One Night With You

The Heart of the City #1

by Candace Schuler

She had a secret token of his love

Makeup artist Desiree Weston had always admired Oscar-winning-actor Jake Lancing. Actually meeting him in person was a fantasy come true. His melting brown eyes caught hers, leaving her breathless. And when he touched her ...

Desi allowed herself to be swept away for one sizzling weekend of love. But passion had its price--little Stephanie was born months later. In love with Jake's memory, yet fearing his reaction, Desi kept silent. It was no easy feat--especially when fate reunited them on Jake's new blockbuster film!

Previously titled: Desire's Child
Re-issued as One Night With You

Genres: Romance, Contemporary Romance, Contemporary, Erotica, Category Romance, Amazon, Adult

219 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 1984

About the author

Candace Schuler is a writer with a multiple personalities. In her 30+ year career, she has written software user guides, various types of instruction manuals, marketing collateral, grant proposals, case statements, case studies, business profiles, newsletters, press releases, white papers, speeches, scripts, short stories, a cookbook—and 26 (to date) romance novels.

Candace credits her husband Joe and her love of travel with starting her career as a romance writer. It was his comments on a letter describing a trip to New Orleans that prompted her to try writing romance fiction.

She wrote her first novel Desire’s Child by hand on 12 yellow legal pads. It was published by Harlequin in September, 1984 (after she typed it into a computer, of course). Her second book A Cherished Account was published by New American Library under the pen name Jeanette Darwin just one month later. She is also published under the name Candace Spencer.

Her books have appeared on the B. Dalton’s and Waldenbooks bestseller lists and have twice been nominated by the Romance Writers of America for a RITA award in the Best Short Contemporary Romance category—in 1996 for Passion and Scandal and in 2003 for Good Time Girl. Good Time Girl also received the 2003 Scarlett Letter Award, presented by the Tampa Bay Romance Writers for excellence in sensual romance writing. Candace’s books have also received three Reviewers’ Choice Awards from Romantic Times magazine. In 1992, she was awarded the Career Achievement Award as Series Story Teller of the Year by RT.

Because romance is truly universal, most of her books have been published in at least 20 languages, including Mandarin, Japanese, Greek, and most recently, Russian.

She is currently in the process of digitizing her backlist for e-book publication.


Other stuff:
•Married almost 40 years to Joe, who recently retired from the IT industry to become a golf bum
•“Mom” to two 75-pound Dobermans who think they are lap dogs
•Plants a garden every year in hopes of producing the perfect tomato
•Bakes a to-die-for chocolate cheesecake
•Is a Big Brother Big Sister volunteer
•Buys way too many shoes
•Holds the Grant Professional Certified credential
•Is a member of Novelists, Inc.

Reviews

[Sofia Currin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh God, it's 2am and I have zero regrets. Reading this book has the same energy as me scarfing down one of taco Bell's naked chalupas. I only bought one but I ate it in my car because I knew I'd want more and sure enough I do and thank God there's no one around to witness my shame. Except I'm telling everyone on Goodreads about my shame. Oh well.

There are so many red flags in this book. Insta love and lust. Hidden pregnancy and then baby. Some man handling. Name calling. Assumptions. Lying. All things that should earn this book a one star review. And YET. Here I am at 2am with zero regrets. Remember the chalupas? Yeah. This is like that. I don't want others to know but you best believe I'll be back for more even though this isn't healthy. So for that reason Im giving this a 4 star review.

[Melody Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was incredible. I loved it and could not, under any circumstances, put it down. I am shocked at the lower ratings.

Desi, a makeup artist, and Jake, a hot Hollywood commodity, had a fab weekend together. When scheduled to meet 6-months later, Desi doesn't show. She looks awful, she thinks, from her bloated, fat-induced pregnancy...Jake's baby. She keeps it a secret.

Jake is upset and angry that Desi did not show up at the appointed time. When thrown together on a movie set anger, sparks and jealousy fly.

You will absolutely love her landlords. They are a hoot and really add to this story as well as the woman who wrote the screenplay of her life.

I highly recommend this read. It is to die for.

I was disappointed that the other books in the series were not related to the people in this book.

[Lynsey A · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a decent book thought quite dated. There was so much "what she is wearing, what he is wearing" descriptions, it got old.

Her reasons for keeping the baby from Jake weren't very plausible but it didn't bother me that much. This theme doesn't bother me as it does others.

Decent story but not a keeper for me.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not too bad actually. I happened to like this one more than I thought I would have, but I think that had to do with me judging the cover. hah.

[Yasmin Vasquez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good

It was a good book, a good story and relatable characters but I don't know any woman like Desi who could put up with Jake's crap.

