As you might guess from the title, this book revolves entirely around a Big Misunderstanding. It's one of those stories where the entire plot could have been avoided if the two main characters would have simply taken two seconds to have an honest conversation with each other.I tend to find these kinds of books to be frustrating because most of the time there's literally nothing preventing the happy ending besides the main characters' stupid pride. In essence, my hero and heroine are also the antagonists of the story, and that prevents me from really sympathizing with them.Our story begins with our hero and heroine engaged in a relationship that straddles the line between an affair and a wealthy man-mistress arrangement. Viviana is a rising star in the opera world and Quin is a rich and immature 19-year-old heir to a fortune and title. Quin, accustomed to being able to have whatever he wants, is obsessed with Viviana from the moment he sees her and pursues her for months with the sole purpose of making her his mistress. When she finally gives in, wooed by his enthusiasm and good looks, his obsession only grows. He's desperate to keep her for himself alone and is pathologically jealous of any man who even looks at her. Since she performs on stage every night, men look at her all the time, and Quin repeatedly accuses her of cheating on him. They fight constantly because of this and he makes several comments about how he alone has "the right" to bed her because he pays for the apartment she lives in (that he insisted she get).Although Viviana has fallen in love with Quin (goodness knows why...) his constant accusations and derogatory comments make her feel like a bought and paid for whore rather than his lover. And Quin's immature obsession and possessiveness make it seem like he views her as nothing more than a pretty a toy he owns. So when she turns up pregnant, she is understandably nervous about broaching the subject with him. She doesn't want to stay his mistress because she has her own career and mistresses are cast off when the patron gets bored. With a child to provide for, she'll need a permanent solution. So she asks Quin to marry her.His response is basically to laugh in her face. He callously describes how his future bride will be some flaxen-haired English woman of good breeding selected by his parents, not a foreign opera singer with dark hair and an olive complexion. But he helpfully assures her that his marriage days will be at least a decade off anyway, so there's no reason he can't keep sleeping with her in their current arrangement in the mean time. After a cutting response like that, Viviana's heart is crushed and she doesn't want to tell him about the baby because she doesn't want Quin to marry her just because of that. Just before leaving her, he turns and asks if she loves him. I found it hard to believe that he'd ask her that after just telling her to her face that she wasn't good enough to be his wife. What sort of woman would confess love after an emotional beating like that? But it's Quin who gets his feelings hurt when Viviana lies and says that she does not love him. He, in turn, agrees that he doesn't love her either. (These are the titular "two little lies")Viviana goes back home to Venice and a marriage to a rich Count arranged by her father. I was pretty interested in the story up to this point. I understood Viviana's motivations for doing what she did, and even understood that it was Quin's youth and immaturity that made him behave as he did. When the story picked up 9 years later, I was looking forward to seeing how they'd both matured and pined for each other over the years.Unfortunately, neither of them really matured at all. Quin was still the immature jerk he'd been in his youth and Viviana was still pathologically lying about everything. Quin apparently spent the whole 9 years since they parted working his way through one brothel after another. Keeping multiple mistresses and drinking and carousing wherever he pleased. He'd convinced himself that Viviana had left him because she was a heartless witch who cared about nothing but money, hence why she'd married the much wealthier count. It has never, in all those years, occurred to him to consider that it might have been his own callous treatment of her that sent her away. That he'd had the opportunity to be her husband and he'd not just thrown it away, but tossed it on the ground, stomped it to pieces and purged the area with fire and salt.Meanwhile, Viviana has survived an emotionally and physically abusive marriage but apparently has come out the other side without learning any lessons about life. Her poor treatment at her husband's hands didn't make her look back on her time with Quin more favorably. The extra years haven't given her additional wisdom about how impetuous and foolish people are in their youth. So when she and Quin inevitably bump into each other when she returns to England, she deliberately lies to him on virtually every subject. Even about things that don't matter, like whether or not she'd kept the gift he'd given her the last day they were together.The whole story from that point on was just a series of unnecessary fights. Every time they're together one or the other of them decides to start spitting venom and they hurl lies and hate-filled accusations at each other. There's just no reason for it. If either one of them had just been honest with the other about what happened 9 years ago the whole book could have been avoided. And that was the only thing going on in the story. There was no side-mystery or villain to deal with in between the angst. Once the hero and heroine took their heads out of their butts long enough to admit they liked each other, the book ended.Literally all the conflict in the story was completely self-inflicted so it just didn't feel satisfying to me when they got together in the end. That's like watching a someone run a marathon while dragging a 200 pound rock behind him and expecting me to get excited when he finally drops the unnecessary weight. It was his own stupid fault he was dragging it in the first place!But if you like books based on the Big Misunderstanding then you'll probably like this one.
3.5 StarsThis was the story of Quin Hewitt, Alasdairs friend from "One Little Secret,", and Viviana Alessandri, an opera singer and his first love and first mistress. When they meet again 9 years later, they both have their secrets that have kept them apart, but will they be able to over come this? It took me a while to get into this book, but once I did I really enjoyed it, I didn't quite like it as much as "One Little Sin," as it seemed to lack humour, and I found I didn't really warm much to Quin or Vivies character. This also felt a little rushed at the end aswell, the pace of the book became very quick comared to its fairly slow meandering in the rest of the book, and then before you realized it you were reading the epilogue. However, the writing was excellent, I like how Ms Carlyle had their manner of speaking so correct, how I would imagine people would speak at the time. So although there were some points I found annoying, I mean why do people never talk to one another, and although more serious in tone then I expected I did enjoy this read.I would definately recommend this series to people, although this wasn't perhaps my favourite historical romance, I found it an entertaining and heart warming read, that has good quality writing and a passionate romance.
Do You like book Two Little Lies (2005)?
Not a favorite, if for no other reason than that the characters' names are repeated so many times that it became distracting. "Quin" and "Vivie" also seemed pretty bent on tormenting each other through 90% of the book. I'm not a fan of that much conflict.
—Amy
I cried right through the book. It was just so sad and the writing was brilliant. Viviana and Quin were just the most divine of lovers, unable to speak the truth because of pride and misguided sentiments. Their passion was so absolute, and their feelings so strong. What a combination. I loved this book as can be seen from my 5 stars.I liked Viviana especially because she made the best choice she could, or what she felt was the best choice. She is a realist, she realises that he is too young, that he can't offer her what she and her baby need. She is willing to sacrifice everything for her father. I liked her - her decisions were wrong, and because of pride she does spend 9 unhappy years [that kind of reminded me of Jane Austen's Persuasion] but she did what she believed in. She held on for love and was willing to marry without love, but not without his.A really good read, especially if you like weepy stories with a marvellous resolution.Alice and Herndon are a lovely minor pairing and Esmee is such a wonderful character. I want to read more about her.
—Tasneem
Usually these types of novels have a hero and heroine that want to be together but - oh no - there is some kind of obstacle. A coniving cousin, a manipulative mama or a dreadful string of partly interesting crimes. At the very worst, the couple have deep set inner feelings that prevent them from coming together. This novel had two characters who wanted to be together, argued CONSTANTLY about this fact, but wouldn't just take the jump. There was no tension, no obstacles and no, well, anything. I was bored plain and simple.
—Kelly
