Customer Reviews

Pregnancy Proposal (Silhouette Desire)

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

 

 

First of all, I've read the previous two books in Tessa Radley's "Saxon Brides"-series and liked them both, so I was really looking forward to this book. But this must be one - if not THE - worst romance I've read this year (and I read plenty). Insecure, goody-two-shoes heroine who's supposed to be so "good" but acts anything but "good", lying and whining and feeling guilty throughout the entire book. Wish I could rate zero stars...

Amy had dated Roland for two years and was engaged to him for another year when he was killed in a car accident. She just can't seem to stop crying about it, even two months later when she finds out she's pregnant. Heath, Roland's brother, is there when she discovers she pregnant and is more than willing to do the "right thing."

What I liked:
~Heath, he was just so sweet, considerate and loving to Amy. He has been secretly in love with her since she was 16 years old and I love a tale of secret love, even though I mentally know he was more than a little bit of a jerk to all the women in his life he used in attempts to get over her.
~The setting, not many romances I've read were set in New Zealand and I quite liked it.
~Megan, Heath's sister. She was cute and funny and managed to reveal three major secrets in the book, keeping the plot moving. Though she is a very minor character.

What I didn't like:
~Amy, her view of sex was very antiquated. It is stated very plainly that she believes that women should all be virgins while men are allowed to roam, later on she takes it back, but it's obviously how she feels. She is such a goodie two shoes, always doing the right thing, wanting to wait to have a white wedding, not believing children should be born out of wedlock, and being to the point of giving her child up for adoption or leaving the town she grew up in instead of living with the "shame" of having a bastard child. She literally referred to herself as "a bitch in heat" because she enjoyed Heath's touch when she didn't love him.(this is set in 2010-2011)
~Everyone's view of Amy's grief. All of Roland's brothers and sister acted like she was deserving of so much space, support and consideration. I can understand that, but not this "she is the fiancée I am just the brother" philosophy. A brother's grief is no less than a fiancée in my book and none of Roland's siblings seemed to actually show any grief at all.
~The series-nesss of this thing. It's not that this book doesn't stand alone, because it does, but things like location where not described, family relationships were pretty vague and references to past incidences seemed totally out of place.
~It was boring. I don't know if the plot itself was boring or just that there was noting engaging about the characters that made this one lag.
~The secret. It won't spoil it for those who chose to read this but it was so utterly stupid to keep the secret from the reader! The book would have been so much stronger, so much more dramatic and made so much more sense if the reader would have known what Amy was actually going through instead of her just just seeming like the coldest of cold fish and I had no sympathy at all for her cry and hide in a corner response to her unwanted pregnancy. At least the secret made it her attitude forgivable, even if I still didn't like it.

The sum up:
Amy and the secret plot devise just didn't work, the idea of Amy being so freaking Victorian that she would marry anyone just to be married was a major turn off and made her totally unrelatable. I understand that the author has to make the plot device of a marriage of convenience work, but it shouldn't make your lead unlikable.

2 stars.

This heroine was entirely unlikable. I spent the book wanting to smack her silly. Sillier than she already was. Her actions throughout the book were pretty much inecusable. She didn't deserve the hero- and I can tell you that in my 16 years of reading romance novels I don't think I've ever felt that way. Her lies, self-delusion (every time we got to hear her inner voice, delusional was the word that popped into mind) and cowardice were practically painful. This heroine didn't know herself, didn't like herself and frankly made it impossible for me to like her either.

The only reason I finished the book was that I wanted to see what happened when she FINALLY stopped lying. Ugh. I strongly recommend taking a pass on this one.

Ever since she was a teenager Amy Wright's heart has been set on marrying Roland Saxon but an automobile accident destroyed all those dreams mere months before they were to say their marriage vows. Amy's always prided herself on being `the good girl' - going to church, helping others, abstaining from intercourse until marriage, so how is that she's found herself in the disastrous position of being unmarried and three months pregnant?

Heath Saxon has desired Amy for many years but her engagement to his brother left him with no hope of ever having the girl of his dreams. He's a man of action and doesn't feel any need to explain himself to anyone. When he learns of Amy's pregnancy and sees her distress over the whole situation he offers her a proposition that he hopes she'll be unable to refuse - marry him and she won't be faced with the stigma of an unwed mother.