[Naomi · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a piece of crap. Terribly written, horrible characters and backwards ideas of love, children and family.
So much is wrong with this..
The obsession with being forced to marry the baby-daddy, thinking jealousy and anger equal love, that being a damned fan means you’re “in love”, you need to know someone to love them, not just be obsessed. Being submissive and pathetic because you’re in love. Feeling like you owe the crazy famous man-slut that left deserves shit.
This nonsense made me really angry.
Will write a more cohesive review after a few days if I have been unsuccessful in purging it from my memory.

**Edit**
Later the same day: AND what a selfish person to think he doesn't get to be a dad because he does not love the mother. What kind of bullshittery is that.

Later again: And naming the baby after him?! You didn't want to be found out yet you named the child after him and are terrible at concealing shit.

I really hope I forget about this nonsense soon.

[Joy Lobel · Rating 4 out of 5]

BEAUTIFUL LOVE STORY

I so thoroughly enjoyed this book. Difficult to put down. I would have liked it to be a little longer with a more drawn out ending. A few sensuous love scenes. Looking forward to reading more of Ms Schuler's books.

[SuzyHD · Rating 4 out of 5]

Likeable Storyline

I liked the storyline and the interaction between the main characters. Just a little too much repetitive dialogue from chapter to chapter. It would have been nice to have a little more ending, maybe an epilogue chapter to let us know how it all turned out.

[Sherry Vitaniemi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Time

She has her mommies hair and her daddy's eyes. One weekend. And so many things have happened. But desi still loves Stephen. They both know that time didn't change everything.

[Black Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a fairly interesting

[M.O. Kenyan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Are you serious?

[Tamii · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hate secret baby plot😒

[Toluwani Crowntney · Rating 4 out of 5]

it is good I love the character used in it

[Tiblu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Desi was just a Huge ,huge Coward Jake deserved soo Much better and do we!

I got this book for two reasons good price and what sounded like a good story.... Forever ago I was madly in love w/Harlequin Romance and all their various "Baby Drama" ( I call them) books,misguided/ misused surrogates ,widows,orphans,steps and of course the ever used one night stand etc. and had my baby " Ooops" kinda books.... And That's ok,it's a well used trope because if done right it can be fun, entertaining and very interesting and maybe even heart warming,IF DONE WELL.... That is, not so me woman getting a going willingly but almost blindly into a weekend stand ( lacking almost any and all common sense) then finds herself pregnant and completely cuts the guy out (who seems to be one of the sweetest most understanding guys ever! Period) simply because she's way too huge a coward to face and kind of anger or rejection... BS ! We only get her pov ( which was boring and I hated) and she spends almost whole book thinking of one lame excuse after to be a coward and never fights for the man she claims to love and never really gets to know .... Tell Him!! Ppl say,He deserves to know. No ,he doesn't even like kids,she says... How do you know ? They say, aaaaa he hinted at in interviews, she says, ( yeah interviews about women filing false paternity suits against him) or he doesn't Love me,it was only sex,but she doesn't talk to him or try to get to know him or anything, and hold anything he says,or does or doesn't say or do against him... And Jake who's a sweetie boarding on sainthood ( to me) when he finally finds out everything ? Is he angry ? Aaaaa for a few hours,which is nothing compared to what she's pulled and then he can't wait to get married and be w/the woman he loves and his child... I hate ANY BOOK where all the drama and angst only exist because the MC's can't or won't stop and spend just a few moments having a REAL and Honest conversation especially this type of conflict.... All she had to do was go meet him like he asked to in his note and we'd all been saved needless boring lame drama....
I'd give just one star but I feel like poor Jake deserves something ;) off to hit delete....

[Mo_Better · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a DNF for me for one very annoying reason. Desi gave me a headache that began at about page 2 when she decided that, because she didn't feel like it, the father of her baby has no right to know that she was pregnant. Then the headache began to build when she continues to justify her secrecy with the most ludicrous of excuses. He should've known that it was possible she would be pregnant so he should've looked for her just in case she was?

That was beyond stupid. Especially when you consider that she told him absolutely nothing about herself except for her first name and she didn't show up at the time and place he requested she meet him at. Then my headache grew to unbearable proportions when she sees him again for the first time, he is obviously upset about her standing him up and she internally monologues about how he has no right to be angry because he left her alone and scared and pregnant. Forget that he didn't know she was pregnant. Forget that she purposefully kept her identity from him. Forget that she failed to reach out to him when he wanted her to. As far as I can tell the only person who has a right to be angry is Jake. At this point I had already been skimming to save myself the brunt of her stupidity but I just couldn't take it anymore. So in order to stop my brain from exploding I stopped reading.

