The Petrakos Bride [Mass Market Paperback]

I had mixed feelings about this romance. At times, it was tightly woven and the characters were behaving much as couples do when they are in the beginning stages of romance. Other times though, the heroine acted totally out of character.

Maddie is a temp working in the Petrakos empire subsidiary in London. She has little money but big morals. She was raised by her grandmother and lost her sister to cancer when she was only fourteen. She has stayed a virgin at 23 because she believes sex is special and should be within bonds of more than sexual gratification.

Her infatuation with hero Giannis Petrakos is understandable. He showed a kindness to her sister by granting her a wish to meet a boy rock star before her death. Giannis does not remember this but it has affected Maddie tremendously. He became her hero.

Maddie meets Giannis in the boardroom. As she is serving refreshments, she clumsily trips and breaks a computer hardrive. Giannis is sexually attracted to her. Maddie tried to apologize the next day for her actions in his private office and finds herself in bed with him. This seemed way out of character for the wistful and idealistic heroine but not out of character for Giannis. He has two mistresses and a fiancé. His womanizing was certainly a factor in my dislike of him.

Giannis pursues Maddie but never tells her he has a beautiful fiancé back in Greece. His arrogance is off putting and even Maddie was astounded by it. Giannis just cannot understand why any woman would not want to lay her scruples aside to be his mistress. He must think he is the world's greatest lover.

What saves this book is Maddie. She is resilient and noble. She absolutely will not change her stance on adultery. She is sick at heart to realize that she was the other woman. She really deserved someone a lot more sensitive than Giannis.

From Back Cover:
The Greek tycoon's unsuitable wife...
Maddie idolized Giannis Petrakos, who had lavished money on the charity that had cared for Maddie's twin sister-and was sinfully gorgeous. Now Maddie has a lowly job at Petrakos industries.

Soon Giannis demanded she be his mistress, for as long as he wanted her. Because when Giannis finally married he wanted a wife more suited to his wealth and class...

Comments:
Maddie had a crush on Giannis because of the way he treated her dieing sister almost 10 years previous,couldn't resist him and became pregnant after their first time together. Maddie finds out that Giannis is engaged and plans on going forward with the marriage, but wants to keep her as his mistress. She is disgusted by his intentions and lets him know it. Giannis can't understand why she isn't happy about his proposition because every other woman would be.

Maddie is a great heroine because she is strong and isn't intimidated by Giannis' wealth and position compared to her who is basically penniless.

I Enjoyed reading this book, but kept feeling that Giannis was bit of a jerk for being engaged, but continuing to have affairs and because of his intention to have Maddie as his mistress even after his marriage to someone he didn't love and didn't love him, but was deemed "suitable". My opinion of Giannis did warm a bit as I read more of the book.
I enjoyed the pre-nup situation, which was another show of Maddie's strength; I won't go into detail so not to ruin it for others.

This was a quick paced emotional scorcher. Even though I agree with the other reviewer that Giannis was a bit of an insensitive jerk, the heroine Maddie was not afraid to tell him so. What I liked about Giannis, was that he was so focused on Maddie throughout the whole book and we saw his emotional evolution. I've been looking for books/authors that remind me of Lucy Monroe's works and this one fits the bill for me.