365 books in 365 days Challenge ... Book #347

Wanted by Her Lost Love - Maya Banks
Harlequin Desire
Harlequin, 2011
ISBN: 9780373731329












My rating

From the back cover:

"Despite his fiancée’s chilling betrayal, developer Ryan Beardsley provided for Kelly Christian when he sent her packing. So he’s livid to find her working in a dingy Houston diner, desperate and pregnant. 
Regardless of whether the baby is his - or his brother’s - Ryan demands that Kelly return to New York with him. Now. For the baby’s sake. Or maybe because the woman’s as irresistible as ever."


This is the second book in Maya Bank's 'Pregnancy and Passion' mini series. I loved the first book (review) so I was looking forward to this one...

The hero Ryan finds the heroine Kelly working at a run down diner, after searching for her for a while, and is  surprised to see she is heavily pregnant. His initial anger towards her is replaced with concern when he sees that she is obviously not well. Kelly doesn't know what to think about Ryan turning up and pretending to be concerned about her, she has never forgotten her hurt and heartbreak when he refused to believe her against his brother's lies. But she knows that she has reached the end of her rope and needs to stay healthy for her baby so she takes the help Ryan offers her. Ryan doesn't want to forgive Kelly for her supposed betrayal. but he can't deny that he needs her as much as she needs his help. He takes her away, in order to help her relax and regain her strength, and they both promise to try and put the past between them. But Ryan's lack of faith in her slowly eats away at Kelly and she soon realises that as much as she loves him she simply can't live the rest of her life knowing that he thinks the worst of her.

I can't say how much I enjoyed this book, it was firing on all cylinders right from the start. The book follows on nicely from the first book in this mini-series (Enticed by His Forgotten Lover) but it stands along fine. What I liked about this is that it had an altogether different mood from the first book. There is a lot of angst and genuinely tear-jerking moments in this book, as well as plenty of passion and a believable love between the hero and heroine. The heroine really is the star of the show here; she goes through so much - her health problems (which, by the way, are very nicely handled by the author) and her heartbreak - yet she is able to grow as the story progresses and eventually realise that she deserves more than the way she has been treated. Simply fabulous!
My only teeny moan about this book is that I feel everything was tied up and forgiven a little too neatly.

A beautifully written story, very compelling, and almost Presents worthy in it's emotion and angst levels! I loved it.

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