Only days before she was about to give birth, Emily left her husband, Duarte de Monteiro. She’d heard from a friend that he wanted to keep their baby–but not his wife…. Now Duarte has traced Emily and his baby son and brought them back to Portugal. He’s proud; he wants to keep his wife–especially as he can still possess her with the slightest touch…. Emily still loves Duarte, but has he … Duarte, but has he brought her back because he loves her–or because he loves his son?
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Thrillingly melodramatic, classic romance from 2001, with an Evil OW and a runaway, pregnant wife
At the age of 28, Duarte Avila de Monteiro, a billionaire Portuguese banker, used pure, unemotional logic to choose safe, quiet, humble, virginal, 20-year-old, English Emily as an ideal wife and future mother of his children. He had had plenty of time to observe her, over the course of about nine months, in her position as a live-in groom helping to care for the superb horses at Duarte’s English country house. It didn’t matter to Duarte that Emily was socioeconomically far beneath him. Even dressed in a faded work shirt, worn-out jeans, and scuffed boots, with zero makeup or attention to styling her hair, her beauty was incandescent. She was also loyal, hardworking, unfailingly polite and considerate to others, and as easy to read as an open book—which showed Duarte unmistakably that she worshipped the very ground he walked on. Best of all, Emily had a heart of gold. She was outstanding with his horses, and she risked her own life to save the life of the huge, rowdy, ugly mutt he had inherited from his deceased sister when the unfortunate dog was trapped inside a burning barn on Duarte’s estate.
Emily entered her marriage to Duarte starry-eyed and madly in love. Though she knew he didn’t return her love, and the fabulous lifestyle he offered her on his fancy estate in Portugal meant very little to her, Duarte was a fabulous lover, and her treated her with unfailing kindness and generosity outside the bedroom. Up until eleven months ago, when a tragic misunderstanding took place, and Duarte accused her of having an affair while she was pregnant with his child. Emily was too intimidated and tongue-tied to defend herself, even if Duarte would have been willing to stop berating her and listen to her side of the story. He kicked her out of their shared home and exiled her to another one of his properties in Portugal. After three long, lonely, winter months in this isolated purgatory, Duarte’s personal assistant, Bliss, whom Emily trusted as a kind friend with her best interests at heart, secretly warned Emily that Duarte planned to take away her baby and dump her as soon as the baby was born. As a result, though she was seven months pregnant, Emily fled back to England in the dark of the night in order to escape Duarte.
The infant in question, Jamie, is currently six months old, and his father has yet to meet him. Emily has been living in a worn-out camper trailer hitched to an equally dilapidated car, both of which she purchased using the proceeds from selling her engagement ring. She has been supporting herself and her child with temporary positions as a groom and riding instructor at various stables all over England. She has never stayed in one place for very long, fearing that Duarte would find her and take away her son.
As the story opens, one of the many investigators that Duarte has hired to track down Emily has managed to locate her. Jamie is strapped into his car seat, and Emily is hitching the trailer to her car to leave the latest horse farm where she has been working for the past few months when Duarte’s chief of security shows up and Duarte’s familiar silver limousine blocks her exit. As she leaps into her car to attempt to make a getaway, she slaps her palm onto the steering wheel and feels a sudden sting on her palm. It’s a bee! Emily has a deadly allergy to bee stings, but has been too poor to replace her EpiPen®. She stumbles out of the car, her airways already dangerously swelling, and falls into Duarte’s arms, who rushes her to the nearest hospital.
I have read this book many times. I love that opening scene with the bee-sting emergency especially. It masterfully provides an opportunity for the reader to see that Duarte isn’t as horrible as he comes off in the flashbacks later in the story, which LG employs to show, on-stage, why Emily fled from him. Duarte is clearly desperately afraid for his wife’s life, but he runs into trouble with the police when the woman, who is Emily’s current, very concerned employer, calls the police on both his security chief and Duarte, because she fears that Emily is an endangered wife, fleeing from an abusive husband.
Though I don’t typically like aggressive, Alpha heroes paired with gentle, conflict-averse heroines, both Duarte and Emily have well-motivated and enjoyable growth arcs, which allow them to meet in the middle and achieve a well-motivated HEA. I also appreciate the fact that Duarte did not cheat while they were separated and, of course, as you would expect with an LG heroine, Emily did not ever actually cheat on Duarte.
