Capture The Valentine Child Penned By Jacqueline Baird Shown As Script
ethicschallenged heroine, Batman! We have enough lies and misunderstandings for a several HP stories not just this one,
Our hero has been in love with the heroine since she was, At herth birthday party he brings an OW to flaunt in her face as protection, doncha know, But heroine tries her seductive moves and he responds, Afraid he's scared her off, Mr, ThreeTimesANight leaves her to her own devices until she is,
They marry. Have separate bedrooms. The heroine's uncle dies. The OW is still on prowl, There is gossip about the hero's motives in marrying her,
By herst birthday it's all over but the crying because of too many misunderstandings,
Fast forward four years, Heroine has a secret baby, now three who needs a bone marrow transplant,
There's a seduction with whispered lies about protection, a halfsister, a chatty doctor, and Olympiclevel leaping to conclusions,
So much bad behavior, So much wasted time. Such a wellmatched couple. If you don't mind lots of misunderstandings and lots of dashing toandfro on the Concorde, you'll like this one,
I hope Valentine takes up martial arts, he'll need to defend himself on the playground, This author can be a hit or miss for me, this one was a big miss,
The early chapters move the story along way too quick, the reader is hardly introduced to the two main characters before theyre married, I wasnt feeling the love at all, Whats that old saying what we do in haste we repent at leisure, because thats what happens here, I loathed the heroine she was a complete flake, As for the hero what a loser he was,
The two of them never seem to communicate with one another, and as for having another child to fix the first one, thats definitely not my thing, and its certainly not something I want to read about in an Harlequin romance.
There are more appropriate settings for that IMO,
All round this was one big no from me, Young Zoe marries Justin, the man she's in love with since she was a teenager, He's olderyears older and experienced, She listens to some people telling that he married her for her uncle's legacy and at her birthday party his ex girlfriend tells her that he is really a tiger in bed while in her experience he was very mild and conservative and that the night before his marriage he spent all night with her.
She is appalled and she thinks that he wanted her only for her legacy, so she tells him and he explains that is not true, he also explains why he was at her ex's the night before their marriage and that he hadn't slept with her in years.
I think this was a honest and believable explanation and that the book could end that way but no, Zoe doesn't believe him and she leaves.
He sees her at the airport with a friend and thinks she's leaving with him, then, one month after, he finds her in her friend's house and tells her a lot of ugly things and that he doesn't want to see her any more.
She's pregnant and obviously doesn't tell him, Two years later her son is seriously ill and she has to ask his father for help, He comes back with her and is ready to make the marriage work, but she deceives him again seducind him because she wants to get pregnant and have another child who could be compatible with Valentine in case his father is not compatible.
In the end he finds out the truth and is very angry, but eventually he forgives her because he has always been in love with her.
He was celibate during the years of their separation, because he loves her, I found the hero a honest and faithful man, ready to forgive and understand the heroine, He wants her back even thinking that she cheated on him, I could not understand why he's in love with her because she's a silly, stupid and dishonest person, she never trusts him and she's ready to deceive him over and over.
This is the first time I hated the heroine and was sorry for the hero, Another book from the Treasury line, I have been enjoying reading older books recently, some of the more recent ones have been a little disappointing,
This book turned out to be so much more enjoyable than I expected, The title and blurb really don't do it justice, This is a 'secret baby' book, but that's not the entire focus of the book, which makes it very interesting,
I really enjoyed reading the hero and heroine's early relationship how it built and how it, eventually, crumbled, Both the characters make mistakes in the relationship, and I appreciated that the author didn't attempt to sugar coat them,
Communication, or more accurately, lack of communication is the 'theme' of this book, The hero and heroine are so afraid to talk to one another, and the author does a great job of showing how this slowly festered and snowballed into a complete lack of trust, which eventually destroys their relationship, and it is still present when they eventually reconnect.
Very emotional reading.
The secret baby part of the story is handled well, and interesting as it is not the main source of conflict in the book.
Absorbing and emotional,
Originally posted at sitelink blogspot . Ok, so this hero is an asshole, no argument there, He appears to be a cheating husband, and appears that he married heroine only for money, yet he does NOT offer her a proper explanation, apart from "honey we need to talk".
Yet, he sees her with a man who's old enough to be her father, his wife has repeatedly told him she loves him, and that's why she can't stay with him knowing his betrayal, but he just jumps to the conclusion that no, my callousness has nothing to do with her departure, she must be a whore, and having an affair.
And starts calling herdifferent names!
