I did not complete the book, so I did not review it for All About Romance, but I did provide some of my thoughts on Goodreads.

Rico was handsome, rich, sexy and cold as death. It actually took me reading the whole book and I still didn't like him very much. Princess Lina was weak and annoying, I didn't like her at all, ever. The book started out really well but between the many pages of internal dialogue in their head and the boring pace of this story I just wanted to throw my kindle across the room. I did finish the book and for that reason I gave it 3 stars. I really can't recommend this book.

Princess Halina of Abkar takes a walk on the wild side with billionaire Rico Falcone, and winds up disgraced in her ultra-conservative country. Banished from the palace until she either agrees to abort the baby she has already fallen in love with, or she agrees to be a second wife to bring political gain to her father's kingdom. When Rico rescues her, she exchanges her father's prison for Rico's, one she would accept willingly if he loved her.

Rico Falcone hasn't loved anyone since he was abandoned at 9 by the one person he did love, his father. He attends parties with a different woman every week. When he meets Lina, her innocence draws him, but he doesn't expect to be snared by it.

Can these two overcome their obstacles to realize that the love they want has been staring at them all along? Kate Hewitt seldom disappoints. If you enjoy the secret baby trope, pick this one up.

Princess Halina lives under the restrictive control of her King father, decides she is going to have one night of fun. She knows her father is looking to marry her to a advantageous union, so what could one stolen night crashing a hotel party change. First she has to sneak past her guard, done, next she has to get into an invitation only party not happening. Rico Falcone is attending a hotel bash looking for his one night hook up. An encounter seeing a women trying to attend with an invite he claims she is with him. She introduces herself as Lina and has her first ever with a man. Rico is shocked but has no interest in a long time affair so Lina leaves . End of story not at all just the beginning Halina finds out she has consequences from her one night and a father who banishes her and intends to take her baby away. Rico who needs to find out if their are any consequences, hired an investigator and when he finds out she is pregnant heads out to confront her. In true Kate Hewitt style this story only gets better as it goes on.

I very much enjoyed Halina’s and Rico’s story. I was most captivated by how Kate Hewitt was able to bring me around to championing this relationship. Throughout most of the book as I got to know Halina, I felt she deserved some independence and autonomy.

She escapes a very restrictive life controlled by her parents and finds herself in the arms of a seemingly similar controlling Rico. As the two get to know each other, their vulnerabilities come to light and their intense chemistry flourishes.

Even with Halina’s pregnancy I felt she deserved to discover who she is as an individual. I felt Hewitt explored this idea and came to a satisfactory conclusion.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

With the end of my precious holidays and a week of getting back into early-morning-commute mode, I knew my fried brain couldn’t handle reading anything more than an HP. However derided the category, it’s a survivor and, in the hands of its greatest practitioners (ahem, Sarah Morgan), it can be original, fun, and range from witty to angsty all in the same book. I consider Hewitt one of its best. Princess’s Nine-Month Secret is HP-typical, less than what I’ve seen Hewitt deliver. Nevertheless, it “hit the spot” during a can’t-work-too-hard to read week. Its trappings will be familiar to the die-hard HP reader. Sheltered, cloistered Princess Halina Amari sneaks away from the Roman hotel suite she shares with her mother and into a party. Halina wants a taste of freedom and adventure before she returns home to wed Prince Zayed al bin Nur, a marriage arranged by her politically expedient father, using his daughter to advance the kingdom. At the party, Halina spends her night of rebellion with Rico Falcone. Two months later, Halina is pregnant and exiled to a desert fortress. Her engagement to the Prince has been called off (see book 1) and the parents she thought loved her have brushed her aside as an embarrassment to the family. When Rico discovers Halina’s pregnancy, he kidnaps her from the desert “palace” and returns to Rome, where they will marry pronto.

