Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Comfort read..., March 17, 2008
There is an unwritten rule in romance fiction that you keep throwing roadblocks at your hero/heroine to increase the conflict, forcing them to grow toward love and that is nowhere more evident than in this new offering from the talented military romance writer Rogenna Brewer.
A young Navy SEAL's widow has learned her husband, Luke Calhoun, has left her a final gift at a local sperm bank. In her grief she decides to cherish his memory by becoming pregnant. Reasonable enough, but not when you consider her husband told her little of his family, especially that he has an older brother in the Marines who has same name. Unfortunately, she learns too late and it seems the sperm bank has made a monumental mistake. In her confusion as to what is the correct thing to do, she is left to explain to the Marine Luke he had fathered a child. A major dilemma for him as he had planned to have his sperm destroyed coupled with his intense grudge toward this half sibling. The ensuing story involves not only the couple as they struggle with their impending parenthood but also their own future together or apart and what that will mean to the people who love them.
The reader has to suspend some disbelief with the business of the names: there are three Luke Calhouns one has to keep straight throughout the book. When the books centers on the main characters the story is powerful and intense but as it wanders to the in-laws and their issues, with the exception of another brother Bruce, the story slows down and pulls the reader away from the budding relationship. There are some very emotional moments when a young man in the Marine's unit is killed on a mission that will make even the hardened reader tear up.
And the only criticism I would address is the issue of her lack funds at her husband's death so important to the plot. From a military aspect, the story's conflict of pushing a widow out of housing within 90 days of her husband's death seems unrealistic. Also it seems unrealistic that she wouldn't have had at least a portion of his death benefits within at least those 90 days, negating the issue of money, of course that would have weakened the plot.
The tight time period of the plot is well suited to category romance, but this reader wishes this could have been done as a single title where the issue of suing the sperm lab for the mix-up would have added to the angst of the couple, and would have allowed more space to explore more deeply the father/son relationship as well as brother/brother relationship that was a cornerstone to the hero's conflict. This is a good read for what it is, category romance, but these emotional themes seem better suited to single title. Ms Brewer is up to the challenge; lets hope her next offering is from a single title publisher who sees her potential.
|
|
|
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
strong military romance, March 6, 2008
Caitlin Calhoun mourns the death of her Navy SEAL husband Luke Calhoun, Jr. who died in the line of duty. 89 days 9 hours and 9 minutes since the two uniforms knocked on her door with the news she dreaded, Caitlin receives a letter from CryoBank of San Diego asking what to do with his semen specimen. She decides she wants his offspring so she goes to the cryo facility to get impregnated.
However, Caitlin is unaware that her late spouse had an older half-brother with the same name; neither did the sperm bank. She learns later that she has been impregnated by the sperm of Luke Calhoun; just not her Luke Calhoun. Feeling she owes her half-brother-in-law the truth, Caitlin meets and explains to Luke "Lucky" Calhoun about the mix-up. The marine knows what he wants, which are Caitlin and their baby, but she is wary having lost one military officer she loved to the war on terrorism.
Caitlin makes this contemporary romance works as she goes from grief to euphoria to shock to love to guilt in a believable manner. Luke the marine is a caring person who understands much of what his beloved is dealing with as he learns from her that his half-brother was also a good person. Readers will appreciate this strong military romance as Rogenna Brewer brews up a deep lead couple struggling with forming a relationship as the ghost of her late spouse, his brother, lingers in their minds.
|
|
|
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great character story plus romance, July 5, 2008
The thing I enjoyed most about The Marine's Baby is the fact that there were other character's than the h/h. The emotion felt real and several times I teared up. Ms Brewer uses deep pov to really make the reader feel her character's pain and conflict. The book moves along well and I disagree that the brother's names are a distractor. I recommend this book for a great character read and conflict that feels real. Ms Brewer did her research as well, because 90 days out of housing was the norm before the media embarrassed the military into letting widows stay longer.
Great job, Ms Brewer!
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by Carrie Weaver
by Kathryn Shay
by Kay Stockham
by Abby Gaines
by Jackie Braun
