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Di Cesare's Pregnant Mistress
DI Cesare's Pregnant Mistress
187 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2008
About the author
Chantelle Shaw
695 books161 followersI grew up without a TV, let alone DVD’s, computer games etc that my kids spend so much time engrossed in, but I learned to read at an early age and from then on I was always entertained – so much so that my friends used to hide their books when I visited them because all I wanted to do was read!
When I was a teenager I discovered Mills & Boon romances in my local library, and so began a lifelong love affair. I still remember that feeling of anticipation when I settled down with a pile of books - all bearing the famous rose logo - knowing that I would be drawn into a world of love, passion and emotional intensity that I have never found in any other books. I enjoy reading a wide range of books, especially historical novels, and I am a big fan of Agatha Christie, mainly I think because her characters seem so real, but I love romances and unashamedly admit that I only want to read books with a guaranteed happy ending. Reading is my joy and pleasure and I don’t want to cry buckets at the end of a book or have my sleep disturbed by its gruesome content.
For me, the characters in Harlequin Mills & Boon romances are the key. I love reading and writing about strong, alpha heroes and feisty, independent heroines who find that they can’t fight the blazing attraction between them.
When I married my own tall, dark, but sadly not wealthy hero, we moved out of London to the Kent coast and started a family that grew and grew. I adore my six children, and when they were small I loved being a stay-at-home mum, but there can be days, as I’m sure many of you know, when you feel isolated and – dare I say it – bored of conversing with three-year-olds. Harlequin Mills & Boon romances were my life-line and my sanity and I read them whenever I had a spare five minutes (in the bath, pacing the floor at three am with colicky baby on one shoulder and a book in the other hand!)
My imagination soared and I decided to try and write a book myself. My first attempt was typed up on a manual type-writer with the full-stop key and the letter p missing. Luckily my hero and heroine were not called Paul and Poppy, but it still meant going over my manuscript with a pen to fill in the gaps!
That first book was duly rejected as were my next two. I suppose I was disheartened and by now I had four small children and very little spare time, so although I continued to read romances, I gave up writing. It wasn’t until my youngest son started school that I tried writing again. I was struggling to come to terms with the death of my darling mum Gabrielle and writing became my therapy. Mum had always nagged me to get on and write a book and had an unshakeable belief that I would one day be published – I’m so glad that she was proved right and my biggest regret is that she isn’t here to share my success with me.
I wrote two more books which were both rejected by HM&B, but I was given some advice on my writing from the editorial team that encouraged me to try again. Third time lucky certainly applied to me – the day I received ‘the call’ was exactly four years after Mum had died. It was one of the most exciting moments of my life - but instead of chatting to the editor about contracts I had to dash off and pick my sick daughter up from school. Reality is never far away in my house!
I have now had nine books published - At the Sheikh's Bidding was released in September 08. My next book, Argentinian Playboy, Unexpected Love-Child will be out in the UK in July 09, and The Greek Billionaire's Innocent Princess in the UK in August 09. I have just had my twelfth book accepted and am already busy on my thirteenth. Now that my children are growing up I am able to write every day between 9 am and 3 pm, but often I become so involved with my characters that I sneak off to write again in the evening!
I feel I must be one of the luckiest people in the world to be doing something that I love, but I work hard at my luck and I believe that w
When I was a teenager I discovered Mills & Boon romances in my local library, and so began a lifelong love affair. I still remember that feeling of anticipation when I settled down with a pile of books - all bearing the famous rose logo - knowing that I would be drawn into a world of love, passion and emotional intensity that I have never found in any other books. I enjoy reading a wide range of books, especially historical novels, and I am a big fan of Agatha Christie, mainly I think because her characters seem so real, but I love romances and unashamedly admit that I only want to read books with a guaranteed happy ending. Reading is my joy and pleasure and I don’t want to cry buckets at the end of a book or have my sleep disturbed by its gruesome content.
For me, the characters in Harlequin Mills & Boon romances are the key. I love reading and writing about strong, alpha heroes and feisty, independent heroines who find that they can’t fight the blazing attraction between them.
When I married my own tall, dark, but sadly not wealthy hero, we moved out of London to the Kent coast and started a family that grew and grew. I adore my six children, and when they were small I loved being a stay-at-home mum, but there can be days, as I’m sure many of you know, when you feel isolated and – dare I say it – bored of conversing with three-year-olds. Harlequin Mills & Boon romances were my life-line and my sanity and I read them whenever I had a spare five minutes (in the bath, pacing the floor at three am with colicky baby on one shoulder and a book in the other hand!)
