Tara Taylor Quinn, The Baby Gamble

The Baby Gamble

Tara Taylor Quinn

Harlequin SuperRomance, Oct 2007, $5.50

ISBN: 9780373714469

Blake Smith spent just under four years as a prisoner of a Middle East group, but now returns to blessed dusty Texas. He looks forward to seeing his beloved wife Annie, whose image kept him alive during his forty-seven month ordeal. However, he learns while he was declared legally dead, she remarried.

Two years later, divorced from her second husband Annie tells her brother Cole that she wants a baby to raise without a husband. Cole thinks his Texas Hold 'Em buddy Blake is the right person and she agrees with her sibling even if he was her first spouse. Blake wants his wife back so he accepts THE BABY GAMBLE.

This is an interesting Texas romance due to Blake. He mentally survived his captivity by having a pot incarceration goal of making love to Annie, but has not achieved his surviving objective once freed and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. Annie is a well rounded character who the audience will understand her reluctance to consider marrying again. However, the tale totally belongs to Blake who antes up THE BABY GAMBLE with plans to raise the stakes until he holds the winning hand of Annie.

Harriet Klausner