Book Review... The Valentine Child - Jacqueline Baird

The Valentine Child - Jacqueline Baird
Harlequin Presents
Harlequin, 1996
ISBN: 9780373117956
Reissue - Harlequin Treasury, 2011
eISBN: 9781459276123










My rating

From the back cover:

"Would Valentine play Cupid?
When Zoë's baby arrived on February 14, it seemed only natural to call him Valentine! But as far as Zoë was concerned, Valentine had been the only romance in her brief marriage to Justin Gifford. And since Justin had harshly declared that he never wanted to see her again, she hadn't had the chance to tell him that he had a son.... But then the unthinkable happened: Valentine became desperately ill and Zoë knew that she would do anything to save him—even if that meant seducing her own husband!"

Another book from the Treasury line. I have been enjoying reading older books recently, some of the more recent ones have been a little disappointing.

This book turned out to be so much more enjoyable than I expected. The title and blurb really don't do it justice. This is a 'secret baby' book, but that's not the entire focus of the book, which makes it very interesting.

I really enjoyed reading the hero and heroine's early relationship - how it built and how it, eventually, crumbled. Both the characters make mistakes in the relationship, and I appreciated that the author didn't attempt to sugar coat them.

Communication, or more accurately, lack of communication is the 'theme' of this book. The hero and heroine are so afraid to talk to one another, and the author does a great job of showing how this slowly festered and snowballed into a complete lack of trust, which eventually destroys their relationship, and it is still present when they eventually re-connect. Very emotional reading.

The secret baby part of the story is handled well, and interesting as it is not the main source of conflict in the book.

Absorbing and emotional.

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