LynneC’s review of An Inheritance of Shame by Kate Hewitt
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents 23 Jul 13
Back in the sanitized Sicily of the Corettis, we find Angelo, the bastard son, and Lucia, chambermaid, once his lover. This story is a poignant tale of two people who are lost, and find themselves in each other.
Kind of.
Kate Hewitt can write up a storm. She sweeps me away with her writing and loves angst as much as I do. Which is saying something. One of my early writing teachers said, “Find out what they are most afraid of and make them confront it,” and Kate Hewitt seems to have had the same teacher.
Angelo has borne the name of Coretti, even though he is a bastard and the rest of the family have always shunned him. His father told him he should have been a stain on the sheets, something Angelo keeps repeating to himself through the book, to remind himself how much he hates the current generation. And that’s my first disconnect.
Revenge isn’t pretty, as Shakespeare was only too keen to tell us in far more poetic language than I could ever muster. It brings out the worst in Angelo, so that he’s eaten up with revenge. He went to his father’s funeral and was shunned by all and sundry. Wait a minute—he went to the funeral of his father, with all his legitimate children there. What did he expect? Anyway, he was so hurt that he went home, told Lucia he was empty inside and screwed her. Then he left without a word. What he needed was a Cher-like character to slap him across his face and tell him to snap out of it. What he got was Lucia, who was about as much help as a wet hen in a sandstorm.
After their night of passion seven years ago, Lucia bore the result uncomplainingly, even though it got her branded Scarlet Woman in her community. You learn early on that she had a child who was stillborn, so no secret babies. For which I’m truly grateful. Except that I don’t doubt that if she’d borne the baby to term, she wouldn’t have tried very hard to tell him about it, because she hadn’t told him about the pregnancy. Or even tried to get in touch with his relatives. Because Lucia is nature’s doormat. Currently working in the hotel Angelo has just bought as a chambermaid, when he wants to give her a taste of luxury, she doesn’t like it. Because she doesn’t belong, she feels uncomfortable. Again, Cher is badly needed here. I quite like a waif, but I prefer a waif who fights back. Lucia drowns Angelo in sweetness. She doesn’t accept what he’s prepared to give and holds out for everything, thus bringing him to a realisation of what he’s doing.
But it comes too late for me. Lucia is too sweet and uncomplaining, and Angelo is too much of a pig. A hen and a pig.
So why not give it an F? Because Hewitt can write. Because, even when I realised I wasn’t getting along with these characters, I still read on. The style is superb and the angst beautifully depicted. The details of Sicily are interesting too, without getting in the way of the story. But I wish these characters had been more likeable.
Grade: C
Summary:
One-Night with a Corretti…
Angelo Corretti has one mistress – revenge. Heartless and darkly sexy he has one objective…destroy the Corretti dynasty: the family who cruelly rejected him for his illegitimacy. But once, long ago, there was a wide-eyed innocent girl. For one night she gave him everything when he needed it most, and then he walked away at dawn. Now, on the cusp of absolute power, Angelo looks into those eyes again and learns of the consequences he left behind…
Read an excerpt.
