Victoria Chancellor Daddy Lessons

Daddy Lessons

Victoria Chancellor

Harlequin American, Jan 2006, $4.99

ISBN: 0373751028

Having divorced her womanizing spouse Ed, elementary school teacher Kate Wooden returns to Ranger Springs, Texas with her six year old son Eddie, to be close to her Aunt Jodie and her brother Travis and his family, since her son's dad abandoned the lad. Former Hollywood animal trainer stuntman, Luke Simon, has retired from the movies to settle in the ranch next door to that of Kate. He plans to establish a retirement home for aging performing animals, even though some are a bit cantankerous.

Eddie keeps sneaking off to see the animals, like the zebras next door. Surprisingly Luke is very patient with the boy. However, he soon has a big shock to cope with when a man insisting he was the brother to the late Shawna Jacobs informs him that his tryst with the deceased nine years ago led to a daughter, Brittany. He is determined to create a home for Brittany, but has two weeks to learn how to be a father; Kate gives him lessons. Neither of the adults is prepared for how much their respective youngsters need same sex parenting, and even less ready for how much in love with one another they become.

DADDY LESSONS is a fine family drama in which the romance comes later, as the problems of rejection and abandonment place the two kids on the front burner. The quartet struggles with issues that are outside the scope of opposite sex parenting, as Eddie needs a male in his life after his father left him, and Brittany likewise a female after the death of her mother. The romance between Kate and Luke is sweet, but it is the needs of the children that drive this fine contemporary.