Why do we love to hate a good "secret baby" story?

A better question would be:  Why are there so darn many "secret baby" stories.  

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.

Well slap my ass and call me Judy! A review of Susan Mallery's Chasing Perfect

No seriously... knock me over with a feather!  Susan Mallery has been sitting in front of me all this time and I had it in my head that I didn't like her books and I don't know why!  Chasing Perfect was exactly what I had been looking for.  I feel like I've been in such a dry spell I'm so happy to know that I have a whole back list of books I can read.

Let me give you the highlights:

• Third person with his/hers POV
• Straight up contemporary romance with no suspense, vampires or bizarre plot twists
• Strong and physically perfect male "lead".  He is an athlete and a superstar with the name to match his image "Josh Golden" and she is just the kind of heroine I like:  strong but feminine, never whiny, real and attractive in a realistic way.
• Good sex scenes but coming off a couple of erotic romances it's hard to tell if the mild let down on the steam factor was due to less than exceptional "romantic" moments or a little desensitization.  (Mild spoiler alert here:  Since the first time they are together he does her up against the wall I'm thinking the latter is more likely.)

What I loved:

• A lot of romance novels try so hard to build in a point of tension between the characters that a problem that could/should be easily solved becomes a huge issue in the relationship.  Eventually it just feels like the characters are whiny and spoiled or just annoying brats.  I felt like Josh and Charity were actual grown ups who handled problems the way most real people (out of high school) would.
• Funny writing.  Some good lines:  
• "She did not want to shake his hand, given the symptoms she'd already experienced.  Actual physical contact might lead to heart failure, or something even more embarrassing."
• "Pia, don't try to be funny."  "I don't try.  It just happens spontaneously.  Like a sneeze."  "Get a tissue and hold it in."
• "He's like a son to me.  I'd like to see him settle down with someone special."  Charity would like to see him naked, but she wasn't going to mention that.

What I could have done without:

• I understand in fiction we sometimes have to have a little suspension of disbelief but I was starting to wonder if everyone in this town was cursed.  They didn't seem to know it either.  Everyone had horrible things happening to them but they were all convinced of how charmed their lives were.  In trying to keep from any sort of spoiler I'm going to do a basic run down of the more prominent characters' problems without naming names:  child abuse, abandonment, neglect, runaways, had a "fall" leaving a child crippled, friend died, cancer, husband died in war, father of a child died in war, husband died in car accident, estrangement, more estrangement, embezzlement, watched a friend die in accident, crash left permanent physical damage.  There may be more.  But seriously, it was like all of this was in the background and it wasn't a big deal.  I just wondered how much more bad stuff could happen to any of these people!!!

In the end... I LOVED this book.  I think Susan Mallery is great and if this review has lots of spelling errors in it it's because I'm ready to finish writing this so I can move on to the next in the series!