SHE was a GREAT match for him, you don't offer me explanation for the OW's bitchyness or my uncle's involvement in marriage or separate bedrooms, you're calling me whore, yet you're not going to give me a divorce and confirming that you prefer your career over me fine, keep the money, i'll keep your baby, and i'll pretend I'm the whore you think I am.
Score!
Where the whole thing came together
I actually completely believe that hero was celibate during separation, Mostly because, as his half sister said, he was disgusted at himself for driving his wife away, the idiot, who is apparently an international lawyer, thought by his uber sex drive, when it was the other way around.
Talk about ironic.
However, THAT kind of blow to one's ego does make one assess themselves, and the last thing one would have after that would be a raging sex drive.
He according to his halfsister, basically crawled back to his old life and just didn't even look at anyone else, Actually, to be honest, what she confirmed, was that he was celibate since heroine has become,
And I DO believe it,
However, despite him treating his wife as a whore, which hurt HIM more than her, since she had made it abundantly clear that THAT is exactly what he's doing, and she's letting him do it because of their son way to blow off your husband's already battered ego woman, he cared.
He just didn't know what to do, Since he already hurt her by that treatment, he now has no way to get back to her good books, apart from crawling on his stomach to her feet, which he didn't wanna do, so now it's a vicious circle.
However, despite his superficial hatred for his wife, he actually kept paying for her, while he actually thought she was living with her lover, And the money was his own, because her uncle actually didn't leave her much, He also still bought the her childhood home, and despite the her supposed infidelity, and his complete fidelity during the separation, the idiot was ready to take back the wife the moment she wanted back.
Thus the no divorce. I don't actually know how to describe this hero! sheer idiot or romantic! He believed his wife's declaration that she has not cheated on him, and that IS in fact true, however, it was crystal clear that he'd have taken her back either way! I am gobsmacked, for an alpha, he is just.
I have no word for it, No really, he'd really have taken his cheating wife back without much retribution! Not only that, I had a distinct feeling, he'd also actually drop all the name callings, as they were talking, and he actually started acknowledging his part in the marriage breakdown! So an alpha hero who is willing to take back his cheating wife, who'll probably never in his right mind call her a whore again! he's a goner!
Heroine, I truly hated her for keeping the child a secret, HOWEVER, please realise this is my personal opinion, it'd have been impossible for me to tell my husband who has just call me a whore and a bitch that "oh btw, I'm pregnant", and the more time would pass, the more difficult it would be.
So I personally have forgiven her, Re The Valentine Child Jacqueline Baird brings us the other HPValentine's day
book and this one is a bit more serious in tone,
Back inin the real world there were a few societal debates going on that JB chooses to use as catalysts for the story in this book.
First, there was the issue of single motherhood, In particular single motherhood where the woman either used a sperm bank or used an unknowing man as a stud service, The music group Heart has a really good song about that called 'All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You', and Ann Wilson despises that song from the bottom of her heart to this day.
Second, there is an issue that actually became more of an issue in the yearand still causes intense ethics discussions even to this day.
This issue is currently called having a "Savior Sibling" or back in the's and the first decade of this century, it was also referred to as having a "Designer Baby".
What that means is that people who have a sick child that has certain types of anemia or leukemia will need some type of tissue or stem cell donation from a DNA match and will try and get pregnant with a child who can be that donor.
There is a lot of debate about this because in the year, a Colorado couple used IVF embryo selection to conceive and implant a DNA genetic match for their sick child, whose stem cells were later used to cure his older sister.
Inthis wasn't as developed as it would be in three short years, The technology was there, but there were fierce debates about the advisability of deliberately selecting an embryo out of multiple others for implanting to create a compatible donor.
It was a very controversial situation,
JB skirts the edge here by having the h want to have a random genetic baby with her child's father in the hopes that it will be a match for bone marrow donation.
To be clear, there is no deliberate IVF selection, the h is just hoping the HP Manly Mojo Motilators are up to the job of hitting the target and getting the DNA mix right.
So before we start, take the above as words of warning, We are stepping onto shaky real world ethical grounds here and this could mar an otherwise enjoyable HP outing,
This one features ayr old orphaned American h, But after the death of her movie star parents at, she went to live in England with her British High Ranking Justiciary uncle and developed a huge crush on her uncle's younger butyears older junior legal partner.
The h believes that the H has been sending her seekrit Valentine's Day cards for the last several years, which accounts for a lot of her besottedness.
The cards are only signed as being from "your tall, dark and handsome admirer",
The book opens with the big and intimidating H kicking the tiny pocket venus h's date out when her beloved elderly uncle has a major cardiac event and the H is hauling the h to the hospital.
