2.5 starsThis may contain major plot spoilersI'm sorry to say that I didn't like this book so much compared to other Lynne Graham books I've read in the past. I know some people here really liked and enjoyed this book partly because of the strong heroine of Rosie, who's sometimes a typical in this Harlequin Presents line, and I see that people enjoyed that aspect of the book. I did like that Rosie was a strong character as well and she wasn't a doormat, ready, willing and able to stand up to Alex and not give into his demands becoming essentially a doormat in the process, and I respect and respected her for that with that being said I just didn't really connect with her or feel for her like other heroines in the Presents line. Now that maybe the case that she was this strong heroine had something to do with that because I knew she could stand her ground and give him gruff when he got out of line and she could just take care of herself and knew she would be okay while other heroines my heart would break for because they were so vulnerable and so hurt and so not deserving of the treatment that they got served by their men so I would feel for them more. Not that Rosie wasn't vulnerable or deserved what she got from Alex either, that's not what I am saying. And I'm saying that I don't enjoy heroines with backbones because I do and I'm all for the girl power, but there was just something about Rosie that didn't strike me or get to me as much as I would have liked to be more invested in her story and her love life.Really the whole story for me was just a little off for me, and I didn't quite connect with it like I should have. Just throughout I was reading and something was off and made me kind of bored while reading it and I found myself skimming it at times, which I only do when I find myself not quite connecting to the material or being invested in the story. There was no wow factor or excitement in my view, I just felt like I was trudging along, which is a shame because I usually enjoy Lynne Graham books even if they are stereotypical stories that doesn't matter I still usually enjoy them and I like them even in that formulatic storyline that had been used time and time again. But it was a formula that works for me, and I don't have complaints about especially because I know what I am getting before I get into it and I take it for it is a passionate love story that is pure fiction and would never happen in real life ever. That's what makes fun. This book wasn't so fun for me, which lessened my enjoyment of it. And it wasn't one thing either it was everything combined that just didn't do for me. Now that might have to do with the book or maybe I just wasn't in the mood to read a Presents today or something, but I like I said I really didn't feel any connection or excitement to the book.Like I said above I wasn't really digging Rosie, but I also wasn't digging Alex either. He wasn't swoon worthy in my opinion. He didn't do it for me. I thought at times he was selfish and not understanding at all where she was coming from and wasn't even trying to understand because he wanted what he wanted and that was it. He slept with her without protection, which isn't a typical for Presents, even though he was dead set against becoming a father from the very beginning, but decided because his jacket that had a condom in it was over on the across the room and he didn't feel like getting it because he was just focusing on his physical needs. Granted he did ask her if she was protected, but still if he was gun ho about not being a father then he should have gone and grabbed the condom anyway just to have double protection or (I know that wouldn't have guaranteed her not getting pregnant but still) he could have gotten himself fixed so this problem never would occur, but that doesn't happen in these book ever where the man strictly doesn't want to be a father, I know and plus if he did that then the conflict between Rosie and Alex wouldn't have occurred. I get it, it's not my first time in this genre so I know this happens a lot in Presents, I'm just point out a fact. And if that wasn't bad enough with him not using a condom in the first place, but he basically used her to fulfill his base urges and not really caring about the consequences. He hardly thought about her, or questioned whether he was her first and just focused on himself. Again that wasn't the worst part, after she went to sleep he immediately left, needing to get out of there as soon as possible because he couldn't handle the intimacy or the emotionally consequences of sleeping together while knowing he was her first and she would need that comfort and reassurance. He didn't care. He just thought about himself and his needs and just left her behind. And on top of all that he didn't call her or see if she was okay. Okay he left some flowers behind giving her hope that he would call or be contact, but really it was brush off like he probably used on so many woman in the past. Treating Rosie like a one night stand, which she was.Now I am not big on one night stand books as it is, but I have read them and even though they bother me a tad and make me think it is a little unrealistic that a one night stand would come to happily ever after, though it is fiction after all, I deal with it and get it and kind of can look past it for the bigger scope of the love story and romance and suddenly the one night stand aspect doesn't bother me so much partly because I can feel the love and passion and true genuine feelings the characters have for one another come off the page where I believe that they have fallen in love after all. So I'm no stranger to these type of stories and enjoy them in the end. Many Presents have these themes of a one night stand with accidentally baby resulting in their one night of passion so I am used to that and wind up getting into them and rooting for both of them in the end as they deal with their complication as well as the turbulent emotions that are all over the place, which they are trying to figure out throughout the book until they discover they have in fact fall in love. So I understand it. I get it. I come to like it and enjoy it and root for them. So even though it does bother