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:

Baby Out of the Blue

This book was read as an Advance Reading Copy (ARC) provided for free by the publisher.

Book: Baby Out of the Blue

Author: Rebecca Winters

Rating:  M (for Mature Audiences – nothing that you would find in your run of the mill romance novel)

Bookshelves: 2012, baby, death, Greece, Harlequin, infertility, romance

Begun: December 21, 2012

Finished: December 22, 2012

Media Type: eBook (read on Kindle app on Nexus 7)

Setting: Greece

Characters: Fran Myers, Kellie Petralia, Leandros Petralia, Nik Angelis

Synopsis: Fran and her closest friend Kellie are traveling through Greece when a freak thunderstorm, complete with tornados, hits their region and they are forced to take refuge in a roadside hotel instead of traveling through to their destination (a hotel owned by Kellie’s Greek husband Leandros Petralia). The next morning as word travels through the breakfasting guest about the tornados, Fran finds a baby just lying in the shrubs next to the patio. She’s rushed to hospital and it’s discovered that she is the only surviving member of the Angelis family who were staying at the hotel that Fran and Kelly were supposed to have travelled to … twelve miles up the road. Swept up in the tornados, Demi was put down at the feet of a woman who needed some love and affection but will she be able to help the baby out when her very handsome uncle, Nik Angelis, comes to bring her home from the hospital?

Review: The plot beats you over the head with the knowledge that Fran didn’t have a child with her ex-husband and Kellie is allergic to Leandros’ sperm (which is literally spelled out for you in vivid detail – too much information – simply telling the reader that she had an allergy would have been enough but Winters goes into detail about the rash etc – TMI!!). Its like: I get it. These women are not exactly happy in their current relationship situations BUT they are so passive about it. I hope that Kellie’s book gives the woman some backbone because I came to despise her as the book went on! She gives a new meaning to the word “weak!” I think that Fran was pretty indesive and easily swayed too. One minute she doesn’t want to stay on as Demi’s nanny (or whatever) and the next she doesn’t want to leave. The girl needs a brain and needs to learn how to use it! And, truthfully, I’m usually not a fan of Rebecca Winters but this novel wasn’t half bad (much better than other novels by her that I’ve read).

In my opinion, this book gets:

2 out of 5 stars