Review ~ The Exiled Jeweler by Susie Warren

Emilia Berceto’s beauty captures the attention of a well-known Italian billionaire, Alex Armanti, when she attends a gala at his mansion in Los Angeles. Images secretly captured of her partially nude are released to the tabloids and her overly protective family sends her far away.

Four years later, Emilia continues to live a secluded life designing custom jewelry for the wealthy. Her family needs her to return home to California when their jewelry empire is near bankruptcy. When she returns, she must face the man who caused her downfall and is threatening to reveal her secret if she is to save her family’s jewelry empire.

The Exiled Jeweler

by Susie Warren

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Excerpt:

“So you took on rebuilding the auction house?” she asked him as she took a tentative sip of the chilled wine.

“I had wanted a challenge. I had assumed that it would be agriculture. At the time, I had put in offers on a couple of small vineyards that I had hoped to combine into a larger farm.”

Emilia processed the information. She could see him as the owner of a vineyard. She knew he was a risk-taker who wasn’t afraid of hard work. She remembered unbuttoning his shirt and finding finely sculpted muscles in his arms and chest as if he were some sort of top athlete. Even now he appeared slim and sculpted. She wondered if he was a long distance runner or biker.

She shook her head slightly to clear her sensual thoughts. It would be better to keep her wits about her and not to succumb to some fantasy about him. He had used her innocence to tarnish the reputation of Berceto Designs and now he was ready to purchase the company for a pittance.

Emilia put her wine glass down on the decorative wooden table and crossed her arms.

“Why did you ask me to come?”

He looked so formidable. “We need to clear the air, cara.”

Shaking her head, she said, “We barely know each other.” A memory of him kissing her flooded over her and she knew that she was stretching the truth. She could remember the feel of his body and the taste of his kisses.

“I remember every delectable inch of your body.”

She could feel her heart accelerate. “Yes, and thanks to your camera crew so does most of L.A.”

He took a sip of wine. “I don’t know why you are making such a big deal of a few images. The photographs were stunning.”

How could he possibly say that to her? Those images ruined her life. She was forced to leave her family and hide away in shame.

Turning toward him, she said, “You were not the one who was humiliated. Your life continued on without the smallest inconvenience.”

She had grown up in L.A. and it had been spelled out clearly that you didn’t allow yourself to be made a spectacle of. The city was full of superficial, attention-seeking future celebrities. Her parents had never wanted her to be a part of that culture. Privacy, refinement, and grace were valued in her family. It was the reason why she had been sent to an exclusive boarding school in the Northeast with her two cousins, Isabel and Lauren. Practically the same age, the three of them had become as close as siblings. She was the one who abhorred the limelight and innately knew to be careful about her image. She met his hard gaze and found no softening. He didn’t care that the media raked her over the coals and made to feel cheap and foolish.

“Whose fault was that? Instead of allowing me to step forward and tell everyone the photographs were taken in a private residence without permission, you acted as if I staged the entire incident. Or was I somehow beneath your reputation?”

Susie Warren writes contemporary romance. Besides being an avid reader, she spends much of her free time crafting intense and complex stories about falling in love. When she is not writing, Susie works as an administrator in a small, independent school while caring for three teenagers and keeping tabs on her inventor husband. With the launching of her first book, The Forgotten Heiress, she has slowly begun to navigate the social media realm.

Susie loves to hear from readers and responds to each email and Facebook post. Please reach out to her via Facebook or Twitter @susiecwarren

For more information on her upcoming releases, new excerpts and other related postings, or to sign up for free promotions, please visit www.susiewarren.com

The Rosa Legacy Series

The first novel in The Rosa Legacy series, Ruthless Perfection, started with the idea of a traditional Italian mother who wanted her only daughter happily married. The mother, Carla Rosa Neri, along with her two sisters, Francesca and Marie, had emigrated from Italy as young girls and each went off to create a dynamic and successful family.

Each of the sisters had an only daughter and they made sure the girls spent time together. They attended the same boarding school in the northeast and visited each other’s homes in the summer.

Ruthless Perfection

Carla Rosa married into the Neri family with a long history in the Carrara marble industry. Her daughter, Isabel Neri, being a filmmaker and wanting to honor her grandfather’s legacy, approaches a reclusive billionaire, Marc Santoro, to ask permission to produce a documentary about the life of a quarry worker. Ruthless Perfection is the story of how they fall in love.

The Exiled Jeweler

Francesca Rosa married into the Berceto family with a long history in the jewelry making business. The Second novel in The Rosa Legacy series, The Exiled Jeweler, is about her daughter, Emelia, who went into seclusion after a scandal tore the family apart. Emelia is a talented jewelry designer who lived a sheltered life and was drawn into a passionate encounter with her family’s rival, Alexander Armati at a gala. Outside in the garden, photographs were taken on them and sold to the tabloid press. Her family was shocked and embarrassed and sent Emelia off to Florida. Four years later, she returns when her grandfather has a heart attack and her parents are deciding to sell the family business.

The Convenient Wedding

Marie Rosa married into the prominent Montgomery family, with a successful background in politics. Her only daughter, Lucia, is fascinated by politics and becomes a campaign aide. The opportunity to work on a senate campaign in Connecticut draws her into the middle of a scandal. Anderson Adams is a dark horse in the senate race yet convinces Lucia to play along with a strategy to save his campaign. The third novel in The Rosa Legacy series, The Convenient Wedding, is the story about how they reconcile their public image with their private life. The Convenient Wedding will be available in February 2015.

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My Thoughts:  

This book was a rather quick read. Emilia was a talented workaholic who preferred solitude.

She was away from her family as she had been for a few years. I did not care for her family at all. Well, I liked her Nonno but that was it.

I had a hard time relating or getting really hooked because of that. I mean who in their right mind would bite their tongue and let people treat you like garbage?  

I liked the leading man, Alex (mostly). I felt bad for him at times because of the way Lia acted.

I liked the intensity of saving the business and seeing her come out of her shell some. 

I received an ecopy in exchange for my honest opinion. I enjoyed it. This book had secrets, scandals, a weird family, a handsome suitor, jewelry, and more.
  

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