'The Seductive One' The Marcelli Sisters of Pleasure Road book #3 by Susan MALLERY

From the BLURB:

Of all the Marcelli sisters, the one who dreams of running the family's winery is Brenna -- and she's about to get her chance. But taking the helm at Marcelli Winery is tougher than she bargained for -- especially when she butts heads with her grandfather, whose Old World ways dictate that a male should inherit the business. In need of some fast capital in order to prove her grandfather wrong, Brenna turns to Nic Giovanni, her family's nemesis....Years ago, she ended her secret relationship with Nic, choosing loyalty to her family over the hot passion they shared. But now he's back in her life, he's loaned her a million dollars, and their feelings for each other are stronger than ever. Brenna must find out for herself: is Nic the love of her life? Or the schemer who could topple the Marcelli dynasty -- and break her heart?

This is the third book in Susan Mallery’s ‘Marcelli Sisters of Pleasure Road’ series. I wasn’t thrilled with the first book, ‘The Sparkling One’ and even less so with ‘The Sassy One’. But while reading those two duds, I kept hanging out for one characters’ story. Brenna.

Brenna is fraternal twin to Francesca and she’s been getting all the hard knocks from book #1. In ‘The Sparkling One’ Brenna is dumped by her husband of 10 years –thrown over for a younger woman to become a cliché at the age of 27.

I was most interested in reading Brenna’s story because Mallery created her love interest back in book #1. Mallery introduced rival wine-maker, Nic Giovanni, and revealed that he and Brenna had been sweethearts and planned to elope when they were teenagers. But Brenna was scared to be cut off from her family and so she took the easy route and married her (now) ex-husband instead of Nic.

Francesca recovered first. “Nic? Nic our neighbour? Nic Giovanni – the great-grandson of the hated Salvatore? The Romeo to our collective Juliet?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Slept?” Katie asked. “As in sex?”
“Uh-huh.”

I really liked this instalment of the ‘Marcelli sisters’ series. This third book totally makes up for the sub-par plots and dull romances in book’s #1 and #2.

For one thing, Nic Giovanni is H-O-T! He rides a motorcycle, wears black and plays up to being Brenna’s forbidden lover. These two have instant chemistry. I didn’t even mind that a good deal of their chemistry comes from their past romance – there are no flashbacks, but both Brenna and Nic recount the love of their youth.

I especially liked Nic because he *really* lives up to his ‘bad boy’ label. While seducing Brenna he’s planning to buy her family’s winery behind her back. I really felt a sense of ‘will they or won’t they?’ with this high-stakes romance. Nic was risking so much by falling for Brenna while contriving to ruin her family legacy. There was a really believable struggle between the characters which meant I was 100% invested in the storyline and romance.

I really liked this book. I didn’t love it, but it definitely made up for Mallery’s first 2 less-than-impressive books in the ‘Marcelli Sisters’ series.

3.5/5

'The Sassy One' The Marcelli Sisters of Pleasure Road book #2 by Susan MALLERY

From the BLURB:

Francesca Marcelli married at eighteen -- right on schedule, according to her warm, colorful family, who have always said a beauty like Francesca need never worry about finding love. But a few years later, finding herself on her own with a wide open future ahead of her, she pursues her educational passions -- with a risky experiment that takes her straight into the arms of playboy CEO Sam Reese. Delighted by Francesca's interest in a no-strings relationship, Sam suddenly finds himself needing her outside the bedroom when a secret from his past lands on his doorstep. But Francesca soon has a secret of her own to tell -- a bombshell that will force the diehard bachelor to show his true colors. Are there "I do's" in Sam and Francesca's future? Only if she can persuade him that home truly is where the heart finds happiness.

This is the second book in Susan Mallery’s ‘Marcelli Sisters of Pleasure Road’ series.

In this second novel Francesca Marcelli is the protagonist. Francesca is fraternal twin to Brenna– both girls were married in a joint wedding when they were 18. Brenna divorced her no-good hubby in book #1, but Francesca’s husband left her widowed at the age of 21 when he died in a car accident.

We only got the bare facts about Francesca in the first novel – and I was under the impression that her widowhood left her so devastated that at the age of 27 she had yet to resume her love life. In ‘The Sassy One’ it’s actually revealed that Francesca was unhappily married to her husband, Todd. Apparently Todd was only interested in Francesca as arm-candy, so when she found herself widowed Francesca decided to reclaim her self-confidence and self-worth and go back to University to get her degree, and PhD.
This is a bit of cop-out. I think this novel could have been a lot more interesting if Mallery had Francesca painted as the grieving widow – reluctant to lose her heart because she still loves her dead husband. It seems so easy, like a romance scapegoat to just say; “oh, she never really loved her first husband”.

My biggest problem with ‘The Sassy One’ is that the plot really overshadows the romance.

Francesca has known Sam Reese all of 48 hours when Sam’s ex-wife dumps him with a 12-year-old daughter he never knew existed so that she can live the high life in Europe with her younger lover. It’s quite a whammy. And a double-whammy that Francesca not only decides to keep seeing Sam, but she freely offers her time and babysitting skills to help him out. Keep in mind that Francesca has only known Sam for 2 dates. True, there was mind-blowing sex – but no way does that explain why she’s so willing to stick around through this bombshell. Especially after she just finished explaining to Sam that she wants no-strings-attached sex.

