Jennifer Jordan is happily running a B&B with her mother when her step son, Rafe Jordan, who she has claimed is her husband, shows up and moves in. See, several months earlier Jennifer had married Sebastian Jordan who was terminally ill and wanted to prevent his latest ex-wife (of which he had 4) from gaining any control over his estate in exchange for his fertility assistance services as Jennifer has always wanted to have a baby and had no prospects around. Because of her mother, she didn't want to admit that it is a test tube baby and being in a small town she needed the protection of marriage so this was a good deal - up until Sebastian's death bed when he confesses he used Rafe's sperm (Sebastian had been desperate for a grandchild...). As the book unwinds Rafe and Jennifer get to know each other, and navigate around the various lies and secrets. And although they seem a perfectly matched couple in terms of their passions (and indeed they have been unknowingly sharing sexual fantasies for years as Jennifer is an erotica author and Rafe is her editor, although they don't realize it due to the use of pen names!) they need to work out what will happen when Rafe goes back to England and his various businesses...
I should disclose that Susan Napier is my favorite author of all times, so of course I loved this book. I was especially appreciative of the way that there is never any question of Rafe trying to take the baby away from Jennifer or using the threat of that in manipulation -- Rafe was caught in a custody battle throughout his childhood and knows first hand the pain this would cause. It takes Jennifer some time to believe this, and to have some faith in her mother (who was disabled in the car accident that killed her brother and caused her fiancé to leave her), both with the secret of her published books and with the ability to run the B&B on her own. In the end we have no doubts of the future happiness of our happy couple.
Ps. As a side note I just want to acknowledge the linguistic benefit of Harlequin Presents as a vocabulary builder! I swear not an HP goes by without teaching me at least one new word - I'm not sure whether this is because people in the Commonwealth have a more diverse vocabulary than us Americans, or if it's just a writing style encouraged by Mills and Boon, but it is great.
I loved this book! I read
I loved this book! I read it years and years ago. It was the book I vaguely remembered but couldn't put the NAME to... couldn't remember the author or title but I could remember the picture on the front had the heroine in a green gown! LOL.... I eventually found it by looking up "Harlequin Presents, artificial insemination" as google keywords! (There aren't many HPs with that plot line, so it worked)
This book is on my "wish list" for books, if I see it on eBay I'll buy it, I would love to re-read it sometime.