Unexpectedly expecting, Kate decides the best course of action is to temporarily move in to the beach house next door to her sometime lover, Drake, while at the same time, she’s in seemingly no hurry to clue him in about her condition. Drake, meantime, as an author, is very adamant about his alone time, and as a man, he’s even more adamant about never becoming a father.

This book most appealed to me in its quieter moments, like the walks on the beach or the morning she first meets the dog. And there was an interesting twist that I absolutely did not see coming, although that was followed up with a misunderstanding that I just sort of shook my head over and then I get that a certain ending would seem like a traditionally satisfying way to wrap things up, but for me, for that to have happened, and for a certain character to have been good with it, insisting that was what they wanted, was quite a leap. I could see that character getting there at some point, but that just felt too quick for such a turnaround.

Speaking of the characters, I was good with the animals, I thought they brought out the best in Kate and Drake more than Kate and Drake brought out the best in each other, but the humans on their own, I definitely struggled with them.

I struggled with Kate’s passive aggressive plan to move in next door without telling Drake about the pregnancy, I probably would have preferred seeing her upfront say, hey, I’m having a baby, be a part of it, or don’t, instead of her sitting around in a bathing suit desperate to catch his eye and the stereotypical claws out squabbling with another woman over Drake. Kate’s actions, her game playing, too often made her seem like she didn’t have much dignity.

I struggled with Drake’s sexual innuendo in and out of the bedroom, there were just times where for me, the words coming out of his mouth seemed like a bit much, though there are probably other readers who will find it attractive. Also not so attractive to me, like Kate, Drake’s a game player, he keeps her guessing about his involvement with other women when there was no reason to do so other than he likes making her jealous even though she seemingly couldn’t have a conversation with a man, including Drake’s own friends without Drake becoming territorial, and I just thought if jealousy makes him that miserable why would he inflict the same anguish on someone I’m supposed to believe that he loves. Add to that the way he responds in a moment where Kate emotionally really needs someone (a moment he even thought was worse than it was) and I just felt like yeah, he’s angry and has every right to be, but my kind of hero, in that moment, would say to himself, I’ll be there for her now in a deeper way than just driving her where she needs to go and save the anger for later. I guess that’s the bottom line, he just wasn’t my kind of hero.

I guess this wasn’t even really my kind of romance novel, it’s weird how much I love soap operas on television yet in books, the older I get the less tolerance I seem to have for melodrama and game playing, however, I do think someone with different sensibilities than mine could be quite entertained by this book. ( )

A paranormal reading list selection from Bitten By Books for AReCafe.com. ( )

I really enjoyed this one. Although it had the same elements all HP, it was better than many others I've read. The heroine did bother me when she didn't stand up for herself, but I loved that the hero wanted to make things work. ( )

This read was funny to me in that I'd actually been trying out a few things with format. I wasn't planning on reading the book when I did. I simply opened it one time to see how it had converted from ePub to mobi and then couldn't stop reading. Next thing I knew I was on chapter 3 and had absolutely no intentions of stopping. And I had to go pick up kids and such! So I had to quickly transfer it to my phone so I could read while sitting in parking lots and such. :-) So I think you can pretty much tell what my assessment of this book is--I love, love, loved it!!! It has been a long time since I felt sucked into a book told only from the heroines pov. That in itself was interesting to me. Usually I like a strong male pov throughout. And this one wasn't all bitter as so many single pov books I've read have been. That was cool too. It could have been, the conflicts were there but I loved how the heroine herself pointedly chose not to be bitter but to find a way to see a good in things. Totally loved it. Gonna have to get more of Susan's books. Which makes me laugh. Every time I think, 'Why am I picking up books by new authors when so often they are not panning out?' Then I run across a gem and know why. And once again because of a free book given to me, I'm now buying more. :-) ( )

A bit too forced; a smidgen more of honesty and communication and the entire plot would have fallen apart. ( )