Ten years, two people, one day. A forbidden, billionaire protector, holiday romance.

The celebration of the year… and its most forbidden guest!

New Year’s Eve. It’s the only day that Santo Sabatini allows his carefully controlled world to collide with heiress Eleanor Carson’s. Attending the exclusive annual party he deplores is the best way the tycoon can uphold his unbreakable vow: to protect her from an earth-shattering secret…

When the truth threatens to tumble out and crush Eleanor’s life as she knows it, Santo has no choice but to get closer to her. As the clock strikes midnight, can he stop their off-limits chemistry from erupting into dangerous flames?

~Standalone~

This story may contain language, possible violence, and/or sexual situations geared to an adult 18+ audience.

Title:  Forbidden Until Midnight
Series:  ~Standalone~
Author:  Pippa Roscoe
Published:  October 22, 2024
Publisher:  Harlequin Presents
My Rating:  4.5 stars

Forbidden Until Midnight is a standalone title in the Harlequin Presents line with a rather unique delivery of Eleanor’s and Santo’s story.  Told in a once-a-year event situation, we’ll span about a decade of yearly only interactions between this couple from the time Eleanor turned eighteen and was permitted to attend the annual New Year’s gathering.  I’ll be frank and say that I was unsure of the yearly encounters —only— between Eleanor and Santo.  I couldn’t see, at first, how I was supposed to care about, or how the couple was going to end up in a true romance, when they only had contact once a year.  I hadn’t allowed for a talented storyteller’s ability to draw me in and keep me captured until the epilogue (which, by the way, was epic).

The twelve families who gather at a different, rich, perhaps over-indulgent location, hosted by a different family each year, are so full of secrets, lies, betrayals, misdirections, snobbery, elitism, and just plain nastiness that they could give lessons to an established crime boss.  Santo “earned” his spot here as the heir of his ruthless, abusive father’s family business.  The families are often intertwined by investments, social connections, or marriage.  Santo had been asked by a man whom he considered more of a father than his own flesh and blood to watch over, to protect Eleanor as she came into this group as an adult, as best he could.  And he did, even as that protection ripped a part of his soul apart as he watched her go through so much turmoil, betrayal, and constant belittling.  He watched her learn how to survive, to make huge mistakes (and learn from them), and to begin to find her own path through those deep betrayals and come into her own as a powerful, independent, confident woman.  As time passed, the attraction between them flared a bit stronger each year, and the danger grew as well.

Watching Eleanor and Santo go through those years, and the events that happened to them each in between contact, was emotionally gutting at times.  Their story is full of sexual tension, growing stronger each year, of a connection that mattered, that helped get through the days until they saw each other again.  Slow burn?  Most definitely, in the most delicious way.  As I’d mentioned, the epilogue was everything I could have possibly wanted for this couple.  It was a *chef’s kiss* on their relationship through hardship, danger, and intrigue to get them to their happy ending.

If you enjoy a Contemporary Romance that will draw you into the couple’s world, and hold you there captivated while watching them figure out their happy ending, a story that is well-written, emotional, and so satisfying… then you’ll devour Forbidden Until Midnight by Pippa Roscoe.

I read this title through my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

This title is available at Amazon (affiliate link)