First off, if sex during pregnancy isn't your bag, you don't wanna read this one as the h is around 6 months along at the beginning. Second off, being a parent myself, I was variously skeptical and/or incredulous about some of the lengths gone to in order to arrange the H and the h's interaction.

 

A long long time ago, in a galaxy far away<sarcasm>, our h found herself exceedingly attracted to a young bronc buster who rented a hotel room and made sure the sheets were clean (what a guy...). They used protection but it had a leak apparently. They promised to write, then he stopped. He showed up on the doorstep 2 weeks after her parents and the Dr had pressed her to give the baby up for adoption. She more or less told him to go to hell.

 

We find out as the story goes along, 5 or 6 years later he went back, armed with a bs and a ring, only to discover he'd put it off a day too late because he almost blundered into her wedding reception.

 

:ahem...

 

The h had difficulties with her first, which lead to her being subfertile. The guy she married did not want kids. She got preggers at around the age of 39, upon which he told her it was either him or the baby. Since she's still preggers, obviously she preferred the baby. The Dr tells her she's high risk and recommends the H as the best in the country (incredulous moment no. 1 - only one OB in the country? Seriously?!)

 

So she goes, and over the course of the book, she gets under his skin (among other things), has to deal with the douchebag ex (who unsatisfyingly enough, is never really dealt with), has the long lost daughter show up, and confusingly enough for me, doesn't really give her the real answer as to why she adopted her out (really, why would you make excuses instead of just saying your parents made you?). Shortly after the daughter showed up, she called the H and told him. He came over and while she was talking, she had a sudden bad complication which resulted in a race to the hospital and him having to do an emergency section. I'd look it up but my recollection is that even if you're in the hospital when it happens, that one doesn't always lead to a good outcome. She's at 8 months and the baby isn't even 5 pounds

 

Now granted, I always had rather hefty kids but that's close enough to almost not be a premmie so the weight seems a bit...low. No info given how long he was in the neonatal unit either. The impression I was given was they went home at the same time so maybe a couple of days if that?

 

To be honest, I was mostly ok with the H/h. Mostly. It's just that the surroundings got in the way.

More like 3.5 for reasons. Can I just ponder where they dug up that cover model? I know the H was older but nothing ever stated he looked like a shoe salesman.

 

I almost didn't read this book. The H/h were divorced many moons prior, and she'd remarried in the interim. Also, flipping to the end indicated he suffered from self-absorbed dumbass syndrome - the one where he makes decisions that hurt her because he doesn't want her to hurt when he's dead, and can't deal with the alternative.

 

I elected to read it though and well, it's not bad. Oh, there are things that had me screwing my face up - will explain later. But...the h did not fall over with her legs in the air, and the H didn't try to trip her to get her in that position. Get that - no magic pen was used. They got back together for the reason they'd been together in the first place, minus his pride and refusal to think about anyone but himself.

 

Things...the circumstances surrounding his reappearing in her life. She owns her family farm. A neighboring lumber magnate wants her to sell the trees and goes to some exceedingly illegal lengths to remove her. I sort of wonder why neither she, nor the H when he figures this out, doesn't call in for assistance (you'll understand why in a moment). And, I don't really understand why no-one in town was willing to stand up for her. I get the bullying aspects, but it seems to me that there should have been resistance somewhere. Some "that ain't right" sort of thing.

 

I would love to know the percentage of SEALs who could be mistaken for lumberjacks.
I would equally love to know how many SEALs are still doing field ops in their 40s.
And...equally WTH was his just casually strolling into the Pentagon(!) to get a buddy to look the h up.
Of course, there's why he's free now - his last mission went sideways and he has shrapnel in his skull. So lemme get this straight - he was kept alive long enough to get to a military hospital stateside (that one in and of itself had me raising an eyebrow) and they *left* the shrapnel in because removal would blind him, even though leaving it would likely kill him!?

So I'm to accept that a recently retired SEAL with a buddy in the Pentagon wouldn't have buddies he could call in to assist in this issue?

Well, isn't this a depressing topic? I don't know why it is more disheartening than Alcoholism in Romance Novels which was my last post but it is.

 

Both are awful but both issues when explored in romance novels allow fiction to do what it does best inquire, confront, heal. 

