*Bringing up Baby by Lori Foster - Bringing up Baby is the second novella in Lori Foster’s series about the three Watson brothers. This one is middle brother Gil’s story. In the previous novella he’d just gotten the shock of his life when he found out that he was the father of a two-year-old little girl he hadn’t known existed. The girl’s mother, a woman with whom he’d shared a business relationship and one weekend of steamy passion, has passed away in a car accident. But as it turns out, she hadn’t been much of a mother anyway. It’s her roommate, Anabel, who has been raising Nicole and whom she calls mommy. Gil has known Anabel for three years, from the times he visited Nicole’s biological mother on business. Although Gil was sexually attracted to Anabel, he always thought of her as little more than a tattooed, pierced free-spirit and not really mother material. But when Anabel shows up on his doorstep with his toddler daughter in tow, proposing a marriage of convenience to prevent Nicole’s grandparents from taking her away, Gil is forced to take a closer look at her and figure out if they could be something more.

Gil is a great guy. From the moment he finds out he has a child, he’s more than ready to take responsibility and become a father to her in every way. Even though he knows nothing about kids, he proves to be a natural and is wonderful with Nicole. I liked that he recognized Anabel’s place in Nicole’s life and that no matter what happened between the two of them, he couldn’t separate mom and daughter even though they aren’t biologically related. Also, once he realizes Anabel is the woman for him, he tries to prove it to her by taking care of her, too. The only thing about Gil that left me wanting is that it’s implied that he’s a wild lover with perhaps unusual tastes in the bedroom, but although the love scenes are hot, nothing particularly out of the ordinary occurs. If anything, I thought the first novella of the series was slightly spicier.

Anabel is a real stand-up heroine to have raised her friend’s child as her own. I admired that she wanted to tell Gil from the start that he was Nicole’s father, but it was the child’s biological mother who kept her from doing so. It’s obvious that she loves the little girl very much and is a mother to her in every way that counts. She’s been attracted to Gil for a very long time and was more than ready to give him anything he wanted in the bedroom. I especially liked that she felt that she could trust him to do the right thing. She may not have stood out to me in quite the same way that other romance heroines have, but I liked Anabel and there was nothing she did that bothered me in any way.

Because this is a short novella, there isn’t a lot of time to develop the romantic relationship. It helped some that both Gil and Anabel had known and been attracted to each other for a while, but it seemed that despite the attraction, they weren’t really what I would even call friends. If anything Gil had reservations about Anabel’s suitability as a mother. Granted he gets over it as he watches her with Nicole and realizes that he’s been unfair in his judgment, but because of his initial questioning of her, things seemed to move very quickly in the romance department. They hop into bed on night one for a “trial run,” and although the sex is great and I could feel a connection there, the leap to him being ready to marry was just a little too fast to suit me. Otherwise, though, I enjoyed Bringing up Baby and thought it was a cute story. Nicole is absolutely adorable and behaved exactly like a two-year-old should so that was a plus. I look forward to completing the series and seeing what’s in store for youngest brother, Pete. Bringing up Baby was originally published in this multi-author anthology and was later reprinted in the single author anthology, The Watson Brothers, along with it’s two companion novellas. Star Rating: ****

The Wilde One by Janelle Denison – It’s been a really long time since I last read a Janelle Denison story, which also, as it happens, was the previous story in her Wilde series. I seem to recall there being quite a bit of similarity between the first three Wilde stories, which might partially account for me putting this author on the back burner for a while. Thankfully, The Wilde One was a little different than those three stories. While the heroine of this novella is still rather commitment-phobic, it’s for different reasons than those of the other heroines in the series thus far. And although the hero is a pretty hard-core alpha male, like his brothers from the previous stories, his personality and profession is quite different. So The Wilde One was definitely unique enough to hold my attention pretty well.

Chayse was introduced in the previous novella of the series, All She Want for Christmas. She’s a photographer who’s shooting a beefcake calender for charity and wants our hero, Adrian, to be one of her models. I had to admire Chayse’s determination. She’s apparently been pestering Adrian about it for months and continues to doggedly pursues him in this story. Since she knows he’d be perfect for the job and he can’t give her a compelling reason why he won’t do it, she can’t let it go, and her persistence is eventually rewarded. Chayse is pretty much all alone in the world and has a painful past that makes her wary of giving her heart to someone. Everyone she loved growing up left her in some way, so she keeps her relationships casual, not wanting to get too close and get hurt. With Adrian, everything is different. She finds herself opening up to him in ways she hasn’t with anyone else, but she’s still scared to let their affair go on any longer than the weekend. What I liked most about Chayse is that she understands Adrian and his “need for speed,” as well as accepts his physical imperfections without hesitation.

