The Italian Count's Baby by Amy Andrews, Harlequin Medical Romance #341

Katya, a Russian spitfire of a nurse, spends one night of passion in the arms of an Italian Count doctor. The intense night of unprotected sex leads to the inevitable. He offers a marriage of convenience, but will she except?

  Both Ben and Katya have their own inner demons that they need to work through before they can come together. Katya’s inner conflict is truly heartbreaking and no more so then the evening after her ultrasound. But Ben has his own compelling inner drama going on. Will they make it to their HEA? 

 Limited word count means an author has to make the most of each scene and Andrews manages to this nicely. I don’t usually like the rich man/poor woman because of the inherent power imbalance, but Ben has his a tender side and Katya has a fierce independence of spirit that lends her strength. So, for me, Andrews makes this imbalance work. One small comment that has nothing to do with the book, who picked out the cover picture? And why didn’t they find a woman that matched the physical description that Andrews created? Blonde, short ‘feathered’ hair, and blue-eyes of her description does not match the long dark haired, swarthy, Mediterranean looking female on the cover of the book. It’s a minor irritation, but this is not the first book that cover art fails to match character descriptions of the author.

Nancy