Customer Reviews

Her Secret, His Child: A Little Secret (Harlequin Superromance No. 836)

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

 

 

In spite of her past with an abusive stepfather, turning to prostitution for income, and becoming a single mother, Jamie Archer miraculously has now become an accountant. For the past two-years she has lived in Larkspur Grove, Colorado where she raises her precocious four-year-old daughter.

Jamie's life spins out of control when Gunnison University English Professor Kyle Radcliff calls for tax assistance, having just relocated from Las Vegas. Jamie is stunned because Kyle is the one-night stand that led to her being pregnant. However, he does not seem to know her, so she agrees to do his taxes. When they meet, he immediately recognizes her as the woman he loves and has sought for the last five years. He realizes that both misunderstood several of the events from that night of heaven, but he knows he loves Jamie and believes she reciprocates. Jamie refuses to allow him to get close to her because she fears his reaction to being a father and her past, dooming this couple to a lifetime of unhappiness.

Anyone who obtains a Tara Taylor Quinn contemporary romance knows it is a time to celebrate because the novel is always entertaining. HER SECRET, HIS CHILD provides readers with an intriguing romance that demonstrates an individual with a will and a goal can surmount any obstacle. The story line is fun as it provides homage to parents as they raise their children. Jamie is a role model, who deserves being the star of a book. The prime male lead is a sensitive, compassionate individual who sees the true value of a "families". Ms Quinn celebrates families in an enjoyable romantic novel.

Harriet Klausner

Jamie has finally got her life together. She'd done many things she's not proud of and has been used and abused by men all her life but she and her 4 year old daughter are a very happy family of two. The problem? Suddenly Kyle is back in her life, a man she had a one night stand with 5 years before and the father of her child. Also the man that left a wad of cash on the dresser and was gone when she woke up the next morning, after the first time she ever felt like she really connected with someone. But the reason those bills really hurt so much is that she really was a prostitute, just not with him.

I have to say it's good to see an author who can deal with the subject of a woman being a whore and do it properly. Jamie doesn't say how many men she has slept with, but somewhere between 10 and 50. I've read other stories about whores and in the end they admit to only sleeping with like 2-3 people . . . not very realistic. But here it is done both realistically and respectfully, even if it is a little sugar coated.

Jamie is a very damaged person, and I wasn't even a quarter into the book and I wondered why she had money to send her kid to dance lessons but she didn't have herself in therapy. Because of her past she is traumatized about having sex because it's all connected to her own self loathing. Kyle is one of the sweetest heroes I've come across in a while, with his fear his new found daughter won't love him, his eagerness to woo the one that got away, his black and white views of right and wrong and his glasses and inability to get anywhere on time. This isn't really a story of them falling in love, because they both fairly quickly love each other, it's a story about them both being able to deal with her past and you will run the range of emotions with this book, from smiles to tears.

My only real problem with this is that the first man she is with was supposedly her "pimp," being he sent all his friends to her. Why would he spend his time doing that if his wife was going to leave him if he was with her again? Some kind of loyalty or did he have a lot of clients that needed "entertaining" and knowing a good whore was good for business? But the real thing that tested my disbelieve is that the h and H met at a party given by Mr Pimp. But what kind of party was it that his wife wasn't there? It was never explained and that was a plot hole. Also I find it had to believe that each of the men she slept with made her feel special and beautiful. And when she tells Kyle that she used to be a whore he immediately doubts that the baby is his but there is never any talk of getting a DNA test done and I would think that would be very common in 1999 when the book was published, but I could be wrong.

All in all this is a very touching and sweet book about two people who love each other but have to forgive before they can finally be together.

5 stars.