I picked this book up, immediately became disinterested, and then tried again two years later. It was better than I expected. I should have kept reading on the first go around. I think some will love this book and others won't. It was "middle of the road" for me. Subject matter aside, the writing style is dense. It doesn't flow as I'd prefer but not a bad read. Thanks for the advance review copy.

After an excess of mystery-reading, I was ready for some romance. And you can’t get more of a romance-concentration than in an HP. And Dani Collins being one of my favourite HP authors, I was set. I stayed up way past my bed-time to finish A Hidden Heir To Redeem Him and it wasn’t because it blew me away. Rather, there’s something so viscerally satisfying in the HP that even a less-than-stellar effort from a favourite author keeps you glued to the page. Is it over-the-top-ness? Is it every wish-fulfillment fantasy for safety and devotion? Is it pure escapism and thus a respite from this surreal, frightening year? Probably all of the above. Hidden Heir hit the notes, but Collins didn’t always hit them as perfectly as her Cinderella’s Royal Seduction, which is as perfect an HP as Sarah Morgan’s Playing By the Greek’s Rules or Lynne Graham’s The Greek’s Chosen Wife. These three titles distill the best of the HP. They’re tightly focus on the couple’s relationship. A Hidden Heir, on the other hand, lost its way when the hero’s and heroine’s painful backgrounds overwhelmed their romance.

In other words, to make the reader feel for them, Collins turned Val and Kiara’s childhoods into such misery-fests there wasn’t much left for them to romance their way to an HEA. Even Collins’s usual penchant for Baroque fireworks love scenes came across as desultory.

Val and Kiara spent a night together three years ago. When Val’s estranged father dies, he is forced to return to Greece for the will reading, where he sees Kiara (having never forgotten her, in typical HP fashion, love being incipient in the hero from the encounter). But he hates her. Because she’s a gold-digger. Turns out Kiara, yes! had Val’s secret baby. And then, destitute, turned to his father for help. And she and her daughter, Aurelia, lived with the old man until his death. Now, she inherits and Val inherits and his hated brother does too. But the will reading also brings out Val’s step-mother, also mercenary and hated. And his mother, a gold-digger. So much is made of Val’s miserable childhood, a mercenary mother and harsh father. And Kiara’s wasn’t a picnic either: an orphan, abandoned and unwanted.

Collins’s signature razor-sharp dialogue is, even in a weaker effort, like Hidden Heir, one of the romance’s most redeeming qualities. Her heroine’s sass and wit also make an appearance. Her hero’s brood is intense. There just isn’t enough of it, though the HP trappings are present. Defective condom. Secret baby. Hero who denies feelings though they run rampant through him. Heroine made up of feelings. Adorable moppet. Stars-bursting love scenes. All the HP pieces, but they never quite come together to make a whole and the inordinate misery making up the hero’s and heroine’s childhoods borders on the caricature (so easy to tip into in the HP). Though Hidden Heir provided diversion for a few hours, it won’t linger in category romance glory like Cinderella’s Royal Seduction. With Miss Austen, we concur Hidden Heir offers “tolerable comfort,” Mansfield Park.

Dani Collins’s A Hidden Heir To Redeem Him is published by Harlequin Books. It was released in April and may be found at your favourite vendor. I received an e-galley, from Harlequin Books, via Netgalley.

Rating 3.5/5*

This certainly lives up to its billing! It centres on Valentino Casale who had a one night stand with Kiara O’Neill, an impoverished but very talented artist. He is unaware that the consequence of that night is their daughter and it is only when he goes to hear the reading of his father's will that he discovers her existence. What makes it worse is that Kiara and his daughter have been living with his estranged father and his mother even knew she'd been pregnant! He may have rejected his own father and his wealth but he never wanted that for his own child. The attraction between him and Kiara is as hot as ever, and he's determined to marry her to make their child legitimate. Valentino always tries to portray himself as cold hearted but artist Kiara sees behind his facade. Can she help crack the walls he's built to protect his heart and win his love? He may be determined to marry her, but she wants and deserves more than a sham marriage. Can she risk her own heart to give him a second chance?

The relationship Val has with members of his family are dire. He's rejected his father, is antagonistic to his half-brother and his Mum seems only to want his money. With so little love in his life it isn't surprising he finds opening himself up to love so difficult. However, meeting and getting to know his delightful young daughter has a serious consequence. I like how Kiara was determined not to give in to all his demands and stood up for herself - especially with his mother. It is a steamy second chance romance with antagonistic and manipulative characters and plenty of relationships in need of lots of tlc and secrets being revealed!

I requested and was gifted a copy of this book via NetGalley and this is my honest review after choosing to read it.

