Secret Heirs of Billionaires
Heat Factor: The have an amazing sex life but it’s not very explicit
Character Chemistry: All the yearning!
Plot: Widowed billionaire Spanish nobleman finds out about secret love child, marries beautiful baby momma
Overall: Somewhat lackluster, but serves its purpose
I have not read a Harlequin romance in years, but something about this one caught my eye, and after a few weeks of ignoring the voice in my head, I requested the ARC.
The interlude that creates the secret baby happens before the story begins, so there’s basically none of that drama. In fact, there’s very little of any kind of drama in this book. I realized I was about 70% through it and was like, “What even happened that this book is almost done?”
The scene opens with Rico, our studly Spanish hero, visiting his brother’s Mediterranean villa, where he soothes his adorable nephew and puts him to bed. He is obviously going to be a great dad. Then his sister-in-law (who had a secret love child with his brother, so I guess it runs in the family?) shows him a photo of a baby and asks if the baby might be his. Yes. The answer is yes. So he jets off to Canada, confronts his one night stand, demands that they marry, and we’re off!
I might need to read more of this trope to have a better understanding of it, but I was surprised at how little their daughter featured. Other than bringing them back together, she’s pretty irrelevant. There were multiple opportunities for other conflicts to arise: issues with his former in-laws, issues with a secret he’s keeping, issues with his company, issues with her social acceptance in his world, issues with the kid. But the only conflict is that Poppy (that’s our heroine, BTW) has abandonment issues from her parents and can’t deal with Rico not loving her, while Rico is emotionally shuttered because his family are a bunch of emotionless robots. You know, as Spaniards are known to be. I once met a particular Spanish guy while backpacking in Indonesia, and he was basically a stereotype. He exuded a magnetic sexiness. That’s what I thought Rico would be, and I was totally bummed that Rico was not that at all. We started off well with crocodile boots and hot cars, but that quickly fell by the wayside. He was basically the same as every emotionally stunted aristocratic English hero for infinity.
Poppy was relatively flat and static, but I guess that makes sense in the context of a marry-me-because-of-our-baby-but-learn-you-can’t-love-without-me sort of trope. A lot of the narrative took place in Poppy’s head as she examined her feelings.
This book has a job to do and that’s the job it does. You’ll probably find no surprises here. And part of me just wants to read Harlequin romances henceforth.
I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. We disclose this in accordance with 16 CFR §255.
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