Customer Reviews

Island Baby (Babies & Bachelors USA: Georgia #10)

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ISBN 0373822588 - This surprisingly good romance did have a few things that really bothered me, to the extent that if I were a regular romance reader, I'd probably avoid Winston's books. Since I'm not, I'll read them whenever they come along. Still, writing in 1993 as if being a surrogate mother were akin to the old Scarlet Letter struck a sour note with me - Susannah is going to run far away from her life after she has the baby so that no one around her will ever know what she did. Worse, on the very first page, the man who hires her and his lawyer describe the woman who could be a surrogate and let go of the child as "a mercenary bitch" (not speaking of Susannah, just of a woman who could "sell her child").

Whit Montgomery's grandfather left him the island that he grew up on. Whit studies turtles there, in the hopes of preventing their extinction, and loves the place enough to bend to his grandfather's wishes as expressed in his will. In order to inherit, Whit must produce a child within a year and adoption doesn't count. Whit's sure he's going to outsmart the man by hiring a surrogate mother.

Susannah needs money badly. Her young daughter has a heart defect that requires surgery. Without the surgery, Becca will die. So it's really not a hard decision to make - she'll have Whit's baby for him, to save Becca's life. If only it was as easy as either of them thought it would be! Each falls for the other while bonding over the pregnancy and worries what will happen when the baby is born, the contract is fulfilled and there's no reason for them to stay in contact.

Island Baby really is a nice story with enough details about turtles to make Whit's job credible, something romances often fudge on while they focus on sex and the love story. Island Baby doesn't lack in those departments, either! I just really found myself offended on the surrogate mother topic, but if you can overlook that, good read!

- AnnaLovesBooks