Expecting the Boss's Baby

Kate Adams has worked as Michael Hawkins' assistant for 3 years. 2 1/2 months ago they gave had a night of loving, followed by a morning of regret and back-pedalling on Michael's part. Kate discovers she is pregnant and tries to find out Michael's feelings for her by telling him that she has fallen for him (without informing him of the pregnancy). He tells her he doesn't believe in love, so she quits her job and leaves. Michael eventually guesses that Kate may be pregnant, so he confronts her and she admits it. He never had a father, and his mother died when he was 6 years old, leaving him to be raised in foster care and an orphanage. Naturally, he feels strongly about illegitimate children and single mothers, and is determined to marry Kate and give her and their child financial security and his name.

I didn't really like Kate very much. I understand that she doesn't want Michael to marry her just because she is pregnant, but she really is stuck in her romantic idylls. Once she learns of his childhood, she acknowledges that he doesn't really understand how a family should behave, but she doesn't do much about helping him. I can't help but think she would have been miserable even if she had a "normal" courtship and marriage. She expects Michael to know what she wants without telling him, even though she knows he has never experienced the type of family life she expects. Even if she had married someone with a strong family background, they wouldn't have "just known" what she wants - everyone's family is different. Oh, and the trite marital advice her parents give them on their wedding day. "You have to give 110%." Yes, yes, we all know that. It was just so cheesy and pointless.

Talking about cheese... 3 weeks before her due date date, Kate decides to climb up a ladder to hang Christmas decorations. It's not an emergency. It's not even that she's alone and has no one else to climb the ladder. Now, most women I know at that stage of pregnancy have enough trouble getting off a sofa, let alone climbing ladders. Of course, this is all done so that she will fall and end up rushed to hospital, and Michael will be shocked into realising how empty his life would be without her, and admitting that he loves her and their baby. Cheese alert! He has demonstrated over and over how much he cares. He has already admitted to himself (even before he found out about the pregnancy) that Kate is his best friend, and that he doesn't want to lose her. There must have been a more elegant way to resolve their feelings for each other.

Oh and the whole pregnancy thing. Kate really seems to spend her first trimester, if not the whole pregnancy, in denial about it. She doesn't want to tell Michael. She doesn't want her parents to know. She doesn't want his friends to know. Um, I think everyone kinda figured it out, honey.

Ok, ok, I know I'm giving the impression that I didn't like this book very much, but it was actually all right. This is the problem with most category romances - they just don't bear much scrutiny. It was a nice light read and an easy way to pass the time, but certainly not a book I'd be returning to time and again.