Then There Were Three

by Jeanie London

Talk about being sucker punched. The runaway kid sitting in Police Chief Nic DiLeo's chair with her feet propped up on his desk belongs to his family—no doubt about it. But her father isn't one of his five brothers.

It's him. She's his daughter with Megan Bell.

Nic was crazy about Megan in high school…until she vanished from his life with no explanation. The bigger secret, however, isn't the daughter he didn't know. It's Megan and how he still feels about her. She's more beautiful now and even more of a temptation. Suddenly the man who wanted to drop commitments is looking for ways to tie himself to Megan…permanently!

Genres: Romance, Harlequin, Contemporary Romance, Contemporary

288 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Jeanie London has had a head filled with characters for as long as she can remember. She completed her very first novel when she was just eleven--200 handwritten pages spanning several composition notebooks. School years were spent sneaking romances into school when she should have been learning algebra and biology. College years were spent taking all sorts of electives, like journalism and fiction writing classes, when she should have been taking algebra and biology. Nowadays, Jeanie is still reading and writing romances because she believes in happily-ever-afters. Not the "love conquers all" kind, but the "two people love each other, so they can conquer anything" kind.

Visit Jeanie at http://www.jeanielondon.com. She's very social and loves to meet others who believe in happily ever afters, too.

==The Best Reviews

Reviews

[Sheri · Rating 4 out of 5]

My grade: B. I enjoyed these characters a lot, especially teenage Violet. My only complaint is the easy resolution of all the complicated emotional issues presented. I felt there needed to be more time spent on resolving the relationship issues--with Nic's family, with Megan's family, and most especially between Nic and Megan. Neither one of them ever explained to the other how they felt when Megan left, how it hurt, how seeing the other again was like coming home and the ultimate excitement all at once. They acknowledged their thoughts to themselves, and felt the other person understood how they felt, but for how deep their emotions went, that just wasn't good enough. Other than that, I loved the characters, including all the secondary characters.

[Alannah Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Police Chief Nic DiLeo is in for the shock of his life when he finds that the fourteen-year-old runaway sitting in his office is related to him. But not via one of the five siblings he'd helped his mother raise. This little surprise is his one and only child: his daughter with Megan Bell, the love who had disappeared from his life with no explanation when they were still teenagers.

Now he knows why Megan suddenly vanished from his life.

I don't read romance novels very often, so I'm not a connoisseur. But I know what I like. And this is one of the best-written romance novels I've read in a very, very long time. Jeanie London does a wonderful job in creating layers in her characters and making them real.

I love the background of Violet (the daughter) and Megan moving across continents every couple of years while Megan works for not-for-profit organizations. Then Megan is offered a position in her hometown, New Orleans, after the town has begun picking itself up after Hurricane Katrina. She isn't ready yet for Violet to discover who her birth father is, but Violet finds out on her own. I love the character of Violet, and the way Jeanie London makes her real by giving her those layers: Violet gets a forbidden nose-piercing in the usual rebellious teenage style, but also loves to spend time with her mom making their new living quarters into their own unique space whenever they need to move.

Then there is Nic's relationship with his siblings. He helped his mother raise them, so he seems to see them more as kids than as his adult equals. Especially his brother Damon, who he sees as a troublemaking idiot. Yet Damon, though irrepressible, has enough discipline to master the martial arts and be a sensei. (I have a friend who is a 7th degree black belt, which takes incredible discipline, yet she is freewheeling in other areas of her life. It makes for a very interesting person, and I wish the character of Damon had been explored more!)

Very well done. I enjoyed everything about this novel.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm trying to expand my knowledge of genre fiction for adults (specifically war fiction, traditional romance novels, and science fiction), and found Then There Were Three to be a surprisingly fun read. I'd always imagined Harlequin to publish old-school bodice rippers that pretty much existed just for people to skip to the sex scenes, and was pleased to be proven wrong. Yes, this was a shallow and far-fetched read, but it was no more so than Sophie Kinsella or other similar guilty-pleasure chick lit authors. I liked seeing Nic and Megan come back together after years apart, and although I don't see myself becoming a regular reader of Harlequin Super Romance, I can definitely see how this kind of snack food can fit into a balanced book diet. This gets three stars ("liked it") despite being closer to two stars ("it was okay") in terms of its actual plot and writing quality, just because I'm so surprised a straight-up romance novel could have characters I actually cared about.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you enjoy a fun romance, you will want to read this one!

[Anne Dirty Girls' Good Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the first half of this book better than the second half. The author really set up some complicated situations that needed to be worked out. Violet, the 14 year old "secret baby" of this book had an enjoyable POV. But after all that set up I was disappointed with the resolution. There wasn't a whole lot of talking between Nic and Megan, or between Megan and her parents even. There was a lot of internal thinking and working things through, but I just couldn't accept that Nic would just forget the past and move forward. In the end that made the HEA less believable to me.

So, I liked the book but it's second half didn't live up to the first.

[Harlequin Books]

Miniseries: Count on a Cop

"Great book. I loved Violet and her thought processes, .... Nic was great as a dad, .... He and Megan had some serious issues to deal with .... His family was great, and I'd like to see more of the brothers." From a review posted by an eHarlequin.com member. To read more, go here.

[Katy Beth Mckee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good read but as other stated it sort of fizzled a bit in the end. You can she the happy ending possibly around the corner but it seemed to end just before you got there. Maybe the point is life doesn't always have a neat "ending" but frankly I want my fiction to have one. I think an epilogue would have gone a long way to provide closure.

[Si · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay so I liked the book well enough actually I could have loved it but, it just felt SO UNFINISHED. Like the author realized that she had enough chapters and abruptly ended the books. Made a lot of the stories seem incomplete... REALLY IRKED

[Harlequin Books]

Miniseries: Count on a Cop

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

was a really good harlequin Super Romance. had a good ending to

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An unusual beginning that totally hooked me as a reader. And the rest wasn't the usual romance novel in any way. A great read that I highly recommend.
A new author for this huge reader of romance.

[Ruth Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

An Okay read