Single Father...
Written: Oct 17 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Romantic ending...
Cons: A big juvenile and spaced out over time...
The Bottom Line: If you like happy endings, and have a similar conflict, this is a helpful book - but, if you're looking for a realistic novel - skip it.
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| julie42's Full Review: This Child of Mine (Harlequin Superromance, No. 95... |
The novel "This Child of Mine" by Darlene Graham is part of a Harlequin Super Romance series, called "Single Father"... Each of the books contains single fathers, with children.
Mark Masters is the single father in this book, and Kitt Stevens is the heroine. The story takes place in Washington, D.C., between Kitt, a lawyer, and Mark, a journalist. They are teamed up together, have several heated arguments, and then they start to date. Before Kitt meets his family, things are going wonderfully. Mark is romantic, thoughtful, and intelligent.
At a rally Kitt organizes, Mark's "secret" comes out. His sister, the live-in-nanny, brings his daughter (Tannie) to come and visit. Kitt knows the daughter from Sunday School, and sees her. There happened to be a bit of a riot, the child is hurt, and Kitt takes her to the hospital. Mark shows up, not realizing Kitt was the person to bring his daughter there. Mark tried to explain to Kitt why he didn't tell her about Tannie, but Kitt won't listen, she has a secret of her own.
Four years earlier, Kitt gave up her baby for adoption. The father didn't love her, cheated on her, and she left him. She believed in every child having a father figure around, and gave the baby to a family that could take care of him. Tannie, Mark's baby, is four years as well, and she thinks about her baby every time she looks at Tannie.
Kitt ends the relationship with Mark because she feels that once Mark finds out that she gave up her baby, instead of sticking out parenthood as he did, he will leave anyway. Mark is brushed off without any explanation, and leaves town.
Of course, there's a happy ending in every Harlequin Romance novel, and this is no different. The sister arranges for them to meet, they magically tell each other everything, and get back together.
If that was the end of the Epinion, I'm sure you'd be disappointed. Here are my thoughts...
The entire book kind of sounds like a 18 year old fantasy. The first part of their relationship lasted about two months. Please feel free to tell me if I'm wrong, but don't you think that most men, having fallen head-over-heels in love with a woman, would find some way to tell her that he has a daughter? The book also never mentions why they didn't go over to Mark's house, even once. I think Kitt would have been a bit suspicious.
With the huge amounts of communication problems between Kitt and Mark, I also found it hard to believe that suddenly at the end, they would have such an open conversation. Kitt had never talked about the baby to anyone else, and miraculously she just tells him then. There were many references in the book when she was around Mark, and wanted to tell him, to be honest with him. Even when she's hurting and wallowing, she never once writes him a letter, explaining things. I just feel that in reality, if the woman loved the person enough, she'd try and fix things.
There is another conflict I have when I finished this book. Kitt is a grown woman. She knew that Mark had paid his "brief fling" to have the baby, instead of having an abortion. I believe that Kitt should have seen that Mark was pro-life, and not against adoption. Never once, in this novel, did it say anything like that. It just sounded like he was suddenly the all-accepting man.
I wouldn't recommend anyone to buy this book. The only books I buy are books I will read again, or books I find at a garage sale. I would recommend those in similar predicaments to go to their library and check it out, though. It touched on a lot of issues that Kitt had about giving her baby away. Even if the book wasn't realisitic in a relationship sense, in the seperate mini-plots, it was informative.
And, of course, it has a happy ending!
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
julie42
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Member: Julie White
Location: Vancouver, Washington
Reviews written: 92
Trusted by: 94 members
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