The Italian's Suitable Wife

Last time I listed the nine Harlequin Presents novels I'd read over the past couple of weeks, and said that my first HP was Lucy Monroe's The Italian's Suitable Wife. Quite often after visiting a book store I'll take a look at my buys while still in the parking lot, and that's precisely what happened that day...I read about half the book before realizing it had gotten dark and I needed to get home. After having read nine HP's I can honestly say that The Italian's Suitable Wife is both better and worse than expected. Oddly enough, even though much of the story and the behaviors within the story were over-the-top, I had a wonderful time reading the book, and the moment I finished it, I'd already picked up another.

The Italian's Suitable Wife is part of Harlequin Presents Italian Husbands set of romances. Others that I've now read include In Love with Her Boss, Greek Tycoons, Mistress to a Millionaire, and Surrender to the Sheikh - I kid you not. The cringe-inducing titles of these books are filled with "virgins" and "mistresses." In this day and age, does anyone even use the term "mistress" anymore? And if a man is unmarried but having sex with a woman in 2005, is she really his mistress? Well, no, but that hasn't hindered whomever titles these books, and, surprisingly enough, they are actually part of the fun of reading them.

Italian Husbands are "Tall, dark - and ready to marry!" In Monroe's book, Enrico DiRinaldi wants to have children. The incredibly wealthy, gorgeous, tall, and arrogant Enrico is engaged to a tempestuous model when he bravely saves a woman from being hit by a car, only to be hit himself. When he wakes up in the hospital, unable to walk, by his side is Gianna Lakewood, a long-time American family friend. She was contacted after the accident by Enrico's younger brother, and because she's loved him forever, she's willing to risk losing her university job (we never learn what precisely it is that she does at the college, though, only that she's able to drive to New York City to be with him more quickly than had she decided to fly) to sit vigil at his bedside, and when he regains consciousness, to nurse him back to health.

Enrico's fiancée is beautiful, selfish, spoiled, and petulant - she's all that the "other woman" should be (although, technically speaking, Gianna is the other woman). She can't be bothered to visit her partially paralyzed boyfriend much, but she can be and is madly jealous of Gianna, a fact made worse when she catches the two of them kissing on his hospital bed after a breakthrough in his physical therapy. Model out...Gianna in, asked by Enrico to marry him so that he can have children (possibly through en vitro).

What's next is just one of the joys of reading this book. The paralyzed Enrico suddenly appears in Gianna's hotel room - alone and in his wheelchair - and attempts to convince her to go through with the marriage. He shows the virginal Gianna the delights of foreplay, and after she's had her first orgasm and agrees to the marriage...well, the next time we see him he's back in the hospital. I had to read this part of the book more than a couple of times because he simply appears in  the hotel room, and then he's not. But logic isn't critical to a story like this, and the remainder of the book is set in Italy around Enrico's recovery, several misunderstandings between he and Gianna and fed into by his arrogant demeanor and her lack of self-confidence, and some very melodramatic writing surrounding an attempt at en vitro fertilization. And then a final confrontation with the ex-fiancée (and this is not a spoiler...it's alluded to on the back cover blurb) before the tearfully joyful HEA for our lovers.

I tried to explain to Robin just why I enjoyed this book, even though my grade for it wasn't very good - it was a straight C - and think I was fairly convincing (after talking to her about three or four of the books [melodrama and all, perhaps because of melodrama and all] she said she wanted to try them). But what the book lacks in believability it more than makes up for in the hero's overwhelming abundance. Enrico's body, wallet, personality, and behavior are all larger than life, and it's easy to imagine a woman such as Gianna getting swept away by it all even if I can't relate to her whatsoever. I probably could have, though, when I was in high school, or even my first couple of years in college, and perhaps that's why I'm enjoying these HP's. That's not to say this book is juvenile, that I had such a great time at Taft Senior High School, or that I want to re-live my youth, but to be able to get back into that far more carefree and less cynical state of mind is just plain fun. All of my day-to-day, grown-up concerns - why did my daughter bring home such a crappy report card when she never has before, why can't my kitchen stay clean for longer than five minutes when my daughter is home - simply flew out the window when I read about Enrico and Gianna. And you know, when I was in high school, we had soft water...and therefore a Calgon water man. <G>

TTFN, Laurie Likes Books

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