And it's pushing it to get 3.
I have a small assortment of harlequins and silhouettes, many bought because they were discussed in a reading group (hate feeling left out), a small bunch inherited when a relative died, and a group that represent backlists of authors who've written something I liked. This one is from that latter group - Justine Davis also wrote the futuristics, Sky Pirate and Lord of the Storm.
Obviously, I liked those two books better.
It has everything - celebrity H, separation, heroine with tragic past, secret baby (who acts 3 years older than she is)...
There's a saying that you bring about that which you fear the most. The H apparently feared becoming his mother, and the h feared abandonment. In the beginning of the book, she's reluctantly leaving her 2 year old with a sitter for 2 weeks to discuss a documentary. She goes to the meeting and finds herself face to face with the H. Then we get the flashback which is half the book and honestly, if it had stuck in that time frame and worked out the bugs, I'd have liked it a lot better. The H had become essentially his mother - a shallow, self-absorbed jerk. He threw a tantrum on-set, flew to his home town just ahead of a hurricane, and took his speed boat out in it. Stupid, yes, and he very nearly won a Darwin award. The h wasn't much brighter - taking pictures of the approaching hurricane for a book. She rescued him. Later, he rescued her. As they were cowering under the covers when the hurricane made landfall, they distracted themselves. The next day, the rescue team showed up and she bolted.
Abruptly, it's 3 years later. She agrees to spend 4 weeks with him (remember, the two-year-old is with a sitter), he's so afraid of scaring her off, he practically tiptoes around her. She assumes he doesn't want her anymore. Then, when she figures it out, they have a big night (where protection is not mentioned). The next day, his brother shows up and informs him he's going to be an uncle, something is said questioning bro being the dad, something else was said about some groupie who apparently tried to be a celebrity baby mama... Heroine bolts.
Last couple of chapters are after he tracks her down 3 weeks later. He's pissed. She's all snotty. He finds out about kid, they have a brief discussion whereupon he pretty much agrees with everything she says. The end.
Irritants -
the tragic past being constantly in her mind. I would guess the h was a child of the '60s. Free love might have been the theme but consequences still were frowned upon. She's constantly thinking about the unknown woman who abandoned her as an infant, but it apparently never crosses her mind that the unknown woman may have been a teen herself and struggling to survive. She often thinks of this in reference to her child but she left the child for *2* weeks (and was going to extend it a month) and was working on an itinerary for a book tour in Australia for an unknown amount of time - leaving the kid with a sitter. If she was doing so well she could retire (seriously, she was contemplating living off her investments at the end), she could also afford to take a nanny with her.
The whole hidden baby thing. Her reasoning was that a) he'd think she did it deliberately (under the circumstances? Right) and b) she didn't want to be a charity case. Lousy reasons to deny your kid a father.
The end has him insisting on a wedding and planning to go to Australia with her and taking the kid. Can't say as I blame him - hanging onto the kid is probably the only way to keep her from bolting. OTOH, do you really want to saddle yourself with a woman who's constantly looking for an excuse to run out on you?
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