Review: This will make you want to go to Lipari!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 13, 2013
I'll tell you, people, after reading this wonderful book, I felt like taking a holiday to Lipari Island. Oh my, it sounds just wonderful. Annie Seaton has such a marvellous and vivid way of describing the characters and the location, you feel as if you are right there on the journey with them.In this, the second of the Affair series, we revisit the Richards brothers - this time, it's Tomas. He's the straight-laced finance guy, a planner to the core, a lover of lists. He makes a break from his life by taking over his aunt's marina on his mother's home island of Lipari. At the airport and on the flight, he encounters Brianna Ballantyne, a vibrant sex therapist/writer from Scotland.Brianna has come halfway across the world and back to find out more about her birth mother. Upon arriving in Sydney, she discovered that her now-late mother has left her a villa on Lipari, but she has a limited time to claim her inheritance.It turns out there is a provision in her mother's will that Brianna needs to be married to inherit the villa. Knowing no one and with a very tight timeline, Brianna asks Tom to act as her fiancé. Somehow they end up actually tying the knot, and this kicks off a set of events that neither was expecting........especially falling in love.Sometimes, marriage of convenience stories can seem a little far-fetched or silly, but I didn't get that with this one. Each finds the other attractive (and admits it), but there are no instant declarations of love. The attraction builds after the marriage.Tom and Brianna has such a wonderful chemistry, and you can believe that this could be real. Ms Seaton does a wonderful job of building the tension between them, a tension which at times sparks from the pages of the book. If you want to know what I mean by that, check out the scene after the dinner at Nonno's. Hot!!I love that Tom has respect for what Brianna does for a job, and doesn't come over all giggly when she tells him what her book is about. Take note, fellas, that's sexy in my book.I particularly loved that only hints of the Scottish were dropped with Brianna. Those of you who read my reviews regularly will know that books written in some bizarre faux-Scots dialect get me irritated. So, thank you, Ms Seaton, for allowing your readers to use their imagination here.This was such a lovely story and when the HEA comes, it is tied up romantically without being too sickly sweet. I am very much looking forward to the next instalment in the Affair series, Outback Affair, which is Alex's story.My rating: 4.5 out of 5