Amy shoulders a lot of guilt over Roland's untimely death though she tries to put on a brave front and continue on with life as usual. She even works for the Saxon family answering the phones and coordinating other business at the Saxon's Folly Winery. What she can't stand are the pitying looks or the worry that she sees in everyone's face when they look at her. Heath's presence at the winery is both a blessing and a curse. He's desperately needed by his family both emotionally and businesswise, but Amy's uncomfortable around him because he brings out emotions that she doesn't recognize in herself - or maybe it's that she'd prefer to keep them hidden. In any case, once Heath learns of Amy's pregnancy he's determined to do everything he can to ensure that she remains a permanent fixture in his life. Amy's high moral standards dictate that having a child out of wedlock is wrong and Heath is more than happy to marry her in order to save her. What he doesn't know is that Amy's got a secret and her deception is the real reason she's uncomfortable with accepting Heath's proposal.

PREGNANCY PROPOSAL is the third book in Tessa Radley's THE SAXON BRIDES miniseries. This story is intense and fast paced with plenty of emotional turmoil to keep readers anxiously turning pages. I was quite intrigued by the family dynamics and the obvious closeness that everyone involved seems to share. Amy's a prime example of the quintessential `good girl' who's given into carnal desires and then felt guilty about it. Heath, however, is everyone's idea of a `bad boy' and he's content to let people think that about him but there's a loving man beneath the façade and I really felt a little bit of hero worship for him.

While it's certainly not necessary to read the first two books in this series to thoroughly enjoy this one, I'd recommend it simply because they're a fun family and getting to know all of them would be delightful.
The other books in this series are:
MISTAKEN MISTRESS Mistaken Mistress (Silhouette Desire)
and
SPANIARD'S SEDUCTION Spaniard's Seduction (Silhouette Desire)

Chrissy Dionne (courtesy of Romance Junkies)

For the past three months, Amy Wright's life has been a blur. First her fiancé Roland dies from injuries sustained in a car wreck and then she finds herself pregnant. Not wanting to be a single mother, Amy has decisions to make. Decisions that only she can make and she thinks the solution might be to leave town. Heath Saxon, her dead fiance's brother, has another option - marriage. Heath proposes to her and offers to be the father to her baby, even knowing what he thinks is the truth. That the baby Amy is carrying is Roland's.

Heath Saxon has been in love with Amy Wright for such a long time. He knows without a doubt that his older brother didn't deserve a woman like her but he was unwilling to rock the boat when Roland was alive. When Amy finds herself pregnant with Roland's baby, Heath proposes to Amy and offers to raise her child as his own. Heath knows that he should have never wanted his brother's fiancé and offering to raise Roland's heir is Heath's way of penance. Or so he thinks. Heath and Amy must admit their feelings for each other. Feelings that started the night Roland died.

Heath was loyal to the core. The bad boy of the family, he hid a very big secret - a secret that could have gotten him thrown out of his family for sure. Heath's feelings for Amy shined through and I love his patience with her and his loving her despite the fact that he thought she was having his brother's baby. Amy was a bit tougher to warm up to but likable in every way. Reserved and concerned with appearances, the thought of being a single mother shattered her dreams but I liked how she refused to give up. She weighed her options and then made the best decision for herself and her unborn child.

PREGNANCY PROPOSAL by Tessa Radley is a novel after my own heart. Secret babies and unplanned pregnancy stories are my favorite sub-genre to read. I love nothing better than to read a story of two people attracted to each other but shouldn't be. The angst Heath and Amy feels about each other and their feelings comes through on the pages of PREGNANCY PROPOSAL. Written in such a realistic way, I could feel the turmoil Amy faced with an unplanned baby and I could feel the emotional ties Heath felt for Amy. He was steadfast in his support of her and while he had loved her for a very long time, he wanted her to make her own decisions where they were concerned. Add in a surprise plot twist and I was in reading heaven.

A December 2008 release for Silhouette Desire, PREGNANCY PROPOSAL is available for immediate purchase via Harlequin's online website or readers can wait for it to hit the stores near the end of November. I, for one, am not that patient. I picked up my copy as soon as it became available and had it shipped directly to my front door!

***Natalie S. for Wild on Books***

Pregnancy Proposal was book # 3 in a three book mini series called The Saxon Brides written by Tesaa Radley. The other two are # 1 Mistaken Mistress and # 2 is titled Spainards Seduction.
It was a good series and I enjoyed reading them.

I was a little disappointed in this book. First why didn't Heath didn't question the possiablity of this being his baby. And he seem like he was a control freak that wanted to run Amy's life. And Amy should have been stronger. I know she just lost her fiancee but come on letting a guy boss you around and then not telling him that he's the baby's father not his dead brother. I just thing that the other two books were a lot better then this one. I would like to see a story for Megan.