The SEAL’s Miracle Baby

This book was read as an Advance Reading Copy (ARC) provided for free by the publisher with the knowledge that I would provide an unbiased and honest review/feedback on the work.

Book: The SEAL’s Miracle Baby

Author: Laurie Marie Altom

Published Date: June 2, 2015

Rating: M (for Mature)

Bookshelves: extreme weather, tornado, found baby, infertility, SEALs, Oklahoma, cowboy

Begun: March 17, 2015

Finished: March 19, 2015

Media Type: Kindle

Setting: Oklahoma

Characters: Jessie Long, Grady Matthews

Synopsis: Grady Matthews is on leave from the Navy. As a SEAL, he’s seen some things in his life but never the kind of devastation that he’s seeing in his hometown. After a catastrophic tornado ripped through the town, Grady comes home to find his family displaced and living with old friends, The Longs. Only problem? Their daughter, Jessie. The girl who stole his heart as a teenager and then stomped it to pieces. She was the reason he took off for the Navy.

Jessie can’t believe that Grady is back. And living in her house while helping to clean the town. Trapped in her elementary school for a few hours before being rescued, Jessie returns to her parents’ house when she discovers that her apartment, too, has been destroyed. Being so close to Grady is hard but it’s about to be harder.

Mayor Long is also a foster mother and has agreed to take in a baby that was found in a field after the tornado. Helping to clean and rebuild her town, Mayor Long passes “Angel” (the baby – as named by Grady) to Jessie and Grady to watch while she is working hard. But watching the baby causes emotions to resurface and the truth behind Jessie’s breakup with Grady is revealed.

Review: Altom did a fantastic job of creating characters that you really become vested in. Neither one of them is whiney or shallow and you want to care about both of them and see their problems resolve. Not all Harlequin novels are as deep as this one and I’m glad I came across it. It is both well plotted out and well written. Emotions swell with the characters and plot line. I found myself almost crying a few times (and I’m not a crier!). The ending was just perfect.

I definitely will be looking for more by this author whom I had never heard of before reading this book.

In my opinion, this book gets:

2000 Kisses (SEAL/Code Name series #1)

2000 Kisses by Christina Skye


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
It's the new millennium and EVERYONE'S worried about Y2K taking down the computers and the ATMs and THE WORLD! (sorry, I think this is hysterical and I did back in 2000 too when everyone thought it was going the be the end of the modern world as we knew it!)

Tess O'Mara's a modern woman with modern wants. She the head of ... well ... she's a PR guru. I don't know how else to describe her. She's the shit when it comes to her stuff though. And she's just sold out every port of the cruise ship that she was working on the campaign for. She makes everything she touches gold. And her boss is giving her a bonus ...

Then comes Jan. 1, 2000.

Tess decides to check her ATM account and withdraw some funds. But to her surprise (a very pleasant surprise) there are 1,000,000 reasons she needs to go on a shopping trip. A new hairstyle, a leather jacket, some clothes and a baby blue convertible later, Tess calls her brother in Washington to ask about the strange amount of money she's received after the bank can't track where the credit to her account came from.

Turns out something very illegal is going on and Tess has been caught up in the middle of it because of a Y2K glitch. Her brother wants her some place safe where an old friend will watch over her.

That place is Almost, Arizona (aka East-Cupcake-ville). And the friend that is going to be watching over Tess is ... well, think Mel Gibson in the late 80s/early 90s.

T.J. McCall is hot ... and tired ... and sick of trouble. That's why the ex-Secret Service agent is now the sheriff of the town out in the middle of no where, but after an old friend, Andy O'Mara, calls him asking for help with his baby sister, T.J. knows he's in for it.

The tension between these two sizzles and sparkles. My only problem with the book was that at times Tess seems to have these "spells" where she is halucinating that she is in the old West (I'm talking back when the Native Americans ran the place and the whitemen hadn't even been seen on the shore of New England, yet). Then all of a sudden ... nothing. They go away. She can't explain it ... no one can. They don't even bring it up again. That was a little bit of a problem to be but all in all, this was a good start to the Seal/Code Name series.

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Book: Hot & Heavy (Viking II series #5)

Hot & Heavy by Sandra Hill

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I've gotta say. I think that this book, so far, is my absolute favorite of Sandra Hill's books. It reads fast and beautifully. The emotion, the love, the sex, are all there and in the perfect quantity. The plot is believable and well executed.

Ian MacLean is as hardassed as they come. Leader of a SEAL team, Ian takes it in spades when something dangerous has to be done, like entering a cave in enemy territory. But what he finds there will knock his socks off.

Madrene Ogladottir is the last of her family alive. Alone he defended her homestead of Norsestead until Steinhold took her prisoner and threatened to kill off all of her holders. He sells her into the harems of the Arab lands when she refuses to wed him. One day, two years later, she finds herself in a horrible sandstorm one minute and a cave shelter the next.


Ian wanders upon a woman, smelling to high heaven and looking like Phyllis Dyller. What is she doing in the middle of the desert? And why does Ian feel like he knows her already?

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Book: Down & Dirty (Vikings II series #7)

Down and Dirty by Sandra Hill

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
WHOOO HOOO. Finally. My name.

You don't understand if you have a name like Susan or Katie or any other name that is common place. But my name is Britta.

I've never had magnets that I could buy or pencils with my name on it ... or key chains or cups ... my name isn't a "normal" name. Sure, I bought the Brittany magnet once and cut off the "ny" but that's not the same (althought this did make me happy at the time).

BRITTA Asadottir is a strong woman ... very very strong. And when she's pulled from her home in 1000 Norseland to 2000 California (on a Navy WEALS training course no less) she finds out what she's made of. Reaquiainting herself with Zack-hairy, the man who followed her around like a love sick puppy when the SEALs team was transported back to Norseland in Max's book, Britta wonders if all she will ever be is a warrior.

Holy hell. Could life get worse for Zachary "Pretty Boy" Floyd? His five year old son, who he stole from under a terrorist's nose in Afganistan, is running him ragged and now Britta ... BRITTA is here. And he's chasing her ... Zachary doesn't chase women ... they chase him. What is wrong with this picture?

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