Mills & Boon, £3.99, ISBN 978-0-263-91646-1
Contemporary Romance, 2016

In the grand tradition of “Why should I care again?”, Crown Prince Antonio De Santis of San Felipe hasn’t boinked any woman ever since his fiancée thoughtfully died to leave him free to meet his beloved. He blames himself for her death, naturally. hence he will never love again… until he sees our heroine Bella Sanchez prancing around in sexy wholesomeness and he wastes little time letting her know that he’s measuring the dimension of her breasts with his eyes and he’d love to have her love every inch of him.

Hey, that’s not nasty. Have you seen the girth and volume of his bank account? That makes everything he does to the heroine a breathtaking romantic gesture.

Bella, The Mistress That Tamed De Santis, has the usual “I have a reputation despite being a wholesome virtuous woman!” baggage: she is widely said to be the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy San Felipe tycoon, the same man lobbying for the closing down of her club because, as Possibly Daddy puts it, her club will lure people into sin and get them to conceive children out of wedlock that they then refuse to acknowledge and instead treat like dirt. Oh, wait.

Fortunately, she has the crown prince lusting to explore every corner of her happening hot club, so that particular subplot sputters to an undignified death.

Now, just ignore the back cover synopsis about forced secret affairs and other nonsense, as that’s just whoever wrote that thing grasping at straws to make the story here seem interesting. The story is all about the romance.

Surprisingly, Antonio isn’t too bad for a hero in the Modern line. In fact, his obsessive infatuation, coupled to his perpetually brooding hot demeanor, does have its charms, I’m not going to lie. I roll up my eyes when it comes to most of his issues, because at the end of the day, he’s a hot bloke from royalty and wealth, so don’t expect me to weep for him just because he had his heart broken in the past. If I were him, I’d light up some thousand-dollar bills to enjoy some weed and throw an orgy every other day to heal, so I have no sympathies for him failing to do the same.

Still, on the whole, he is hot and most importantly loaded beyond loaded, plus he’s not a cruel bell end, so as far as Modern heroes go, he is a winner.

Bella, on the other hand, ouch. Sure, the story needs some drama, so guess what kind of drama the author chooses to put in here? That’s right, our heroine is outraged because the hero dares to be generous with his wealth and bails her out of her financial problems.

Oh yes, she has financial problems. I forgot to mention this earlier because, let’s face it, being terrible with money is so common that it’s like having a nose. One kind of takes for granted that every romance heroine comes with it.

Anyway, Bella feels betrayed and hurt because how dare Antonio treats her like she’s her mistress of a mother. He has betrayed her trust. Out, out, out!

I tell you, some people really deserve to die alone, unloved, and in abject poverty.

Unfortunately, Bella never has to walk the talk and die alone, unloved, and in abject poverty. A happy ending is obligatory, after all, so this wretch gets a wealthy, generous beau in spite of her best efforts to avoid such a gruesome fate.

Nonetheless, while the heroine may be a nincompoop that should be kicked to the curb for being such a moron, this story is actually easy on the nerves and the hero has his share of sexy obsessive-brooding moments. I’d say that if one really has to read a story in this line, this one is better than most of its kind when it comes to potential side effects and aftertaste.