TEST
Staff Sergeant Matt Beltran is in a fix. He’s a single man, a career Airborne officer, and somebody’s left him with a little package in his car – a significant little package that wets and cries and wants to call him Daddy.
Into Matt’s life steps Corey Madsen. She’s had a rough year. She’s lost her husband in a car accident and she believes that life will never return to normal again. Then she gets a call from Social Services.
When Jacob was alive, they took babies into their home to foster, but since her husband’s death, Corey hasn’t had the heart to participate in the program. She doesn’t want to take in another baby, but SS is desperate.
They need a home for little “Shorty” and they want to put her in Corey’s. Matt’s denying to the hilt that he’s the baby’s father. There’s no damn way, and yet, something is niggling at him and he’s just not 100% sure of the facts. Maybe, just maybe, there really is a chance that this little girl belongs to him. Anyway, he’s going to fight it. But there’s this lady who manages to wiggle under his skin just a little bit, and first thing he knows, he can’t leave either Corey or Shorty alone. It just wouldn’t be right.
I loved this book; I more than loved this book. Matt is everything you can imagine a military man of being. He’s rough, he’s gruff, and he has a heart of gold. He was raised in an orphanage and he’s been his brother’s keeper most of his life, a paid babysitter now to every wet-behind-the-ears soldier to come up the pike. Corey is the little bit of softness that’s been missing in his life, but he’s not very willing to allow himself to think that she might be interested in him. After all, Corey’s still grieving for her husband, isn’t she?
There were some little surprises in this story and some of the best writing I’ve come across in a long time. I don’t want to give anything away, but let me say that Cheryl Reavis really used some great imagination here to pull off getting Matt and Corey together. Having been a military wife myself, I can understand the intricacies of military life and how controlling it can be both in your work and in your private life. Cheryl certainly made that obvious, and for anybody who’s been in the military or been a military spouse, her descriptions of some scenes were just too real to be anything but the truth. I’d like to know the true story that happened in one particular scene, but I’m not saying anything more. You want to know about it, you have to read the book.
As far as military stories are concerned, this is one of the very best. I loved Matt for his gruffness and his vulnerability which showed right from the very beginning. He might be a man’s man, but he’s a softie with a big heart. Ask Shorty.
If you have an afternoon free, find this book and give it a good read. I hated to see it end. There was some good conflict in this story, and while it may have been expected, the rest of the story wasn’t, and that’s why this one’s a real Keeper.
Grade: A
Book Type: Contemporary Romance|Series Romance
Sensuality: Subtle
Review Date: 22/07/98
Publication Date: 1998/05
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Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.