The Di Sione Secret Baby (The Billionaire's Legacy #2) by Maya Blake

The Di Sione Secret Baby (The Billionaire's Legacy #2) Reviews

• 
  StMargarets

  I didn't understand anyone's motivations in this. Maybe because it was the second book in a series? Hard to say.
  
  As his dying wish the grandfather has all of his grandchildren on the hunt for some precious objects. Why he wants them is never explained and the heroine doesn't ask. Instead she goes to the Arab kingdom of the hero, berates him for being a terrible ruler, goes to bed with him, steals the box, and doesn't tell him about the secret baby. The hero takes all of this in his stride.
  
  Then they marry and the heroine threatens to leave him if he doesn't spend more time with her. The hero is afraid she will die in childbirth which is why he has kept his distance. HEA.
  
  I really didn't like the heroine in this one. She jumped to a lot of conclusions - about the country's economy, the hero having a harem and the hero's true feelings. She was judgmental and never gave the hero time to process anything. And she was a thief. Not a good look.
  
  The hero seemed too gullible to last long in Middle-Eastern politics. Maybe the heroine will turn into Lady MacBeth and give him more of a backbone - oh, yeah. That didn't turn out so well.
• 
  Esther

  ARC provided by Netgalley and Harlequin for an honest review.
  
  This was not the smoothest read.
  
  This story began as though I started in the middle of a book and the first half was missing.
  
  Allegra is asked by her grandfather (who is ill and dying) to retrieve a box that has special meaning to him. Years ago it was sold to man who has since died and now his son is in possession of the box. Allegra will do anything for her grandfather. Allegra runs a Charity and uses it as leverage/cover to meet with Sheikh Rahim, who is in possession of said box.
  
  We have Allegra doing whatever is needed to retrieve the box, stealing it pretty much. Allegra becoming pregnant and running away. Rahim persues her and his child.
  
  The story felt like some paragraphs were missing at times and we went from one scene to the next with no understanding of what transpired. I normally enjoy Maya Blakes books but this one was missing something and written in a manner that had missing pieces to the story.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Vashti

  Not the smoothest of reads,it seemed like I read this same story last night with only the names of the characters changed.
• 
  Helen

  This is the second book in The Billionaire's Legacy series and the first book I have read from this author and it won't be the last wow MS Blake sure knows how to write an Alpha hero and I loved him I am partial to Sheikhs.
  
  Allegra Di Sione who runs the Di Sione foundation is sent on a mission by her grandfather to find one of his lost mistresses something that means a lot to her beloved grandfather and she is determined to retrieve it no matter what and how ever she can and this lands her in Dar-Aman with Sheikh Rahim Al-Hadi a powerful man that Allegra cannot help being drawn to but she has many reservations about his ruling ways though and this sets them on a very rocky journey.
  
  Sheikh Rahim has been working very hard to change things around in his country after everything had been left neglected for many years he has lived the life of a playboy and know needs his reputation to be set straight and get on with running his country and Allegra is just the person to help if he can convince her of the truth of what he is doing but there is such a spark between them and Rahim has been hurt by love before and is determined that he will never love as his father did.
  
  This is a fabulous story of strength love and power Rahim is such an alpha and Allegra is strong and determined and when one night of passion leaves Allegra carrying the heir to a kingdom this starts a very sensual and up hill battle to a very moving HEA. There are miss conceptions secrets locked away by both Allegra and Rahim that need to be overcome and when they are wow this one had me turning the pages and smiling and I highly recommend it.
  
• 
  Raine

  
  ****ARC provided by Harlequin via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.****
  
  Typical rich heiress meets royal sheik. Allegra's grandfather is dying and is requested that she find a box for him. Unfortuantely her grandfather sold the box years ago to a sheik for his wife and he's tried to get it back over the years. The sheik has since passed and the box is now inthe posession of his son Rahim.
  
  I understand this is the second book of this story and usually books like these can be read as a standalone, but I really felt that I was missing some important details to the plot. I thought there woudl be some point in finding the box, but once Allegra was able to return it to her grandfather nothing was really mentioned about it.
  
  Parts of the book were a bit unclear. I had to re-read paragraphs over to understand what was going on and what was going on. Towards the end of the book on their wedding night, the next paragraph shows Rahim was off constructing a racetrack and away from Allegra. I had to read that section a few times before I realized it was three weeks after the wedding night. I'm all for sublte, but sometimes you just need to be clear and state "Three weeks later..."
  