A Hidden Heir to Redeem Him felt more like a short story than a novel or novella. I knew it was going to be a pretty quick read at a little over 200 pages, but there are a lot of unanswered questions, at least for me. I think the main thing for me is that these characters don't receive the development or growth they need for a successful relationship. I spent a good deal of this one really wanting Kiara to put Val in his place. I also had to keep reminding myself that this was based on a very different culture than my own. Otherwise, these women would've driven me a bit crazy. Nevertheless, this pair does make for some witty and fun banter, especially in the first half of the book, and we get a sweet and sassy little lady to keep them on their toes. I will say that the title is pretty perfect for this book because if anyone needs a bit of redemption, it would be Val. He doesn't display too many redeeming qualities except for his reactions to his daughter, and I wasn't sure he would figure the whole relationship thing out. It was near miss, and the author certainly held out until the final moments to get there, but for those who want to quit, I would suggest holding out until those last few pages. Val does have some redeeming qualities in there. It just takes a bit of digging. The epilogue does bring some resolution to the story as well as a smile and a sigh from any romance lover. To sum it up, this is a quick, instalove romance with surprisingly more after the insta part than before. I would say that anyone who enjoys a bit of instalove, secret baby romance will love this one.

A Hidden Heir To Redeem Him is the first in the Feuding Billionaire Brothers series. For the most part, the story kept me engaged enough to finish it. It had a lot of dramatic scenes as a lot of Harlequin books are known to have. I didn't like Val all that much in the beginning, but as his story was revealed, I could almost understand why he acted like a controlling douche. I'm not usually a fan of the secret baby trope and I did feel bad for the way he was manipulated. Kiara was, thankfully, not a wet blanket and did stick up for herself.

My biggest issue with the book was the feeling I had throughout that I was missing something. I was surprised to see this was the first in a series. I though it was the second. There seemed to be a lot of back story that I was missing. I had a hard time understanding the battle between the brothers at first because it seemed like the reader was supposed to already know. I hope that in the second book, more of this conflict is explained and we see a resolution. If you are looking for an entertaining read with lots of melodrama and sex, give this one a shot.

The synopsis sounded interesting and I was interested in the sound of the plot. But sadly I couldn't get into this and the first half was very dialogue-laden, which I know was how the story was set out but it was a lot with a tense atmosphere. I couldn't really find reasons to like the characters and Valentino and Kiara just weren't my type of people.

The sex scenes were placed late in the book and when I got to them I was more interested than I had been until that point. These were very well developed and hot. The 2 year old daughter wax cute, I was just sorry about what her parents were like.


Thanks to Dani Collins and Harlequin for my ARC in exchange for an honest and voluntary review.

2 stars. This was a DNF (Did Not Finish) for me. It was too flat and not at all what I expected.

Kiara had her own reasons for keeping her daughter hidden from her father, Valentino Casale. Imagine Val's shock and surprise when he discovers that he is the father of a two-year-old! Val is a billionaire who has always proved to get his way. Now he means to completely step into Kiara's life and become not only a father to their daughter, but a husband to Kiara.

Despite Kiara's enjoyable night with Val, she had no intention of seeing him again. Not only does he make a shocking suggestion to tie them together - in name only, or so it seems - things definitely do not turn out as Kiara planned.

Along with the sudden change to Kiara's life, this story touches on an aspect of Val's life, and that is with his brother, his sworn enemy. This comes full circle to Kiara because Val's father protected Kiara and the child. Val's father Niko has his own reasons for doing this, and as Kiara is an artist striving to make a name for herself, she takes him up on his offer. Considering the fact that Niko is dying, this at least gave the child a home and a chance to know a relative, as it seemed she will never meet her father.

When these circumstances change, Val and Kiara meet again. It certainly was not easy, although passionate moments prevail. Will Val and Kiara find a future that brings their little family happiness? and what of Val's brother? The second question will only be answered with the next book in this duology, One-Night Baby, which is Javiero's story, an upcoming book by Collins.

Many thanks to Harlequin Presents and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

When I first found out Dani Collins was writing a book/series about two brothers who didn’t get along with each other I was excited. I wanted to know why two brothers hated each other so much. The Harlequin Presents line isn’t a line I normally read however, I read an excerpt from A Hidden Heir to Redeem Him and knew with certainty I HAD to read the book.

Valentino “Val” Cascale and Javiero Rodriguez were both born into luxury and broken homes. Sharing the same father, the two were only born two days apart. Val, the oldest, was the result of an affair between Nikolai “Niko” Mylonas and fashion model Evelina Cascale. Javiero was the product of Niko’s marriage to Paloma Rodriguez. The brothers were each raised full time by their mothers with frequent visits to their father’s Greek island. Niko made sure that he treated each son and mother the same. Meaning that Val and Javiero went to the same boarding school and their mothers received the same allowance. But just because Niko treated the boys the same didn’t mean those around them or society did.