In addition the the utter stupidity, immaturity, and selfishness of the h. The book is extremely dated. Obviously written when smoking was sill allowed on planes, before cellphones, before DNA testing, and before the Internet. Plus, the guy says get a condom and she says no I'm on the pill and they are ok with that? They are strangers!!! Hello!!! STD's?!?? Apparently this book was written before the age of common sense as well.

[Tonileg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Secret baby plot after a one-night-stand with Desi and Jack who now have to work together on a new movie for a few months when little baby Stephanie is only two months old.
I'm not sure how Desi can hide her motherhood when the child is so young because filming hours are so long and even though she has a close family and a live-in friend nanny next door, but a newborn would be really hard to raise as a single mother and that was the only part that I found unrealistic. I could understand Desi's reticence about telling Jack about the baby, but she really dragged it out and it just bit her in the butt in the end. Very cute story that takes bout a year all together which felt right after the crazy start with a one-night stand.
Umm, and Desi was really stupid not to slap on that condom on Jack because even without pregnancy concerns, he is a STRANGER who has probably slept with thousands of women in is thirty something years!! She really took a crazy risk which jarred me from the story when I read that bit in the beginning. I like when the hero respects the health of the heroine by putting on their raincoat before the sexy time which is the norm in most contemporary romantic novels.
200ish pages and kindle freebie
2 stars

[Tamalama · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book because the plot sounded interesting but the heroine was annoying. Her reason for not telling Jake was bogus. I wish she would have just admitted that she was afraid of his rejection of her and that's why she didn't tell him about the baby. Her anger IMO was unjustifiable and I hate women who make the decision on their own that some men don't need to know about their children, Jake was no criminal. Helloooooo!!, don't you think that your child will get older and ask questions and resent you from keeping their father from them. All her actions were based on her selfish wants and needs. She acted more like a love struck teenager than a grown woman. It's as if she wanted Jake to declare his undying love for her after their weekend together but when given the chance to meet up with Jake and possibly have a relationship, she chickened out because she was fat and pregnant. Ugh!! Can you tell I was not too fond of this woman/child. Furthermore, I wish her friends and family would have told her how truly damaging and selfish her actions were. This book deserves instead of 2 snaps up, 2 snaps done! Ok done venting

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

For me, there were a few things wrong with this one. The dialogue didn't flow as smooth as I would have liked, and the H/h relationship went from hot/cold/hot without a whole lot of warmth in the middle. My biggest problem was the reason the h kept the news of the baby from H. He didn't love her - that's not a good enough reason. Fears of how he would react are understandable, but the point that kept being pressed were her feeling re: his love for her, not his child.

When Jake grabbed her arm and "shook her" during their first meeting again after the tryst, I couldn't help but cringe. His anger was unwarranted and badly explained. Her anger over him never looking for her - when she knows she had never given him her last name? Ridiculous. And who doesn't give a person their last name after 48 hours in bed? A better plot device would have been him remembering it wrong - Watson vs. Weston or something. Then, at least she would have been valid in her frustrations.

[L. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Absolutely silly but I was needing a break so in that sense the book did work for me.

Written in an age where fear of AIDS didn't stop people from having unprotected sex with strangers and Maury Povich wasn't there to helpfully determine who the father of your baby was. Desi/Desiree Weston has loved actor Jake Lancing for years, even though they've never formally been introduced. Desi's luck changes on an overnight flight to Frisco. Before Jake even has his seatbelt fastened for takeoff he's already rounding first base with the redhead sitting next to him. The couple have a lost weekend that results in Desi being pregnant.

She never told Jake her last name, she never met him after the weekend as he had asked, and she never told him about being pregnant. She's kind of 0-3 in my book.

A year later she has the opportunity to work with Jake on his new movie. Will he remember her? Will she tell him about the baby? Will that spark flare up again between them?

This is a Harlequin. What do you think?

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly enjoyed this book from start to finish, and the description really tells you nothing about the book. Desiree fell in love with Jake when she was 19 and working as a Gofer on the set of the first movie he ever stared in. Years later he is a successful actor and she is a Makeup Artist. They officially meet on a flight back to San Francisco and then proceed to spend the weekend together which after, they part ways.

Fast forward almost eleven months later Desiree has a daughter, Stephine, and is about to have a huge break in her career. The catch? Jack is not only the lead male actor but also the producer of the movie that she has been offered the job of Head Makeup Artist on.

So yeah, there is a lot of drama in this book, Desiree who is struggling with whether or not to tell Jake that he is Stephanie's father. Jake who cant make up his mind about Desiree. And then there is the peanut gallery!

