Veena’s Duckies Do Series review of Bella Terra Deception Series by Christina Dodd
Contemporary Romance published by Signet Select Aug 11 – Apr 12
Set against the backdrop of California’s beautiful Wine Country, Christina Dodd paints a superb portrayal of life in a small town where news and gossip fly at the speed of light and yet secrets and deception still manage to hide under the surface. Three rich handsome bachelors are pledged to find a missing bottle of wine shrouded in mystery before the secrets it contains can plunge their loved ones into danger. As the search continues secrets are revealed in the midst of escalating violence and a growing body count. Each brother makes their own journey of self-discovery to find their own pot of gold at the end of the rainbow in the form of love and family.
Eli, Rafe and Noah Di Lucca share a father. Born of different mothers, the boys are raised by their grandparents, Anthony and Sarah Di Lucca. Their home and heart is in Bella Terra with their Nonno and Nonna. Despite all the love and care of the grandparents, each child carries scars from their childhood which shape their choices into adulthood.
Secrets of Bella Terra
2 Aug 11
Secrets in Bella Terra kicks off the series with Rafe’s story. Rafe’s parents are both actors and outstandingly beautiful people from whom Rafe inherits both the looks and talent. As a child he did a stint as an actor but early on decided that he wanted to be a real-life hero and not merely portray one on celluloid. He made his life’s choices to follow his dream, including walking away from his childhood sweetheart and dreams of love. After having served his time in special forces, he now heads up a successful security company and travels the world taking on difficult assignments.
Brooke Petersson has loved Rafe since they were in school and he rescued her from bullying by fellow students. He was her first love, her first lover, but she can’t hold him at Bella Terra or with her. Being an army brat and having spent her childhood in various bases around the world, she needs the roots and security that living in Bella Terra gives her. Sarah Di Lucca is attacked in her home by someone searching for the bottle of wine presented to Anthony upon his birth by Master Vitner Massimo Bruno. Brooke knows all the players, having lived in the town since her arrival at the age of thirteen. She partners with Rafe to help solve the mystery of who attacked Nonna and to help find the bottle of wine which has been hidden by Anthony prior to his death a couple of years ago. As the body count piles up, Brooke herself narrowly escapes death, leading Rafe to realize her importance in his life.
Joseph Bianchin is the last surviving member of the Bianchin family who were one of the founding fathers of the town. He was born the same day as Anthony Di Lucca. Massimo Bruno has only one bottle of wine left, which he gifts to Anthony. Joseph has always coveted the bottle of wine which he feels should have been his. With that in mind, he attacks the Di Lucca’s on Anthony’s twenty-first birthday where he injures Anthony but is unable to obtain the bottle. He has discovered that Massimo Bruno was an art thief, stealing art and jewels. Massimo’s last theft was of a necklace of pink diamonds which was never recovered. He suspects that the diamonds are hidden in the bottle of wine which the Di Luccas have and is now after the bottle.
Grade: A
Summary:
Dark, brooding, and sexy, Rafe Di Luca has returned to Bella Terra for one reason: to find out who attacked his beloved grandmother … and why. Owner of one of the world’s leading security firms, he has his prime suspect: the beautiful Brooke Petersson, manager of Bella Terra. Years ago, he and Brooke shared a powerful passion before he walked out of her life. She swore the affair was over forever, yet they find themselves drawn into an erotic web neither can escape. Now Rafe must decide if he should trust the desire Brooke ignites in him—or if seduction is her revenge…
Read an excerpt.
Revenge at Bella Terra
6 Sep 11
Revenge at Bella Terra moves into Eli’s story. Eli is a gifted Vinter. He successfully manages the Di Lucca Winery. However, through misplaced trust in his accountant, he finds himself without funds to pay taxes on the winery, with the potential to lose everything he has worked so diligently toward. He makes a deal with billionaire business man Tammosso Conte to marry Conte’s daughter Chloe in exchange for the money to rescue his winery.
Chloe writes murder mysteries. She has successfully published her first book and is struggling to complete her second book when she arrives in Bella Terra as a guest of Eli as part of a plan engineered by him and her father. Shortly after her arrival she finds herself plunged into a real live mystery. As she and Eli find the clues that point to the diamonds being in the bottle of wine, and her life is threatened multiple times by a villian who fears her solving the mystery because of her background in writing such stories. Eli who never thought he could feel for anything but his grape vines finds Chloe is more important when he sacrifices several feet of irreplaceable mature vines to rescue her. Eli and Chloe defeat the villians that threaten them and head towards peace and happiness.
Grade: A
Summary:
Ruthless Eli Di Luca hides the torment of his past beneath a façade of iron control. No one suspects the anguish he suffers, or the reasons why he has sworn never to marry. Only blackmail could change his mind…
Beautiful young author Chloë Conte’s first book zoomed to the top of the bestseller lists. Now, struggling to write her second mystery, she retreats to an isolated cottage in a private vineyard. But with his magnetic appeal and his fascinating tales of Bella Terra’s violent past, Eli Di Luca proves an irresistible distraction, and Chloë finds herself falling in love with a man she hardly knows. Soon she discovers that Eli has been keeping secrets from her, and the truth will bring more than heartbreak…it will put them both in mortal danger.
Read an excerpt.
Betrayal
3 Apr 12
It’s now Noah’s turn to carry the torch in the last leg of search for the bottle in Betrayal. Noah has known since he was sixteen that he is living with a ticking time bomb which has the potential to sweep everything away. Unbeknownst to the Di Luccas, his mother is a Popov head of a Russian mafia group. The Popovs are the ultimate villain seeking the bottle of wine and the pink diamonds. As Noah races against time to find the bottle and/or find a way to defeat the Popovs and preserve the way of life at Bella Terra and keep his family safe, he meets Penelope Alonso again.
Penelope first came to Bella Terra with her mother as an interior design intern working on the remodeling of the Bella Terra resort where she first met and fell in love with Noah. Her mother is dead of cancer, her husband in a car accident. Widowed and alone, she has come to Bella Terra in search of roots that she unexpectedly learns about. Lonely Penelope meets Brooke and through Brooke’s offer of friendship and a job, she gets swept into the Di Lucca circle and comes face to face with Noah again. Noah and Penelope work on rescuing Noah from the clutches of the Popovs, finding the bottle and, of course, continuing their love affair to its satisfactory conclusion.
Grade: A
Summary:
At nineteen, Noah Di Luca was Bella Terra’s golden boy, handsome, confident, and untouched by the shadows that tormented his brothers…or so everyone believed. Driven by ambition, beautiful teenage Penelope Alonso fought her way out of the ghettos. During one hot summer, they came together in the sweetness of first love…until his past reared its ugly head and Noah walked away from her without a word.
Nine years later, Penelope returns, never imagining she’d see Noah or that one glance would wake their fiery passion. But even as she fights the impulse to love him again, their secrets betray them. As peril builds around them, Penelope has one choice: to survive, she must once again trust the man who betrayed her.
Even with terror stalking through Bella Terra’s streets, love may be the most dangerous choice of all.
Read an excerpt.
I love this series. Each book is complete in itself and yet very nicely sets the stage for the next book. The author does a wonderful job with the central core of family love, loyalty, and values that drive the choices the characters make. The story of the pink diamonds has a surprising but ironic ending.
Overall Grade: A
