Secrets of Bella Terra: A Scarlet Deception Novel [Mass Market Paperback]

REVIEWER'S OPINION:
I was interested enough to keep reading to see what would happen, but when I was done, I realized it was incomplete. It was not full writing. Too many things were glossed over, not finished, or not shown. There were three bad guys but we are never shown any conversations among them. We are not shown enough of their interactions with each other, their motivations, and the things they did. The only things we are shown are at the very end when two of them get caught/discovered. I never learned why or how they killed two people.

Regarding the good guys, 80-year-old Sarah was attacked. She had a strong suspicion of who was behind it. But she let several days go by before telling her son Rafe who was investigating the attack. It would have taken her one minute to say "There has been a family feud since whenever. X is behind it because he wants a special bottle of wine that my family has." But no, she says to herself I'll tell him tomorrow, and then waits for several tomorrows.

Another problem was heroine stupidity. Two people have been killed. Heroine suspects it is X. She goes after X alone with only a bottle of champagne as her weapon. Of course something bad happens to her.

There is almost no relationship development. That's an assumption that happened in prior years. Now she is stressed about something so he has sex with her to help her feel better. Gee how romantic. This book is mostly about the mystery.

The good: I found several of the characters very interesting: the De Luca brothers and their parents, Brooke and her mother, Jenna the spa manager who was hot for Rafe, Darren the hacker, Ebrillwen the head housekeeper, and a couple other employees. There was a lot of potential for interesting interaction.

STORY BRIEF:
Rafe and Brooke were best friends in high school. Later there was some sex, but Rafe left town for the military. When he returned they reconnected, but apparently Brooke's mother guilted him into leaving Brooke again. Now several years later Rafe returns. He is drawn to Brooke, but she is reluctant to let anything happen. She doesn't want to be hurt again. Brooke works as concierge for a resort owned by the Di Luca family. She is close to Sarah.

The book begins with Sarah (Rafe's grandmother) being attacked in her home. Rafe takes a leave from the military to arrange for her safety, solve the mystery, and find the bad guy. He doesn't trust the small-town cop's competence.

The feud concerns two families who came to California from Italy to grow grapes and make wine (The Di Lucas and the Bianchins). In 1930 another winemaker gave a special bottle of wine to Sarah's father (or grandfather). The current head of the Bianchin family is obsessed with getting that bottle for himself. It was hidden years ago, and Sarah doesn't know where it is.

DATA:
Story length: 421 pages. Swearing language: moderate. Sexual language: strong. Number of sex scenes: 4. Estimated number of sex scene pages: 10. Setting: current day Bella Valley, California. Copyright: 2011. Genre: contemporary romantic mystery suspense.

Secrets of Bella Terra
Reviewed by Francesca & posted at Under The Covers Book Blog
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Where to start with the things about this book that hit a great spot with me? Well, for one this series revolves around a family in a small town. However this is no ordinary family, their mother is a Hollywood star, they own a succesful vineyard, they're some of the most looking people in town, they own a resort, yeah, way above average right there. But they are all so nice and with a wonderful feeling of family unit.

They're of Italian descent, and from the north of Italy more specifically. Me being northern italian and seeing a lot of people always show us with the wrong stereotypes, I was very happy to see that the ways this family was portrayed, the things they say, the way the act, and even the food they eat, was very accurate! And I enjoyed the food descriptions in the book, they were making me hungry!! Polenta, prosciutto wrapped canteloupe, and all with a nice glass of wine! *sigh*

Now the story is a bit of romantic suspense actually. Someone is after the Di Luca's, starting with the grandmother being attacked, a dead body shows up, among other things. Rafe Di Luca has been away for a long time, after being in the military now he has his own private security type firm. He comes back to investigate what's going on in his town and with his family.

To do this he enlists the help of his old high school flame and the girl he hasn't been able to forget. Brooke is now working at his family's resort and they're relationship had ended because she couldn't deal with his profession.

The sparks are still there between them, and between fighting them and giving in they will also have to catch whoever is after Rafe's family. Overall, I enjoyed the story, the intrigue, and the family most of all, so I am looking forward to reading the next book about the sexy Di Luca brothers.

This is not romantic suspense. This is a suspense book, with some romance sprinkled in almost as an afterthought. I bought this book based on the 7 previous glowing reviews, and because several of Christina Dodd's older books (across all her genres) are definitely on my "keeper" shelf. A long-time fan, I've noticed that her books are getting less and less wonderful--her "Darkness Chosen" series had some hits and misses, and I found the first couple of books in her "Chosen Ones" series so disappointing that I took Ms. Dodd off my "buy as soon as it's published" list.

I won't give another synopsis of the book, since you can get it from other reviewers and from Ms. Dodd's website. What I WILL say is that, as a romance reader of over 20 years, I've noticed the worrying trend of stories, classified as romances, being focused on things other than the interactions between the hero and heroine. The preferred "romance" plot devices now seem to be breaking a spy ring, catching a killer, stopping a plot against the government, or any combination thereof.

In this book, for instance, it seemed like the primary story was the Di Luca family dynamics, the mystery of a missing wine bottle and the suspense of killers/saboteurs on the loose. The romance between Rafe and Brooke was definitely a secondary plot--I'd be surprised if Brooke and Rafe's relationship covered more than 50 of the 448 pages. That would be okay if I bought this book in the Mystery section of the bookstore, but if I go shopping in the Romance section then romance is what I want to read...for at least 350 of the pages. I also thought it was a bit of a cop-out to just say these two loved each other from before, so that the author didn't have to spend much time writing about these two characters re-discovering each other--come on, that's the best part (along with lusty scenes)!!!. I rarely say this but I really struggled to finish this book, because in the end I was not invested in whether Brooke and Rafe actually ended up together--seems like it wouldn't have made a difference either way, as long as the everyone kept trying to solve the mystery...

That's my two cents. If you don't mind buying romance novels that don't actually have a lot of romance content, you'll probably like this book. If you do buy romance novels for the love stories, be forewarned.