me with the whole one night stand premise with me preferring more of a build up throughout until they give into their passions with anticipation running throughout which amps up the hype and tension between the two, I can get over it and am not turned off by it where it diminishes my pleasure of the story. I just prefer build up. That's all.But I have to tell you this particular story with the one night stand theme bothered me. I mean really bothered me. Some of the reasons from above with me talking about Alex's character and just his whole selfishness during the entire event, but just the feeling of it just didn't feel right. It felt rushed and hurried and almost contrived where I didn't know if I totally believed in this uncontrollable passion between the two. I just didn't get it. On her part sure because this was the first time she was feeling those things and she just rushed headlong into it not being able to stop it. But from him and his history not so much, which I guess was the point that he had this uncontrollable desire for her because she was always special to him, but I didn't feel it. I was more told it then anything else. And people reading this review think I'm crazy especially since their love scene didn't happen until sixty pages in and the build up of the attraction was there and told to us from the first met her and I get where people are coming from on that score, but just for me it didn't work and I didn't feel it. Again it might have to do with the fact that I just found him totally selfish during that scene and being an utter bulldozer during that time. I thought the scene could have been a little longer or more drawn out or just something that sparked my interest more. I was disappointed in the scene, and just felt it was too rushed on so many levels. Which I get most one night stands are rushed because it's just headlong passion where a couple are only looking to satisfy their bodies and nothing else and that kind of reflected here as well, but like I said I didn't like. Didn't like that he just left her there with no real explanation whatsoever and just jerk about it. Again this has happened in other books I have read so it's nothing new that I have encountered, it's just this particular story it bothered me, and the only reason I can come up with is because I just wasn't feeling it or liking him so much. That's my only explanation for it.Like I said the whole book was off for even though the premise was promising. The story began with Rosie's grandfather, a grandfather that she never met or knew existed because she believed her father's side of the family was no more, was Alex's godfather, who asked Alex to go check out Rosie to see if she was an honest and a good hearted person that wouldn't just be after his money. Her grandfather trusted Alex's judgment so he wanted to send him and no one else. Alex at first refused, but gave in especially since he was so good to Alex in the past like a father really while his parents treated him like he was nothing at all and basically ignored Alex his whole life. So Alex hired the cleaning company that Rosie worked for to clean one of his offices so he could get a good look at her. The catch was that he posed as an employee instead of the big boss, who was the one who hired them with the intents purposes to check Rosie out while she was working. And so he never told Rosie who he was. When he first saw her file he thought she was plain and unattractive, but as soon as he met her then he was instantly desired and intrigued by her, wanting her for himself even though he knew he shouldn't. While Rosie was also intrigued and attracted to him from the get go and wondered why he was talking and interaction with her when she was this plain Jane. And she did question that. Push come to shove they give into their attraction (see above), and she got pregnant. She went to tell him just to let him know about the baby, and that was when she found out who he was and what he was doing there and she felt so betrayed by him and the lies he told her and the ulterior motive he had for getting to know her and she felt used. Then he offered marriage, which she didn't agree to and they go back and forth with them both being stubborn along the way. So that was the basic plot.Maybe that was another reason that I didn't like this book either was that it was too much back and forth where it got to be a little too much and just kind of slogging the plot along. I got where there were both coming from and there reasoning behind acting that way but after awhile it just got be enough already. Usually I like that back and forth with the book filled with tension both sexual and other tension as neither one are ready give into the other one until the very end, and that's usually what makes these books good and creating this exciting passion filled love story, which is the reason I usually read these books. Again it's fun, and filled with lots of anticipation on the way and wondering when they'll give into their passions. With those scenes exploding on the page with not only from the hot heat from their love making but also from the emotions that are in that scene as well because there has been this tension along the way that finally gives way. But in this book, again I was disappointed and just didn't feel the angst so much with the back and forth instead I just was annoyed by it because like I said above it was too much, and too much stubbornness there where they were basically butting heads the whole time, which usually in romance novels is a good thing, but in this one not so much. And he got on my nerves too because again he only saw from his selfish point of view and what he wanted and never really thought about her. It just wasn't an exciting ride for me. There could have been so much more there than there was because this story had lots of potential to it, but it fell flat for me. I thought there would be more with her questioning him on whether he wanted her for her or did he just sleep with her as a convenience or even to butter her up so she would go see her grandfather to make him happy or just something like that. (That was one part Alex wasn't selfish in was that he was in fact thinking of her