I rate this novel as follows:
Heroine: 4 stars
Hero: 4 stars
Romance Plot: 4 stars
Writing: 4 stars
Overall: 4 stars
Thrillingly melodramatic, classic romance from 2001, with an Evil OW and a runaway, pregnant wife
At the age of 28, Duarte Avila de Monteiro, a billionaire Portuguese banker, used pure, unemotional logic to choose safe, quiet, humble, virginal, 20-year-old, English Emily as an ideal wife and future mother of his children. He had had plenty of time to observe her, over the course of about nine months, in her position as a live-in groom helping to care for the superb horses at Duarte’s English country house. It didn’t matter to Duarte that Emily was socioeconomically far beneath him. Even dressed in a faded work shirt, worn-out jeans, and scuffed boots, with zero makeup or attention to styling her hair, her beauty was incandescent. She was also loyal, hardworking, unfailingly polite and considerate to others, and as easy to read as an open book—which showed Duarte unmistakably that she worshipped the very ground he walked on. Best of all, Emily had a heart of gold. She was outstanding with his horses, and she risked her own life to save the life of the huge, rowdy, ugly mutt he had inherited from his deceased sister when the unfortunate dog was trapped inside a burning barn on Duarte’s estate.
Emily entered her marriage to Duarte starry-eyed and madly in love. Though she knew he didn’t return her love, and the fabulous lifestyle he offered her on his fancy estate in Portugal meant very little to her, Duarte was a fabulous lover, and her treated her with unfailing kindness and generosity outside the bedroom. Up until eleven months ago, when a tragic misunderstanding took place, and Duarte accused her of having an affair while she was pregnant with his child. Emily was too intimidated and tongue-tied to defend herself, even if Duarte would have been willing to stop berating her and listen to her side of the story. He kicked her out of their shared home and exiled her to another one of his properties in Portugal. After three long, lonely, winter months in this isolated purgatory, Duarte’s personal assistant, Bliss, whom Emily trusted as a kind friend with her best interests at heart, secretly warned Emily that Duarte planned to take away her baby and dump her as soon as the baby was born. As a result, though she was seven months pregnant, Emily fled back to England in the dark of the night in order to escape Duarte.
The infant in question, Jamie, is currently six months old, and his father has yet to meet him. Emily has been living in a worn-out camper trailer hitched to an equally dilapidated car, both of which she purchased using the proceeds from selling her engagement ring. She has been supporting herself and her child with temporary positions as a groom and riding instructor at various stables all over England. She has never stayed in one place for very long, fearing that Duarte would find her and take away her son.
As the story opens, one of the many investigators that Duarte has hired to track down Emily has managed to locate her. Jamie is strapped into his car seat, and Emily is hitching the trailer to her car to leave the latest horse farm where she has been working for the past few months when Duarte’s chief of security shows up and Duarte’s familiar silver limousine blocks her exit. As she leaps into her car to attempt to make a getaway, she slaps her palm onto the steering wheel and feels a sudden sting on her palm. It’s a bee! Emily has a deadly allergy to bee stings, but has been too poor to replace her EpiPen®. She stumbles out of the car, her airways already dangerously swelling, and falls into Duarte’s arms, who rushes her to the nearest hospital.
I have read this book many times. I love that opening scene with the bee-sting emergency especially. It masterfully provides an opportunity for the reader to see that Duarte isn’t as horrible as he comes off in the flashbacks later in the story, which LG employs to show, on-stage, why Emily fled from him. Duarte is clearly desperately afraid for his wife’s life, but he runs into trouble with the police when the woman, who is Emily’s current, very concerned employer, calls the police on both his security chief and Duarte, because she fears that Emily is an endangered wife, fleeing from an abusive husband.
Though I don’t typically like aggressive, Alpha heroes paired with gentle, conflict-averse heroines, both Duarte and Emily have well-motivated and enjoyable growth arcs, which allow them to meet in the middle and achieve a well-motivated HEA. I also appreciate the fact that Duarte did not cheat while they were separated and, of course, as you would expect with an LG heroine, Emily did not ever actually cheat on Duarte.
I rate this novel as follows:
Heroine: 4 stars
Hero: 4 stars
Romance Plot: 4 stars
Writing: 4 stars
Overall: 4 stars