Italian Affair

3.5 stars-ITALIAN AFFAIR is the second instalment in Annie Seaton’s contemporary, adult AFFAIR clean, romance series focusing on the Richards brothers-Nick, Tomas and Alex Richards. This is bursar (financial administrator) Tomas Richards, and clinical psychologist/sex therapies Brianna Ballantine’s story line. ITALIAN AFFAIR can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story line is revealed where necessary.

Told from dual third person perspectives (Tomas and Brianna) ITALIAN AFFAIR, originally released in June 2013, follows the building relationship/fake fiancé trope between Australian Tomas Richards, and Brianna Ballantine-a woman raised in Scotland but hoping to locate her birth mother of Italian decent. Brianna Ballantine always knew she was adopted and had only recently discovered her birth mother’s whereabouts but too little, too late as the woman in question is recently deceased. When a missive arrives declaring our heroine the sole beneficiary of her birth mother’s estate Brianna Ballantine sets about to undertake the battle of her life-the inheritance is dependant upon Brianna’s marital status, and in this Brianna must find a suitable man to play fake fiancé / husband for the next couple of months. Enter Tomas Richards, Brianna’s airplane seat mate, and the man with whom Brianna will fall in love. What ensues is the building relationship between Brianna and Tomas, a marriage of convenience that turns into something more, and the potential fall out when Tomas is called back home, and Brianna sets an end date to their happily ever after.

The relationship between Tomas and Brianna begins as two strangers on a plane-a twelve hour flight and layover wherein our couple will learn a little bit about one another until Tomas shuts down when he discovers that our heroine is a clinical psychologist, and Tomas worries about being psychoanalyzed by a stranger on a plane. Like the first instalment HOLIDAY AFFAIR, the leading couple have some issues of immaturity including fits of temper, judgemental attitudes, and too many instances of misunderstanding and miscommunication. Throughout the story, Tomas, a man fluent in Italian, will help Brianna navigate the legal minefield of her impending inheritance, as well as the introduction of Brianna’s extended family-all of whom she never knew anything about. The $ex scenes are all implied.

ITALIAN AFFAIR is a sweet story about two people who find themselves playing a happily married couple; two strangers thrown together for the sake of one woman’s future; and one couple who discover that maybe fate was playing with their future. The premise is entertaining; the characters are interesting; the romance is passionate.