LynneC’s review of Di Cesare’s Pregnant Mistress by Chantelle Shaw
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents 1 Sep 08

Let’s get the title out of the way – it’s dreadful, and it’s also a spoiler, since the heroine doesn’t get preggers until later in the book.

However, it’s hardly a surprise. This is a Harlequin Presents, after all. Oh yes, and is it me, or is this cover a bit off-putting?

So, the heroine, Tamsin, is friendly with an old friend of the hero’s, too friendly, he thinks. Because James is far too old for Tamsin and recently lost his wife to cancer. Bruno is convinced she’s a gold-digger. In fact, she’s keeping James company when he visits the hospital for his chemotherapy treatment because James, too, has cancer, but he doesn’t want his family to know. The death of his wife upset them all too much.

It would have been less grating has the author used a different title usage, instead of picking on the one title in the country that runs counter to all the others. It irritated me that he is referred to as “Earl Grainger” when that seems to be his surname, too. There is one earldom in the country that has that, and it’s more than unusual, it’s unique. Earl Spencer, the family of Lady Diana Spencer, later Princess of Wales. So yes, it’s possible, but so different to the usual it stopped me every time it was used.

Tamsin is a talented interior designer, working with her brother, who was bailed out the year before by Spencer—sorry, Grainger. And because his father married a gold-digger, Bruno fears the worst.

If all this sounds familiar to you, then it’s not surprising. In fact, this a competently written Harlequin romance, but there are no surprises at all. It reads like a pattern-card for a Harlequin romance. Everything is there in the right place, the tall, dark Latin hero, the misunderstood heroine, the instant attraction, the pregnancy that brings them back together (which I wouldn’t have mentioned, were it not for the title). It’s same old, same old. It’s as if the author picked some of the popular tropes, arranged them and then wrote around them.

I know that Harlequin authors write fast, but this book shows how fast. Once an author is in the Harlequin mould, she can write a book like this in her sleep. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it. I’ve had some disturbed nights recently, and I needed something to get me back on track, back to at least five hours a night. This book helped enormously. I’d also choose this book to read if I were waiting for a plane, and then the tedious seating, then the take-off, before they allow the use of laptops and before the film comes on.

This is definitely one of those books where a conversation early on would have solved a lot of problems, but it would have led to no book at all. I did tire of Bruno’s constant “all women are ebil” approach, just because of his nasty stepmother. And Tamsin was too good to be true. There was a scene where she tells him that she has no intention of giving up her career for him, and I wanted to cheer. But, sigh, by the end of the book it’s all babies and keeping house. That would definitely have upped my grade, if she’d insisted on continuing with her career, which, we’re told, means a lot to her. Even if it is interior design, something Harlequin heroines excel at. Bruno had inherited a fashion business, so I was interested, and I wanted to read accounts of models, frantic rushing around at the four times yearly shows, and the search for the perfect fabric, but I got none of that. Just the usual sitting at the desk in immaculate suits scenes, and business deals. I wanted a bit more colour, a bit more detail.

But as I said, this isn’t a bad book. It’s just not one that I’ll remember for very long.

Grade: C-

Summary:

Sexy, arrogant Bruno Di Cesare hears interior designer Tamsin Stewart is a gold digger. But on meeting her he’s instantly attracted, and hires her to work on his Tuscan villa. Down-to-earth Tamsin knows the Italian billionaire is ruthless yet she can’t resist him. Tamsin must leave Bruno to save her heart, but then she discovers she’s pregnant…

Read an excerpt.