Betrayal at Bella Terra, A Review

Christina Dodd pulls out all the stops in this third and final  book of her Bella Terra Trilogy. A Trilogy about three brothers, raised partially by their grandparents when their feckless but charming father manages to marry and divorce or abandon the women in his life. A loveable, useless rogue that shows us the damage neglect can cause.

I will say this from the start. I LOVED THIS SERIES!! Now I have enjoyed Christina Dodd for a long time. Amazingly longer than even I realized, back to a series written and published by silhouette (I think) called her Lost Texas Heart Series.. all the way to her PNR books about the Wilders and the chosen and toss in her governess series as well! She is a gifted writer who manages to make the characters define the story even when it is filled with avenging princes, deals with the devil and a mystery of a lost bottle of wine, Christina Dodd manages to treat us every time one of her books goes to print.

With that being said.. Betrayal had to be one of her best books ever! Noah Di Luca, the charming well adjusted youngest Di Luca brother has some serious secrets he is hiding that could literally destroy his family. He has always been considered the brother who managed to escape the fiasco of their father’s trainwreck of a life and yet he too has some secrets he has kept hidden. His life hasn’t been quite so easy going and he has spent his entire adulthood protecting his family from someone.. A secret he has never shared.. Even going so far as to give up the love of his life.. To push her away and force her to get on with her life. A life without him.

Penelope knew at 18 that she had found love and was forced to realize and accept that some love isn’t returned. She has spent the last nine years getting on with her life. She has been married, widowed, watched her mother die and finally discovered who her father was. She is back in Bella Terra for one reason and one reason only. She wants to meet her father. Instead she headlong into her past. Barely in town she meets Brooke Di Luca, another member of the Di Luca school of Road Kill, not knowing that Brooke has found her HEA with her Di Luca, Penelope engages in first a friendship then a accepts a job. Only to discover that this job comes with the Di Luca’s! Most especially, the ever so charming Noah.

What she thinks is an easy designing job quickly draws her into the family mystery. Discover where the missing bottle of wine is.. meet her father (of course he has to be the Di Luca’s oldest enemy) stay alive and most importantly stay away from Noah Di Luca.. who runs hot and cold and she never quite knows what to expect from him. All she knows is that the fire is still there, the love is still there and she has no clue how to combat it.

Since this was the third book in the trilogy, there is so much that has been explained in the first two books.. READ THEM FIRST!! Ms Dodd does a wonderful job with her romantic suspense and manages to twist and turn her way throughout the story. We are sure we know what is going on right up to the end.. and of course we never quite do. This book has plenty of depth, turmoil and suspense to make just about any reader happy. As far as I am concerned the only thing wrong with it is, well it’s over. We may see the Di Luca’s in another book at some point but I seriously doubt we will see them as they are in these books ever again. And they are so wonderfully charming and charismatic, completely swoonworthy!! I think every girl should get a Di Luca!! and if not she should read this series..

Shauni