I loved this book. It completely blew my expectations for what a HP novel could be right out of the water.

There was a real quality to the characterization that was very refreshing. We spent equal amounts of time with both Alessandro and Katie, understanding not only their thoughts and actions but their feelings as well. So many HPs have cold, arrogant heroes and idiot heroines, whose only purpose in the book is to start having sex for some inexplicable reason and end up married (also usually for some inexplicable reason).

This novel couldn't be more different. The heroine, Katie, had a real reason to pursue this proposed marriage of convenience. A fostered child who had suffered emotional abuse at the hands of her father, she had a very strong sense of learned helplessness, a coping mechanism adapted so that she wouldn't lose the only family she's ever known. He finally pushes her to the breaking point, however, when he threatens to basically sell her to one of his creepy old cronies to land a cash injection into the businesses he's run into the ground. Katie won't have that, but there's only one person she can think of who could possibly help her: Alessandro, a "step-cousin" of sorts, whom she knew once upon a time when his father married her foster father's sister and they spent their summers on the estate.

Alessandro is your typical billionaire hero who works hard and parties hard, but for all his business acumen and cutthroat arrogance in the board room, he is a genuinely nice guy. Once he realizes why Katie is reacting to him the way she is (a mixture of no romantic experience whatsoever and the learned capitulation in order to avoid abandonment), he takes a step back and actually considers her feelings. He doesn't want to hurt her. He doesn't think less of her because she's so unworldly; he understands the precarious circumstances that have made her who she is today.

Katie had a puppy-love crush on Alessandro when they were teens, and she's confronted with that same torch when she approaches him with her proposal. However, she is acutely aware that in some ways, she's simply running from one all-powerful man to another, and she longs to break free and find her own spirit. She doesn't blindly accept her circumstances at any point in the story.

These two challenge each other. Alessandro teases her constantly with innuendo, but he also tells her that she has to vocalize what she wants, and coaxes her into understanding that she does deserve to be happy. Katie challenges him to face the fact that he's just as terrified of rejection as she is, having lost his parents the way he did. He realizes that while he has control of his life, it's not much of a life worth celebrating.

It was really wonderful to see these two push and pull with one another, to fall in love without realizing it, to slide into a sort of comfortable reality that has made them both better people. They spent a lot of time touching and kissing and exploring the emotional connection that's blossomed between them. This makes the sex scenes 1000% better, IMO, and the ones in this book were really, really good.

This book is a combination of my favorite tropes and excellent characterization. It is completely focused on the growth of the main characters, which is both rare and refreshing. This author has jumped onto my auto-read list, and I look forward to reading more of her work! ( )