Customer Reviews

His Child (Harlequin Intrigue)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Talented newcomer Delores Fossen debuts with the tense and exciting thriller, "His Child." Late one night Jessie Brandon confronts Texas political candidate Jake McClendon with a gun and an unbelievable story. She claims she was kidnapped, held prisoner and artificially inseminated with his child. Jake doesn't believe such a crazy tale. Then it becomes clear that someone is trying to kill her and Jessie knows things she can't possibly know. Though he doesn't trust her he has to keep her close until he discovers if she's being used to destroy him. Could this stranger be carrying his child?

"His Child" has the kind of storyline that is very hard to believe. Many people will probably read the first two sentences of that summary, think it's stupid and pass on this book. What makes it stand out and makes it such an entertaining read is the writing. Fossen is a talented author and the story flies by. The pace is incredibly fast and the twists never stop. This is a real pageturner. I was having such a fun time reading it that I was able to get past how far-fetched it was. The mystery is strong with a number of suspects to keep the reader guessing. The characters are dynamic and the situation they find themselves in is naturally dramatic, providing the story with a strong conflict and highly emotional scenes. Although one Big Misunderstanding threatens to derail the story, Fossen manages to create enough empathy for her characters that I wasn't alienated. I cared enough about the characters to want to see them overcome it.

"His Child" is a book I read in one sitting. Despite its convoluted premise, it has all the emotion, mystery and suspense of a great Intrigue. The biggest compliment I can give this book is that it contains most of the elements I'm tired of, and I still liked the book. One of the most sheerly entertaining Intrigues I've read in a while.

I don't normally like Intrigues, but this one was wonderful. Intelligently and tightly-written, with spare but beautiful and believable love scenes. It doesn't get any better than this.

I just got this book through the bookclub and read it in one night. It was awesome. There's a lot of action but it doesn't get in the way of the love story---my favorite part. Oh, and I loved the cover too.

This fast paced book would make a great movie! It has everything. Non-stop action, sharp witty dialogue, plot twists and turns that keep you guessing right up to the end and a love scene that will KNOCK YOUR SOCKS OFF.

If you have not read any of Ms. Fossen's fantastic books, you are missing a TERRIFIC read. Try HIS CHILD. You'll be delighted and coming back for UNBRIDLED and SADDLED.

I read the reviews for this book and thought I'd give it a whirl. It's not intrinsically bad or poorly written, it's simply unrealistic and at times, a bit silly. **SPOILER ALERT** I'm not ruining too much of the plot here but to be perfectly honest, this next sentence will divulge one fairly interesting plot twist.

Jessie is a cop. However, how she EVER graduated from the police academy is beyond me. She is scared most of the time (I expect our heroes and heroines in blue to be fearless)and doesn't quite know how to investigate - anything. OK, so why did I like this book even a little, you may ask. Frankly, I was curious as to the "who" and "why" the heroine is inseminated. And the sex was pretty hot. So if you're looking for something to pass a few hours w/ try this one out. Just hope you don't get someone like Jessie when you call 911.

Having resolved to stop being a snob about Harlequin and having found great enjoyment in a Presents release (see earlier review), my next step was to try out the Intrigue line. I carefully researched reviews on Amazon and ordered His Child because it was highly rated. For the most part I agree with the ratings.

The plot is very... well, intriguing. Forced insemination? Why? The search for a motive was as absorbing as the whodunit. Why would someone want Jessie to be impregnated with Jake's child? Why is someone now trying to kill her? The cast of characters is limited, there are only 4 viable suspects, but darned if I could guess it correctly. There's lots of action to keep things moving too. Bullets flying, arson, witnesses getting killed. I kept turning the pages to see what was going to happen next.

Jake is a strong and sexy hero and I really liked him. He doesn't believe the heroine's story at first (who would?) but he's never a jerk. He's protective of Jessie and her child even before he's convinced it's his. He shields her when bullets rain down on them. Jessie was less well drawn. She never seems to really behave like a cop. She should be more used to investigating things and being shot at than Jake yet she always lets him take the lead. And she never displays the amount of angst you'd expect from a victim of kidnapping and forced insemination.

The romance starts off rather shakily. I felt the author was telling us that they were attracted to each other rather than showing us, or giving us a reason why. But things spark to life in the romance department about halfway through, culminating in a hot albeit not terribly explicit love scene. I would have liked more!

Bottom line: a really absorbing, fast-paced suspense read that you'll be tempted to read in 1 sitting while the supper burns.

As a romance, the book was good, and I read it in one day. Jake is smart, strong, caring, and willing to put himself in danger to protect Jessie and their child. I also praise the author for taking the traditional topic of an unplanned pregnancy but doing so through a very different plot - unwanted artificial insemination.

As an intrigue, it was perplexing to me that Jessie had very little emotional response to her being kidnapped and held for three months, particularly as she also says that she never wanted children. Jessie just wants her life to be safe and for things to settle down, and she never expresses a desire for justice. How does Jessie, a cop on a leave of absence, not want justice for the people who kidnapped her, locked her in a cell in a warehouse for three months, inseminated her with some guy's sperm she didn't know, and then ran tests on her to see if she was indeed pregnant?

Likewise, since Jake is a candidate for the state of Texas senate in a close race, Jake's calendar should have been a whole lot busier and he would be meeting with a significant number of his staff, not just Douglas.

[Spoiler alert - Do not read if you don't want to know the ending] I personally felt that the ending explanation was a little rushed. Why would Douglas want Christy dead for rejecting his advances, since he's already flaunted his adultery for many years and Willa has stuck by him and still says that she loves him? That could have been explained by one sentence, such as "my wife said she'd divorce me if she caught me with one more woman." His explanation is based on the fact that Christy would have gone to Willa, but Christy seemed to me more like the person who would have just tried to ignore Douglas and work. After all, she didn't tell Willa, she told her boss Ray. Finally, why was Douglas so money hungry anyway? Because this is a romance, and things have to work out in the end, you know early on that Douglas and Markham must be the killers, because they're the bad people as the adulterer and the evil political opponent.

For many romance readers, all the plots don't have to be filled in, as long as the romance is engaging, but I think that those items kept me from really feeling close to the characters.