The Secret She Must Tell The Spaniard by Clare Connelly

The Secret She Must Tell The Spaniard is written by Clare Connelly and published by Mills and Boon Modern. The novel combines several themes including secret baby, young love, betrayal, abandonment and reconciliation. 

Alicia was 16 and Graciano, 18,  when they had an affair. Alicia’s father, a minister for the church, accuses Graciano of assaulting Alicia and she stays silent. Graciano leaves, lives on the streets for a while and then slowly builds a financial empire. Alicia is thrown out by her father and sent to live with her Aunt and has a baby. She rings Graciano to tell him that she is pregnant but he rebuffs her. Her father tells her that if she ever has contact with Graciano  he will have him arrested for sexual assault. She has established a charity and is a well known event planner.

They meet 10 years later at Alicia’s charity event. She is auctioning her services as an event planner to raise money for her charity. Graciano wins the auction and takes her to his private slabs to plan his event. 

The attraction between the pair is still there and as they compare notes over what happened in the past they realise both have made mistakes and misunderstandings are ironed out. They succumb to the attraction but Alicia has to rush home when her daughter has accident. This is when Graciano discovers he has a nine year old daughter. He threatens to take Anne away then he reads the baby book Alicia has made for him and declares his love for her. 

Reading back the synopsis I have just written I should have enjoyed this book but I didn’t. The characters weren’t particularly likeable. Even by the end of the book Anne (the daughter) didn’t know Graciano was her father. The daughter is hardly mentioned throughout the book which is strange considering it is a secret baby trope book. Alicia made one phone call to tell him he was going to be a father then for the next nine years didn’t bother making contact, but she thought about it every day. The ending seem very rushed without the characters properly processing the fact that all their lives had changed now Graciano was in the picture. I think this is the first one of her novels that I have struggled to reach the end of. 

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I received this book via Netgalley and Mills and Boon in exchange for a honest review. I am a #MillsAndBoonInsider #netgalley #gifted