This bombshell plot comes too soon into Francesca and Sam’s relationship – Mallery gives them no breathing room. It’s all helter-skelter from the moment Sam’s daughter, Kelly, walks through the door and readers never get a chance to get to know Sam and Francesca without the intense plot overshadowing their relationship.

No matter how sweet some moments between them are, the plot/character ratio is totally out of whack in this book. And for that reason it’s totally implausible when Sam finds himself falling in love with Francesca… I can’t help but think his loving her had more to do with gratitude at his neediest moment rather than genuine affection, no matter how much Mallery tries to ram the latter down our throats;

A noise made him look up. He saw Francesca standing in the doorway of the house. She wore shorts and a shirt. Her hair was loose and a little messy. There was a Band-Aid on one finger and a smudge on her cheek. She shouldn’t have looked beautiful. She shouldn’t have looked anything.

Surprisingly enough, I will be reading book #3. Mostly because Mallery has set-up Brenna’s romance from the first and that one holds the most appeal for me.

1.5/5

'The Sparkling One' The Marcelli Sisters of Pleasure Road book #1 by Susan MALLERY

From the BLURB:

A party planner extraordinaire, Katie Marcelli loves her big, boisterous family -- even when their chronic matchmaking drives her crazy! In the Marcelli household, fine wine and good food are as celebrated as true love, so when her eighteen-year-old sister announces her engagement, Katie promises her the perfect wedding.

There's only one hitch: the father of the groom, Zach Stryker, who is adamantly opposed to his son marrying so young. Now, despite her instant attraction to the handsome, arrogant attorney, Katie must approach with caution: Zach, who hired Katie for a major fundraiser, holds the fate of her business in his hands -- and how can she trust a man who is willing to break her sister's heart? It will take a passionate battle of wills to determine if wedding bells will ring for a Marcelli bride, and to unlock the deepest desires -- for family, love, and home -- inside a strong-willed man's heart.

This is Susan Mallery’s first book in her ‘Marcelli Sisters of Pleasure Road’ series.
The series is centered on four sisters; Francesca, Brenna, Mia and Katie and their Hacienda family home in California. The Marcelli estate is also a prosperous vineyard, and all four sisters feel pressure from their Grandfather Lorenzo to produce sons and a future heir for the wine company.

‘The Sparkling One’ is the first book in the series, and concerns middle sister, Katie. At the beginning of the book Katie, an events planner, is hired to host a swanky A-list party for a law firm. Her point-man on the project is divorce attorney, Zach Stryker. There’s an instant attraction between Zach and Katie… but things turn puzzling when Zach turns up at her family estate, with his 18-year-old son in tow who is engaged to youngest Marcelli sister, Mia.

As it turns out Zach is firmly against the wedding and hired Katie in order to convince her to break up the happy (and young) couple. What Zach didn’t plan on was falling for Katie in the process…

I’m pretty torn about this book. I liked it, but I also had a pretty big problem with it. I didn’t buy the romance. For one thing, Katie is pretty boring. Maybe it was middle sister syndrome, but I didn’t believe it when Zach kept waxing poetic about how different, wonderful, smart, funny and sexy she was. I didn’t see much evidence of this – in fact I found Katie paled in comparison to her sisters. Youngest sister, Mia, is full of life and charisma. Brenna is funny in the face of adversity, and her twin Francesca is a quirky enigma. Katie was just so ‘blah’.

I didn’t feel a whole lot about Zach either. Mallery talks a lot about what a hard-ass lawyer Zach is, and in his role as divorce attorney he maintains that he’s cynical about love. He really should have been more stoic and hard-assed than Mallery made him. I didn’t see much of a transformation from cynic to romantic, and by my reckoning he was pretty open-minded about finding love from the get-go.

Together Katie and Zach were a pretty mediocre couple. There isn’t a whole lot of sparkage, just a few ‘kinda sweet’ moments;

She grinned. “Zach, this is my grandfather’s house. You can’t possibly have sexual thoughts under this roof. If you do, your pride and joy will shrivel up to the size of a walnut.”
“That would be tragic for all of us.”
“I’m not going to say yes. You already think too highly of yourself.”
He smiled. “I’m not the one who was screaming that night.”
She ducked her head. “A gentleman would never bring that up.”
“I thought my bringing it up was the entire point.”
Her mouth twitched. “You’re evil.”
“I’m tempting. There’s a difference.”

What saved this book, and ensured I will keep reading the series was the family saga. Mallery beautifully sets up books for the other sisters by peppering ‘The Sparkling One’ with juicy tidbits about their lives and tragically stagnate love lives.
In ‘The Sparkling One’, Brenna is hit with divorce papers from her husband of several years. She never saw the split coming, and is doubly wounded by her husband’s revealing he’s been having an affair and intends to marry the ‘bimbo’ the moment their divorce is settled.
Francesca was widowed at the tender age of 21 – and maintains that she’d prefer to be single than live through heartache ever again.
Mia is engaged in this book – but quickly learns that getting married at 18 comes with a string of problems, not least of which is dealing with the immaturity of your betrothed.

While I may not have been invested in the main romance of Katie and Zach, Mallery had me very interested in the bigger family saga. I will definitely be reading the other books in this series, if only to find out what happens to the other (more interesting) sisters.

2/5