With Child

by Janice Kay Johnson

On a beautiful spring night Mindy Fenton went to bed thinking all was right in her world. Before it was over everything had changed - and not for the better.

Mindy was awakened by Brendan Quinn with the news that her husband had been shot and killed. Now Mindy is alone, nearly broke and pregnant...and Quinn - a man who never hid his contempt for her - is the only one she can turn to.

Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Harlequin, Contemporary Romance, Enemies To Lovers, Category Romance, Harlequin Romance

304 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2005

About the author

Janice Kay Johnson is the author of over a hundred books for children and adults. Her first four published romance novels were coauthored with her mother, also a writer who has since published mysteries and children's books on her own. These were "sweet" romance novels, the author hastens to add; she isn't sure they'd have felt comfortable coauthoring passionate love scenes!

Janice graduated from Whitman College with a B.A. in history and then received a master's degree in library science from the University of Washington. She was a branch librarian for a public library system until she began selling her own writing.

She has written six novels for young adults and one picture book for the read-aloud crowd. Rosamund was the outgrowth of all those hours spent reading to her own daughters, and of her passion for growing old roses. Two more of her favorite books were historical novels she wrote for Tor/Forge. The research was pure indulgence for someone who set out intending to be a historian!

Janice is divorced and has raised her two daughters in a small, rural town north of Seattle, Washington. She's an active volunteer and board member for Purrfect Pals, a no-kill cat shelter, and foster kittens often enliven a household that already includes a few more cats than she wants to admit to!

Janice loves writing books about both love and family — about the way generations connect and the power our earliest experiences have on us throughout life. Her Superromance novels are frequent finalists for Romance Writers of America RITA® awards. Along with her books for Harlequin, Janice has written the Cape Trouble series of romantic suspense novels, and is about to launch a new series, Desperation Creek, set in rural eastern Oregon.

Reviews

[Vintage · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well done enemies to lovers romance. It’s a little bit of a downer though, or at least it was for me.

Mindy and I can’t-remember-his-name are married, but Brendan, whatever-his-name’s best friend, can’t stand Mindy as she’s too fluffy and silly. She’s not crazy about him either. The husband and the H were foster brothers together and are complete opposites. The husband was a happy go lucky type, and Brendan is Mr Gloom and Doom and has little trust with anyone.

Whatsis-face is killed and Brendan reluctantly kicks in to help an out of control Mindy. Turns out she’s pregnant and has horrible morning sickness and simply can not cope. She's pretty irritating in an helpless Blanche du Bois kind of way, and I had to keep reminding myself...Pregnant....widow.....morning sickness. The irritation and resentment grows between the two of them and Mindy exits her old life.

Just a few months before her baby is due and with preeclampsia, the H comes back on the scene and offers her help. Attraction grows especially after the baby comes, but there is guilt on both sides.

Long story short, they overcome the specter of the dead husband to come together.

What was sad? The heroine’s second guessing of her marriage and her love for the husband. She broods would she have still loved him? Would he have outgrown his seemingly more shallow values? And the final kicker, is when the two are confessing their I love you’s is the slight hint that their initial hostility to each other covered deeper feelings. I don’t have a problem with a character being in love with a dead spouse. The hero in The Billionaire Boss's Forbidden Mistress was in love with his wife but ready to move on. But this armchair quarterbacking of the first marriage was just sad.

[Naksed · Rating 3 out of 5]

HAIKU BOOK REVIEW:With Child, by Janice Kay Johnson

Cute story, though the
Guy was a bit too beta.
Read if you crave sweet.

[Preeti ♥︎ Her Bookshelves · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a Superromance - and so is suitably heartwarming, emotional, piquant, tender sweet and a slowburn.

Opposites attract, hate turns to love, hidden fires, guilt trip - it’s all here.
Having read a few books with bff/brother’s widow theme, I can say this is different. For one, this book opens with the death of the om and the H has to go break the news to the widow. He’s never liked her, in fact holds her in silently sneering contempt as he sees her as flighty and shallow, certainly not a fit life partner for his bff/blood brother.
Some people enjoyed having yappy miniature poodles, too. Not his choice, though. Ouch!

The bond between the two men was stronger than what seems to be between husband and wife.
Her apparently silly and stupid response of ‘what will I do now?’, on hearing the news of her husband's death, not only confirms the H’s opinion of her but also baffles/shakes the readers.
Then she breaks down completely while he wants her to rally and make calls and arrangements. Having no patience for her overspilling emotions he, at one time, even thinks of calling up one of the dead man’s previous gfs to come handle the situation.
Being the long-term guardian of a twenty-six-year-old adolescent wasn’t his idea of a good time.
Damn it, Dean, he asked for the thousandth time, why her?

