Summer Blockbuster 2012: What His Money Can't Hide / Baby Under the Christmas Tree / Staking His Claim / Cowboy In The Crossfire

by Teresa Carpenter, Maggie Cox, Tessa Radley

What His Money Can't Hide by Maggie Cox

Layla Jerome has been duped by the trappings of wealth before - a man with money isn't enough to impress her! So when Drake Ashton strides into her small town she's determined not to be branded by his touch. But when she's faced with the sheer force of Drake, that's more easily said than done...

Baby Under The Christmas Tree by Teresa Carpenter

San Diego hockey team's PR director Elle Austin goes beyond the call of duty to keep their rebel captain Max Beasley in check - even playing nanny to his son! Perhaps it's the spirit of Christmas or seeing Max's softer side, but Elle wishes he saw her as more than just an employee and that they could give Troy the best gift of all - a family!

Staking His Claim by Tessa Radley

When her flaky sister abruptly backs out of their surrogacy agreement, Ella McLeod is left with a newborn she can't care for. She'll have to give the baby up for adoption. Enter Yevgeny Volkovoy - her sister's bossy billionaire brother-in-law who won't let a Volkovoy be raised by strangers. He may be staking his claim on the baby, but Ella may stake a counterclaim on his bachelorhood.

Cowboy In The Crossfire by Robin Perini

All sheriff Blake Redmond lives for is keeping watch over his small Texas town...until Amanda Hawthorne and her young son come fleeing out of a snowstorm with killers on their trail. Blake swears to protect them, but winning Amanda's trust is as difficult as resisting the passion drawing him to this beautiful, determined woman.

737 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 2012

About the author

Teresa Carpenter believes in the power of unconditional love, and that there’s no better place to find it than between the pages of a romance novel. Reading is a passion for Teresa—a passion that led to a calling. She began writing more than twenty years ago, and marks the sale of her first book as one of her happiest memories. A fifth-generation Californian, Teresa lives in San Diego, within miles of her extensive family, and knows that with their help she can accomplish anything.

Reviews

[Sammy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okay okay, lets get this out of the way: I was gifted a bunch of these bargain shelf romances by my great aunt. These, obviously, are not normally or ever really will be, my cup of tea. I just take the fact that I ‘read anything’ a bit too seriously. I was ready for these to sit on my shelves for a long time before I ever felt bored enough to pick them up, but unfortunately for me, after discovering that this was the longest thing on my shelf (because I wanted to read the biggest thing on my physical on hand TBR), this was the top spot. Yay.

What His Money Can’t Have – Starting off strong here in terms of horrible male love interests, we have Drake! Drake wants a wife with infinite understanding, patience and love beyond measure but he won't even let a woman know about his feelings and gets incredibly mad if they don't do what he wants! What a bad boy, not letting any partners connect with him on an emotional level! Don’t forget controlling and uncaring – Drake doesn’t use a condom the third time (they had sex three times in one night) with our female mc Layla, proceeding to come inside her without asking or acknowledging that it might be bad. Silly him! Afterwards, he is visibly and verbally disappointed that Layla wants to take the morning after pill, because in hindsight, she’s only known this man for a few days. Getting worked up and passive aggressive over a woman he barely knows not wanting to get pregnant by him! Shocker!!! Drake is so insecure and jealous that he 'doesn't feel anything but friendly' and feels 'psychically sick' when letting Layla see her BROTHER. So he’s really just a whole can of peaches.

Layla herself isn’t much better; has only known this man for a few days, doesn't know much about him, and has refused to tell her about his past or anything really meaningful, yet she wants his baby. That’s her decision yes, but really? You want a baby with a man that doesn’t even want to be emotionally vulnerable with you? Side note: we never see the consequences of the morning after pill. I don’t know how long it takes to ‘kick in’ but I do know it hurts. It’s essentially inducing a very bad and painful period, yet Layla is walking around fine and dandy, never acknowledging the fact that she had to purposefully induce pain because Drake didn’t care enough to wear a condom or even pull out. She strokes Drakes ego being all 'your the most considerate man ever' after he comes in her and makes her have to take the morning after pill, then proceeds to be passive aggressive and controlling, getting all huffy and worked up when she asks about his past. She is enabling his bad behavior and doesn’t seem to care because She Is Woman.

> only met a few days ago
> wants to get married
> wants children
> layla only ever talks about being taken advantage of by her boss
> drake only ever talks about how much his past hurts
> layla wants to be with him despite drake always being a jealous dickhead

Hmm. I think that’s all I have to say about this one.

