365 books in 365 days Challenge ... Book #255

Daddy By Accident - Paula Detmer Riggs
Silhouette Desire
Silhouette Books, 1997
ISBN: 9780373760732
Reissue - Harlequin Treasury, 2011
eISBN: 9781459271616








My rating

From the back cover:

"MOTHER-TO-BE 
Despite the screech of tires and the shattered glass, pregnant Stacy Patterson was aware that sexy Boyd Macauley had gotten her out of her car accident alive. But she had no money, no place to go, and too much pride to ask for help—until Boyd came to her rescue again. 
FATHER-BY-PROXY 
Boyd had vowed never to let another person get too close, yet fragile Stacy needed a place to stay. By day they prepared for the birth of her child, and by night they gave in to their overwhelming passions. He'd vowed that it was strictly temporary—but was he only fooling himself?"


This is another book from the Harlequin Treasury line.

At the beginning of the book the hero Boyd is witness to a car accident that leaves the heroine Stacy injured and her estranged and violent ex-husband dead. Boyd helps her to stay calm but when he realises she is heavily pregnant he is reminded of his trauma when he lost his wife and unborn child. Even though he doesn't want to get involved, Boyd finds himself drawn to Stacy and offers her help, which even though she tries to refuse he knows she desperately needs. Stacy struggles with her emotions over the recent events in her life, but knows she needs to stay strong for her beloved unborn child. The light in her otherwise bleak recovery is Boyd, and Stacy can't help but fall for him. She accepts Boyd's help and as they spend time together they begin to grow closer and closer. But Boyd can't let himself give in to his growing feelings for Stacy as he can't get over his thoughts that he is betraying his wife's memory.

Wow, this book is very angsty but still totally enjoyable. The relationship between the hero and heroine develops gradually and so beautifully, it feels real and is enthralling to read. The hero and heroine are two brilliant characters, both individually and together, and they are written with real depth. I do feel that the heroine 'got over' the death of her ex-husband a little too quickly, but there was enough backstory given to accept this. Boyd is a wonderfully complex hero, but at times I was confused over his feelings towards his past marriage - sometimes it was the perfect marriage and nothing could hold a candle to it, and other times it was a mismatch relationship that had more downs than ups. It is a little confusing to me.

Overall, this is a very emotional and enjoyable book.

I have one big complaint though - there is a lot of errors in the text of this book, which is very off putting. This seemed to be errors from when, I presume, the text was scanned in and character recognition. One example that is almost constant throughout is that the letters r and i when together were mistaken for an n, so we had charity being chanty and Mario being Mano etc. There are other mistakes but it would take me a while to go through them all! This needs a proof read, mistakes like this are very disappointing.

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