I've been catching up on my Susan Mallery novels and going through the Fool's Gold series. I recently finished Almost Perfect. Since these books are not brand new I thought that rather than sticking to reviewing each one of the books individually I could give a "if you liked this, then you'll like that" list. So I start digging through some books I've read to find some that were similar and suddenly realized the popularity of the "secret baby" theme. I hadn't really given it a lot of thought before but then I start finding discussion threads that are dedicated to how much they hate the "secret baby" theme.
Reasons to love it:
If a couple can overcome that, even in fiction, anything is possible.
Reasons to hate it:
Why didn't they use a condom? I want to love the hero/heroine of my romance novels and in order to love them I really need them to be intelligent people. I would hope that most intelligent people could find their way into a small foil packet with only a minimum of complications.
Could a real person ever really get over that? The fact that the baby was "hidden" or kept away from someone was somebody's fault. Maybe the dad was an ass or Mom was being secretive or only wanted the baby for herself... who knows but someone did something REALLY bad to get to this point and it involved a child. I don't know if people in the real world would ever get over that.
Even if they can get over it there is going to be some serious "discussion".... I read romance novels to have fantasy and escape the "discussions" of reality. Every plot is going to have to have some sort of conflict but this one seems to be an invitation for more conflict than I want to deal with in one book.
Regardless... a good author can overcome any of these problems. (Condom broke, they WERE stupid when they were 16, someone came between them or there was confusion and the information wasn't passed along, understanding and forgiving people can overcome anything, space aliens abducted the main character etc...) I can see the reason why the theme would be tedious but I look at it as a good author/bad author problem and not a problem with the theme in general.
So I think if you are picky with your authors then you can feel safe with the "secret baby" theme, but until you know the author you might want to start with a safer topic.
I feel safe with Susan Mallery and she did not disappoint in Almost Perfect. I'm really loving these books. This is already a long post so I'll give the basic information quickly:
- Third person, his/hers POV
- She is a best selling mystery author and he is a former tour de France contending cyclist turned contractor and wind turbine manufacturer. (I don't know I just went with it... it sounds worse when it's all on paper together.)
- Obviously there is a secret baby. He is actually 11 so not so much a baby. The theme is handled well.
- This is the 2nd book in the Fool's Gold series and I think that while it may not be strictly necessary the book would be less enjoyable without having read the first in the series.
- My only real complaint is the same as the first: there is a LOT going on in this little town. Lots of tragedy and drama and extremely successful people but no one seems to notice that it's not a typical small town.
- I would definitely recommend!
If you like this then you might like other "secret baby" contemporary romances told in third person with multiple POV such as:
- Still the One by Robin Wells: Katie gives up the baby she and Zack had together though she's never told Zack she was pregnant. The baby is now 16 and finds Zack while searching out her birth parents, Zack obviously then finds Katie.
- The Girl Most Likely To... by Susan Donovan: Kat gets dumped by her high school boyfriend right before she tells him about her pregnancy on the same day some other horrible things happen to her, her parents kick her out of the house so she runs away and changes her name. 20 years later she comes back to show off her new amazing self and how wonderfully she turned out only to find out that her ex-boyfriend/father of her child has known about their son for some time and has been searching for them and is not happy.
- Simply Irresistible by Rachel Gibson: On the day Georgeanne leaves her fiancé at the alter without so much as $10 to her name she has a one night stand with hockey star John only to be sent on her way with a plane ticket to her hometown the next day. She cashes it in to get her started on a new life. 7 years later they run into each other again only for John to discover he has a daughter.
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