My imagination soared and I decided to try and write a book myself. My first attempt was typed up on a manual type-writer with the full-stop key and the letter p missing. Luckily my hero and heroine were not called Paul and Poppy, but it still meant going over my manuscript with a pen to fill in the gaps!
That first book was duly rejected as were my next two. I suppose I was disheartened and by now I had four small children and very little spare time, so although I continued to read romances, I gave up writing. It wasn’t until my youngest son started school that I tried writing again. I was struggling to come to terms with the death of my darling mum Gabrielle and writing became my therapy. Mum had always nagged me to get on and write a book and had an unshakeable belief that I would one day be published – I’m so glad that she was proved right and my biggest regret is that she isn’t here to share my success with me.
I wrote two more books which were both rejected by HM&B, but I was given some advice on my writing from the editorial team that encouraged me to try again. Third time lucky certainly applied to me – the day I received ‘the call’ was exactly four years after Mum had died. It was one of the most exciting moments of my life - but instead of chatting to the editor about contracts I had to dash off and pick my sick daughter up from school. Reality is never far away in my house!
I have now had nine books published - At the Sheikh's Bidding was released in September 08. My next book, Argentinian Playboy, Unexpected Love-Child will be out in the UK in July 09, and The Greek Billionaire's Innocent Princess in the UK in August 09. I have just had my twelfth book accepted and am already busy on my thirteenth. Now that my children are growing up I am able to write every day between 9 am and 3 pm, but often I become so involved with my characters that I sneak off to write again in the evening!
I feel I must be one of the luckiest people in the world to be doing something that I love, but I work hard at my luck and I believe that w
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 6, 2018
I swear this book gave me indigestion and an overwhelming thirst for my friend Jaeger. There was so much back and forth and back and forth and lust and sex and back and forth and sex. My head was spinning. I hated the assumptions he made about the heroine based on the words of a spoiled 18 year old pampered princess who wanted her Dad all to himself. I felt so bad for her. The hero cockblocked the older guy and thought he would save him from the gold digging clutches of the heroine. Of course she was no gold digger and the old man did not want her as his mistress or anything. I got so sick of the way he treated the h and I was mad at her when she eventually succumbed to his magic wand. He was such a pig. Personally I would have scrubbed it with bleach, sanded it, bleached it again and then covered it in plastic before I even touched it. She then could have kept it in her bedroom drawer and give it a cute little name like Snapper and never worry about getting pregnant ever again. But did she take my advice? No of course not. She took it out of its box and played with it and got bit by the pregnancy bug. And when she told him he was a complete jerk and says evil things. So why four stars? I bought his ultimate redemption and loved his grovel. He didn't sleep with anyone else after he met her so that of course was a bonus and he had to work for her forgiveness I loved that when he found out she was safe at the end he cried. I teared up even. She was such a great heroine. He is pretty bad in the beginning though and why she slept with him is anybody's guess. But it did work out and I loved the epilogue and I will read this again.
P.S. And guess what? Like all the other wacky HP's I have been reading lately we have another incestuous cousin alert again by the name of Donata! What is with these woman that want their male cousins? just gross. Inbreeding is just not cool man. I can see children all over HPLANDIA walking around with three eyes and four arms calling their Father, Cousin It!!! Stop with the cousins. When mine visit me now I get a creepy feeling all over and can't look them in the eye. It's just sick and wrong.
P.S. And guess what? Like all the other wacky HP's I have been reading lately we have another incestuous cousin alert again by the name of Donata! What is with these woman that want their male cousins? just gross. Inbreeding is just not cool man. I can see children all over HPLANDIA walking around with three eyes and four arms calling their Father, Cousin It!!! Stop with the cousins. When mine visit me now I get a creepy feeling all over and can't look them in the eye. It's just sick and wrong.
April 2, 2019
Tropey HP story with no surprises, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Hero is convinced interior designer heroine is a golddigger because:
She’s befriended his elderly friend who just lost his wife.
She’s been seen in London with elderly friend.
She’s wearing a diamond necklace the elderly friend gave her.
He also heard rumors that she lied to her first husband about being pregnant and got a big divorce payoff after they were wed for one year.
They meet at the of wedding elderly friend’s daughter. Elderly friend’s other daughter – the youngest- is convinced heroine is going to be an evil stepmother. Hero had an evil golddigging stepmother, so he decides to help out by seducing the heroine.
They are both staying at the same hotel. Hero puts the moves on her, but heroine’s backbone valiantly stays upright and she doesn’t sleep with him.
The next morning the hero convinces the heroine to spend the day with him and they have a lovely time. Hero coaxes her into his bed. Then elderly friend shows up for a meeting the hero had scheduled. Elderly friend is surprised, but leaves them on their own. Hero then gloats that he’s messed up heroine’s golddigging ways by seducing her and letting his friend see her for what she is.
