The Italian's Defiant Mistress by India Grey

Title: The Italian's Defiant Mistress

Author: India Grey

Line: M&B Modern/Harlequin Presents

Release Date: North America October 2007 UK / Australia July 2007

The S-Factor: Simmering

Back-Blurb:

The Italian billionaire's inexperienced mistress Eve Middlemiss has come to Florence desperate for information. And only darkly good-looking multimillionaire Raphael di Lazaro, heir to the Lazaro Fashion House, holds the answers she's searching for. Surrounded by glamour and decadence, Eve is totally out of her depth - until she realizes she is the one Raphael wants!
If becoming the Italian's mistress is what it takes to find out the truth about her family, Eve realizes she must feign the sophistication and experience she's sure Raphael is accustomed to - but that means making herself available to his every desire...

Review:

The Italian’s Defiant Mistress is India Grey’s debut book and it is smashing! Set in Florence and Venice it is full of fashion, glitz, glamour, celebrities and it is very exciting and alluring. Eve Middlemiss was on an assignment for a fashion magazine but more than that, she is on a mission to find out and expose the person who provided her twin sister with drugs and caused her death. Her assignment is to follow a supermodel and in doing so ends up on the runway herself. As she’s nervous and inexperienced she’s told to focus on something while she traverses the runway and she sees a tall, dark and handsome man who she’s immediately drawn to who ends up being Raphael.

Raphael di Lazaro and his half brother Luca are heirs to the di Lazaro fashion house. Raphael’s mission is to expose his brother Luca for what he is…..a “user” and supplier of drugs to models. Raphael has an axe to grind with Luca as his one time girlfriend left him, went to Luca, ended up an addict, and almost died. He is determined not to let his brother ruin or end another model’s life.

Eve is determined as well that she will expose a di Lazaro and make him pay for ending her sister’s life. She believes the responsible person is Raphael because she learns he has been spending some time in Columbia. Later that evening Eve meets up with both men at a party. When Raphael sees Eve with his brother, he feels honour bound to protect her so he grabs and kisses her senseless and boy do the sparks fly. Later he tries to send her home but the spirited and determined Eve refuses.

Eve and Raphael’s journey is passionate, painful and in the end full of sorrow. When Eve discovers she is in love with him and by chance sees Raphael meeting with his ex-girlfriend she misunderstands and flees. The pain she endures upon returning home and then having to reappear in Italy to testify against Luca di Lazaro will break your heart.

This story was an amazing look into the lives of celebrities and fashion models and reminds me so much of what’s now going on in the lives of young actors and in the music industry all over the world. It is certainly a lesson as to how destructive drugs can be in a person life. Then there is the important lesson of how things are not always as they look and how misunderstood and untrusting we can be of those, we love.

I sincerely and thoroughly enjoyed India Grey’s first romance book The Italian’s Defiant Mistress and I personally look forward to reading many more of her entertaining stories.

Reviewed By: Marilyn

Hero Hotness Factor ♥♥♥♥♥
Heroine Lovability Factor ♥♥♥♥♥
Awww Factor ♥♥♥♥♥
Stickability Factor ♥♥♥♥♥
Humour Factor ♥
Weepy Factor ♥♥♥

From India’s website: “The Story Behind the Story”: I guess I also wanted to show that as women it is our flaws which make us attractive and interesting. That's certainly what hits Raphael as he first sets eyes on Eve. To find out more visit her Website.

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