She knows of his opinion of her ..
And he judged her. She saw it in his eyes. He thought she was selfish, silly, lazy. At first he hadn’t believed she really loved Dean; now he seemed to think she should get over it and whip her life into shape. Except he obviously didn’t think she could.
His scorn and contempt is unrelenting and they have a big fight. What he doesn’t realise is that being pregnant, she’s shattered, alone and running scared. She wraps up her husband’s affairs, selling what she can to pay off the debts and moves away.

The author gives them time and distance to not only come to term with their grief but to delve into their past, the reasons for alienation from their families, and maybe to miss each other. Both of them are damaged souls but the H more so than her.
They meet again in her last weeks of her pregnancy when she’s struggling with a tiring job, a pregnancy complicated with preeclampsia and no one to turn to. He wades right in, makes her move in with him and pampers and coddles her while she regains her strength and spirit back.
Beneath the surface, down where it was dark and quiet and hard to see, he didn’t know what he felt for her.

Their feelings of awkwardness and antagonism have changed to camaraderie and a burgeoning friendship. It is a sweet, soothing phase where they discover their feelings for each other but guilt and a fear of rejection keeps them apart.
From here on to the hea, it is a slow gradual transition where the emotional overshadows the physical.
..he knew he’d lied to himself. He did care. He’d cared then, and he cared now, with a searing pain that roared in his ears like a wildfire that had leaped the fire line.
He wanted to be loved.

[Jacqueline J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good read by JKJ. This is the story of a man who falls in love with his best friend's widow. This one is different because they really hadn't liked each other before the husband's death. He thought she was a lightweight and a nitwit and she thought he was arrogant and cold. But she needs help after her husband dies and he steps up to help because that is what his friend would have wanted. It takes quite a while for them to learn to like each other.

Very well written, absorbing and well paced. Believable situation and believable development of their relationship. I liked both of them. Neither was a perfect person, so a realistic feeling book.

I'm looking forward to working my way through this author's backlist.

[Saly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the progress of the book, from her husband's death to the hero still thinking of her as a flake, to month's later when she is sick and pregnant and moves in him, both see a new side of each other, she sees how lonely he is, afraid to trust and he sees that she is a good person, intelligent and not at all flaky. Both feel love for each other but don't say it, guilt actually and fear.

[Lyuda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't be put off by a silly title and the cover. This is a very well written story with surprising depth and character development. Mindy and Quinn disliked each other from the start. He thought her as a giggling airhead, for her, he was a difficult to talked to, aloof, and brooding man . They tolerated each other for the sake of Dean - Mindy's husband and Quinn's best friend. When tragedy strike and Dean was killed, both antagonists were forced to interact with each other. The story felt very realistic. The transition from hate to love, from overwhelming grief to acceptance was done very well. This is a new author for me and I would definitely try her other stories.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Stars ~ Brendan Quinn met his best friend when he was 11 and Dean Fenton was 10. Both boys were taken in by the Howies as foster kids, and for the first time in their lives knew what a loving home was. Dean welcomed everything the Howies did for them, while Quinn always felt that he was on borrowed time. They both became cops, with Quinn going on to become a detective and Dean moving on to start his own security company. When Dean married Mindy, Quinn was sure the marriage wouldn't last. The call came in the wee hours, Dean had taken on a security shift and had been shot dead. Quinn steps in when he sees Mindy barely holding it together. Mindy knows the only reason Quinn is helping her is because of Dean. She can feel his contempt and wonders what it is about her that he hates so much. So she quickly pulls up and shows Quinn she can manage okay on her own, only she really can't. She's pregnant with Dean's baby and she's never been so alone.

From the first pages I found myself falling for Quinn. He's such a wounded soul. It's not until the second half of the book that I really felt a connection with Mindy. Quinn's misjudged her and when he finds her pregnant and desperate for help, he feels such a heel. These two lonely souls need each other and I enjoyed very much reading their journey to find that out.

[Tricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like this one....H and h both start out not liking each other....but you get your HEA

[Robin Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable Harlequin Heartwarming story, if not necessarily spectacular.

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*
A very enjoyable book by Janice Kay Johnson who also authored another book I enjoyed, Snowbound. With Child missed the 4 star mark very narrowly for a couple of reasons. The tension between the main characters was very well done, but went on a little too long. There should have been a gradual discovery of each others feelings so that the denouement was less abrupt. And, while there was good relationship tension, the sexual tension wasn't as strong.