Heroine flees the scene to stay with her sister, licking her wounds. Hero drops off the diamond necklace she left behind and on the back of his business card offers her a job as his mistress.
Heroine wants nothing to do with him until her brother urges her to take a job remodeling the hero’s Tuscan villa. They need the work or the company will go bankrupt.
Heroine eventually gives in and goes to Italy for two months – sleeping with the hero the entire time. This is after he’s accused her of all kinds of awful things and never apologized or changed his mind.
She gets pregnant. They get married.
Spoilers
She cries all the time and mutters her ex’s name in her sleep. Hero thinks she’s still in love with her ex – eventually it all comes out. She is reliving the time her ex dumped her after being unfaithful for their entire marriage. He wanted her to have an abortion, but she ended up miscarrying from the stress.
Hero then realizes he loves the heroine and is now sorry for all his suspicions. Heroine gets stuck in a flooded car and hero rescues her. He grovels for an HEA. They have a boy in the epilogue and are planning another child.
This one is fine if you can get past the heroine’s betraying body syndrome. She had no pride or spine when it came to the hero.
Hero is convinced interior designer heroine is a golddigger because:
She’s befriended his elderly friend who just lost his wife.
She’s been seen in London with elderly friend.
She’s wearing a diamond necklace the elderly friend gave her.
He also heard rumors that she lied to her first husband about being pregnant and got a big divorce payoff after they were wed for one year.
They meet at the of wedding elderly friend’s daughter. Elderly friend’s other daughter – the youngest- is convinced heroine is going to be an evil stepmother. Hero had an evil golddigging stepmother, so he decides to help out by seducing the heroine.
They are both staying at the same hotel. Hero puts the moves on her, but heroine’s backbone valiantly stays upright and she doesn’t sleep with him.
The next morning the hero convinces the heroine to spend the day with him and they have a lovely time. Hero coaxes her into his bed. Then elderly friend shows up for a meeting the hero had scheduled. Elderly friend is surprised, but leaves them on their own. Hero then gloats that he’s messed up heroine’s golddigging ways by seducing her and letting his friend see her for what she is.
Heroine flees the scene to stay with her sister, licking her wounds. Hero drops off the diamond necklace she left behind and on the back of his business card offers her a job as his mistress.
Heroine wants nothing to do with him until her brother urges her to take a job remodeling the hero’s Tuscan villa. They need the work or the company will go bankrupt.
Heroine eventually gives in and goes to Italy for two months – sleeping with the hero the entire time. This is after he’s accused her of all kinds of awful things and never apologized or changed his mind.
She gets pregnant. They get married.
Spoilers
She cries all the time and mutters her ex’s name in her sleep. Hero thinks she’s still in love with her ex – eventually it all comes out. She is reliving the time her ex dumped her after being unfaithful for their entire marriage. He wanted her to have an abortion, but she ended up miscarrying from the stress.
Hero then realizes he loves the heroine and is now sorry for all his suspicions. Heroine gets stuck in a flooded car and hero rescues her. He grovels for an HEA. They have a boy in the epilogue and are planning another child.
This one is fine if you can get past the heroine’s betraying body syndrome. She had no pride or spine when it came to the hero.
April 8, 2020
This dude is one of the worst of these sorts of men, completely unredeemable and hideous as well as stupid. The woman was a useless doormat that I have to conclude wanted to be abused by virtue of refusing every chance to get away from her abuser. What a waste of space the both of them are, how tragic she wasn't sterile.
May 4, 2025
Just ok. Not fond of HPs that are sex scenes wrapped with a smidgen of plot.
October 25, 2021
He thinks she is a golddigger. I have to say he does have some solid reasons to believe that.
All the men in her life just happen to be rich and she just happens to get money and expensive gifts from them. There’s a saying that if it looks like a duck and swims like a duck, then it probably is a duck. I am not convinced that she isn’t a golddigger.
I read in other reviews here that he is a jerk. But he isn’t a jerk. He wanted to protect his friend, a rich, old widower who had just lost his wife, and his friend’s daughter from a golddigger who walks around parading the diamond necklace she has received as a gift from the old widower. He told her the truth about why he had tried to hook up with her soon enough.
He doesn’t make a secret of his contempt for her and she still asks him for sex. He accuses her again and again of being a golddigger. One night she gets a sudden urge for sex, so she goes naked to the H just to have sex with him, even though she knows he despises her.
Halfway through the book I got annoyed by her and I thought about DNF’ing it.