Adrian is a risk-taker. He’s an extreme sports enthusiast and owns an outdoor adventure company. Although he’s insanely attracted to Chayse, he’s been avoiding her as much as possible, and every time he sees her, he keeps turning down her proposal of him posing for her calender. His body has imperfections that her doesn’t think will translate well to photographs, not to mention, said imperfections are also tied to a painful past relationship that left him feeling completely betrayed. Ever since then, he’s had a hard time trusting women, and like Chayse, he also keeps his relationships casual. With Chayse, their chemistry is so intense, he can’t resist her, so when she shows up at his cabin, calling his bluff, it turns into a sexually explosive moment. Adrian is perhaps a tad too alpha for my taste. He’s pretty sexually aggressive during their first love scene, although he does feel badly about it afterward (not that Chayse was complaining ;-)), but then he does it again at the very end. I did, however, like Adrian’s intuitiveness in seeing behind the walls Chayse has erected around herself. He’s also the first one to admit that he’s falling for her, which was rather endearing, and he wouldn’t allow her to run away from him without a fight. If Adrian had been just a little softer and not quite so intense, and/or he’d had a profession that was a little more relatable to me, I could have seen this novella being a keeper for me.

Other than Adrian not quite being my favorite type of guy, The Wilde One was a very good read. The love scenes are quite steamy, and aside from the more intense ones that weren’t entirely my thing, they’re a lot of fun to read. I was also surprised by the amount of character development Janelle Denison was able to create in such a short space. Although a little longer format to explore their issues in more depth might have been nice, it was still quite good for a novella. Of course, they fall in love, get over their issues, and we even get a proposal at the very end, which happens all in the space of one three-day weekend, which is maybe a little quick. However, I was willing to give the author a pass on this, because Adrian and Chayse have at least known each other for several months, and she does develop their relationship in a believable way with a strong emotional connection. So overall, I enjoyed reading The Wilde One. Several of the other Wilde brothers and cousins appear in this novella. Adrian’s cousin, Scott, is up next in The Wilde Side. What I saw of him in this story and what little I remember of his appearances in the previous ones, I’ve liked what I’ve seen, so I look forward to continuing the series and reading his book. The Wilde One was originally published in this anthology, but has since been republished as a stand-alone novella. Star Rating: ****

*Going after Adam by Nancy Warren - Going after Adam is a fast-paced novella in which our hero, Adam, works for a company that’s engaging in illegal activities. He become a whistle-blower, which has put his life in danger, as assassins are hot on his trail. Enter the heroine, Gretchen, a private investigator, who’s been unwittingly hired by the bad guys to keep an eye on him. She thinks he’s a cheating husband and that her job is to get incriminating pictures of him with the other woman for his wife to use in divorce proceedings. By the time she finds out that she’s been duped, her life is in danger, too, so they go on the run together, trying to reach Las Vegas before the baddies, so that Adam can turn over his evidence to an FBI buddy there. Their road trip turns into a fun, mad-cap adventure when they board a tour bus full of seniors, using the cover story of being on their way to Vegas for a shotgun wedding.

This is the third novella I’ve read by Nancy Warren. The previous two I had given mixed ratings to, so I’m pleased that Going after Adam turned out to be a story that I mostly enjoyed. Because of its brevity there isn’t a lot of room for character development, but for as well as I got to know them, I liked Adam and Gretchen. The story moves very fast, so it kept me engaged throughout. Once the seniors on the bus tour were added into the mix, it became fun and humorous as well. The love scenes are steamy but perhaps lacked enough sexual tension leading up to them to really spark for me, but overall, they weren’t bad. My main complaint is that things move at warp speed in the relationship department. Adam and Gretchen meet on day one, trust each other enough to go on the run together and end up in bed on day two, and wind up married on day three. Even though the quickie wedding with Elvis officiating was originally meant to appease their new senior friends, they decide to stay married once the danger has passed, which was perhaps a little too much to be entirely believable. But despite that, I can’t deny that I was entertained while reading this novella, so it ended up being pretty good after all. Star Rating: **** ( )

Bringing Up Baby by Lori Foster
The Wilde One by Janelle Denison
Going After Adam by Nancy Warren ( )

Contemporary romance. Perfect beach read. Quick read. Easy way to pick up a new author or catch up on existing characters. ( )

I read the short novella "The Wilde One" by Janelle Denison. It's the fourth episode in her Wilde series. This one features Adrian Wilde the last brother of the original Wilde brothers and overall the most interesting of the three.

Adrian is a mix of bad!boy and hurt!boy. His encounter with Chayse Douglas, well more her chase of him to pose for a charity calendar turns out to be the chase of a life time. Both characters are interesting and the format of the short novella forces Denison to shorten her wandering ways into fantasy play and she focuses on the characters motivation and actions. This is the best of the brothers Wilde novella/novel. ( )