Waking Up Pregnant, or How Books Can Make You Broody

The night that changed everything! 

Waitress Darcy Penn is the smart, sensible type—flirting with the extremely cute guy in the bar just isn't her usual style. As for ending up in his hotel room? Definitely not! Sneaking out while he's in the bathroom to avoid the post-sex awkwardness? Much more like it…. 

If Darcy had stuck around, Jeff Norton could have told her about their "epic latex fail." So he shouldn't be quite so shocked when months later, Darcy turns up at his classy L.A. office and throws up in his wastepaper basket. She's got a bad case of morning sickness, and she's here to find out what he's going to do about it!

There's something about unexpected pregnancies in romance novels that usually turns me off the book; not always, but usually.  However - and it's a massive however - Waking Up Pregnant was completely different.

From the start, she doesn't get pregnant because they were irresponsible.  The condom split, as can actually happen, and though she doesn't realise this because she freaks out and leaves before he can tell her, there's a certain amount of sympathy that we have for her plight.

And also, the moment she gets pregnant, there's no falling into his arms straight away and letting him do everything for her.  She's ill, so he insists on helping her, but she's fully committed to work - even starting a new job during her pregnancy.

This is a woman who is feisty, who is determined, and who is everything a woman can be.

In today's media, there are so many representations of women who work whilst having children as either hard or unfeeling, and it's wonderful to see this combated so very well in Kelly's depiction of Darcy.

And then there's Jeff.  He's not entirely comfortable with the idea of Darcy working, and he's incredibly over-protective, but he comes to realise that "he wanted Darcy confident in the choices she made".  He backs off so that she can make her own decisions, and when he does tell her that he loves her, he embraces all of her- the sexy side and the workaholic side.

Mills & Boon boy Kevin decided to kick back and relax whilst reading this one...