LynneC’s review of Once A Ferarra Wife by Sarah Morgan
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents 24 Jan 12
Sarah Morgan is a great Mills and Boon writer. Her books contain real characters and fresh takes on the standard Mills and Boon tropes. I know I’m in for a good read when I pick up one of her books and this is no exception.
Laurel is flying into Sicily to attend her best friend’s wedding, but when she arrives at the airport, the passengers are asked to wait until a VIP has embarked. She looks out of the window to see some posh limousines and her soon-to-be ex-husband. The VIP is her.
A delicious beginning and from then on the book doesn’t let up. This is a reunited, second-chance story, but although the tropes are more than familiar, the treatment isn’t. Laurel and Cristiano have their specific problems and they concern them, nobody else. Cardboard characters don’t belong here, nor do situations that are just excuses for drama. What happened to these people is because of what they are, and the external events are triggers.
Cristiano never stopped loving Laurel, and he is the one with the emotional openness. He is also a workaholic, and after returning from college in his early twenties at his father’s death, he’s parlayed the company into a big multimillion concern. His brother, Santo, who is, I hope, the subject of an upcoming story, also has a lot to do with the company’s rebirth and continued prosperity.
Laurel left Cristiano after she lost their baby, and he only sent her a text to say he’d see her soon. Well, you would, wouldn’t you? But where I objected to the casual use of a stillbirth in Lynne Graham’s recent offering, Bride For Real, here this incident is given serious treatment and consideration. It’s the characters’ reaction to the event that starts them on the road to reunion, but only after a painful separation.
Cristiano didn’t realise that Laurel’s pains were serious, but his real problem was that he didn’t understand Laurel properly, or her needs. If he had, he would have recognised her cry for help and come immediately, but he didn’t. He comes from a loving, close family who have given him the confidence to display his feelings. Plus, he’s Italian.
Laurel is the opposite, coming from a childhood in care homes and foster homes, where she has learned to keep her emotions to herself. So when Cristiano demands affection, she can give it, but only up to a point. She doesn’t understand Cristiano, or rather, she doesn’t dare to. She’s no Cinderella, though, she has a successful fitness business, and although not as wealthy as her husband, she doesn’t need him.
The reversal of the roles works really well. While Cristiano is still a powerful alpha male, his ability to express his emotions acts in his favour. He is closer to himself, and he can reason, but in the case of his wife, he makes assumptions that, in reality, don’t work. The dazzling sexual attraction between them blinds them to their problems at first, and then it is too late.
#The story unfolds naturally and after one heartbreaking scene at the wedding, the story takes a turn, and they start to reconnect. Almost. Nearly, not quite. Morgan doles out the surprises and developments into a smooth, engrossing read that I didn’t want to put down until I’d finished it.
This is what a Modern/Presents book should be, the use of the standard tropes to examine and delve into character, to show us what happens when a standard external plot happens to a particular couple. So what Laurel will do wouldn’t be what Polly (from Ms. Morgan’s last book) would do in the same situation.
That’s the joy of it, and that’s why I look forward to each release from Sarah Morgan.
Grade: A
Summary:
For better…or for bedding? Laurel Ferrara wouldn’t know a happy ending if she fell over it – of course her whirlwind wedding was always going to end in disaster. But it wasn’t as simple as just walking away. From the moment she is summoned back to Sicily the shivers of unease set in… The command comes from legendary billionaire Cristiano Ferrara, the husband she can’t forget – but it might as well have come from the devil himself. The outrageously gorgeous Cristiano’s power is a potent reminder of this Sicilian dynasty’s unbreakable rule: once a Ferrara wife, always a Ferrara wife…
Read an excerpt.