  Unfortunately I probably won't be finishing this series to find out why the grandfather wanted all these precious things back.
• 
  Susan in Perthshire

  Unlikeable heroine. Some very good bits in this story, but marred by unsympathetic heroine - judgemental, self important and an unrepentant thief. Treated the hero badly so it was difficult to be sympathetic when he was a jerk. However I did like him.
  
  I think the whole series suffers because of unimaginative premise. Dying grandfather asks his 7 grandchildren to retrieve precious items which have a sentimental value to him. Why he waits till he’s 98 is one mystery, but why the grandchildren feel the need to retrieve these expensive baubles - regardless of the morality - is never satisfactorily answered.
• 
  Paula Brandon

  Allegra Di Sione is tasked by her dying grandfather to retrieve an antique box that he long ago gave to the ruler of Dar-Aman, which means it is probably now in the hands of current ruler, Sheikh Rahim Al-Hadi. She flies there on false pretenses to do with her women's rights charity, in order to try and get the box back. Instead, she flubs her attempts by continually criticizing Rahim and the way he rules his country, and must resort to sneaking into his room to steal it! When he catches her, they end up having a night of passion so she can hide her motives. Next day, she takes the box and scurries back home. However, she finds out she's pregnant! Of course, Rahim soon follows her home.
  
  Considering that the Sexy line is not my favourite, and that I'm generally not a fan of Sheikh stories, three stars is pretty impressive from me! To be honest, I'm troubled by this genre's tendency to not have progressed the romantic notion of a Sheikh beyond Arabian Nights, reducing them to no more than another fantasy man slightly more exotic than the norm. It's much more complex than that, and it's difficulty for me to lose myself in a fantasy that the world too often shows us is far different than the reality!
  
  Politics aside, I enjoyed the story. The antagonism between Rahim and Allegra is justified, because it is not based on ridiculous pre-conceived notions on behalf of the Hero (as it is too often in this line), but because of the actions of the heroine. In fact, it's Allegra who's all Judgy McJudgypants in this story! They're both haunted by the deaths of their parents, and the fears generated by these losses blocks their path to happiness. I thought this played out slightly ridiculously - I can barely remember anything from before I was six, yet Allegra has a seemingly photographic memory about the rows her parents had and her father's drinking. To be honest, I think that sort of thing would be far from the realm of understanding for any six year old!
  
  I was pleased by the lack of blackmail-sex, and thought the relationship was believably dramatic, even if the emotional conflicts were overplayed at times.
• 
  Tima

  Allegra's grandfather, the man who ultimately raised her, is dying. His dying wish is to have a jewel box that he sold in a moment of weakness. But the man who purchased it, bought it for his late wife as a gift and refuses to sell the box. Now the man is dead and Allegra has been tasked with retrieving the box from the son. But when confusion about her non-profit results in some arguments with Rahim, the son, Allegra resorts to stealing the box. What happens next is not quite what either of them expected.
  
  I had a hard time with this book. It felt like I'd jumped into the middle of the plot and missed some things. The premise of the book was good, it just could have had more information and more depth so that the story felt more like a stand-alone than a sequel to something I'd missed. There were so many places that more detail or more development could have been added to make it a richer story. I realize that the Presents books aren't always a deep story, but this could have been so much more. Overall, it was a nice story, but I feel like I missed something when reading it. I'm just not sure if the author caught my interest enough for me to read the other books that are a part of this story.
  
  I received this book free of charge from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
• 
  Paula Legate

  This is the second book in The Billionaire's Legacy series. I have enjoyed both books, and look forward to reading the next book in this series. Both books were standalones.
  
  Allegra Di Sione would do anything for her grandfather. He wants to find some items that he calls his lost mistresses, before he died. The treasures are items he once owned, but had to sale. Now he wants them back. He ask Allegra to go to Dar-Aman to get it for him. The little box is owned by Sheikh Rahim Al-Hadi a powerful man who lives in a palace.
  
  Rahim is happy that Allegra has come to visit. She runs the Di Sione foundation, and he thinks she can help him with some issues. She has fought for woman's rights, and is respected for the work she has done. He has no idea the real reason for her visit.
  
  The first time the two met, the sparks sizzled, and the attraction was instant. This book has a fairy tale feel to it making it a fun book.
  
  It also had parts of the story that pulled at my heart strings. Rahim lost his mother when she was in labor having his baby brother. Both mom, and baby passed away. Rahim is so afraid that something will happen to Allegra, and his son. You will have to read to see how or if he got passed his fear.
  
  great book.
  
