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tessisreading2's review
3.0
Sweet and well-written with powerful emotions, but I had a lot of difficulty getting past the original set-up: Hunter and Autumn broke up because he didn’t want children, and he has just learned that he has a secret baby from a one-night stand. The baby mama needs to leave town for a while and Hunter wants Autumn’s help to take care of the baby. Autumn has spent her life feeling like she’s “not enough” for people and this sends her right back down there. Hunter feels terribly guilty for asking (demanding) her assistance, but… he still does it. And Autumn doesn’t tell him to screw off! There is a lot of drama surrounding this, but kind of… not enough? I don’t know. I think the issue is I’ve seen the whole “emotionally stunted guy breaks up with his girlfriend because he can’t be a good boyfriend, but then still tries to demand emotional support/girlfriend duties from her because he doesn’t have anyone else to provide them” thing happen in real life way too many times, and when you add in the whole “I need you to take care of the baby I dumped you rather than have with you” thing - ugh.
In fairness, the book then proceeds to spend most of the book grappling with precisely this issue: Hunter and Autumn both feel like Hunter betrayed her by having a kid with someone else just after their breakup, and understandably so. However, Autumn also figures out a way to make the breakup about. I'm not sure I buy that - I am still stuck on the fact that Hunter broke up with Autumn, promptly hooked up with someone he barely knew, and screwed up birth control, and now he's returning to his ex to ask her to care for his baby and help him deal with all his Feelings about having a child. (He's traumatized by the death of his young sister.) It's so much to put on her, and I didn't find Hunter endearing enough to think he was worth it.
In fairness, the book then proceeds to spend most of the book grappling with precisely this issue: Hunter and Autumn both feel like Hunter betrayed her by having a kid with someone else just after their breakup, and understandably so. However, Autumn also figures out a way to make the breakup about
Spoiler
her own constant self-abnegation and the ways in which she compares herself unfavorably to everyone else in her lifekjcharles's review
I love the premise for this secret baby romance, in that it's not the heroine's baby. Hero and heroine broke up a year ago in part because he recoiled at the thought of having a family. He went off and had a drunken one-night stand, which he has now discovered produced a baby. The mother didn't want his involvement because total stranger, but is now up against parenting and the need to finish her studies. There is no shaming of either hero or Other Woman at any point: they unquestionably made some really bad decisions but it's possible to do that and then proceed like decent humans and talk about it and work stuff out. Proper grown up conversation accepting human reality! I love it.
The main conflict isn't this, because everyone involved behaves like an adult for the baby's sake. (I'm just going to repeat that a few times.) The issue is that hero and heroine are both mired in the past--unacknowledged grief and guilt, fear of loss, fear of rejection, fear of not being good enough. They very much both need to sort themselves out. Beharrie tends to write characters who are trapped in their own heads, and who need to pick apart their problems, which on the one hand gives us a deep dive into some pretty raw emotions, but can also be claustrophobic, because we're trapped in their heads with them. That said, the sense of things finally clicking into place and weights of a lifetime sloughing off people's shoulders is a huge relief and brings us to a thoroughly deserved sense of lightness at the well-earned HEA. Definitely emotion-driven rather than plot-driven read.
I am going to say, the title is very category romance, and I don't think it reflects the book well. Also, don't be put off by 'billionaire' here (if billionaires put you off): it basically means "money isn't a problem".
I had an ARC from the author.
The main conflict isn't this, because everyone involved behaves like an adult for the baby's sake. (I'm just going to repeat that a few times.) The issue is that hero and heroine are both mired in the past--unacknowledged grief and guilt, fear of loss, fear of rejection, fear of not being good enough. They very much both need to sort themselves out. Beharrie tends to write characters who are trapped in their own heads, and who need to pick apart their problems, which on the one hand gives us a deep dive into some pretty raw emotions, but can also be claustrophobic, because we're trapped in their heads with them. That said, the sense of things finally clicking into place and weights of a lifetime sloughing off people's shoulders is a huge relief and brings us to a thoroughly deserved sense of lightness at the well-earned HEA. Definitely emotion-driven rather than plot-driven read.
I am going to say, the title is very category romance, and I don't think it reflects the book well. Also, don't be put off by 'billionaire' here (if billionaires put you off): it basically means "money isn't a problem".
I had an ARC from the author.
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