Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Not Just a Convenient Marriage Review

Title: Not Just a Convenient Marriage
Author: Lucy Gordon
Line: Romance
Publisher: Harlequin
ISBN: 9780373743018
Website: http://www.harlequin.com
My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Sally Franklin's trip to beautiful Venice was a chance to get her younger brother away from the bad influences in England.  However, it all changed when she meets Italian hotelier, Damiano Ferrone.  When Damiano proposes a marriage of convenience for his son's sake, how can Sally say no when she plans to make her Italian husband fall in love with her?

I don't know where to start.  The most noticeable would be the choppy writing.  The characters’ thoughts jumped from one topic to another within the same paragraph.  Also, the pacing was a bit too farfetched and fast.  Think of this story as a modernized version of a Betty Neels’ romance.  Instead of a Dutch doctor rescuing a British nurse from her mundane life, you have an Italian businessman rescuing a British accountant.  I didn’t think the plot was trite until after initially meeting 4 days later, they got engaged because it was the sensible thing to do since his son loved her as a mother.  What?  There was no real romance.  Everything was so cut and dry.  There was a lot of quick (2 pages worth), unnecessary drama peppered throughout when Sally and Damiano needed help to move their relationship along.  This got kind of unexciting after awhile.  Too much detail in such a short span of time and pages.  If the story focused more of the main characters, maybe their declaration of love would have some meaning, instead of being forced.

Unless you are looking for a Betty Neels’ remake, pass this one by.  The romance was clinical.  The writing style was abrupt.  Sally and Damiano were one-dimensional and the unnecessary drama from the secondary characters made for a mundane romance.     

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