Be My Babies (Harlequin Superromance) (Twins) [Mass Market Paperback]

Kathryn Shay (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 11, 2008

A small town called Fairview is Lily Wakefield's last stop--there's nowhere left to go. Maybe here she can finally stop running and start a new life. Which just might include Simon McCarthy, the newspaperman and single father who's starting to make her believe in love again.

Just as she and Simon start becoming a real family that includes her baby twins and his daughter, Lily's past catches up with her. And that past could rob her of her chance at happiness.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Harlequin (March 11, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0373714793
• ISBN-13: 978-0373714797
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 4.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,001,070 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kathryn Shay is a lifelong writer. At fifteen, she penned her first 'romance,' a short story about a female newspaper reporter in New York City and her fight to make a name for herself in a world of male journalists - and with one hardheaded editor in particular. Looking back, Kathryn says she should have known then that writing was in her future. But as so often happens, fate sent her detouring down another path.

Fully intending to pursue her dream of big city lights and success in the literary world, Kathryn took every creative writing class available at the small private women's college she attended in upstate New York. Instead, other dreams took precedence. She met and subsequently married a wonderful guy who'd attended a neighboring school, then completed her practice teaching, a requirement for the education degree she never intended to use. But says Kathryn, "I fell in love with teaching the first day I was up in front of a class, and knew I was meant to do that."

Kathryn went on to build a successful career in the New York state school system, thoroughly enjoying her work with adolescents. But by the early 1990s, she'd again made room in her life for writing. It was then that she submitted her first manuscript to publishers and agents. Despite enduring two years of rejections, she persevered. And on a snowy December afternoon in 1994, Kathryn Shay sold her first book to Harlequin Superromance.

Since that first sale, Kathryn has written twenty-two books for Harlequin, ten mainstream contemporary romances for the Berkley Publishing Group, and two online novellas, which Berkley then published in traditional print format.

Kathryn has become known for her powerful characterizations - readers say they feel they know the people in her books - and her heart-wrenching, emotional writing (her favorite comments are that fans cried while reading her books or stayed up late to finish them). In testament to her skill, the author has had a one of her books serialized in the December 2003 COSMOPOLITAN magazine and has been quoted in PEOPLE and THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. She has won five RT BookClub Magazine Reviewers Choice Awards, three Holt Medallions, two Desert Quill Awards, the Golden Leaf Award, and several online accolades.

Even in light of her writing success, that initial love of teaching never wavered for Kathryn. She finished out her teaching career in 2004, retiring from the same school where her career began. These days, she lives in upstate New York with her husband and two children. "My life is very full," she reports, "but very happy. I consider myself fortunate to have been able to pursue and achieve my dreams."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The book has it all!, March 16, 2008

By 

Angela F. Dobson (York, PA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Be My Babies (Harlequin Superromance) (Twins) (Mass Market Paperback)

When Lily Wakefield discovers she is pregnant she is excited and races home to tell her husband. She never gets the chance, when she walks in and he is using cocaine, he becomes irate and smacks her. She waits until night and leaves him, telling no one where she is going. Lily has no family; her mom left home as an unwed mother at sixteen, and Lily has never even seen her grandparents.

Lily finds herself needing family support more than ever, and goes home to her mom's father who is still living. Having lost her mother years before, she only has the stories her mom told to help her decide he is her best hope. When Lily arrives in Fairview, her grandfather is glad to meet her, and wants to help. Others are not quite so ready to trust her story and to accept her.

Kathryn Shay has written one of the best novels this reader has read this year, maybe in the past two years. BE MY BABIES is emotional and filled with love - and babies! Lily's twins feel real, this reader could almost hear them crying in the background while she read. Ms. Shay has written a novel that brought tears to this reader's eyes, and joy to her heart when Lily and Simon made peace and found their happily ever after.

Many scenes in BE MY BABIES stand out, leaving this reader with memories that feel almost real. When Lily attends her grandfather's funeral, knowing she has lost the family she found, it was heartbreaking, even worse was when Lily felt she had to return to her husband and let him have a second chance. Yet when Simon stands up for her against the in-laws that want to take her babies, it is a time for rejoicing - if he can help her win custody. This novel has it all. The twists and turns, the ups and downs emotionally make this a read to be savored.


Review Courtesy of LoveRomancesandmore

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars wonderful family drama, March 6, 2008

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Be My Babies (Harlequin Large Print Super Romance) (Mass Market Paperback)

Her husband may be affluent and a member of high society, but Derek Wakefield fails to grow up as drugs and now women supersede family obligations especially now that his wife is pregnant. Expecting twins and no help from her addicted Peter Pan mate, Lily Wakefield leaves New York City to visit her mother's hometown Fairview, New York. There she hopes her maternal grandfather Gil Gardner, owner of the local newspaper Sentinel, whom she has never met, will help her.

In Fairview, Lily meets newspaper editor Simon McCarthy and his daughter Jenny, who calls Gil "Grandpa Gil". Soon she meets a stunned Gil who feels guilt for allowing his wife to run off their pregnant daughter Camy when she needed them. He knows Camy died, but was unaware that she had the child, his granddaughter. He needs her to stay and she wants to as her mom only had kind words for her father. Meanwhile Simon fears she has come to take over the paper as he understands how thick blood can be. Still he is attracted to the pregnant woman who might replace him as the editor after she gives birth.

This is a wonderful family drama with likable characters as Gil and Lily get second chances. Simon and Lily are a terrific pairing and love for each other and for Gil brings them together. Although a subplot involving Derek's vengeful upper crust mother using blackmail seems over the top especially the extortion gamut, fans will enjoy this fine homecoming romance.

Harriet Klausner

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars What was she thinking?, March 25, 2008

By 

Kalysle "Romance critic" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Be My Babies (Harlequin Superromance) (Twins) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is one of the worst romance novels I have read. The main characters are okay enough but the supporting characters and the storyline are not fully developed. The characters come accross as idiotic people who only look out for themselves and the main guy is so selfish you want to smack him upside the head. Caution: spoiler alert. How hard can it possibly be to understand that the woman needs to go back to her husband? how hard can it be to be friends with someone even if they live in a different town? Come on Ms. Shay you are a better writer than this. The prolonged sentimentality does the story no good. If the main guy or the townspeople had been given a better basis for their hatred other than the fact that she was trying to save her family, this book might have worked. Oh and a sixteen year old, even a naive sixteen year old is too old to react that way because someone moved away. Buck up.
Buy this book if you must just don't expect great things.