What does an unexpected baby bring? A marriage of convenience? A reconciliation? A rejection like no other? NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Kathryn Shay delivers an emotional series, About the Baby, filled with sizzling romance, heartfelt pregnancy and baby scenes, and a unique look at the healing power of forgiveness.
Fairview, New York is Lily Wakefield’s last stop because there’s nowhere else for her to go. She’s lost everything but the twins she’s expecting. Fleeing from an abusive situation, she goes to this small town hoping to find solace in the grandfather she never knew. Once there, she meets Simon McCarthy, who’s the kind of man she’s always wanted to build a life with. But he doesn’t trust her—with good reason.
Simon has made a life for himself in Fairview and wants to raise his daughter in peace and buy the local newspaper he manages. Then Lily makes her way into both Jenna’s and Simon’s hearts. As do her babies. But she could be the one to threaten his stability and all he’s accomplished. Is Simon ready to take that risk?
When Lily’s past catches up with her, it seems impossible that she and Simon will ever have a chance at happiness.
If you like stories about secret babies, reunion of lost loves, and wounded heroes, follow the full series, which can be read in any order: A TIME TO GIVE, Book 1, JUST ONE NIGHT, Book 2, BE MY BABIES, Book 3.
*Originally published in 2008, this book has been revised, updated and modernized.
Kathryn Shay is a lifelong writer. At fifteen, she penned her first 'romance,' a short story about a female newspaper reporter in New York City and her fight to make a name for herself in a world of male journalists - and with one hardheaded editor in particular. Looking back, Kathryn says she should have known then that writing was in her future. But as so often happens, fate sent her detouring down another path.
Fully intending to pursue her dream of big city lights and success in the literary world, Kathryn took every creative writing class available at the small private women's college she attended in upstate New York. Instead, other dreams took precedence. She met and subsequently married a wonderful guy who'd attended a neighboring school, then completed her practice teaching, a requirement for the education degree she never intended to use. But says Kathryn, "I fell in love with teaching the first day I was up in front of a class, and knew I was meant to do that."
Kathryn went on to build a successful career in the New York state school system, thoroughly enjoying her work with adolescents. But by the early 1990s, she'd again made room in her life for writing. It was then that she submitted her first manuscript to publishers and agents. Despite enduring two years of rejections, she persevered. And on a snowy December afternoon in 1994, Kathryn Shay sold her first book to Harlequin Superromance.
Since that first sale, Kathryn has written twenty-one books for Harlequin, nine mainstream contemporary romances for the Berkley Publishing Group, and two online novellas, which Berkley then published in traditional print format.
Kathryn has become known for her powerful characterizations - readers say they feel they know the people in her books - and her heart-wrenching, emotional writing (her favorite comments are that fans cried while reading her books or stayed up late to finish them). In testament to her skill, the author has won five RT BookClub Magazine Reviewers Choice Awards, three Holt Medallions, two Desert Quill Awards, the Golden Leaf Award, and several online accolades.
Even in light of her writing success, that initial love of teaching never wavered for Kathryn. She finished out her teaching career in 2004, retiring from the same school where her career began. These days, she lives in upstate New York with her husband and two children. "My life is very full," she reports, "but very happy. I consider myself fortunate to have been able to pursue and achieve my dreams."
When a newly pregnant woman, Lily, leaves her wealthy, abusive, drug addict husband, she tracks down the Grandfather she never knew. She finds a home she had never experienced before. She falls in love with a widowed father of a teenager, Simon, and they raise her twins together.
That is until her soon-to-be ex shows up sober with apologies and begs her to come back. Torn between Simon, small town life, and doing the right thing, Lily goes back to the ex. Only for her life to blow up five months later.
When she returns to town, she's a pariah and nobody is nice to her. But Lily is now in a custody battle with her in-laws. They think that their money will buy her children.
Can she make it through this fight alone? Will she have to?
The book could have been one of the best but sadly it fell short after a certain point in story. It started well but in the almost middle of the book the heroine started acting unstable. I couldn't relate to her and the way she handle situations were very immature. There are many things I did not agree on regarding how characters thought, behaved or of their actions, everyone appeared very immature and no one behaved according to their age. With the story of almost 40 yr old leads, the way the MCs behaved is really bad. The story was going so well and suddenly it took plunge into this completely another story filled with unnecessary cliches. Also time jumps did not help the story at all. When we are reading on a page about a certain day and suddenly when we flip the page it's more than two weeks have passed and in some situations months, which confuses the reader as well as pull you out of the story. And after all this, a rushed and messed up cliched ending. I don't know how I finished it. Unnecessary plot twists, which were pretty predictable, infuriating behavior from grown ups, Jenna (hero's daughter) being a brat. With rushed ending which doesn't make sense or solve the plot issue in the end.
This book will definitely take you on an emotional roller-coaster ride. The characters and the plot were so well developed. I adored reading this. I really hated to put this down. I could have just kept reading about these two for a much longer time.
Lily Wakefield shows up in Fairview, NY outside of the Sentinel's doors. The Sentinel is the local newspaper operated by Simon McCarthy and owned by her grandfather, Gil. Lily left her husband of 10 years on the day that she discovers a dark secret of his. Simon is suspicious of Lily at first. The single father of a teen has been hurt before and doesn't want his daughter, Jenna or Gil to get hurt.