A lot of things I don’t like in this book. She was married before and I don’t like it when the man or woman has been married before. And I don’t like it when she’s not the Cinderella virgin. It makes a HP just ordinary.
And I hate it when the h takes the initiative the first time sex. Especially after he has been verbally abusing her. She really was the epitome of a doormat.
Overall, it had a lot of lust, but it lacked love and tenderness and romance. And above all, it lacked a woman’s self-respect.
All the men in her life just happen to be rich and she just happens to get money and expensive gifts from them. There’s a saying that if it looks like a duck and swims like a duck, then it probably is a duck. I am not convinced that she isn’t a golddigger.
I read in other reviews here that he is a jerk. But he isn’t a jerk. He wanted to protect his friend, a rich, old widower who had just lost his wife, and his friend’s daughter from a golddigger who walks around parading the diamond necklace she has received as a gift from the old widower. He told her the truth about why he had tried to hook up with her soon enough.
He doesn’t make a secret of his contempt for her and she still asks him for sex. He accuses her again and again of being a golddigger. One night she gets a sudden urge for sex, so she goes naked to the H just to have sex with him, even though she knows he despises her.
Halfway through the book I got annoyed by her and I thought about DNF’ing it.
A lot of things I don’t like in this book. She was married before and I don’t like it when the man or woman has been married before. And I don’t like it when she’s not the Cinderella virgin. It makes a HP just ordinary.
And I hate it when the h takes the initiative the first time sex. Especially after he has been verbally abusing her. She really was the epitome of a doormat.
Overall, it had a lot of lust, but it lacked love and tenderness and romance. And above all, it lacked a woman’s self-respect.
May 14, 2013
it was a wonderful book unfortunately the story was too common. it had all the typical ingredients of an HP and way too predictable: hero had a slutty bitch of a stepmother, so believed heroine a gold-digger just like stepmother. evil other woman played by hero's cousin. heroine falling pregnant and hero forced her 2 marry him after abominable behaviour. so what's new !? although it was well-written
April 8, 2015
Not bad. But forgettable. And I think I have read a book with similar plot but the hero's Greek.
Read
January 30, 2025I'm starting to finally realize that the Harlequin Presents series are over-the-top. In this one, with a racy cover and a misleading title, things start out relatively realistic. Who among us hasn't gone to a party, met someone we've only heard bad things about, and discovered them to be incredibly attractive? You flirt, you dance, one thing leads to another, and next thing you know, you're living in a remote Italian villa working your dream job and spending every night in the arms of someone who openly despises you. I get it, some folks believe you can work out frustrations with a wild night together, and your body sometime betrays you, but every night for two months?
Assumptions galore keep the unpleasantness going, and the hero's ongoing distrust of the heroine made him unlikeable. I get that he's an alpha male, but his 'ownership,' of the heroine looks more like abuse than love. I don't see this relationship lasting.
Assumptions galore keep the unpleasantness going, and the hero's ongoing distrust of the heroine made him unlikeable. I get that he's an alpha male, but his 'ownership,' of the heroine looks more like abuse than love. I don't see this relationship lasting.
July 8, 2022
A good book
The typical one night stand that leads to an unexpected pregnancy. The h met the H at a wedding for one of his friends daughter. He thought she was a gold digger because of her friendship with his friend who was an older gentleman. He didn’t trust her, she reminded him of his stepmother. The h was a very beautiful, sweet and kind person who had a beautiful heart. She had her own trust issues from her marriage. Luckily they were able to find their way to each other. Great epilogue.
The typical one night stand that leads to an unexpected pregnancy. The h met the H at a wedding for one of his friends daughter. He thought she was a gold digger because of her friendship with his friend who was an older gentleman. He didn’t trust her, she reminded him of his stepmother. The h was a very beautiful, sweet and kind person who had a beautiful heart. She had her own trust issues from her marriage. Luckily they were able to find their way to each other. Great epilogue.
October 5, 2020
leído en oct 2014
Maloso y nada original!
Maloso y nada original!
August 30, 2008
I am picking up some books by authors I don't know to try to find someone else to read. Although this author writes well enough, I don't think I'm into this genre. My main complaint about Harlequin is their covers. They have awful titles and pictures on most of their books. Don't the authors have any say about this? At any rate, this book was typical. A bad title and a bad picture, rocky romance and not much else.
Currently Reading
May 6, 2010Just started reading and don't want to put down yet
September 19, 2010
An atypical romance, told differently and entertaining. Will pick up more books from this new to me author.
so-bad-ill-never-read-it
August 23, 2011A friend of mine was actually reading this piece of crap. I feel very bad for her brain.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews