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A review by theeditorreads
Dante's Twins by Catherine Spencer
5.0
This is the first book I am reading by [a:Catherine Spencer|55790|Catherine Spencer|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1507251303p2/55790.jpg] and I am in love with her writing!
"They made love on the third day, less than seventy-two hours after they met."
And this is how the story starts. In a plantation house. Dante Rossi already calls Leila Connors-Lee my love. And she loves him. But an overheard conversation makes her aware of her place in the relationship and she remembers the day they first met. At Classics Collections Limited's annual retreat in Poinciana Island, which was rare for a new employee such as her to attend. It is a Canadian import business. Leila speaks Mandarin fluently and is the daughter of a Canadian mother and an English-Sri Lankan father.
A story set in Vancouver, Canada, it has such exotic beginnings. A romance between the CEO and his employee. Even if he was as rich as anyone can imagine, Dante had humble roots. The humblest I've seen in HPland, and believable. Theirs was a family of migrants in Canada. And this also the first HP set in Canada that I'm reading.
But there's a villain in the woodwork, the Vice President, Carl Newbury. He is the husband of Gavin Black's - Dante's partner in business - goddaughter, a pathetic man, who's jealous of Leila's success and also because she rebuffed his advances. A married man and a creep. And he's such a big thorn whose constant presence was thoroughly irritating.
Dante Rossi's Italian-Russian, but culturally a Canadian family, is big and boisterous. He has five younger sisters, as many brothers-in-law, and scores of nephews and nieces. He even takes Leila to his mother's, which usually doesn't happen so soon in HPland. And after seeing that love and affection going all around, Leila couldn't bring herself up to reveal about her recent past. They both had lost their fathers, but Leila wasn't up to revealing how she had lost hers.
Even though the meet-up with the families was a success, when a relationship starts at a moment's notice with love at first sight, there's bound to be some problems. And before they marry, Dante has to fly out for four weeks because of business reasons.
And there's another problem in the form of her amnesiac ex, Anthony Fletcher, who's back thinking they're still together. And then there's Dante and Leila's engagement announcement which is still tightly under wraps until he gets back. What a rollercoaster of emotions this read was! And the tarot card reading Aunt Cleo of Leila's is the cherry on the top. Oh, I love her!
She's twenty-nine to his thirty-eight. And for a book written in 1999, Leila is no doormat. She holds her own, and wonderfully. Another character who's a darling is Megan Norris, Dante's assistant. This story has quite a number of characters, and not everyone is important but the way the author has placed them in the narrative is perfect. As Dante himself says, he's one clueless idiot when it comes to women even after having five sisters!
Never have I seen characters who are so obtuse about their feelings, especially after professing their love for each other in the very first pages. It was a very enjoyable read though it missed out on an epilogue.
"They made love on the third day, less than seventy-two hours after they met."
And this is how the story starts. In a plantation house. Dante Rossi already calls Leila Connors-Lee my love. And she loves him. But an overheard conversation makes her aware of her place in the relationship and she remembers the day they first met. At Classics Collections Limited's annual retreat in Poinciana Island, which was rare for a new employee such as her to attend. It is a Canadian import business. Leila speaks Mandarin fluently and is the daughter of a Canadian mother and an English-Sri Lankan father.
A story set in Vancouver, Canada, it has such exotic beginnings. A romance between the CEO and his employee. Even if he was as rich as anyone can imagine, Dante had humble roots. The humblest I've seen in HPland, and believable. Theirs was a family of migrants in Canada. And this also the first HP set in Canada that I'm reading.
But there's a villain in the woodwork, the Vice President, Carl Newbury. He is the husband of Gavin Black's - Dante's partner in business - goddaughter, a pathetic man, who's jealous of Leila's success and also because she rebuffed his advances. A married man and a creep. And he's such a big thorn whose constant presence was thoroughly irritating.
Love wasn't bound by the laws that governed the rational world. It simply walked in uninvited and took over a person's life, regardless of whether or not the timing was convenient or appropriate or strictly according to protocol.
Dante Rossi's Italian-Russian, but culturally a Canadian family, is big and boisterous. He has five younger sisters, as many brothers-in-law, and scores of nephews and nieces. He even takes Leila to his mother's, which usually doesn't happen so soon in HPland. And after seeing that love and affection going all around, Leila couldn't bring herself up to reveal about her recent past. They both had lost their fathers, but Leila wasn't up to revealing how she had lost hers.
Even though the meet-up with the families was a success, when a relationship starts at a moment's notice with love at first sight, there's bound to be some problems. And before they marry, Dante has to fly out for four weeks because of business reasons.
And there's another problem in the form of her amnesiac ex, Anthony Fletcher, who's back thinking they're still together. And then there's Dante and Leila's engagement announcement which is still tightly under wraps until he gets back. What a rollercoaster of emotions this read was! And the tarot card reading Aunt Cleo of Leila's is the cherry on the top. Oh, I love her!
She's twenty-nine to his thirty-eight. And for a book written in 1999, Leila is no doormat. She holds her own, and wonderfully. Another character who's a darling is Megan Norris, Dante's assistant. This story has quite a number of characters, and not everyone is important but the way the author has placed them in the narrative is perfect. As Dante himself says, he's one clueless idiot when it comes to women even after having five sisters!
Never have I seen characters who are so obtuse about their feelings, especially after professing their love for each other in the very first pages. It was a very enjoyable read though it missed out on an epilogue.