The road to Lily and Simon's HEA is one that is filled with ups and downs. The scenes are written in such a way that just drew me in and blew me away. Several scenes are such heart-breakers that I completely broke down in tears. This is a very poignant story that reads like a movie. It was so realistic that I could almost see myself in Lily's part.
I adored the multi-character format. Getting that glimpse into the different characters' thought-process really helped me to identify with that character. Especially the two leading characters. Lily goes through so much in this story that courage just awed me. Simon for about 95% of the time was a character that I adored as well. The other 5% just made him seem so human.
There is a highly glossed over bedroom scene that should not offend anyone but that being said, I can only HIGHLY recommend this to anyone over the age of 18.
Be My Babies is book 3 in the About Babies series by Katheryn Shay. Lily Wakefield left her fairy tale life, leading with nothing but the babies she was carrying and little else. She was fleeing her abusive and addicted husband to save herself and her babies. She fled to her grandfather’s house in Fairview, New York. She felt safe in his house, even if he was already gone. The house was as he had left it and it felt like him. She felt safe here.
Simon McCarthy, a single dad, lived a few doors down with his daughter, Jenna. Jenna was lonely with no one to play with while her dad worked. She met Lily and immediately clicked with her. Lily didn’t mind playing with the little girl or caring for her when needed. She helped get Jenna into camps and things to do while her dad was working. Soon Jenna settled down in the village. Simon began getting attached as well and began to wonder if Lucille was as good as she seemed to be.
Lily realized she needed to pull back from them as long as she was still married. If they could get a divorce without his knowing where she was, she would feel much better. Working through a lawyer for the divorce, she soon found out. Would she stay here or go back to her husband and deal with his family or would she stay>
Lily Wakefield has had a rough life, but the latest blow come when she finds her wealthy husband doing drugs and he hits her, not knowing that she's finally pregnant with twins. Lily escapes their home and arrives at her previously unknown grandfather's newspaper office in upstate NY, where she meets Simon McCarthy. Simon is a widower with a 16-year-old daughter Jenna, and both fall in love with Lily and her twins, Fiona and Finn, when they're born. When her husband Derek locates her and persuades her to take him back, Lily and Simon's relationship falls apart, and so does Jenna. Several months later when Derek has died of an overdose and Grandpa Gil has also died, Lily returns to the small town in desperation. Derek has bankrupted them, and his parents are trying to get custody of the twins. The townspeople are reluctant to let Lily back into their circle, but when word of her situation leaks, they start to rally. The in-law threat is finally thwarted after Lily flees to Paris with her babies, and Simon and Jenna also come around for the happy ending.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
In the end, I liked this book but there were some moments where I was sure that it would end up being a 1 star.
I liked the beginning, even though I thought it was a bit fast. Then something happens where Lily and Simon don’t see each other and I hated this bit.
I liked that Lily sort of had to pay for her actions but she never grovelled and that was something I was looking forward to. I wanted to see her apologise for what she did and try to make up for it. The ending was fine but there could have been more details about the future. I liked seeing some of the scenes from Jenna’s POV.
I’m not sure if I’ll ever read more books by this author because while I liked these, I knew that they wouldn’t be more than 2 stars.
Kathryn books truly pulled at the heartstring but yet give you tremendous hope and this novel was no different. Lilliana or Lilly as she is called throughout most of the book has left her husband Derrick in the dead of night while he was asleep to get away from addictions and abuse and her fear he will hurt her unborn twins.She goes to the village of Fairview where she surprises her grandfather Gil Gardner who never knew about her. Gil is excited to meet his granddaughter but his friend and business partner in his newspaper Simon is concerned that Lilly is after his money. During her months in the town she becomes close to Gil and to Simon and his daughter Jennie. Jennie becomes fascinated with Lily and her pregnancy and soon Simon too is falling for her romantically. As with books with abusive husband we know they do not stay gone forever. The author is able to weave even other storyline into the mix that ties it all quite nicely.
This was a sweet story but with some difficult undertones. Lily leaves everything she knows to get way from an abusive husband, going to the only person she thinks may help her, Gil her grandfather, she’s never met him but her fear for her situation drives her forward. Simon feels like Gil is as close to him as his father was, his daughter Jenna calls him grandpa so when Lily shows up he’s naturally suspicious but what will happen when Lily and Simon grow closer? Lovely story, plot and characters. Beautiful love story but also very sad at times. I love the idea of a town coming together to help one they consider their own. Lots of angst, but overall a sweet story with a HEA
ZERO STAR Really!!! Really!! I was beginning to like this book when she(the author) let h chose Derek!! And not only that she then killed him.. and let the h be humiliated ... Why ?? Why writers love to insult heroines?? I was fucking tempted to dnf-ed this book after Gil's death. I don't like my h being humiliated deliberately. It's pissing 😤
Okay. I'm at pg 148 and I m done with this book. I read books for refreshment not to call back my headache.