The H, who is now, became the h's uncle's partner after leaving the field of international law, The H's uncle was his mentor and lent him money when the H's own father died, so the H felt a send of obligation to follow his mentor to the Justiciary.
Tho the h and H had a falling out at herth birthday party where the tiny h felt the sharp stab of jealousy over the H bringing an Amazonian Red Haired Jessica Rabbit look alike as his date.
Then the H startled her silly with his punishing roofie kiss after the h threw herself at him later that night,
Two years on the still unicorn grooming h still has a major crush on the H and tonight, the besotted h is going with the H to annual Valentine's ball.
The H is very interested in the h it seems and the h's elderly and medically frail uncle is benevolently looking on the potential lovely couple.
The H proposes at the ball and unicorn grooming licenses are permanently revoked, The H and h marry and then the h's uncle dies and the h starts noticing big changes in the H, She reads her ladies magazines tho, so she tries to keep things honest and open and she really does try to talk to the H,
He doesn't take our pixie h seriously, he tends to treat her like delicate porcelain and his attitude is very much a pat on the head and 'don't worry your pretty little head about things, kitten'.
The h is young, not stupid,
She doesn't like the whole separate bedroom in the master suite situation, she doesn't like the H's other senior legal partner's wife spreading rumors that the H only married her for her uncle's huge manor house and his money and she REALLY doesn't like that every woman the H has been with prior to the h have all been the Amazonian Jessica Rabbit types and she is clearly a tiny silver blonde Tinkerbell.
The h is busy plotting little ways to get her husband to spend the whole night with her and not just delicately hit it and quit it, but she gets run off the track by her wholest birthday situation.
Clearly this h should never plan another birthday part ever again, they are extremely bad luck for her,
The h is still in mourning for her uncle and doesn't really want a party, She is also concerned because the H seems to be workinghours out of everyand she thinks it might be to avoid being with her.
Besides, since her uncle's death, the h has been thinking if they sell the manor house with it's ridiculous two bedroom master suite, she and the H will be forced to share a room and therefore the same bed all night.
But the H is insistent that the party go ahead, the h's uncle took great pleasure in planning it out prior to his demise.
So the h decides to vamp herself up and she succeeds in a big way, The h is all about tying the H to her big master suite bed for that after party glow, but then the H's Amazonian Jessica Rabbit date from herth birthday shows up.
Due to the gossip the h inadvertently overheard, the h knows that the Jessica Rabbit Sub and the H were lovers, Due to the drunken OW deliberately confronting the h later that night, the h now also knows that the H is an man who usually goes for multiple innings of lurve club events every night and that certainly hasn't been his game plan with her.
Even more damning in the h's eyes, the OW also reveals that the H did not leave the OW's flat until she kicked him out atam the day he married the h and the H says that is true, but he doesn't offer a good explanation.
The H then admits that the h's uncle did his best to broker their marriage, When the h finally confronts the H on the OW remarks about the H's lurve club habits, he laughs and mocks her jealousy and then he uses that fatal line, "Those OW meant nothing to me.
"
Which confirms the h's feelings that the h doesn't mean anything to him either, even tho the H claims he loves her, So the h goes back to the US and on the way she happens to run into her dead parent's dear movie studio chief friend, The man is handling her trust fund left from her parent's estate and also is the one who really was sending those Valentine's Day cards over the years.
Another strike against the H, he let the h think he was sending them even tho he knew he wasn't and the h believes the H is ruthlessly manipulative to get what he wants.
The h needs a place to stay until she gets her US finances sorted out, so she goes to California with her parent's friend.
The H chases her down and before the h can tell him she is preggers, the H launches a massive verbal tart shaming, Harlot of Hollywood assault and thrusts some papers at the h.
She signs them and is so upset at he massively ugly treatment of her, she doesn't mention the impending stork delivery,
Then the H claims she will wait five years for the divorce as he has his legal career to think off and the H and h part.
The h moves to Maine by herself, starts a little artistic card boutique business and builds her and her baby a life,
Then her three year old gets diagnosed with Fanconi's anemia and the interim doctor the h sees tells the h to get pregnant with her child's full blood sibling, in the hopes that the baby will be a bone marrow donor match.
The h frets and worries, then she hops a plane to England, determined to seduce the H and get herself a bone marrow donor.
Even when she arrives and there is another lovely Amazon apparently living with the H and being an absolute bovine witch to the h, she doesn't let that slow her down.
As the h slams down cognac and is dressed to seduce, the H takes his cue and fierce Love Force Mojo Purple Passion Moments ensue.
The H still accuses the h of tart harlotry everywhere, but the h as been reading Cosmo this time and she has all the right moves.