By pure serendipity, Val and Kiara O’Neill met three years ago in Venice. The two shared a night together full of passion and wonder, never to see each other again. Weeks later, Kiara not only realizes she’s pregnant but that Val is married and off on his honeymoon. As a starving artist, living hand to mouth Kiara jumps at the opportunity offered to her by Niko. Niko will take care of Kiara and her child as long as she moves to his Greek island with him and doesn’t tell Val he has a child. To give her child every opportunity she didn’t have and to continue creating art, Kiara agrees. She knows Niko is estranged from his sons but doesn’t know why. She also knows Niko is dying and that the secret of her having Val’s child will not remain a secret forever.

Val is a man who seems to like to live up the title of being born illegitimate. He's cold, cruel, and borders on possibly being emotionally abusive. He lashes out before anyone can lash out at him. For at least 75% of the book, probably more, I didn’t like him. Kiara was a woman I wasn't very fond of. She did things the way Niko wanted her to and didn’t seem to stand up for herself. It wasn't until probably halfway into the book that I gave her the benefit of the doubt and saw things through her eyes. Though initially, I wasn’t fond of either character, I kept reading the book because I was mesmerized and knew Dani was going to show Val in a different light and redeem him in my eyes. She completely did by revealing his heartbreaking past which could be a trigger for some.

The title of the book, A Hidden Heir to Redeem Him, is perfect. Kiara and her daughter healed and redeemed Val by simply loving him for the man behind the mask the world sees. Val, in turn, gave Kiara the family and love she has always wanted and needed.

A Hidden Heir to Redeem Him shows the different dynamics of love. From its purity to its all-consuming passion. Dani has written a story you can’t put down, where she evokes feelings and emotions you aren’t expecting. I went from not truly caring about Val and Kiara to hoping and praying they found a way to be together, not because of their daughter, but for themselves.

A Hidden Heir to Redeem Him and Beauty and Her One-Night Baby featuring Javiero take place at the same time. Because of this, Javiero has already been introduced and some of his character has been revealed. I’m really looking forward to reading his story, and seeing if my thoughts about him are correct. I have a feeling I’m going to proclaim Dani as a being a master at what she does.

~ Favorite Quotes ~

“You’re adorable when you’re wrong.”
“A life without hope is a very dark place.”

A Child Makes the Difference

Niko Mylonnas had two sons: Javiero Rodrigues by his wife, and Valentino, Val, Cascale by his mistress. Neither son likes his father although Niko tried to give them equal opportunities. Both have rejected him, but now he’s dead and it’s time to read the will.

Val, who gave up his claim to his father’s fortune years ago, doesn’t even know why he has to attend. When he arrives, he finds out. A single night of love with artist, Kiara O’Neill three years ago produced a daughter he didn’t know existed. Niko made secrecy the price of helping Kiara provide for the baby.

Now that Val knows about his daughter things change. He has long felt the stigma of illegitimacy and he doesn’t want that for his daughter, but dealing with Kiara, who he feels betrayed him, is not so easy.

The characters in this novel are hard to like. Val is withdrawn and emotionally abusive. Kiara seems weak. She gave in to whatever Niko wanted. Val finds it hard to forgive her although he knows she had very limited resources to care for the baby. Still there was that night of passion between them that keeps drawing them together.

This is an unusual love story. Both characters have reasons to reject each other, so the question is whether they can find their way back to the passion they shared for the sake of themselves and their daughter.

I received this book from Harlequin for this review.

Despite his billions and the countless beautiful women who throw themselves at him, Val Casale has never forgotten his one night in Venice with innocent Kiara. Other than his memories the only thing he has to remember that night is a clever sketch that Kiara left behind. Despite searching for her and believe me he has searched he's never been able to find her or any traces of her art. Dragged to his dead father's office for the reading of the will he's astounded to see a painting which is very clearly her work and even further astounded to learn that she's been living with and protected by his father and is now a mother to his two year old daughter.
Val has always resented the fact that he's been illegitimate, a pawn for his ambitious mother to hold on to his biological father's wealth, he is definitely not going to let his child face the same shame. Circumstances are not the same however, Kiara is determined to resist him and his daughter as heir to his father's fortune is rich in her own right. Can these two build something meaningful, especially since Val does not have a heart and Kiara is all heart.
This is a well executed story complete with the mother in law from hell. I can't wait to read Val's brother's story. That also looks like it's going to carry quite the kick.

A big thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Presents for the ARC. I am voluntarily reviewing this book. I was a little confused at the beginning, as I didn't know what was going on. I enjoyed this book. So much angst (felt really bad for Val). Aurelia was lovely. The in-law from hell. Lol. 4 stars