The Santangeli Marriage by Sara Craven

First Published: 7 November 2008
Publisher: Harlequin
Pages: 192
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Finished Date: 24 January 2012

Blurb from Goodreads

Orphan Marisa was raised by the wealthy Santangeli family. Their only demand was that she marry their son….

Italian billionaire and renowned playboy Lorenzo Santangeli is expecting to receive his money's worth from his innocent wife on their wedding night. But Marisa flees—how can she share a bed with the man who married her solely to produce an heir?

Lorenzo vows to bring his virgin bride home—you do not say no to a Santangeli! Once she's back she'll be his completely, and he is determined to enjoy every minute of it….

My Rating

My Review

I couldn’t like this book. Believe me, I tried. But somehow, I just didn’t enjoy reading the book. I was just trying to get it over and done with, instead of taking time to savor the book itself.

The thing is, I did like the characters. They were realistic and likable. But there wasn’t much character development. At the end of the book, the characters hadn’t changed at all. They were still as before, and honestly, shouldn’t love change a little of that?

Overall, I found the plot rather boring. There wasn’t that type of angst over him not loving her or that sexual tension or that spark of passion between them. Even when they finally made love, it was rather boring. I mean it just happened. There just wasn’t anything really interesting about it. I mean, most of the plot was spent remembering past events. Why not just start the book right from the top and let everything flow? That way, I feel that I’ll be able to relate more to the pain they must have been feeling.

The cheating theme in this book didn’t really bother me. I know it should, but I think its because it wasn’t that important in the book. It should have been, cheating is something real serious. But it didn’t have an impact on me. How should I put it? He kinda cheated before the book even began so it just didn’t affect me.

Throughout the book, the characters were rather likable, if a bit predictable. I mean, you knew what they were going to do or say before

Now, there’s one person that really sparked emotion in me. Renzo’s maternal grandmother. Gosh, she’s a bi***! Seriously. That was about the only bit of feeling this book sparked in me, apart from the ending of course.

But the ending was pretty good, if a little abrupt. I loved the words the hero said. That was really sweet and about the only thing that saved this book from utter disdain by me. However, it did end a little too quickly. Yes, they solved their problems, and then suddenly the end. I mean, I would have liked to see a miracle happen with regards to Marisa’s condition. Now that may have been unrealistic, but would have been so sweet. Then again, it was fine I guess, not having it. I like to think that there was a miracle in the end.

I have to say something about the love the characters apparently shared. Renzo’s love was pretty obvious, and I could tell he truly loved her. Especially when we saw things from his POV, which was something I appreciated. But as for Marisa, I just don’t feel her love for him. It really seems just like an infatuation. She doesn’t seem very mature in her thinking and I simply could not reconcile the fact that she loved him. It just didn’t show in her actions. Now, I didn’t really like her that much, alright, I was rather ambivalent to her. But if only I could have felt her love for him. I think that would have made me more inclined to her.

And as for Renzo, I think he was a rather weak character. I felt he wasn’t forceful enough, not the way he was portrayed to be. His actions and what we were told of him were rather different. And well, I’m a little biased because I like my heroes to be more forceful and more confident. Which I felt that he wasn’t. I just felt like he was running away from things every time something went wrong. Its like in the honeymoon, he decided to end it after he heard her cry. Then when they finally had a second chance, because of something she said, he just left. I just felt that if he was really so sincere about trying again, he shouldn’t have just left, but tried to work it through. The honeymoon part I can understand.

All in all, I really didn’t enjoy the book. Quite a pity though, I’ve heard rather good things about Sara Craven.

This was supposed to be a short review. I was supposed to end it at 300 words and now its 708 words.