 

I found out some interesting things about Romanceland during my oh so sad research into drug addiction and the Romance Novel with a side trip into drug based films. We don't really like recovering drug addicts (or active drug addicts) as heroes and heroines in our Contemporary Romances much. They are thin on the ground. Alcoholics are much more abundant. 

 

In my wandering, I found this amazing web publication, The Fix: addiction and recovery, straight up. In a wonderful article, they explode the distance between drug and alcohol addiction and think about how this construct works in the general culture and in recovery culture as well.  Alcoholism vs Addiction. Check it out. 

 

I also discovered, we love it when our heroes or heroines get forcibly addicted. 

 

In addition, we are much more welcoming of the recovering historical hero or heroine. Opium, poppy seed, laudanum, ether... Seems romantic? Sweaty and bugged eyed to me. 

 

However, addiction as tool to cope with trauma, numb, feel good, and/or as a physical disability in a cultural that encourages casual consumption or risk taking creates great (real) characters for me and it is why some times I leave the frothier side of Romance for these darker depths. 

 

Here is my list of good Romance Novels that deal with drug addiction in its varying states-actively using, dry, withdrawing, drying out, sober, and recovery. 

 

We have the Rock Stars and the Famous:

 

What the Librarian Did by Karina Bliss  

Hard Rock Remix  by Ava Lore 

After Midnight by Sarah Grimm

Heartthrob by Suzanne Brockmann 

 

The Young

 

Yellowstone Redemption by Peggy L Henderson

Takedown by Julie Miller 

 

Dens of Opium

 

Reclaiming Lord Rockleigh by Nancy Butler

The Sins of Lord Easterbrook by Madeline Hunter

Scoundrel's Kiss by Carrie Lofty 

 

Even in Paranormal Worlds (maybe especially), you need to numb..

 

Lover Enshrined  by J.R. Ward 

Unholy Ghosts by Stacia Kane 

Eternal Seduction by Jennifer Turner 

 

 

Regular Folk

 

Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes 

 

3.5 starsCase was so stubborn - 8 wasted years because of it. But everyone deserves a second chance in happiness.

Rating 3.5
SPOILER: The book deals with date-rape and the fact that if a woman says no at any point, man has to accept that and if he doesn't it constitutes rape
I've wanted to read this book for a long time, mainly since it is kind of controversial and different.

Mitch Scanlon didn't have a good start in life but after he was rescued from the streets his life was good, he went pro playing football but then he lost the use of his legs, he is lying in the hospital bed feeling despondent, for a man who made his life and fame through his athletic abilities knowing that he may not ever walk again is a terrible prospect. Five years later he has reconciled himself to a life without football and the same comfort he had with women, he runs a gym when his old Coach comes to him with a coaching offer and literally guilt's him into atleast going for a meeting.

Carly grew up wealthy with parents who had too many expectations from her and whom she felt she disappointed when she became an unwed mother at eighteen. She's always been the one in-charge and responsible and that role suits her, after her father's death she is the President of Bradenton, a college that is part of their family legacy but she may lose it, the solution get a new coach, someone high-profile to make their football team into a winner. She loves her daughter and has tried to give her the independence she never grew up with that lead her to a party(at 18) and the father of her baby and a very bad first experienceshe was a virgin but when the final moment came she got scared, but the guy she was with was too drunk to stop or even hear pleas, the rape traumatized her. She had harbored a lot of anger but still worked to get through it so it is a big shock when she finds Mitch in her house.

She is very cool and serene with him even when she sees him eying her legs. Mitch has regrets for the jerk he was when he was younger, taking too many women to bed and he regrets one of his drunken one-night stand, that he doesn't know was Carly. He is attracted to her and not put off by the signals she gives off but he has scars from his disability.

I didn't think I would like Mitch but he grew on me, when Carly blurts out the truth to him we see him suffering and hating himself, despite loving her he doesn't go to her since he knows he doesn't deserve the chance. I liked how Carly confronted the fact that the blame wasn't one-sided, atleast her anger and that she made a choice which may not have been correct.

One thing I didn't like was that the author took the same route with Carly's daughter. What was good was that both Mitch and Carly confront the past through therapy and that Carly decides not to tell Tracy that Mitch is her father and also that Carly couldn't conceive conventionally because of Mitch. What happened to Carly was not brushed off and I found it very plausible when an angry Carly, threw it on Mitch's face, I wish those older books where the heroes rape the heroine and the heroines are just totally fine learn from this.

For me Carly just wasn't a heroine I could get into though.