It could have been way better. She could chose Simon and help Derek to stay sober and help him to find new meaning of life. Or something different without making h a dumb moron who got insulted for nothing 😠😠
A sappy novel was just what I needed after a lousy day. Lily left her husband without telling him she was pregnant, with twins no less, and decides to go to her grandfather who she'd never met. He lives in a small town and she slowly but surely becomes a part of it...and a part of Simon and his daughter Jenna's life.
Romance starts to build, babies are born and then...you guessed it...baby daddy is back.
I don't want to spoil anything for those who still want to read but I took off stars for some of the cliches that were in here. Still an enjoyable read.
I enjoyed the story to a certain point, not enough to warrant 5 stars. I liked the main characters and the heartfelt love Gil had for his adult granddaughter when she showed up on his doorstep pregnant and homeless unless she stayed with her abusive husband. The things Lily's domineering in-laws did to her were unbelievable and I didn't see how the book could end when I was close to the ending and I thought there's be more to it than a simplistic explanation. Oh well I guess that's why I read them instead of writing them.
This book was so down to earth,speaking of human failures,like living a life you don’t want,but carrying babies you do. It’s truth,hostility,and plain old miscommunications. It’s new life and death and life that sometimes doesn’t seem like living,until somehow it does.Its good old human nature and remembering how to be kind.Its a book I’d want to read again
Not a bad read, at times I felt as though I could bash Lily over the head but then I have not had twins and been separated, so in a way I can understand why she did what she did, Jenna on the other hand to me was a brat, waltzed into Lily's home and tries to ignore her but see the babies, sorry but she needed to grow up, I do like Kathryn's books but to me i thought it ended a bit to abruptly.....
If ever there was a story that nearly brought me to tears, it is BE MY BABIES. Our stories are not identical, but Lily and I experienced several very similar events with husband, children, and the mother-in-law. And my heart was aching for Lily and the complete aloneness. But thankfully, Lily's world righted, just as mine did. I like stories that are believable, true to life, but this one hit a little to close to home. But it doesn't keep me from liking BE MY BABIES!
Lily flees to the only place she knew her abusive husband would not find her and hurt her and the babies she carried, to get grandfather Gil, he didn't know she was a alive. Simon is pretty much running the paper but he & Gil are close. Simon is raising his teenage daughter Jenna alone, but now he is scared with Lily there.
An emotional roller coaster mixed with the wonder of true love and newborn twins! I wasn't sure I'd like this book when I hit about 1/4 in, but it in turn shocked me with the ruthlessness of some and the strength of true love. But an excellent story nonetheless.
Enjoyed the twist and turns of the characters in this love story, it shows how a person can find true love and happiness after being knocked down had a chance for money to be happy but circumstances of someone you love is not what you need. I recommend this love story for adult who thinks things will never work.
I’m conflicted about this book. I really enjoyed it up until 75% in. The last few chapters I did not like. I’n not a fan of how the issue was resolved. I would have preferred it if the book had been extended a few more chapters so that we could see the custody battle. Obviously I would have wanted Lilly to win in the end. But I just think that the ending kind of fell flat.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
READING THIS WAS LIKE RIDING A ROLLER COASTER, SO MANY HIGHS & LOWS, TWIST & TURNS. RUNNING AWAY FROM A BAD SITUATION IS HARD TO DO BY YOURSELF. IT’S EVEN HARDER TO DO WHEN YOU’VE GOT BABIES WITH YOU, LILY IS A WEAK WOMAN AND I HAAAAAAAAATED HER FOR THAT. WELL DEVELOPED CHARACTERS AND STORY LINE, THIS WAS WAY BETTER THAN I EXPECTED. KEEP THE TISSUE BOX HANDY. ;D
Decided to stop reading as I didn't feel anything for the characters after a couple of chapters. A week has passed in the story and you barely know the characters. As this is the second book in a row that's likely just gonna get two stars at most, I decided to stop early and try to find something better.
The story was nice except I wasn't into all the angst. I like stories that are lighter and have some laughter. The writing was good. It did seem a little long. To much angst for me. Not sure that I will read anymore of this author. Although it is a happy ending, the happiness is outweighed by sadness throughout.
She’s come home to met her grandfather and tell him about her mother. She meets the man that now runs her grandfathers newspaper. There is instant attraction. She’s running from her ex because he hit her and she’s pregnant. Life gets complicated.
She finds herself facing life with twins and the world conspires to make he4 life difficult. The town slowly welcomes her but troubles have a way of intervening. The people do love and protect those they love.
When people make choices, others can fall in harm’s way. This story, about a few bad choices, reverberates thorough the decisions others make. You’ll love the ending.
Loved the characters and the author's real life portrayal of relationships and their many ups and downs. A great read with a wonderful, but emotional and satisfying HEA.
A story of love, anger, confusion, death and hate. I have enjoyed reading the story of Simon and Lily. An abusive husband, In -laws, towns people and Twins thrown. Into the mix. What a mess that turned out to be a wonderful story's.
Lily had left her husband and run to her grandfather because she was pregnant with twins. Simon was running her grandfather's newspaper. He didn't want Lily around as her was trying to buy the paper. Jenna, his teen daughter, just made thing more complicated.