High-powered businessman Cameron Shaw doesn’t believe in love—until he falls head over heels for beautiful, passionate, and intensely private Martina. She’s perfect in so many ways, immediately bonding with his little girl. Martina could be his future bride and a delightful stepmother … if only Cameron weren’t blinded by his belief that Shelly, the gold-digging woman he’s promised to marry, is pregnant with his child.
No matter how much his friends protest his upcoming marriage to Shelly, Cameron knows he has a duty to his children, so he’s determined to see it through.
Will he find out in time that Shelly’s lying and Marti’s the one who’s actually carrying his child? It’ll come down to the day of his wedding. After choosing Shelly over Marti at every turn, will he convince Marti she’s his world and the only woman he wants?
Cameron Shaw knows that he needs to find a woman to be a mother to his 5 year old daughter but quite frankly none of the women he meets really floats his boat. That is until he meets Shelly in the bar of his building and since she looks SO much like his dead wife he immediately is drawn to her. Unfortunately Cameron realizes that the resemblance is only skin deep and when Shelly and his daughter Emma don’t get along he’s ready to break it off with her. Shelly’s not completely stupid and realizes the relationship’s tanking so she makes up a pregnancy to keep Cameron by her side.
Cameron is not only raising Emma by himself but he himself was also raised without his father. His mother was wonderful and loved him to pieces but it just didn’t make up for the lack of a father. Cameron is convinced that the only way to be a good father is to marry Shelly so that the unborn child, as well as Emma, can have a full family – even though he knows he doesn’t love Shelly at all. He’s completely A-OK with his decision until he meets Marti.
Marti is a woman that is amazing – Cameron can tell that from moment one. His daughter loves her and feels comfortable with her immediately. She is kind, giving and all that is good. He loves her almost immediately and she falls in love with him but he’s committed to Shelly and nothing will make him break up his soon-to-be family – even love.
I’m not sure where to start with this review. On the one hand I gotta give it to Jennifer Ryan for writing an intriguing story – because it really was. I couldn’t put it down because I HAD to know what happened. The problem was that I felt like I was watching an accident happen and I just couldn’t peel my eyes away. Let me explain…
Cameron – I can understand where he’s coming from because he’s quite desperate for a family. He, however, completely acts like an ass to Marti through most of the book. I had a hard time with their “love” as it was almost love at first sight. Yes, they got to know each other somewhat but the pure emotion that they each displayed after hardly talking to each other was a bit surprising. I went with it because I thought that they would continue to get to know each other – and they did, to a point. Cameron, despite his complete love for Marti treated her like dirt for almost the entire book – when he wasn’t sleeping with her. He so obviously loved her and wanted to be with her but he wouldn’t break it off with Shelly – even though Marti and all of her friends were telling him that they ALL believed that Shelly was lying about the pregnancy. Shelly lied about so much in this book and Cameron believed her every time. I wanted to crawl into my ereader and slap the man silly!
Marti was a woman who had been alone for many years. She had taken care of her dying grandfather and then her dying grandmother (they had raised her) and then spent a year at sea. She really had no friends so I could kind of see how she would get attached to Cameron so easily but then when he kept treating her so badly she kept hanging on. She wasn’t quiet and shy about it though. She got in his face and told the truth about her feelings and what she thought about Shelly and STILL Cameron wouldn’t give in. By this time in the book I honestly wasn’t sure that I wanted Marti to get together with Cameron because he didn’t deserve her.
Now there were extenuating circumstances to the way that Cameron was acting but I still felt he could have handled things differently. He really pushed my buttons and acted in a way that I thought was probably not the norm for him. In the end things worked out and everyone was happy but for me it wasn’t the satisfied HEA that I really wanted. Yes there was an HEA but I wanted Marti to give him a harder time because of his actions. That didn’t happen and he didn’t grovel enough for my liking but it worked out.
I really like Ryan’s writing and will continue to read her work but this one, while good, wasn’t great for me.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Happy Birthday, Tracy! xo
Have some cake for meeeee!!!
Thanks so much, Christine! I will DEFINITELY have some cake for you. 😉