Tracy’s review of The Baby Bargain by Jennifer Apodaca.
Seeing Adam Waters is the last thing veterinarian Megan Young expects. Ex-Marine. Ex-boyfriend. And still extremely dangerous territory. But Adam doesn’t know the secret Megan has been keeping from him. The secret that was created three years ago, after their last night together…Adam returns to Raven’s Cove to sell his home in a final break with the town and memories that haunt him. The problem is that his attraction to Megan is as blazing hot as it ever was. But when a vicious smear campaign against Megan turns ugly, Adam learns the truth he never knew—he has a son. Now the only way Megan can protect her child is to strike a bargain with Adam. And it’s a bargain that looks a lot like blackmail…
Megan is a Vet who is on her way out of the office when the man of her dreams walks in with an injured dog. The man is Adam Waters and yes he was the man of her dreams once, before he left her 3 years prior with no contact info. Megan has mixed feelings about seeing Adam again but the physical attraction is still there for both of them.
Megan decides that’s it ok to get a tad bit involved with Adam she doesn’t want him to know that when he left 3 years ago he left her pregnant. She knows that Adam is emotionally unavailable and had said in the past that he never wanted to get married or have kids and he was very adamant about that. Now Meg wants to get a little closer to the man to see if he still feels as strongly about being the lone wolf.
Adam is a tortured soul. We know that his parents, who are now deceased, were horrible to him and we get small clues throughout the story as to why but we don’t get the whole story until almost the end of the book. Suffice it to say that he is an island and is completely emotionally locked down. When he eventually finds out about Cole his is beyond pissed that Megan never contacted him. He feels a responsibility to his son, Cole, but he knows he can’t be the father that the boy needs…or can he?
While Megan and Adam are trying to work through their many feelings, Megan is being framed for a dog kidnapping. She is accused, which she knows is ridiculous, but she has no idea who would set her up like that.
The story was very sweet in a kind of angsty way. Megan was a pretty upbeat woman in general but Adam was really damaged by the way he had been raised. I felt so very sorry for Adam, especially after reading about the cause of it all. His parents were horrible people and I didn’t like them at all!
The romance in this book was almost something that happened in the background while the rest of life was happening, but it worked. Between Adam dealing with his anger over Cole and Megan dealing with whoever was trying to frame her, they because closer to each other. They saw in each other someone that could enrich their life and I was happy to see that they each decided to take a chance.
Adam was the owner of Once a Marine Security and he had ex-Marine’s who were in his employ. I couldn’t help but wonder if this will be the start of a series where we get to read about the rest of the secondary characters, Hunter, Griff, Cooper, Logan and of course Adam’s best friend’s widow, Sienna. I think it would be a good series and one I would definitely read.
Rating: 3.75 out of 5
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This book is available from Entangled Publishing. You can buy it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher for an honest review.
