The French Tycoon's Pregnant Mistress

Alana Cusack is an Irish reporter for a sports channel who is very good at her job. She is also haunted by an awful marriage to a cheating sports star who saw her as nothing but arm candy. She has left that glamorous world behind after her husband's death. That is until billionaire bank magnate Pascal Leveque sees her reporting on a match and finds he can't quite get her off his mind. Intrigued by the fact that Alana's prim demeanor doesn't quite match up with her trophy wife back story, Pascal begins an ardent persuit of her with the intent of learning all her secrets. She is initially reluctant but he is relentless and she soon finds all her walls coming down. Great book! These things are a guilty pleasure for me but I find that lately there has been very little pleasure with the usual HP books that come out. This one was totally different. The characters were appealing. The hero was one of those ruthless tycoon types, but he was also a charmer and the author seems to know what a true hero is made of. The heroine is also familar to HP fans, innocent and proper, yet she has a depth to her personality that made it great to read about. A deserving woman who deserved her happy ending. The story itself was involving and there were many moments that made me sigh and only a couple of annoying ones in between. It wasn't perfect though. I could have used less descriptions of the way the leads bodies were reacting to each other and a couple of silly cliches stuck out but this was overall a deserving and romantic book that I'd recommed to anyone looking for a different, and very good, Harlequin Presents book.

Like most pop-culture, I think romances can be separated into quality categories this way: 70% are crap, 20% are good, 9.x% are very good, and .x% are sublimely, unspeakably genius. The percentages are approximations, of course, and like I said, my theory is most pop-culture falls into these ranges: romances, mysteries, movies, magazine articles, various genres of music, video games, t.v. shows, etc. I've never put a series romance in the genius category (I have put some long-form romances there), but this one, I think, straddles the good/very good line, often falling all the way over into very good. I really enjoyed this story. Abby Green writes great chemistry, and she wrote the characters in such a way that their behavior made sense (or as much sense as two people poleaxed by such immediate chemistry and strong emotion can make.) Both are increasingly uncomfortable and confused by their strengthening attachment, but this is one of those rare series romances where the heroine is actually more emotionally reticent than the hero. And their backstories are written in such a way that it makes sense. I didn't spend much time thinking, "you idiots!" (Just a couple of times. :-) ) HARLEQUIN PRESENTS are a fast read, but I swear I felt like I had taken a long journey with the two leads when I was finished. A long, emotional, satisfying-at-the-end journey. THE FRENCH TYCOON'S PREGNANT MISTRESS is the first Abby Green book I've read, but it won't be the last.