To Mother With Love

The Way Home by Linda Howard

For Anna sharp, the choice was clear. Saxon Malone might not want their baby, but she did--even if that meant giving up the man she loved. But maybe, if she could show him the value of his past, he might be willing to share the future--as a family...

I loved this story so much that's why I hated it--it was too damn short! It didn't deserve to be just a short story. But I guess it was a little bit like Sarah's Child so that was prolly why.

I'd say Saxon Malone was Rome Matthew's better twin and his story was a better version of Rome's. He made his impression on me on the very first line of the book:

"This won't work. You can be either my secretary or my mistress, but you can't be both. Choose."

Who would have thought he would turn out to be such a hero?

And no, they were not having a relationship, it was called an arrangement. Straightforward and no pretense in Saxon's part. Oh, he was in love with Anna but he just didn't really know that. He thought he never knew what love was. But Anna changed that. She wouldn't have become his mistress if she hadn't loved him from the beginning. But she gave it in the only way she knew he would take it.

And then she got pregnant. Anna was ready to let Saxon go because she knew that it wasn't part of their arrangement. But miracles do happen--and Saxon wanted them to stay together. And out of the blue, he wanted them to get married. Although she had wanted exactly that, she never expected it since he had made it clear when she became his mistress two years earlier that it wasn't going to happen.

But before she could accept his proposal, she wanted him to know what family is all about. And the only way to show that to a man who had lived in an orphanage as a young child, too sickly to be adopted, and being shuffled from one foster home to another, was to find that one family who had kept him the longest. And that was the Bradley's, with whom Saxon stayed with until he finished high school. And to his surprise, he found out that the Bradleys had loved him like a son nineteen years ago and if there's anyone who's ready for the future, that would be the one with the healed soul.

Final verdict: 9/10. Must read.


Backward Glance by Robyn Carr

News of her "ailing" mother sent Leigh Brackon and her twin toddlers rushing home. But once there, she found her spry mom sipping medicinal wine and old flame John McElroy knee-deep in landscaping the backyard! Coincidence? Leigh suspected maternal meddling--and feared the truth John might discover in her sons' eyes...

Matchmaking and interfering are two very different things. And this one here was interfering to a T. I wouldn't want anyone to interfere with my life in this way and to be made worried sick about how sick someone in my family was just to make me dance to her every tune. Not my favorite thing. And I didn't like that Leigh didn't tell John about her boys the first chance she got after she returned home.

Final verdict: 3.5/10. Skip it.


So This Is Love by Cheryl Reavis

Little Houng Brenner knew all about the customs of her adopted country. On Groundhog Day you searched for a groundhog, so on Mother's Day...But to betroth her reticent father Jacob to attractive Jessica Markham, Houng had to rally her baffled new brother, invoke her Asian ancestors--in short, manufacture magic...and mayhem.

This story was a funny one. I really had a ball going through the pages. I never thought that different cultures and traditions would be something to laugh about. But what the heck, when someone does totally unfamiliar rituals (is there any other kind?) on your porch, wouldn't you be at least a little freaked out? Especially if you didn't know who was dong it. How about honoring the Jade Emperor and Victor Hugo on the same level? And adorable Huong, or Heidi as she later wanted to be called, was so sweet. And making her reluctant half brother help her "betroth" their father to Jessica Markham was really something. The Jacob-Jessica story was so-so but Heidi and Thomas pretty much made up for everything--they were a very good team.

Final verdict: 7/10. Good read.