• 
  Beyond the Pages with Eva K

  Quick Summary: Very touching and wonderfully sweet Rating: 4/5 Recommend: Yes Audience: Adult Status: Contemporary
• 
  Raffaella De Leonardo

  Carino e piacevole, una storia di genere ma ben calibrata e con una trama composita e due protagonisti complementari e coerenti.
  Per riportare al nonno uno scrigno Fabergé venduto in passato, Allegra sedurrà lo sceicco Rahim Al-Hadi così da poterglielo rubare poiché lui non vuole venderlo. Le conseguenze di questo gesto saranno del tutto impreviste.
• 
  Marsha

  Our female lead protagonist is a fierce advocate for equal rights for women. So she’s strong, intelligent and opinionated. Our male lead is a sheikh who also cares about women’s rights. So he’s modern, intelligent, steely willed and ruler of all he surveys. Ooh, sparks will fly!
  
  Sheikhs in romantic novels tend to be very much of a type. Of course, they’re gorgeous, sensuous, foreign, exotic, smoldering hunks of beefcake, in or out of robes. They are also used to being obeyed and can be unscrupulous in getting what they want. The fact that Sheikh Rahim Al-Hadi is usually in the right when he’s dealing with CEO Allegra Di Sione after she steals a valuable Fabergé box from him doesn’t do much to offset the fact that he can be an absolute jerk.
  
  But he’s a real hottie, one that has her panting just from hearing his voice on the phone. It doesn’t hurt that she used to read romantic novels that transported her to “hot Arabian nights and tall figures in flowing white robes. To whispered promises in the dark and soulful brown eyes that promised forever.” She might be a smart cookie but inside she’s just a lumpy ball of dough.
  
  Time and again, Allegra tries to broach the subject of getting the box from him. Time and again, he stonewalls her. Admittedly, he’s operating under a false assumption about her presence. But her frustration over her inability to communicate with him properly is an irritant that affected this reader to the point where I wanted to yell at her to get on with it. Then she finally gets around to saying what she wants and he’s furious, refusing to hear what it is she has to say.
  
  So they get into a fiery clinch and, when he falls asleep, she steals the box she came for and slips away in the night. Uh oh. Then she finds out she’s pregnant. Double uh oh!
  
  Abortion never seems to be an option in these stories. If a woman loses a baby, it’s through a natural miscarriage or tragic accident. But when she gets pregnant, even if a child isn’t originally in her plans, somehow she always winds up keeping it. So when Sheikh Al-Hadi finds out about it, what does he do? Does he try to woo or persuade her to marry him? Oh no, he threatens to have her arrested for stealing a national treasure!
  
  Naturally she caves and winds up wedding and bedding the sheikh. This is just another replay of
  The Secret that Shocked De Santis and
  The Sheikh’s Pregnant Prisoner with the threat of incarceration thrown in for added flavor. This is romance Arabian Nights style, with masculine strong-arming and royal dictatorship as all-too-common factors.
  
  No thanks. Romance like this no one needs. If you hear thudding from where you are, it’s not a headboard hitting the wall; it’s my head banging on the desk.
• 
  Daisy Daisy

  I'm with St Margarets on this one, really didn't like this at all.
  The h is actually a not very nice person despite her outward appearance.
  She tricked the H into believing she would help him so that he would let her in.
  Judged him harshly.
  Had extremely prejudiced views and stereotypes about him and his country.
  False pretences galore!
  Lied!
  Outright stole from him with zero regrets.
  The poor H stuck with this horror! check out St Margarets review for all the deets
• 
  Julie (Manga Maniac Cafe)

  2.75 stars
  
  Meh. This only held my attention because it was a quick read. I can't stand the grandfather and the pressure he's putting on his grandkids to get his "priceless" treasures back. If they were that important to him, he shouldn't have sold them all in the first place - kind of wondering if that is actually going to go anywhere.
  
  So many things about Allegra's back story made no sense. She is from an extremely wealthy family, but from age six she was responsible for her younger siblings? At six? Responsibility for child care at that young an age is something you find with less well off families, not families living in a freaking mansion with live-in housekeepers. Obviously the nannies were overpaid if the six year old was doing all the work.
  
  
• 
  RomLibrary

  This antique box can be my wedding gift to you."
  
  Charity CEO Allegra Di Sione can't fail in her mission to retrieve her grandfather's beloved box from Sheikh Rahim Al-Hadi, which is why she gets caught in Rahim's sumptuous bedroom trying to steal it!
  
