For A Baby

Rating:
Summary: From the "9 Months Later" series - Recommended
Review: Years after her first love married someone else, Heather Sweeney still carries a torch for Russell. Now a medical condition leads to early infertility. So when explosive passion leads her to bed with T.J. Collins, Heather does not care if she becomes pregnant. In fact, part of her hopes that she does. Once she learns of her pregnancy, however, Heather informs T.J. of her condition and asks him to marry her.

T.J. fears setting expectations that he cannot meet. He would rather decline involvement in Heather's life and their unborn child than to somehow fail them. With his previous family, he has already proven that even if he occasionally gets something right, he always disappoints his loved ones in the end. Only in the intimacy of their bedroom does he freely show his feelings for Heather. But the question remains how long that can be enough for either of them.

C.J. Carmichael takes a challenging position with her heroine in FOR A BABY. Heather deliberately allows herself to get pregnant, and her marital expectation of T.J. seems wildly unfair given their situation. Only the fact that he so easily capitulates redeems the situation. While she might be a woman who always tried to the right thing, Heather's long term fantasy regarding Russell's refusal to accept his emotions and Heather's machinations make for a rather cold beginning to a read that becomes remarkably tender by the end. While that extreme shift of tone provides a lovely read when all is said and done, it does require the reader to persevere. FOR A BABY comes recommended.