I had a bit of a hard time with the heroine having stolen from the hero. The set up just didn't work for me. She really did a bad thing. Other than that I loved the book. There was POV from both the hero and the heroine. I really felt his actions towards her were justified in view of the thievery. I really enjoyed him more than her. Although she wasn't a horrible character. The dialog between the two of them really shone. I don't have my book with me or I would quote a passage or two. Well anyway. Dani Collins is one of the few of the new crop of HP authors that I really enjoy. ( )

I received A Debt Paid in Passion as part of a Goodreads giveaway.

I knew what I was getting into with this book, knowing it was a Harlequin Presents--a domineering alpha male paired with an innocent, nuturer-done-wrong female. If this isn't the personality profile you like for your romance, you may want to skip it (and the entire Harlequin Presents label). If you do choose to read on, know that in the description for this book, there's a major element of the book that's not mentioned, the fact the the heroine is pregnant (and gives birth early in the book).

Sirena was the perfect assistant to Raoul, but he was soon attracted to more than his organizational skills. After an impassioned night together, however, he has her arrested on suspicions of theft. While Sirena manages to escape jail time, her pregnancy comes to light in the process, and Raoul and Sirena have to figure out how to reconcile their newfound responsibilities with the trust that's been broken between them.

Sirena's a stronger character than most Harlequin Presents heroines I've come across. She's not an innocent virgin, though she is a bit of a pushover to Raoul's domineering behavior. For it being a short book (less than 200 pages), I did think that their love story was fleshed out well given the limited amount of time. I would have liked to see more attention focused on Sirena and Raoul's relationship while she was pregnant. She went from barely showing to giving birth in the course of a couple pages during the book--considering how long pregnancies are, it seemed like a good opportunity to develop the storyline. Plus, once baby Lucy was there, she didn't add much to the plot, being a newborn and all.

Not a bad read for a lazy weekend. ( )