I’ve always been pleasantly surprised at how Hewitt can give us the uber-intense-HP reading experience and still surprise with the sweetness and gravitas of her message. Princess’s Nine-Month Secret‘s first half didn’t surprise. Standard fare: naïve, foolish heroine harries off on an adventure with the dangerous, seemingly cold-hearted hero and the consequences are punitive. She loses family, support, and security. Rico enters in classic alpha fashion, impediments melting before his will. Halina and Rico lack the spark, fire, and wit that usually mark Hewitt’s characters. I chugged along with my reader attentiveness at low. Rico turns out to be a billionaire with a loveless childhood, abandoned by his parents, poverty-stricken. Rico’s childhood misery-fest has made him heart-protective. He will never love anyone; indeed, he’s not capable of love, because he’ll never allow anyone to hurt him as he’d been hurt as a child. Does the heroine melt his heart? Does her loving-kindness resurrect his emotional ice? It’s what we would expect from an HP, is it not?

Ostensibly, yes, but how Halina does so makes for the more interesting second-half of Princess’s Nine-Month Secret. Halina is an interesting heroine: she doesn’t bear lovelessness well. It depresses her. She is ill from “all-day sickness” and challenges Rico’s philosophy of a life without that pesky love emotion as better because you’ll never be hurt. I liked how Halina expressed hurt and sadness. She wasn’t feisty and defiant. She was sad. And she told the stark truth to Rico, that she was resigned to a life without love with him. She was alone, ignorant in the ways of the world, and helpless before his competency, success, and arranging, managing, and deciding what her life would be.

What is equally interesting in Rico is that whatever he does for and with Halina are expressions of love. He cares for her physical well-being. He seeks her happiness. He shares experiences with her outside of the bedroom: there’s a lovely scene, for example, at the Roman colosseum. Halina is a heroine who doesn’t have much to offer beyond an understanding that love is the most important thing for a good life: to love and be loved. I thought it was particularly appealing that Halina even seeks her perfidious family’s love. Not in a dish-raggy kind of way, but with an understanding that love isn’t either/or. People are weak and flawed and yet, we must still try to love and be loved within those constraints. When Rico indulges in an either/or gesture, after he realizes he loves Halina, she calls him on it. Neither control nor sacrifice make for love, but abiding with someone, being there day in and day out, for good and bad. I don’t know if Halina’s passivity will appeal to most romance readers. I came to appreciate her and Rico’s story and with Miss Austen, would say that Princess’s Nine-Month Secret offers “real comfort,” Emma.

Kate Hewitt’s Princess’s Nine-Month Secret is published by Harlequin Books. It was released on August 21st and may be found at your preferred vendors. I received an e-ARC from Harlequin Books, via Netgalley.

The hero kept on saying that he did not believe in love while at the same time doing everything within his power to please the heroine, excep he would not say that he love her. He did not recognize his feelings as love until the very end. The heroine was too immature and impulsive at the beginning and because of her actions she trapped herself in an impossible situation. I wish she had been more brave and come out of her shell on her own; instead, she kept on doing what others told her to do. It was a nice read but I wished the heroine had had more spark.

Princess's Nine-Month Secret
by Kate Hewitt

Hmm up and down the princess irritated me by going with her dad again. However, with that small irritation, this was a very enjoyable romance. Light and fun to read. Some humor, a little pathos and a story line that engages. So buy the book and sit and enjoy for this is a good light read well worth your time. I was given this arc via NetGalley. All opinions expressed here are my own. Regards, Anna

I have mixed feelings on this one. On one hand, I loved the Hero. He was an alpha-type who is protective & sexy, but on the other hand, the heroine annoyed me and their "romance" at times felt unbelievable to me.

I adore Harlequin Presents. They represent a nice escape from the day to day humdrum and don't need much focus or attention. I'm also tongue-in-cheek about the virgins and the sophisticated men who seemingly lose all their smarts and end up fathers to be.

This story was a bit far fetched even for me especially with the despicable trick played on his daughter by her father the sultan not once but twice. Rico is the typical tortured self made billionaire who wants his baby. Not one of the better ones I've read lately.

This book was okay. All the back and forth at the end with going home to her family and then leaving was a little tiresome. I wasn't as invested in the characters as I have been in previous books.

I've been reading Harlequin romance for 30+ years so I'm familiar with the rich playboy and innocent girl type formula but this one just didn't work. There was no build up to romance and zero chemistry between the characters. Frankly I found the female character just annoying.

Very cute quick read, the typical harlequin formula of playboy and young innocent woman but what can you say it just works.