  Seducing the gorgeous sheikh is her only chance at escape! But when Allegra slips away the next morning, she's unaware she now carries something infinitely more precious—and that when Rahim finds out, he'll have no choice but to make his enticing thief his queen!
• 
  Brigitte Alouqua

  Nous voilà parti à la recherche d’un des trésors perdus de Giovanni Di Sione, cette fois c’est en compagnie d’Allegra et d’un cheikh plutôt playboy sur les bords. Avec Allegra, nous partons à la recherche d’un œuf de Fabergé.
  
  Allegra est l’aînée des sept petits-enfants de Giovanni Di Sione, elle est responsable de la fondation Di Sione, fondation dont elle s’occupe à merveille. Lorsque son grand-père lui demande de retrouver un de ses trésors perdus, elle ne s’attend certainement pas à ce que cette quête changé sa vie à tout jamais. Cet œuf de Fabergé est maintenant la propriété du cheikh Rahim ah-Hadi, du moins c’est à lui qu’elle aura affaire vu que son père est décédé et que c’était lui la propriétaire. Le cheikh l’avait offert à sa femme qui aimait collectionner les belles choses, comme les boîtes à bijoux somptueuses.
  
  Certes le cheikh actuel, Rahim, est un véritable playboy, avec raisons, il est à tomber tellement il est séduisant et le charisme qu’il dégage ne peut laisser indifférent, pas même Allegra. Mais cela ne se passera pas tout à fait comme elle l’espérait au départ.
  
  Sans vous en donner les raisons, Rahim ne voudra pas qu’Allegra reparte de son palais avec l’oeuf, mais elle ne peut décevoir son grand-père et revenir sans son trésor, c’est juste impensable pour elle.
  
  Entre Rahim et Allegra, c’est électrique. Le désir qu’ils ressentent l’un pour l’autre est tel qu’il est carrément palpable. Pourtant, rien n’est simple.
  
  Contre toutes attentes, elle va faire une chose dont elle ne se serait pas crue capable, elle va voler l’oeuf après avoir passé la nuit entre les bras de Rahim. Ce que ni l’un ni l’autre ne pouvait prévoir, c’est qu’il peut parfois arriver qu’un préservatif soit victime d’un incident, ce qui devait arriver arriva. Allegra est enceinte de Rahim, elle a volé l’oeuf dans sa chambre, … Comment annoncer au cheikh son état alors qu’elle l’a volé ? Comment pourrait-elle être une bonne mère pour son enfant alors qu’elle n’a pas vraiment eu un très bon modèle de mère ? Comment réagira Rahim s’il apprend qu’il va devenir père ?
  
  Vous savez quoi ? J’adore cette saga de la collection Azur. Elle est remplie d’émotions, de secrets, d’inattendus, de rebondissements, d’amour, de paysages magiques. J’ai hâte de découvrir le prochain trésor perdu de Giovanni Di Sione, hâte de découvrir où il va nous emmener, mais surtout hâte de connaître le fin fond de cette histoire, et ce que représente réellement ces trésors pour lui.
• 
  Belinda

  Well I guess this is why I don't read romance novels, another boring book
• 
  Caroline

  Boring and stupid. Skip this unless you just don't like yourself.
• 
  Lori Miller

  A wonderful story, that's worth the read.
• 
  Tonya Warner

  Allegra Di Sione has tried to devote herself to her charity. Coming from a rich family did not mean life was great. Losing her parents at six and being raised by her grandfather, she feels she must embark on the quest he has set for her to retrieve a trinket box he had long ago sold.
  
  Sheikh Rahim Al-Hadi is trying to save his kingdom. The death of his father has left him the king of a country on the verge of ruin and collapse. While he believes Allegra can be a part in improving his country's outlook on him, as well as help his people, he does not realize until too late that Allegra is not there for him.
  
  Overall, hit and miss thru parts of the story.
• 
  Virna

  I will say I wanted to like this story, there was too much going on, and then not enough. and the timeline is all over the place with this one!! is to long, parts dragged and it didn't really feel like the characters connected enough to really be together. She was rather a brat that never quite got it that she was the cause of everything, that they were in the situation they were because of her stubborn selfishness. He was not any better. The book wasn't awful, but it wasn't great, either, this was boring.
• 
  Jess Lawson

  The Chemistry between Allegra and Rahim was astonishing. I loved her strong will. Allegra isn't a woman to be walked on by anyone. She had to be strong her whole life and rolling over because she has to deal with a hot headed Sheikh isn't going to happen.
  
  Rahim isn't the playboy everyone believes him to be. He just wants to take care of the future of his company. He has plans in place as long as Allegra will play along nicely.
  
  Sexy and thrilling must read.