The H definitively proves that he is more than a one hit wonder and the next morning, the h confesses the truth about his son,
The H and h hop the Concorde and fly back to Maine, The H meets his son and a month of happy family times ensue, The big day for H donor testing arrives and to the h's great chagrin, the H's mistress shows up to 'help' out with the toddler,
The h is furious that the H has brought his girlfriend into HER home, but she loves her son desperately and if that is what it takes to get the H to test for a bone marrow match, the h will suck in her breath, ignore the insult and send the H off to his girlfriend for the night.
The next day the h and H are on the flight when the H starts berating the h for kicking his girlfriend out of her house that morning before they left.
Tho the H finally enlightens the h that the lady is his half sister, not his mistress and it finally dawns on the H just how despicable the h really thinks he is and how much she is willing to sacrifice to save her son.
The H proves to be a match on the bone marrow stakes and just as the h is ready to rejoice, the interim doctor shows up and spills the beans about the h needing to try and get preggers by the H.
The H instantly knows that the h totally played him, so it is a very tense flight home,
The H's sister is there to meet them and the h apologizes for thinking she was the H's mistress, The sister then spills the story that the H has been in love with the h for years, he became a workaholic after the h dumped him and switched over to the more lucrative international law field after the h left.
The H is now really rich and also the sister thinks the H was afraid he would hurt the tiny h because his dad was big and his mum was tiny like the h and the mum died of a heart attack while in an intimate moment with his dad.
This supposedly gave the H an irrational fear of damaging the h and that is supposed to explain his weird behavior towards the h in the first part of their marriage.
The H's sister also remarks that the H is an idiot, he is so worried he is going to hurt the h and here she is, all five feet andpounds of her and running rings around him, even to the point of seducing him when she believes his girlfriend is living with him and the h is winning.
The h then takes herself off to seduce the H again, this time he isn't too hard to convince and finally the big explanations come out.
The H talked to the h's uncle and the uncle was elderly and had this idear that the h was a delicate fragile flower,
The H knew that he totally messed up by bringing the OW to the h's birthday party and we find out that the night before the h and H's wedding, the alcoholic OW tried to kill herself, which is why the H was trying to sort her out.
Now the OW is married to the guy who brought her to the h'sst birthday party and she is not drinking, happily married and has a couple of kids.
Since the H had been in love with the h for years, but thought the roofie kiss at the h'sth birthday party terrified her, the uncle suggested separate rooms at first and then a long, slow wooing of the h to appreciate the H's charms.
The h's uncle had no idear that the h had a lifetime subscription to Cosmo and he designed the master suite with separate bedrooms personally.
Then the H stuffed things up further by worrying that the h wanted to sell the uncle's manor and the H did not want her to regret that.
So he worked all kinds of hours to earn enough money to pay the heavy death duty tax and allow the h to keep her family home, as the uncle did not leave much money.
The H now has it all restored and wants to make it their family home,
The H also confesses that he was trying to tie the h to him by getting her preggers on the sly with a second child, then he got mad cause the h lied and said she was on birth control.
The h shouts out her love and the H shouts out his back and he finally believes that as he was celibate, so was she and they decide to stay together.
In an extremely rare JB epilogue, the h, H, son and newborn daughter move to England to live in the family home, the h's son's bone marrow transplant was a huge success and the H and h are ready to fill thebedroom manor house with children for a very happy HP HEA.
Parts of this book are excellent, The first half is extremely well done as JB builds a fairly convincing case for the young and slightly immature h to believe that the H just isn't that into her.
It is the second part that gets kinda iffy,
Mainly cause this H has to be dumber than rocks and I am not sure how he managed to be a huge successful lawyer.
The h blames her mad plan of stealing the H's motilators on grief and worry and for her part, I believed her,
I wasn't as sure about the seekrit baby bit, but if my husband had said the things the H said to her, I probably wouldn't have told him either.
Especially since the h had to promise a DNA test four years later to get the H to believe he was the father of her son.
The other thing was the little boy did not act like a four year old, he was more like ten going on thirty, but that was minor.
Mainly there was just a LOT of misunderstandings that cascaded into a big mess and while I did believe the HEA, I was uncomfortable with the donor situation.
Thankfully I will never have to make a choice like that, cause I cannot imagine the horror and JB pretty much glossed over the h's decision making process.
JB relied a bit too much on the HP rule that says that all h's are devoted mums when fighting for their child's welfare and any action needed to carry that out is acceptable to explain the h's very dubious actions.
But the H went with it and he appreciated it, plus his celibacy claim was believable, so we can call this one a pretty decent whacktastic trainwreck with an avalanche HPlandia outing.
.