Diagnosis: Expecting Boss's Baby: The Babies of Doctors Circle (Harlequin American Romance, No 962)

Rating:
Summary: In love with the boss, and pregnant with his baby!
Review: Natalie Winford, divorcee and secretary for the head of an infertility clinic, became pregnant after she spent one wild night on her boss's yacht. Stunned, Natalie doesn't know how to tell him. She loves her boss, but she is sure that he doesn't feel the same way. Her greatest fears are that he will offer her a marriage of convenience for the baby's sake - or he will send her a support check every month, but will write her and the child out of his life for good. So Natalie decides to keep her little secret, and that's not the only secret she's keeping!

Doctor Patrick Barr is very attracted to his secretary, even though she shows no inclination to repeat the passionate night they shared together on his yacht. She seems withdrawn since their experience, not like the bubbly person she had once been. Once he accidentally discovers she's pregnant, his immediate thought is that the baby is his, although she denies it. So, thinking that she is carrying another man's child, will he find that he loves her enough to accept her and the child that isn't his...or will he let them walk out of his life?

I didn't like the character of Natalie at all. She didn't even have the decency to tell Patrick that she was pregnant, and when he did find out, she deliberately let him think that the child was her ex-husband's, not his! And then she wondered why Patrick wasn't asking her to marry him! Well, let's think this one out. Patrick thinks that, not only is Natalie pregnant with another man's baby, but she was sleeping with two different guys during the same time period and doesn't bother to tell either about the other.

The worst part about the whole book was, Natalie was just going to pretend the baby wasn't Patrick's and never give him the opportunity to know that he had a child, never give him the opportunity to spend time with the child, and never give him the opportunity to help raise his child. That's just sick. If a man is the father of your baby, and he is a good man and would love to be an active part of the child's life, how can you deny him and your child that? My daughter would LOVE to have a father who cared anything for her! So I felt absolutely no sympathy for Natalie.

This book was a real chore to read. I ended up gritting my teeth and wanting to throttle the heroine. I won't be reading any of the other books in "The Babies of Doctors Circle" series, and most definitely won't be reading this book again, either. If you're looking for a good book to read - skip this one.