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

One Night with You starts with a one night stand that turns into a weekend for Jake and Desiree. He has to leave for a location shoot and she finds that she is expecting a month or so later. As fate would have it for the make-up artist and the actor, they end up working on his new film and the meeting is explosive and hurtful. This movie as the head of make-up will help Desi's career and now with a baby she needs the income and boost to her career.

Desi has a landlord Teddie that becomes her babysitter for Stephanie her daughter and his partner/roommate Larry live downstairs. The writer to the book the movie is based on is a character from an X-rated life in her 80's and keeping Stephanie a secret from Jake, her father becomes harder and harder.

If you want to find out if Desiree told Jake about Stephanie and if anything happened from that point, you will just have to read this exciting and funny romantic story in the middle of a movie set.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

A more accurate rating is B- . I liked this book even though there was not much deep character building. It was light and fluffy; a perfect mindless, feel-good read. The beginning was slow. I felt that it could have used a bit of editing. It was an info-dump that really, was not necessary for the book. Some parts of the book were so glossed over that it jarred me out of the story. For example, when Desi and Jake are making love 4 or 5 months after having a baby, never once did a thought go through Desi's head to be self conscious about her post-baby body. Or when Jake comes to Desi's apartment and the ONLY baby item is a quilt!? Where's the bouncer, the nip-nap, a pacifier, a toy for goodness sake!? Or the exhausted working mother.? Still, if you read it as a fantasy, it was fun. Go for it.

[Cashaun · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought the book was OK. I liked the main character and even the story line. Where the story started going a little wonky for me was the fact that everything seemed to happen very fast toward the end. To me it seemed rushed like the author was trying to tie it up in a nice little bow. It didn't work for me. Everyone fell in love and Jake immediately loves the baby and forgave her for not telling him. It didn't seem realistic to me. She automatically trusted him with her child. Being a mother myself, I just don't know if I could have trusted him after he blew up at her. He didn't show me that he would be a good dad. I don't know! I am just rambling! The idea of the story was cute but the ending left a lot to be desired.

[Michelle Quintana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have rated this book higher if the ending had been better. After spending a weekend with Jake, Desi is now faced with the consequences of that weekend. She knew who Jake was but he didn't know who she was. She didn't have any right to be upset with him because she was the one to forgo protection and she never told him her last name. After facing him a year later, she does her best to keep her secret from him. When Jake finds out about her secret, he had every right to feel the way he did. The book just ends. An epilogue would have been nice to see how everyone reacted to the new surprise

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Desi has had a crush on Jake since her brother got her a job being a gopher on a movie set. She never thought she would ever have a chance with him until the night she is on the same plane that he is. It becomes two days of hot passion. Desi knew he could never feel anything for her so when she finds out that she is pregnant she decides to keep it to herself and have the baby without Jake knowing.

It seems fate isn't done with these two and they are given a second chance to prove their feelings for each other. I loved this book and can't wait to read the next book in the series.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think 2 stars would have been enough, but because I'm not a typical Harlequin reader, I gave it three. For what it was, it kept my attention. It was very dated though, for an updated book from the 80s, it would have been nice to leave out the cease smoking for landing on the airplane. I remember when we could smoke on planes (I was a child) and believe me, it was a long time ago - for a story that could be pretty timeless, the smoking on airplanes and baby aspirin should be updated. But while I was bored with not much to hold my attention, it did its job.

[Priscilla · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not even a little bit realistic...well, perhaps the fact that the protagonist gets pregnant from her one-night stand, but besides that...Jake was arrogant, borderline abusive and I can't imagine anyone willingly putting up with him. Desi was too soft and weak and her actions just left me exasperated time and again. The constant description of Desi's perfect body and Jake's build got on my nerves--she's slim and his body is rock-hard, we get it! Furthermore, the typos drove me nuts. This was a breezy read, but I found it more annoying than enjoyable.

[Jessi · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book wasn't bad really, just okay. There were a few things that bothered me and it was mostly the plot. Some of the reasons that Desi gives for not telling Jake or all the "does he love or does he just want me" talks are stupid. Seriously. It often feels like the author couldn't come up with a good enough complex for the characters. It's weak. And Desi upsets me because she's so wishy-washy. Her character is pretty flat. Overall, it was a nice short read just don't expect more than that.

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't even make it half way through this book!! The female lead (I can't call her a heroine) made me sick. She has a weekend with her crush where she told him not to use a condom, winds up pregnant then does NOT tell him! Then we have to read about how mad she is at him. I don't think so. If I could have done a 1/2 star I would have. Glad this was free.

[Deborah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book starts with Desi discovering she's pregnant it then takes us back to how she met the babies father, then when she conceived. This is a nice easy read which has a 80's feel to it but like Laura said it's actually a book from the 80's so that would explain it. It's free so well worth a read.