Lynne Connolly’s review of The Duke’s New Year’s Resolution by Merline Lovelace
Contemporary romance released by Silhouette Desire 9 Dec 08

Sabrina Russo meets doctor and Italian duke Marco Calvetti when he nearly runs her down. The sexy doc takes her to the nearest hospital and after assuring himself that her ankle is badly sprained, not broken, takes her home, where the inevitable occurs. But Sabrina has a rocky past, born of youthful rebellion against her autocratic father and Marco is a widower, who lost his wild, fun-loving, unstable wife in a storm at sea three years before. Sabrina is determined to make it on her own, after walking out on her father’s business, and with two friends she is doing just that, arranging conference hotels for companies, so she doesn’t want to give it all up even after finding love with Marco. Marco’s family and friends are troubled about Sabrina’s physical resemblance to his dead wife, and it makes Sabrina wonder if he wants her, or the late Mrs. Marco back. 

Although this book has many of the usual tropes – rich, alpha hero, beautiful heroine, gorgeous setting – Lovelace treats it with a freshness that I enjoyed. The conflicts emerge naturally from the story, and there’s nothing imposed. Although every Silhouette/HMB book has to have its “black moment” close to the end, many are imposed by the external plot, a big misunderstanding or something that doesn’t gel with the rest of the book. Often, that can spoil a book for me, but Lovelace doesn’t do that. Her ‘black moment’ is foreshadowed, expected and dealt with in a believable way, but I won’t go for spoilers by telling you exactly how and why.

The heroine was believable, for a change. She understood business, understood responsibility and what it means, and didn’t behave like a spoiled schoolgirl when things didn’t go her way. She coped. She didn’t throw everything away for the hero, and she didn’t treat her chosen career like a disposable way of spending her time until her man came along. I loved that part, and that the hero understood and didn’t insist she spent all her waking hours on him and his needs.

Marco is a duke and a doctor, and both are taken into account in a believable, if fairytale way. He isn’t the bestest doctor in all the world, although my heart sank a tad when it’s stated he’s a pediatric doctor, but that doesn’t mean this book is infested with adorable widdle kiddies. It’s not. And his dukedom, though largely nominal in the Italian Republic, still carries onerous responsibilities that he takes seriously and deals with. He doesn’t have all the trappings of wealth and rank and none of the duties. I liked that, too. I did find his character a little light compared to Sabrina’s, but not as light as in some of the others I’ve been reading recently. There’s enough here to make him a real man and one you can depict in your mind’s eye.

I also found Sabrina’s resemblance to Marco’s late wife a bit of a distraction. It’s so remarkable that people routinely give her a double-take when they see her with Marco, and I think it would have been enough to make her similar, though not identical. It set up a question that was never resolved. But I did thoroughly enjoy my read, and I’ll definitely be looking for more Lovelace books in the future. It shows that not all the talent at Silhouette/HMB is coming from the new writers they’ve been picking up recently, the old school can give the newbies more than a run for their money!

Grade: B+

Summary:

The setting was picture-postcard perfect; the hero, bonafide royalty. Sabrina’s worst fear was that she would wake up and discover it was all a dream. Duke-and doctor-Marco Calvetti had almost run her off the road. Now Sabrina was playing houseguest in his Amalfi-coast villa. Marco’s romantic words and skilled hands gave new meaning to the term “bedside manner,” but his brooding eyes hid secret wounds…or was it a secret agenda? Either way, the duke promised her a New Year’s she would never forget….

Read an excerpt.