This is not a romance novel.

This is the story of a man child with an anger problem who manages to gaslight our leading lady into thinking that all of his sociopathic actions are really his way of showing love.

Damien is worse than any other Harlequin leading man I have ever read, and I have read some stinkers in my time. He's a vengeful asshat with trust issues and he should never have had even the slightest chance at being with Sable.

Sable is a mess, too. She's a quivering pile of jelly the entire novel, she has no backbone and I hate her for believing Damien's lies.

The secret baby in this is not even a baby - he's a four year old toddler! MISLEADING TITLE ALERT.

Oh and the sex?

n  

"She reached for him, opening to him, soaring on wings of endless passion."

n

BARF

I wish I could bleach this book from my brain.

Negative one thousand stars.

This book was so slow to get into and predictable right from the start. The main characters are juvenile, self-absorbed and not the least bit likeable. Too much drama.

This was a cute quick read with an alluring writing style that dragged me in. I wasn't a fan of the story line, as I didn't really understand the character's jobs.

One thing that really bothered me was how Sable's young son instantly trust Damien (a stranger to him) and kept asking when he would come back, even though he didn't know him.

Overall, an almost perfect "Mills & Boon".

The Secret Baby (wow bet the editors stayed up nights trying to think up that title!) was a rather predictable story with a paint-by-the-numbers plot. This could have been pulled from an old daytime soap opera. Damien Hawke and Sable Jameson (oh those names!) were lovers who worked together, or rather, she worked under Damien...in various positions. They were in love until Sable seemingly betrayed Damien by selling company secrets. Sable denied it, yet Damien wanted nothing more to do with her.

Shortly afterward, Sable found out she was pregnant, but couldn't turn to Damien who had tossed her callously out on her butt. Who did she turn to? Why the decrepitly aged head of the rival company Sable had supposedly sold (or not sold) those secrets to! Their marriage was one of convenience, so naturally, they never had sex (they never do in these books). She had the baby and hid his true parentage from Damien.

Fast forward five years later, Sable is a widow, she's now running her dead husband's business, and the company is in major financial trouble. Enter Damien. He's never gotten over Sable and sees this as the perfect opportunity for revenge. His corporation is making a hostile takeover of Sable's business. This is one of those boardroom drama romances where multi-billion-dollar corporations are controlled by the 30-year-old widows of the former CEOs and the board of executives is filled with jealous, back-stabbing family members.

This was seemed a rather by rote romance like it was phoned in. I've seen this hundred of times before: former lovers separated by a lie; secret baby; hero out for revenge; the heroine is unwilling to tell the hero the truth until it's too late; then he finds out and now really hates the heroine, but still lusts after her more than ever; and finally a secret revelation that comes out and heals all wounds.

I think if I had read this years earlier I would have enjoyed it, but this was too much a case of same-old, same-old, with no new spin on things.

A baby in the boardroom?
Damien Hawke and Sable Jameson had had the perfect partnership - in business and pleasure. Or so it had seemed. Five years ago Sable had been accused of selling company secrets, and she had lost her job and her man!

Now Damien was back and he wanted revenge.... He was planning to ruthlessly buy out her business - and take Sable over in the bedroom as well as the boardroom!

But though Sable had never sold secrets, she was keeping one - a four-and-a-half-year-old secret that she couldn't share with anyone - especially not his father!

"Falsa Traicion"

3.5 stars

The H is an interesting mix of cruelty and tenderness. He is smitten, but he also wants revenge. If you hate a cruel H, this book is not for you.

He wants revenge, because he thinks she betrayed him 5 years before which almost financially ruined him. She also married the man who almost ruined him. She has a 4-year old son by the H, but he doesn’t know that.

His desire, his hunger for her is overwhelming. It stays with kissing for the most part of the book, but he is a burning fire. He doesn’t hide his feelings for her, he tells her what she does to him, and I love a smitten, open H.

I have read this HP again and again. It’s one of my favourite HP’s ever.