The Unwanted Wife by Natasha Anders
No one had ever looked at her and seen perfection—until now.
Delicate, titian-haired Theresa Noble has met her father’s associates in the past, but the gorgeous, Italian-born Sandro De Lucci leaves her speechless. Eighteen months into their marriage, however, Sandro has turned to ice. Desperate to escape a relationship that has proven to be as stubbornly passionate as it is cold and hateful, Theresa summons up the courage to ask for a divorce. But before he’ll grant her request, Sandro demands something from Theresa: a son.
The stalemate sickens her. Never mind that Sandro has yet to introduce Theresa to the large family that means so much to him. Or that Theresa overhears her husband on the phone with a mystery woman. Most damning is that Theresa senses, in Sandro’s treatment of her, the behind-the-scenes machinations of Jackson Noble, her cruel father. From the depths of her anxiety, Theresa must seek an empowering truth about the husband who calls her, with such cold affection, his cara, his beloved.
Caroline's Review
✮✮✮✮✮
When I was in my late teens/early 20s, my one guilty reading pleasure was sneaking a few Mills & Boon romances. I loved them for their alpha heroes, especially if they were European and peppered their speech with endearments in their mother tongue, even when you knew they despised the heroine but continued to lust after them. LOL
Well, this story made me feel very nostalgic for those M&B books. My book friend and fellow blogger, Danielle, had raved about this story recently and I've been sitting on this series for...five flippin' years(!!) - after purchasing each one for 1GBP! Shocking, I know! LOL
Anyway, adored it! I couldn't put the darn thing down and stayed up until stupid o'clock to finish it and have only had five hours sleep. So, yeah, Theresa and Alessandro's story just totally hooked me.
"Why would you even want a child with a woman you despise?"
Theresa went into their marriage with hearts in her eyes but she got a rude awakening almost as soon as they were married. She persevered but, deep inside, her love and her spirit were slowly withering from Sandro's cold treatment and dismissal of her, and her failure to give him the only thing he seems to want out of their marriage. The only place they showed harmony was in the marital bed which, despite his seeming hatred of her, is where he insists she sleeps.
When revelations come to light, we start seeing a change in Sandro. Just as Theresa is finally asserting her independence, it appears that he is just starting to make the effort to know his wife.
"I have this life, with you. It's the only one that matters to me."
True to an M&B hero, Sandro is a commanding and possessive SOB but full of passion. We see his loyalty to his family and what he's willing to do to make them happy. We see plenty of what Theresa is feeling and thinking but only see him through her eyes, although we get plenty of clues about the change of heart that he's going through. Theresa herself goes through a big change from a needy doormat to someone full of fire and stubbornness. Her dogged stubbornness is to the point of annoying but we can see she's totally pushing Sandro's buttons to the limit. I loved that sometimes he reacted angrily to it and, other times, he displayed the patience of a saint.
I thoroughly enjoyed the storytelling - the fieriness between them, the love scenes (my favourite is the one where they kiss for the first time and he can't seem to get enough of her), and their emotional journey to finding their truths (yep, totally had tears on my pillow whilst reading this story!).
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