grandfather, which was why he agreed with his plan to check her out as well as the fact that Alex would bring Rosie over to see her grandfather in Greece). But that didn't really happen, which could have created great angst between them where he had to prove her wrong, and in way does, but he never really showed her that she was more than a convenient body to him and just basically using her because she was there. I also thought there would be more tension between Rosie and her grandfather especially after what he did, and though there was kind of resistance from Rosie in the beginning it was quickly forgotten as well as the fact that Alex lied to her. He never made up for that either in my view at least. He could have done a lot more. Yeah, he bought her clothes so she could fit in with her upper class family showing that he was thinking about her comfort, but he never really did anything to show that he had deeper emotions for her. And again he treated her basically as an convenience to use her body when he pleased not that she wasn't willing, but still. Again not feeling the emotions between them. It was said, but I didn't feel. And there was no way that I thought he was in love with her at the end. Was he beginning to care for her? Yes. Did he loved her? No. And he really didn't say it until the epilogue either. It just seemed to happen out of the blue for him and in part I thought at one point that he only might have said in the first place to keep her by his and she wouldn't leave. Did I think he was genuine? Not really. Or I should say it wasn't believable. Not that it always in believable in Presents, which I have stated in a few of my reviews of them in the past, but sometimes it is, and this wasn't one of them. Again this is fiction and it's not meant to be realistic because half the times this wouldn't happen, but I still want to believe it and feel it and feel satisfied with the ending to the story where I am overjoyed that the characters got together. But in this one, those emotions didn't come from because just adding to the offness of the story for me and making it not that enjoyable for me. Again it was little boring to be honest, and it didn't help that I didn't connect to the story or the characters, which I think would have made a huge difference to me. I just wanted so much more than I didn't get. I wanted to feel more. I wanted to feel the excitement and the passion and just the whole range of emotions that usually surrounding these books and why I continue to read them in the first place. But it just felt flat and kind blah for me again with some of the reason I stated why. Again it could have been my mood while I was reading it, but it just wasn't my cup of tea.It just didn't work for me even though it worked for others, which is okay because it depends on the reader whether they enjoy it or not based on many different factors. I know in Presents some people love certain books that I don't really care for or I love books people hate in this line feeling that it's too cliché and unrealistic especially with the wallflower heroine who doesn't stand up for herself and takes whatever the hero throws at her, which gets to me sometimes as well, but then other times I really like it depend on the characters that are being presented in that story and the whole development of their relationship with passion thrown in throughout. And you have to understand that going into a Presents novel what it is because it's not reality and it can be a little eye roll worthy especially in today's modern world, and if you understand that and take it for what it is then you enjoy it more. I know I do. I know people hate the virgin heroine thing nowadays, but it doesn't bother me because I like seeing the heroine experience lovemaking for the first time and just emotions she goes through while she's with the man that she held out for all those, which turns out to be the love her life. I can't complain there even if it's out of realistic modern society of today, but enjoy that element and just the fantasy it brings to these books. I hope the virgin heroine doesn't go out of style even if modern society isn't really that way. It's what makes it fun and enjoyable and just knowing that her first time is magical and with the man she's going to spend the rest of her life with and love with him loving her as well. I don't know why I went off on that tangent, but I guess my point is that some people don't like that theme and prefer that the heroine has more experience or whatnot so that virgin heroine theme might not be their cup of tea and is the reason some people don't like certain Presents stories, but again it has to do with knowing what you're getting into when you pick up the book beforehand because you're expecting one thing and getting another then you'll always be disappointed, which is why romance novels sometimes get a bad name or are looked down upon in the mainstream world. It doesn't stop from liking them though. I guess my point being is a reader just have feel it when you read them, and if you don't get that feeling then you're not gonna like them. And this one in particular I didn't feel for various reasons. I didn't enjoy the journey that I was taken on, and I wish I did. I was looking forward to reading this one especially when I read the back, but found myself disappointed. I wish I got the feeling that I usually get when I read a Lynne Graham book, but I didn't. It won't stop me from reading other books by her, but I just hope I like them more and just feel it more between the love story and the characters. I guess I can't all of her books, but I enjoy most of her books and look forward to reading more in the future, as well as other Presents that hopefully give me more of the feels. Oh it's so lovely to read a story like this where the heroine isn't a total pushover and actually thinks about what's right for her rather than what's convenient for the hero. Granted the end of the book was a little too overblown and Hollywood-ish for my liking, but really that's the only part I didn't really like. A good read with characters you can actually get behind and not want to throttle. 4 stars.
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