Having Gabriel'S Baby (Bundles Of Joy)

Rating:
Summary: No surprises in this formulaic romance fare
Review: I must confess that I am not too keen on reading romance novels; I vaguely understand why others might like this genre but I myself prefer different kind of novels. However, I read this book because it was one of many books my dear friend donated to me. This is a story about Joelle and Gabriel who spend a drunken night together on vacation. Joelle ends up pregnant. When Gabriel finds out, they strike a deal and get married for the baby's sake. The main question of this drama is whether they also end up in love with each other.

I found no surprises in this novel - not that I even expected to find any. It was a fast and easy read, insignificant and forgettable. What I liked best about this books were the humorous parts - I found myself smiling broadly three or four times. On the other hand, I found two annoying things about this book (and perhaps about the whole genre). The first one was the author's occasional habit to use the sentence-chopping technique too often. Like this. And again. Distracting, isn't it?

The second annoying thing was how contrived the dramatic tension felt. Do all romance novel characters lie to themselves?! Here is a dreamy guy available, and this woman tries to pretend that she couldn't care less! Ditto about the guy. Sometimes I wanted to shake them both vigorously and tell them to be honest about the whole affair. Anyway, I guess hesitating and game-playing is an important big part of romance novels like this. At least leaving them out would make these books a whole lot shorter.