Baby Under The Christmas Tree – Honestly, not a lot going on here compared to the first story! While Max is still rather...ugh in terms of being a love interest, he is a lot better than Drake. He’s explored a lot more but is still rather shallow and turns on a dime for Elle. Which, to be honest, all of these bargain bin romances tend to do when all your working with is proximity based lust. Elle does know Max prior, which is a point for the story, but still, it feels so forced, especially considering this is the second time (in terms of separate stories) they go from no relationship to ‘lets get married and have my babies’! after a handful of days knowing each other. Are all of these like this? I wouldn’t be able to stand it. Oh, and this is the first time I’ve encountered the ‘I have four brothers I know how to handle myself’ trope. Cause that totally makes sense.

Staking His Claim – Just when I think Drake is the worst mmc among these four novellas, Yevgeny comes smashing through. He is, by far, the worst offender compared to the other three – yet somehow, he’s not the worst person from the novella he’s in!

First, about Yevgeny. He’s a huge misogynist. A downright asshole of a man that puts all the blame onto women. When Ella (yes same name, different woman from last story) does not want to bare the responsibility of a baby that she did not want or ever expressed in having, she is made out to be unreasonable and the selfish one! She is demonized for not instantly wanting a baby that was clearly not meant to be hers in the first place! Despite Yevgeny’s own brother backing out of the surrogacy agreement (along with Ella’s sister, but we’ll get to that), he is never blamed nor faces any consequences. He is a faceless being absolved of blame and contributes nothing. Yevgeny doesn’t make one comment about his brother being absurd enough to back out of a baby the moment its born, it’s not even mentioned that he take any responsibility. He just pisses off. Another thing about Yevgeny – he’s manipulative and abusive. ‘The end justifies the means' says Russian billionaire that was trying to baby trap his (then) fiancée with a baby that wasn't hers and only proposed so he could get access to said baby. Then tries to scaremonger Ella into changing her mind when that stupid plan blows up in his face. What in the world would make Ella want anything to do with him? If this book wasn't a dollar store romance, it would be a thriller. It really does seem that way.

Also just...what does Ella see in him? Why is she just so...dumb? Why sleep with man you obviously don't like? That you have been disagreeing with and has been a pain in your ass the whole book? Why allow him to worm his way into your life when it only makes it more difficult to get what you want? Why give him anything to begin with? Ugh. He just walks all over her and she's fine with it because they must get together because this is a romance, even though she’s seen clear signs of him railroading through her to get his own way. Side note; Yevgeny and Ella have hot passionate sex...around two weeks after her giving birth? It only seemed a few days-ish to me but God! Really? Right after she popped out a whole baby and is recovering with a wound the size of a dinner plate inside her? With him?

Ella is not just dumb with her choice of man, but with everyone else as well. I would be pissed OFF if my sister went 'actually I don't want this baby your almost ready to birth, I'm going to practice being a white savior in Africa to make myself feel better'. Like yes, Ella is dumb to for agreeing to do it, especially since her sister and fiancée were only together for a year, but why should she be getting most of the fallout because of something she had no control over? Like her sister being a dumb whore? Ella needs to cut her sister out of her life NOW. What do you mean she knew that Ella's first baby died after being abandoned by her boyfriend yet she insisted she be a surrogate for HER and then BACKS OUT of adopting the baby to be a white savior in Africa then comes back a WEEK LATER and is all 'I've changed my mind. Give me my baby'. Oh my god??? Yevgeny isn't even the most toxic one here. It’s fucking Kiera! The worst thing here is that she nor her fiancée suffer any repercussions for abandoning THEIR baby – Ella just accepts her sister back with open and loving arms. Ella you doormat.

Cowboy In The Crossfire – A bit like the second story here where there really isn’t much to digest, just a shitty crime thriller overlayed with two characters trying to constantly bone. Though it isn’t as bad as some of the others; our fmc and mmc have known each other for more than a few days (a couple years now) so there is actual history, our mmc isn’t a misogynistic high profile alpha male that just gets what he wants instantly. Though it in itself gets pretty ridiculous the more it goes on with how much the antagonists want to kill the fmc and her kid (helicopters, burning down houses, kidnapping and assassination attempts, etc.) especially since this happens all within the span of a few days.

The only thing that genuinely made me mad was the fmc’s kid. In the middle of being hunted, after watching his uncle get murdered and his mother almost killed, this kid has the bright idea to ride a full-on tractor unsupervised. Across a field of horses when they are meant to be laying low. From people who are going to KILL him. And then proceeds to crash it into a ditch. Okay man. If that was me I would just straight up beat my kid instead of comforting him.

Anyway, classic ‘gets married, has his babies’ ending, even though I thought this one was going to be the ONE that doesn’t fall into that category. What a disappointing epilogue.

1/10 – A 1.5 really considering stories 2 and 4 aren’t as egregious as 1 and 3.