The Ladies’ Man / Some Kind of Wonderful

Rachel Harper was a kindergarten teacher. She was definitely not a one-night stand kind of girl. But that was exactly what she'd done—she'd picked up a charming guy in a bar and brought him home. Mortified, Rachel couldn't get Carter Brockett out of her life fast enough. But then, a few weeks later, she discovers she's not quite done with Carter: she's pregnant with his baby.

The Ladies’ Man (review)

The Ladies’ Man deals with one of my least-favorite contemporary romance tropes: the accidental pregnancy following a one-night stand. But Susan Mallery handles it fairly well, although her hero is the least “bad boy” womanizer I’ve ever come across (actually, he’s kind of adorable, and I prefer nice guys to bad boys any day), and she almost over-emphasizes how uncharacteristic the one-night stand is for both hero and heroine. One of Mallery’s staples is the character who is avoiding love and/or commitment for one reason or another; in this case, it’s both of them initially, and I wasn’t sure which one would come to their senses first. Nonetheless, the plot is pretty predictable, but redeemed by a fair amount of humor and warm and supportive secondary characters. (3 stars)

Her whole life, Brittany Forrest has dreamed of adventure. And at the age of eighteen, she thought she'd found it when she married bad boy Zachary Flynn. But after just ten days, their whirlwind marriage went up in smoke. Now, the daredevil pilot is back on Puffin Island. The sparks between them are as powerful as ever, but can Brittany risk the life she's built for a second chance with Zach?

Some Kind of Wonderful (review)

Some Kind of Wonderful, the second book in Sarah Morgan’s Puffin Island trilogy, goes deeper into emotional territory with a terribly wounded “bad boy” who walked out on the heroine after ten days of marriage, ten years before. This story outshone Mallery’s in terms of emotional connection, vivid setting, and depth of characterization of both hero and heroine. I related to Brittany, Zach, and Puffin Island far more than I did Mallery’s Rachel and Carter even though in some ways, Brittany and Zach’s story is a bit less realistic. It never feels unrealistic, though, thanks to Morgan’s writing, a well-realized and believable (if idyllic) setting, and a skillful balance of humor, passion, and angst. (4 stars)

I was equally taken with the first Puffin Island novel, The First Time in Forever, so Some Kind of Wonderful is really why I bought this dual-story volume. The third book in the trilogy, Christmas Ever After (UK title), will be released in the US in April as One Enchanted Moment, in another two-for-one volume headlined by Lori Foster’s In Too Deep. I’ve already preordered it, but can’t help but wonder why Harlequin didn’t continue the series as single volumes, but bundled them with other writers. Surely Morgan, as good as she is, has enough fans to sell on her own in the U.S.?

NOTE: The cover shown is from the planned US paperback edition. I don’t know if that edition was ever produced; I certainly can’t find it. The book was eventually bundled with The Ladies’ Man, above.

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

• Take Control of Your TBR Pile Challenge (Mar. 2016)
• The Backlist Reader (TBR) Challenge 2016

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