The Night Before Baby by Karen Rose Smith, Silhouette Romance #1348, Loving the Boss #2, February 1999, Rating: C

A one-night stand at a company Christmas party results in a big surprise for both Olivia McGovern and Lucas Hunter. She's having his baby and Lucas wants to do the right thing by her and her baby. But at what cost?

Olivia McGovern is an only child. Her father was a get rich scheme chaser and moved Olivia and her mom from town to town until Olivia's mom finally got tired of it and filed for divorce. Despite her parents divorce, Olivia believes in true love, the fairy tale wedding, waiting until marriage to have sex. Two of the three were thrown out the window the night she made love to Lucas Hunter at their law firm's Christmas party. The third, true love, was still up for debate, however. A paralegal intent on becoming a lawyer she was not ready for Lucas Hunter to take over her life, even suggesting she not work after the baby comes.

Lucas Hunter is a prosperous bachelor, complete with his own jet which he flies every weekend to Flagstaff. No one knows why he goes there but rumors abound that he has a girlfriend there. A bastard child who was orphaned at a young age he was taken in by a couple who owned a ranch. Unable to have children they took in children as foster children. Because of his fatherless past and growing up for so long without his own mother, he is pretty forceful with Olivia that they should get married despite the fact he believes Olivia has feelings for her boss. But can he give her the love she desires?

This was an okay read. I really didn't feel the love develop between this couple, I felt the words were thrown in there because they needed to be to tie up the book. One minute they're arguing and Lucas is pushing her to quit her job and the next minute she realizes she loves him. It just didn't make sense to me. I also had a problem with her letting him take over her life (I had this same problem with Daddy in Waiting). It wasn't a bad book, they just weren't a very convincing couple. I rate it a C.

©Susan Falk and phantomroses.com