For the Sake of the Secret Child

Wed At Any Price #3

by Yvonne Lindsay

The scorching-hot New Year's Eve romp Mia Parker spent with a sexy stranger was reckless, amazing…and never to be repeated. So how did she come to agree to marry him three years later?

Vineyard owner Benedict del Castillo had visited the lush Parker Retreat in New Zealand to escape the media and recover from an injury. He didn’t expect to see the long-ago one-night stand he'd never forgotten. Nor did he expect to pick up where they'd left off. Until he saw the little boy who called Mia "Mommy"…

Genres: Harlequin, Romance, Contemporary Romance, Harlequin Romance, Marriage Of Convenience, Audiobook, Harlequin Desire

189 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2010

About the author

A typical Piscean, USA Today! Best-selling author, Yvonne Lindsay, has always preferred the stories in her head to the real world. Yvonne is a five-time Romance Writers of Australia R*BY nominee and three-time nominee and 2015 winner of the Romance Writers of New Zealand Koru Award of Excellence. She spends her days crafting the stories of her heart and in her spare time she can be found with her nose firmly in someone else’s book.

Reviews

[Alexis-Morgan Roark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok...so, this is your typical secret baby book with the added bonus of a family curse. Hooray!

I seriously wanted to throttle these people especially the hero! And the heroine!

[Ladyacct · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable quick read.

[Harlequin Books]

Miniseries: Wed at Any Price

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought it was great. I loved the the family curse angle was awesome. The heroine is strong not a doormat. The hero was a sexy italian.

[Maura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mia was a bit of a party girl, wild child 3 years earlier when she slept with Benedict del Castillo (without even knowing his name). Now she's matured and clawed her way back from nothing to owning and operating her own retreat, and managed to raise her son Jasper in the meantime. Ben is her latest booking and as soon as Mia sees him, she wishes he'd leave. He's there to recuperate after a horrible accident which nearly killed him, but has also left him infertile, which makes it damn hard to fulfill his end of the bargain he made with his brothers, to marry and have children to break the curse. That is of course until he learns that Mia's son is actually his. Now he'll stop at nothing to make her and Jasper his, to finally fulfill his promise.

Notice I didn't mention anything about love, because I'm fairly sure Benedict is actually incapable of it. Sadly, this hero was far too selfish to have me routing for him. First, he meets Mia and instantly decides that they'll rekindle their affair, even though she's vocal about not wanting too. Doesn't matter what she wants, only his needs are important. Then he learns she has a son and he's sure that Jasper is his, but Mia isn't confessing a thing. Not important to Benedict, he's all out determined that he's finally found his way to fulfilling his promise (i.e. masculinity) so he'll get his way in the end. Then he finally does get the information he seeks and when Mia seems hesitant to do his bidding, he threatens to take his son and fight her in court. Finally gaining her compliance when she realizes she has no choice, he determines to uproot her from her only home and drag her back to Isla Sagrado, her wishes and dreams be damned. Then, when Ben finally realizes she loves him and is in over his head, he decides to leave her and Jasper in New Zealand, claiming he's doing the noble thing and leaving her to her dreams...when in reality, he's too selfishly afraid to deal with their love. It isn't until the last final moment that he has a change of heart and realizes he loves Mia and will stay in New Zealand for her...but it's too little too late and without a convincing process to that change of heart. I'm to believe that in a flash instant he's just suddenly thinking about someone else more than himself. Nope. Not buying that for an instant. Mia is more tolerable, but how she falls in love with Ben when she doesn't even know the first thing about him is insane. There was not enough relationship building in this story for me to really believe in these two.

[Desi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leído el 20/11/2011

Amor completo
Protagonistas: Benedict del Castillo y Mia Parker
Argumento:

¿Podría la aventura de una noche durar para siempre?
El apasionado encuentro de Año Nuevo que Mia Parker tuvo con un guapo y sexy desconocido fue algo imprudente, increíble… y que nunca volvería a repetirse. ¿Cómo entonces accedió a casarse con él tres años más tarde?
Benedict del Castillo se había hospedado en el complejo Parker para escapar de los medios de comunicación y recuperarse de una lesión. No esperaba encontrarse con la chica con la que había pasado una noche de pasión y a la que no había olvidado. Tampoco esperaba retomar la historia donde la habían dejado. Hasta que vio al niño que llamaba a Mia “mamá”.

[Margarita Rosado · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lo que empieza como una narrativa con final más o menos predecible, termina no siéndolo y ese es un giro muy interesante en el argumento. El personaje femenino me gustó más en su desarrollo que el masculino, que como que no acabó de "cuajar" sino hasta el final. Ella se ve enfrentada a muchos retos conforme su suerte va dando tumbos y tiene que sacar fortaleza de sí misma. Me gustó el final, el proceso de aceptación de un hombre acostumbrado a mandar frente a una mujer que quiere probar que tiene fuerza para salir adelante por sí misma.

[Eeeps :) · Rating 1 out of 5]

The romance was extremely underwhelming. Its pacing was all wrong. Some parts were dragged out and some too fast. I also really don't feel like there was much of a connection between the main characters other than sex and coparenting. They didn't seem to love each other for their personalities.

[Helen Moulden · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really wanted another miracle at the end but otherwise a nice story.

[Carolane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can’t deny how dramatic Harlequin books are! His monologue at the end was quite good though....telenovela style

[Mattie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not like it. C.

[María José · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5⭐

[Jennell Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ending of the book seemed very rushed. I didn't like some of the things that female lead did or say...

[Shallowreader VaVeros · Rating 2 out of 5]

I adore my category romance novels so I thought I would try to listen to one. Unfortunately, I couldn't bear it. I don't know if it was that the novel wouldn't have worked for me even if I had read it, or if the narrator's character accents jarred and annoyed me and were completely off the mark (she used Australian accents for the New Zealanders and the hero's Spanish accent didn't work for me either). I listened to the first full CD and then skipped through the rest of the book.

[Megmerrilies · Rating 2 out of 5]

The narrator's truly awful (male) Spanish accent and (female) New Zealand accent really took away from the audiobook version I listened to.
The story kept a good pace and offered a relatively realistic and empathetic heroine, but I found the main male character, and thus the plot, wholly unappealing.

[Raven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually I'm giving this book 2.5 stars. The story was sickly sweet, hockey, and way too predicable. I did finish it, but can't recommend it to other readers.