick fights every chance she gets.
It doesn't end well for her frequently. The H is a bit of forcible seducer into compliance and he likes to utilize the lance of lust when the h wears clothes he doesn't like. Still the h has got some game and keeps trying to win, even tho failure is inevitable and the H makes ludicrous threats about very violent coercion in the lancing department. We also get a bit of HB patented catty socialite OW and her brother who try to double team the H and h when they go to a dinner party.
Finally the h realizes that she is in love with the H and the last chapter is him whisking them off to his private Greek island for a little honeymoon and big declarations of love on both parts. Her because of his awesome lurve mojo skillz and him because she fought so hard for her nephew, when he thought he could just buy her off. So big declarations in place and the pink tinged sunset tinting the shores of the mandatory HP Greek H's private island, the h and H adjourn for more passion and a rosy glow HEA.
This one was very typical HB but the H/h bickering was so intense that they did not really need much OW drama and so that only happens in the very last chapters. Read this one if you have limited time and need a quick HB fix, she mostly skims over her usual plot tropes and there is no real character depths plumbed, but it makes for an easy, if uninspired HPlandia adventure.
Enter the H, he is the stepbrother of the man who fathered the child. He wants an heir and custody and has more money than Bill Gates, so he plans to get it. Sadly his stepbrother had a bad auto accident and died as well, but not before the H's family found the letters the h's sister had written revealing the existence of a child. The H is the typical HB uber Alpha domineering male and the h is a fiery shrew who vows to have custody of the child on her own.
After the lawyers suggest marriage between the two of them to simplify the adoption and so the h won't lose her claim to the H's greater status, the H and h marry under a slew of arguments and roofie kisses. There is the usual HB patented staccato elegantly phrased arguments, with the h providing a few extra facial smacks to the H to liven up the periods while we are waiting for roofie kisses to occur. The h's secret plan, (and probably would have worked given the divorce/custody laws of the time,) is to marry the H for a year or so, wait until he majorly messes up and then divorce him and file for sole custody.
The H naturally is wildly attracted to the fiery h and after meeting doting paternal grandparents and various social outings and omelets and fresh fruit and showers and mineral water and coffee and designer clothing, the h starts to realize that she is wildly attracted back. One very forced seduction later and the h is in a bit of a mess. The lurve club mojo force is strong and the h is really liking it, not that she is going to let the H in on that tidbit tho, she still continues to pick fights every chance she gets.
It doesn't end well for her frequently. The H is a bit of forcible seducer into compliance and he likes to utilize the lance of lust when the h wears clothes he doesn't like. Still the h has got some game and keeps trying to win, even tho failure is inevitable and the H makes ludicrous threats about very violent coercion in the lancing department. We also get a bit of HB patented catty socialite OW and her brother who try to double team the H and h when they go to a dinner party.
Finally the h realizes that she is in love with the H and the last chapter is him whisking them off to his private Greek island for a little honeymoon and big declarations of love on both parts. Her because of his awesome lurve mojo skillz and him because she fought so hard for her nephew, when he thought he could just buy her off. So big declarations in place and the pink tinged sunset tinting the shores of the mandatory HP Greek H's private island, the h and H adjourn for more passion and a rosy glow HEA.
This one was very typical HB but the H/h bickering was so intense that they did not really need much OW drama and so that only happens in the very last chapters. Read this one if you have limited time and need a quick HB fix, she mostly skims over her usual plot tropes and there is no real character depths plumbed, but it makes for an easy, if uninspired HPlandia adventure.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 2, 2018
Hero rapes heroine over and over. The first sexual encounter where she loses her virginity was actually rape, and she said no over and over. The fact he managed to make it pleasurable does not make a non consensual forced sex (rape) consensual. He also threatened heroine to punish by raping when she refused to amused by the fact he knows how to pleasure women while getting his own pleasure.
He also pretty much rapes heroine and it is a form of domestic violence when he raped her and made her change into something else because he thought the dress was too sexy for his liking at the end of the book. No apologies, no grovel, no remorse. he just looks at her, "softly" at a party, that's it, it's forgotten. How did HB think I'll be able to forget that because she's not going to mention it ever again when I just threw up while reading that scene is beyond me.
I understand there need be suspension of disbelief and we read HP for fairytale, but being raped by a husband you were forced to marry, while you were a virgin to begin with, cannot be anybody's measure of fairytale.
He also pretty much rapes heroine and it is a form of domestic violence when he raped her and made her change into something else because he thought the dress was too sexy for his liking at the end of the book. No apologies, no grovel, no remorse. he just looks at her, "softly" at a party, that's it, it's forgotten. How did HB think I'll be able to forget that because she's not going to mention it ever again when I just threw up while reading that scene is beyond me.
I understand there need be suspension of disbelief and we read HP for fairytale, but being raped by a husband you were forced to marry, while you were a virgin to begin with, cannot be anybody's measure of fairytale.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 3, 2024
Tedious, boring marriage of convenience story between a flat piece of cardboard hero and a shrieky shrew. They bicker, bicker, bicker, he rapes her and she likes it, then lather, rinse, repeat. No, it’s not a metaphor, Helen Bianchin loves to endlessly describe her protagonists' hygiene routines. Old Skool Harlequin that is not even Gloriously Bad, just plain bad.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 2, 2014
3 Stars ~ It was a shock to Alysa to be summoned to her attorney's office to learn that while as her sister's closest living relative she held a natural right to guardianship of her infant nephew, that the child's biological father's family also had rights. Baby Georg's father is also deceased after a horrible auto accident, and his brother has filed to adopt the child. Aleksi is wealthy and powerful, and Alyse's attorney warns her to tread carefully or she could very well lose the child. In fact, the attorney recommends that Alysa marry Aleksi, thus satisfying the child's need for both as parents. The last thing Alysa wants is to marry a man she finds overbearing and a brute, but her silly mind thinks she just needs to stay married a couple of years and then she'd divorce him, taking Georg with her. Of course, in good Harley style, Alyse finds marriage to Aleksi not at all as she expected. She hadn't expected for him to overwhelm her entire life beginning on where he expected her to sleep.
This romance was written in the early 90's when many Harlequin Presents were still written mainly from the heroine's point of view, which often made it difficult to understand the hero. This is the case for this story. Alysa is so busy hating Aleksi that it's easy to read her interpretation of a hateful bully of a man. She views his attentive manners to her as playing up to the audience, while in fact, he's actually smitten with her. We get a hint of what he's truly like when the author has Aleksi's stepmother liken him to his father who is generous, caring and highly protective. It's shortly after this that Alysa starts to compare her husband to other men and she realizes that other men seem shallow while her husband has a depth of character she admires. While this is not the best romance I've read written by Ms. Bianchin, I did received a few hours of pleasurable reading.
This romance was written in the early 90's when many Harlequin Presents were still written mainly from the heroine's point of view, which often made it difficult to understand the hero. This is the case for this story. Alysa is so busy hating Aleksi that it's easy to read her interpretation of a hateful bully of a man. She views his attentive manners to her as playing up to the audience, while in fact, he's actually smitten with her. We get a hint of what he's truly like when the author has Aleksi's stepmother liken him to his father who is generous, caring and highly protective. It's shortly after this that Alysa starts to compare her husband to other men and she realizes that other men seem shallow while her husband has a depth of character she admires. While this is not the best romance I've read written by Ms. Bianchin, I did received a few hours of pleasurable reading.
February 3, 2022
Quite a lot of verbal and physical agression from both the H and the h.
March 29, 2021
Aleksi Stefanos was out of her league
And Alyse knew she was mad to contemplate playing games with such a man.
But it was the only way Alyse could secure happiness for little Georg, her dead sister's child. She must fool Aleksi - at least until she had his wedding ring on her finger.
Afterward, she could set the rules for their relationship - and for how long it would continue. There was only one loose end in her plan - she couldn't predict Aleksi's response..
And Alyse knew she was mad to contemplate playing games with such a man.
But it was the only way Alyse could secure happiness for little Georg, her dead sister's child. She must fool Aleksi - at least until she had his wedding ring on her finger.
Afterward, she could set the rules for their relationship - and for how long it would continue. There was only one loose end in her plan - she couldn't predict Aleksi's response..
May 22, 2024
What really bugs me is that the author took a story that could have been good and turned it into a "Seinfeld". (Remember, the show about "nothing"?) This book had no substance, when it could have had plenty! The H and h get married in order to share custody of their nephew (sad to say, his younger brother and her younger sister both died tragically), since neither would relinquish their hold on him, and while the H means it to be a marriage in every sense of the word (despite their animosity toward each other), the h is planning to divorce him after a reasonable amount of time and hopefully get full custody.
Here's where the author let a good story slip away. She could have had the h make plans to leave and consult with a lawyer, then change her mind when she sees how good the H is with the baby and gets to know him better, and they start to get closer through their shared love of their nephew. Then, just when things are working out well, the H finds out what she had planned, gets angry and no longer trusts her, and she can't convince him she had changed her mind. From there, different situations were possible to eventually get them back together.
Instead, the author had the H act forceful and domineering (to the point of marital rape), while the h acts snarky and bitchy, and you get silly stuff, like her wearing a provocative dress just to get him angry, which he removes ASAP and then they have sex like two horny animals, like something from a porn novel, not a romance one!
It goes on like that, with the h continually telling the H how much she hates him, and the H acting like he doesn't care as long as she keeps opening her legs, which she of course does, half the time hating her "treacherous body", the other half longing for love and tenderness. (???)
And we're supposed to believe she suddenly has a complete change of heart and declares her undying love, while he claims he was longing for her to say those words, which match how he feels??? COME ON!!!!
There's a token OW (and her brother's a potential OM), but this is thrown into the story so late the author might as well have skipped it.
In fact, she should have skipped writing this entire book.
Here's where the author let a good story slip away. She could have had the h make plans to leave and consult with a lawyer, then change her mind when she sees how good the H is with the baby and gets to know him better, and they start to get closer through their shared love of their nephew. Then, just when things are working out well, the H finds out what she had planned, gets angry and no longer trusts her, and she can't convince him she had changed her mind. From there, different situations were possible to eventually get them back together.
Instead, the author had the H act forceful and domineering (to the point of marital rape), while the h acts snarky and bitchy, and you get silly stuff, like her wearing a provocative dress just to get him angry, which he removes ASAP and then they have sex like two horny animals, like something from a porn novel, not a romance one!
It goes on like that, with the h continually telling the H how much she hates him, and the H acting like he doesn't care as long as she keeps opening her legs, which she of course does, half the time hating her "treacherous body", the other half longing for love and tenderness. (???)
And we're supposed to believe she suddenly has a complete change of heart and declares her undying love, while he claims he was longing for her to say those words, which match how he feels??? COME ON!!!!
There's a token OW (and her brother's a potential OM), but this is thrown into the story so late the author might as well have skipped it.
In fact, she should have skipped writing this entire book.
August 3, 2025
Alyse wanted to adored Gorge, her sister's son, but his uncle, Aleksi Stefanos, showed from nowhere and insisted on adopting him and taking him away! Her Lawyer suggested she marries Aleksi to solve the problem because she was no match to Aleksi in court. So she married him! Yet, she was determined to divorcee him after two years!
The story would have been a top hit, because it was interesting in the first chapter, but it miserably failed to impress afterwards because the two main characters gave it away. A constant bitchy heroine and a rapist of a hero are unlikable combination. The story gives the hint that not mutual tender feelings of the heart and the merge of intellectual understanding that eventually lead to love, but mere sensual compatibility. Which is totally ridiculous. Therefore, the confession of these two left me cold.
The story would have been a top hit, because it was interesting in the first chapter, but it miserably failed to impress afterwards because the two main characters gave it away. A constant bitchy heroine and a rapist of a hero are unlikable combination. The story gives the hint that not mutual tender feelings of the heart and the merge of intellectual understanding that eventually lead to love, but mere sensual compatibility. Which is totally ridiculous. Therefore, the confession of these two left me cold.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 6, 2018
I'm absolutely outraged. I mean how can anyone love that neanderthal, domineering, insensitive, brute that Aleksei is? Yes, the heroine has her own share of faults but still she does not deserve to be raped by the hero on at least 2 occasions. I'm so disgusted at the hero. The heroine said that the hero had depth, etc. Pray tell me, where is the depth in the behavior of a rapist? Ugh! Abominable!
April 25, 2019
Forced/arranged marriage for a baby's sake.
Both H and h request guardianship: H asks (orders) h to marry him and... they do.
A lot of bedroom action: he barely finds time to work!!
Background drama as a consequence of baby's parents death (H/h are their siblings).
The author tries to provide details on H/h personalities here and there - between one sex scene and the following...☺️.
Both H and h request guardianship: H asks (orders) h to marry him and... they do.
A lot of bedroom action: he barely finds time to work!!
Background drama as a consequence of baby's parents death (H/h are their siblings).
The author tries to provide details on H/h personalities here and there - between one sex scene and the following...☺️.
January 11, 2019
MOC story. Uncle and aunt marry for the sake of their nephew. Didn’t really feel an emotional connection between them. Too much in the bedroom and not enough of a meeting of minds for me.
January 16, 2020
Matrimonio Stefanos
April 3, 2016
Was just ok.
The heroine was a bit too aggressive- ok she was fighting for custody of her nephew but still - I really don't like violence, in men or women. The heroine slapped and in many instances hit out at the hero with her fists. On the hero's part- he forced himself on her, especially the first time because she was a virgin and he still didn't stop. Also he was so totally domineering he just rode roughshod over the heroine all the time. I would have been so annoyed as well.
The story gained back a star because the end was believable in that they gave up fighting and were much gentler in their interactions with each other. Their confessions of love were plausible and made sense of their earlier behavior.
The heroine was a bit too aggressive- ok she was fighting for custody of her nephew but still - I really don't like violence, in men or women. The heroine slapped and in many instances hit out at the hero with her fists. On the hero's part- he forced himself on her, especially the first time because she was a virgin and he still didn't stop. Also he was so totally domineering he just rode roughshod over the heroine all the time. I would have been so annoyed as well.
The story gained back a star because the end was believable in that they gave up fighting and were much gentler in their interactions with each other. Their confessions of love were plausible and made sense of their earlier behavior.
August 4, 2016
Alyse Anderson has already lost her parents, then her younger sister. Losing her nephew was not going to be an option. Finding out that her nephew's father's family could actually get custody of him, prompts her to do the unthinkable and marry the enemy.
Alexsi Stefanos is a very determined man. His nephew will be raised as his own. And Alyse will be his too. Quickly a marriage of convenience turns to passion and even love.
Very aggressive.
Alexsi Stefanos is a very determined man. His nephew will be raised as his own. And Alyse will be his too. Quickly a marriage of convenience turns to passion and even love.
Very aggressive.
August 23, 2020
It was jus amazing.The main characters was so sweet1
September 8, 2013
what an absurd one ! just one meeting n aleksi wanted 2 marry alyse who was a super childish volcano always on the point of erupting ! haha xd n 2 worsen matters, aleksi was rather the rapist lol:p
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews