Nobody's Baby But Mine [Mass Market Paperback]

Susan Elizabeth Phillips (Author)

Book Description

Release date: February 1, 1997

“Outrageous, heartwarming, wonderfully sensual…I loved it!”
—Jayne Anne Krentz

“For sheer fun, nobody beats Nobody’s Baby But Mine.”
—Detroit Free Press

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune writes, “Next to Tracy and Hepburn, no one does romantic comedy better than Susan Elizabeth Phillips.” For proof, you need to look no further than Nobody’s Baby But Mine. This classic comic love story from perennial New York Times bestseller Phillips unites a beautiful, brainy scientist desperate to be a mom with a brawny, smoking hot jock who, though handsome enough to father her child, is nowhere near as stupid as she wants her baby’s daddy to be. Emily Giffin, Jane Green, and Rachel Gibson fans take note: when it comes to delivering delightfully funny, supremely sexy contemporary women’s fiction, nobody but nobody is better than Susan Elizabeth Phillips.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Physics professor Dr. Jane Darlington spends her 34th birthday in tears. She wants a baby,but not a husband. Where can she find an average or, preferably, stupid man? She decides that Cal Bonner, legendary quarterback for the Chicago Stars is perfect. Jane sets her plan into action and after some trail and error she succeeds. But the results are more than she bargained for when Cal discovers her duplicity. How can a football player with an interfering family and a nerdy professor who has never known family love ever fall in love? With lots of honesty, understanding and a whole lot of humor. Don't miss this one! It's filled with engaging characters, laughs galore and a feel-good ending. If you enjoy it as much as I did, try Phillips's Heaven, Texas.

From Library Journal

Lonely, single, and 34, brainy physicist Jane Darlington is determined to have a baby?even if she has to pretend to be a hooker (and a "birthday present" for football star Cal Bonner) to do it. She doesn't expect, however, that her quarterback is a whole lot smarter than Jane had hoped, definitely more honorable than she had expected, and simply won't take no for an answer. Although the initial premise (while funny) is a stretch, the protagonists are strong and appealing and draw the readers into a sensual, heartwarming story that is graced with some interesting secondary characters, including a savvy backwoods grandmother with ideas of her own. Phillips (Kiss an Angel, Avon, 1996) lives in the Chicago area.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Avon (February 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380782340
• ISBN-13: 978-0380782345
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (194 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #496,788 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

SUSAN ELIZABETH PHILLIPS is a New York Times, Publisher's Weekly, and USA Today bestseller, whose books are published all over the world.

If you'd like to know more, including info on her newest book, whether any of her books will be made into movies, how to get an autographed book, where she gets her ideas, please visit her web site. You can also see goofy vacation photos. register for her monthly contest, and chat with her on her Message Board. http://www.susanelizabethphillips.com

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 56 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars If only we could all have our own Cal Bonner... February 10, 2001

By mirope VINE™ VOICE

Format:Mass Market Paperback

I've read a lot of romance novels and lusted after a fair number of heros, but Cal Bonner is the only one I wanted to lift whole from the book and take home for my very own. He's incredible - a star quarterback with a killer body, tremendous wit, an impressive intellect and great values. Sure, he can get a little grumpy and stubborn, but usually in a sexy, kind of adorable way. Thank goodness Susan Elizabeth Phillips created Jane Darlington, a woman worthy of Cal. Jane is an egghead physicist intent upon finding a physicially perfect but intellectually challenged sperm doner. She mistakenly assumes that Cal is going to fill the bill, but boy is she wrong. The ensuing struggle between these two is hilarious, touching and very sexy. SEP always writes great books, but this is one of her very best. Even if you're not a big romance reader, I promise that you're going to love this book!

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars The Geeky Physics Genius and the Hunky Football Star February 1, 2005

By ellejir

Format:Mass Market Paperback

This is the first book that I have read by Susan Elizabeth Phillips, and I liked it alot. Although the plot was far-fetched and a little ridiculous (but, hey!, this is a romance novel!), the characters were well developed and the writing style light and witty.

The heroine of "Nobody's Baby But Mine" is Dr. Jane Darlington, a lonely physics nerd who has just passed her 34th birthday, and--boy!--is her biological clock ticking! Deciding to have a baby and believing that her own miserable childhood was due to her genius level IQ, she wants a healthy and relatively dumb father for her child. Her reasoning is that the baby then would end up with a more normal IQ due to "tendency toward the mean"--(this being probably the most ridiculous part of the book, but necessary for the plot to move forward.) Jane picks out Cal Bonner, hunky football quarterback of the Chicago Stars, after seeing him on TV responding to an interviewer in his "good ol' boy" Southern drawl (hmmmm, obviously a moron.) But Cal is far from the dumb jock that he appears to be, as Jane finds out when he discovers her scheme.

Cal was a pretty great character--gorgeous, sexy, smart, and honorable, but also commitment-phobic and so insecure about his impending middle-age (in a young man's profession) that he never dates any woman over 23 years old. Jane is a pretty good heroine despite her intellectual arrogance and rather unscrupulous initial behavior--an intelligent, witty and lonely woman who is looking for someone to love. The secondary characters are well done as well--particularly Cal's parents and Kevin, the young, cocky second-string quarterback who wants Cal's job.

The plot is improbable but moves along pretty well, and some of the scenes are *very* funny indeed. I particularly liked the initial seduction scene with an inept Jane posing as an call girl and doing calisthenics to "The Flight of the Bumblebee" when a suspicious Cal asks her to dance for him. That (and the rest of that scene) are worth the price of the book.

In summary, this is a sexy, humorous romance with a really dreamy/hunky hero and an unusual plotline.
Recommended!

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Contrived plot, with unbelievable characters December 10, 2001

By A Customer

Format:Mass Market Paperback

It really pains me to be the lone ranger here and give a SEP book such a mediocre rating, but it pained me more to finish the book. The plot seemed overly contrived with a desperate physicist setting out to get "knocked-up" by a dumb jock so that her baby would be "normal." I thought the author used a lot of stereotypes about athletes and southerners even as she condemed her heroine for doing so. For example, Cal, the quarterback was from my home state of N.C. Maybe, I'm being overly sensitive, but to prove that Cal really was smart and not a dumb hick, the author had him graduating from Michigan. SEP, ever heard of Duke or the Univ. of North Carolina?, two of the most prestigious colleges in the country. Although I found a lot of humor in this book and loved the characters of Annie and Lynn, (the secondary plot of Cal's parents was very touching) I couldn't get past how stupid Jane, the genius physicist, and Cal, were. For two smarties, they acted really dumb. I suppose this must have been an attempt at irony but it didn't work. And for someone who was so desperate to have a baby, I think there would have been more mention of her pregnancy along the way. The actual labor and delivery was too unbelievable as well. Don't doctors wash their hands before delivering a baby? And Cal chooses that moment to announce he wants to go to medical school. Yes, I know I'd be thrilled to give birth and have my husband announce plans to be away. Thanks, hon. For me to enjoy a book, I have to respect the hero or heroine or they must redeem themselves. Although, SEP tried, I never felt anything but contempt for both the main characters. Yes, I know we must suspend our imaginations when reading romance, but when one is reading a contemporary, it helps if the plot is at least a little believable. Maybe I am a bit jaded because SEP's previous book, HEAVEN, TEXAS just blew me away. Although the characters were just as mismatched, the story was much believeable and the characters endearing.