PG- kisses and some brief allusions to arousal and self-gratification.

[MaryD · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gave this 4 *'s, but it's really not a romance per se. Mindy's husband, Dean, was killed when he substituted for one of his security guards, leaving her pregnant & drowning in debt. Now Dean's best friend, Quinn, is forced to help her out when she appears to be a totally helpless/ hopeless airhead.

Through almost the entire 299 pages, Quinn & Mindy were at loggerheads with only their mutual love of Dean keeping them together. This was not a true romance story, but more just a story of how each dealt with their pasts. Quinn spent a lot of time thinking about his childhood with his foster family & his blood brother, Dean. Mindy spent most of the time trying to be independent and wondering why Quinn didn't like her. There was no romance until near the end.

Still, it was well-written, which is why I gave it 4 *'s

[Anna Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very slow, sweet story of a woman widowed and her husband's foster brother finding love. It's got a LOT of deep nuances within - his insecurities from being abandoned repeatedly as a child, trust issues, her resentment of her mother's revolving-door-love-life and lack of love for her... there's a lot of analyzing the dead husband's personality and behaviors.

There's NOT ONE LICK OF SEX in this book, by the way. Refreshing, actually.

The only reason I took a star was the repetitive 'realizations' that kept being gone over... and over... and over. And the fact that they 'misjudged' each other so much, with the not-so-believable "it was because we were attracted from the start" thing that I really didn't WANT. They could come to each other from a place of animosity without THAT realization on top of the seven hundred other ones.

But mostly? It's a really sweet story.

[Ellyn (Mrs. Darcy in my Dreams) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love these kind of plots, second chances after a death. It was heart wrenching to read about the backstory of Quinn!! I just loved him 🥰. I would have liked to see the romance happen a little sooner, more slow burn.

[Su · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good premises and not bad writing. However the book is Not planned very well. It took them (h/H) entire book to finally accept that they have softer feelings for eachother.

[LBW · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet, well written enemies to lovers slow burn

[Mariann {at} Belle's Book Bag · Rating 4 out of 5]

I LOVED this story. The cover is just adorable!! I'm a sucker for "second chance at love" stories~or I guess I should say~finding love again after the loss of a spouse stories, especially when there is a baby involved. So I was immediately drawn to this book.

Oh...I definitely shed more than a few tears over this one, especially in the beginning. Quinn was such an asshat through most of the book and I felt so bad for Mindy. I don't know how people keep it all together after learning of the death of a spouse~how they can continue to function like normal. Because I think I would have been just like Mindy and I totally understood the way her character acted. Thankfully, Quinn did redeem himself in the best way possible and I so loved their HEA. I would have loved it more if Janice Kay took the epilogue out a little further into the future so I could see how Quinn and Mindy were doing and if they ever had a baby of their own~I wanted that so bad for Quinn!!

His Best Friend's Baby was such a well written, sweet, emotional story that proved something great can come out of a heart~wrenching loss. And I guess ultimately, that life does go on whether we want it to or not. I found myself pulled into the book immediately and wanted Quinn and Mindy to find their HEA~even if separately because they both deserved it and Quinn had suffered so much in his childhood. I also loved how Quinn became more involved with his foster parents. He turned out to be such a great character after he got over his dislike for Mindy. And Mindy was so sweet and funny~I liked her instantly.

Definitely going into my keeper pile to be reread. 4 out of 5 rating!

[Elle (Ligia) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 3.5 stars.

I really wasn't expecting to like this book so much. The summary sounded interesting enough and really, who could resist a cover like that? And so I when right into it and surprising enough it was the first book this year that I stayed up reading until the wee hours.

So I guess I did like it a lot. It's a sweet story that will tug at your heart strings, it sure did mine. A lot. It made me cry.

[Darlene Torday · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a reissue of one of her previous books published under a different title from 2005. I thoroughly enjoyed this very different love story. The indepth characters were real people who come together because of a death of someone they both loved.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was surprisingly better than I had expected it to be.
I really enjoyed it, and read it in just one sitting.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

[Harlequin Books]

Miniseries: Harlequin Heartwarming
Category: Contemporary Romance

[Lindsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Over all the story line was good but it got kind of boring in parts.

[Tia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is also titled, 'with child'. I was confused at first how the novels appeared to be the same without the same title. Never the less, it was a great novel in my opinion.

[Sherese · Rating 2 out of 5]

What you might expect from this type of novel.
Nothing new - quick 2 hour read.

[Crystal Feaster · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a cute book to me :)