Author: Katheryn Lane
Publication Year: 2012
This book was received free of charge in exchange for an honest review.
Description from Goodreads.com:
When Mary Delaney is offered an all expenses paid, luxury holiday in South America with her journalist boyfriend, the last thing she expects to happen is to find herself stuck in the middle of nowhere with no boyfriend, no money and no way of getting back to London. When an irresistibly sexy landowner, Don Paulo de Castile, tells her that he has just won her in a game of poker, should she believe him, or try to find out what has happened to her missing boyfriend?
Paulo didn’t realise at the beginning of his poker game that he was playing to win Mary, a woman who bears a striking resemblance to a person he once loved. However, it takes more than a game of cards to win Mary’s heart and Paulo isn’t the only local man interested in her. As well as battling for Mary’s affection, he has to fight off the attentions of the local mafia in a fight that can have only one outcome . . .
I Gave It: 3.5 Stars
Katheryn Lane knows how to whisk a reader away to a foreign land and give her (or him!) adventure, romance and just enough feistiness to keep the attention. Even though her two books that I have read have a similar theme of faraway love affairs, their stories were enjoyably different from each other.
The characters Mary and Paulo were believable and the chemistry between them was palpable. There was tenderness in their interactions, especially once Mary let her guard down a little, and yet enough spice when things got rough to make the reader want to turn the page. A crazy twist 3/4 of the way through was well-timed and definitely a surprise.
There were a few points in the story near the beginning and again in the middle where the plot felt a little stagnant, and the mystery of the picture hanging on the wall was dragged out just a little too long.
I do enjoy Katheryn Lane's books and look forward to escaping with another one when it comes out!
