"A wonderful debut by a talented author"
Jake Manning has a plan, a Baby Plan that is! He has
everything a man could possibly desire, except for one
thing... a baby. He is so busy though, that he has no
desire
for a wife to go along with the baby, in addition to the
fact that he has already had experience in the husband
department and didn't have much luck there. Having raised
his younger siblings pretty much on his own, he is feeling
a bit of "Empty Nest" syndrome, now that they are grown up
and starting to have families of their own. So he starts
to hanker after having his own child, without the stresses
that marrying a woman would add to his life. He knows he
can raise a child by himself. Now, he just needs to find
the woman to go along with his plan. Harley Emerson is a young woman who has had nothing but a
string of bad luck in her life. She is highly intelligent,
but has no formal higher education. She has no family,
having spent most of her young life being shuffled from
foster home to foster home. She is a brilliant mechanic,
but having been arrested and convicted for a crime she
didn't commit, she finds it rather difficult to get and
keep a good job. She's flat broke and has no one to turn
to, her only friend being her former parole officer, a man
who took her under his wing and tried to help her overcome
her past. When Jake meets Harley at the garage where his car is being
fixed, he is quite intrigued by the young woman. When she
loses her job due to a misunderstanding between Jake and
her employer, he feels responsible. As he gets to know her
while trying to help her out, he decides she is the perfect
woman for his plan to have a child. Upon approaching Harley
with his idea, going so far as to send a "Daddy Résumé,"
she is at first insulted and infuriated. She finally comes
around though, but not without making a few conditions of
her own -- she will only agree to a traditional conception
and a marriage of convenience until the baby is born. No
child of hers will be born outside the boundaries of
marriage, even if she won't be keeping it herself. All goes according to plan; until a monkey wrench is thrown
in to the works... they find love. Jake has been hurt and
betrayed by every woman who has been in his life, the only
exception being his younger sister, so he finds it hard to
trust Harley. And she is convinced a fine upstanding
citizen of Erie, PA, like Jake, could never love an out-of-
work mechanic with a record. Now comes the biggest
challenge of all, how to overcome the obstacles to find the
happiness both so desperately desire. What a wonderful debut novel! Ms. Gable packs an emotional
wallop with this story. This is one book that is totally
and completely character driven, but circumstances between
Harley and Jake are cause for some conflict in the story,
helping to flesh it out and make it all the more compelling
to read. Harley and Jake are strong characters, with strong
personalities, so it is no surprise that this story tugs at
the heartstrings. Harley has had a tough life, molding her
into the woman she is. There are times when she is reliving
past experiences that the reader cannot help but feel the
full intensity of her pain. She is a complex blend of woman
and child, and that is evident throughout. Jake's feelings for his brother and sister are overwhelming
to him at times, causing much inner turmoil when it is
apparent that his feelings for Harley and his family are at
odds with what everyone expects of him. Also, his pain over
those he feels deserted him when he needed them color his
way of thinking and his attitude in general, until he
learns to let go of the hurt finally. The reader knows from the start that Jake and Harley are
meant for each other, and can't wait for them to figure
that out themselves. They need each other, and the journey
to that realization makes for a powerful read. If this
story is any indication, Ms. Gable will be a force to
contend with in the genre. She knows how to tell her story
with plenty of emotion to enthrall the reader, while
balancing it out with a strong plot line and even stronger
characters. This reviewer will be eagerly awaiting her next
book, THE MOMMY PLAN, due out in the summer of 2003. © Kelley A. Hartsell, December 2002. All rights reserved.
Reviewed by Kelley Hartsell
Courtesy Love Romances
Posted December 12, 2002
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