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My Review:Title: Hired: The Italian's Convenient Mistress
Author: Carol Marinelli
Published by: Harlequin Presents EXTRA
Release Date: November 11, 2008
Format: Paperback
Pages: 192
Genres: Contemporary, Romance
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2022 Backlist Reader Challenge, Lenoreo's 2022 Bookish Resolutions Presents, Lenoreo's 2022 COYER Spring
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon
My rating:
Blurb:In the run-up to Christmas, Elijah Vanaldi discovers he is guardian to his small, orphaned nephew. But the playboy billionaire's reputation makes some people question his ability to be a father. Elijah must fight to protect the child... and he'll do anything it takes!
Ainslie Farrell is jobless, homeless and desperate. When Elijah offers her a position in his household, she simply can't say no...
But the ruthless Italian wants more than nine to five--he's demanding marriage!
2.5 stars — I think I’m going to have to just dump the rest of Ms. Marinelli’s books. She used to be a favourite of mine, but what I’ve noticed is that they start strong and get me really excited…and then the second half gets worse and worse until I’m a cranky motherfucker by the end of it. I’m rounding up because I really did enjoy the first half of the book.
In a lot of these Harlequin Presents books, I find the heroes can behave pretty badly. And what I was impressed with in the beginning is that Ainslie wasn’t taking Elijah’s shit. He actually seemed to be listening to her on occasion, and it was nice to see flaws and issues but potential.
That potential was wholeheartedly lost with the sheer dickishness of Elijah as time would go on. I mean, it culminates in him called her a slut when he stupidly believes she’s having an affair. And sure, he apologized…after he found out the truth. I don’t know, it was just a bunch of badness. And it wasn’t just him. Ainslie proceeds to behave kind of petulantly to get back at him.
And the whole “bad guy” situation? Ugh. I’m just not here for that anymore. Wow. Maybe I should round down. I’m seriously bummed, because while these Harlequins are never usually above a 3.5, they can still be an easy reading guilty pleasure. But not if the characters get *worse* instead of better. Fuck it, I’m rounding down.
I’m only reading these because I made this bookish resolution to read 20 of these this year, mostly in the hopes of being able to let them go. But I’ll move on to a different author, because this trend I’m seeing in Ms. Marinelli’s books does not give me patience. Either that or you guys are going to see a lot more ranty reviews coming soon…
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