What do you think?
Rate this book
The Men of Thunder Ridge #3
Do You Take This Baby?
Marriage is in this playbook!
Football champion Ethan Ladd planned to spend the off-season dating beautiful women and living the good life. Until his ailing infant nephew is thrust into his care. Despite his best efforts, social services doesn’t believe Ethan is up to the task. It’s fourth and long…and the offense has a loaded diaper. Time to pull out a trick play.
Marry Ethan Ladd? They dated once. It was so bad, people are still talking about it. But after Gemma Gould’s failed engagement, a temporary husband and baby may be the closest she ever comes to having her dream family. Gemma agrees to play until Ethan wins custody. But when he makes a play for her heart…will they score a touchdown for love?
Football champion Ethan Ladd planned to spend the off-season dating beautiful women and living the good life. Until his ailing infant nephew is thrust into his care. Despite his best efforts, social services doesn’t believe Ethan is up to the task. It’s fourth and long…and the offense has a loaded diaper. Time to pull out a trick play.
Marry Ethan Ladd? They dated once. It was so bad, people are still talking about it. But after Gemma Gould’s failed engagement, a temporary husband and baby may be the closest she ever comes to having her dream family. Gemma agrees to play until Ethan wins custody. But when he makes a play for her heart…will they score a touchdown for love?
- GenresRomanceCategory Romance
240 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published September 19, 2017
1 person is currently reading
25 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
romance-covers-i-have-loved
October 11, 2017
in which the age of consent is lowered dramatically in thunder ridge.
December 15, 2022
Good book. The story opens as Gemma is helping at her sister's bridal shower. Gemma is the type of person who helps others, often to her detriment. She feels she ruined Elyse's wedding gown shopping experience and will do anything to compensate for it. During the shower, she ran into Ethan, a local football hero and her worst high school memory. She always feels awkward around him, while Ethan enjoys teasing her. Then he gets a phone call and abruptly leaves.
Ethan has the reputation of being a carefree bachelor and player. Then social services calls, and he finds himself caring for his baby nephew. Ethan is overwhelmed by Cody's unique needs and faces the possibility that Cody will be taken from him. His only hope is enlisting Gemma's help.
I liked Gemma and Ethan. Gemma has a big heart and takes care of the people she loves. She also has a self-esteem problem, especially after her broken engagement. When Ethan proposes a temporary marriage until he has custody of Cody, she thinks it is her best chance to have a family of her own. Ethan is a good man who is caught in a tough situation. Complicating the need to care for Cody, Ethan is hiding a secret that could change everything.
I liked seeing the relationship develop between Ethan and Gemma. Their high school history wasn't the best. Gemma had a crush on him, and Ethan was a teenage jerk, embarrassing them both. I liked how they owned up to their mistakes and moved on from them. Once Gemma heard how Ethan ended up with Cody, she was compelled to help him. His appreciation was honest, and I could see his relief and the hope she gave him. But the real kicker came when he begged her to marry him, giving him the backup he needed to retain custody.
Living together and caring for Cody was like a dream come true for Gemma. It was easy to forget that it was supposed to be temporary until he could find his sister and reunite her with Cody. Ethan also gets into the family feeling but won't believe it can last. He feels that Gemma is way out of his league and that she would not stay with him. Despite their fears, their feelings for each other continue to grow. I loved that Ethan saw Gemma for the terrific person she was and saw no need for her to change. Gemma won my heart with her matter-of-fact acceptance of his secret and her desire to help him conquer it. But Ethan has a blind spot regarding his sister and doesn't listen to Gemma when she tries to get through to him. I ached for them both after the argument that drove them apart. It takes an eye-opening discussion with his sister for Ethan to accept the truth. I loved his return to Thunder Ridge and Gemma. He did an excellent job of groveling to get back in her good graces and for them both to admit their feelings for each other.
The epilogue was terrific, and I loved seeing their family a few years down the road.
Ethan has the reputation of being a carefree bachelor and player. Then social services calls, and he finds himself caring for his baby nephew. Ethan is overwhelmed by Cody's unique needs and faces the possibility that Cody will be taken from him. His only hope is enlisting Gemma's help.
I liked Gemma and Ethan. Gemma has a big heart and takes care of the people she loves. She also has a self-esteem problem, especially after her broken engagement. When Ethan proposes a temporary marriage until he has custody of Cody, she thinks it is her best chance to have a family of her own. Ethan is a good man who is caught in a tough situation. Complicating the need to care for Cody, Ethan is hiding a secret that could change everything.
I liked seeing the relationship develop between Ethan and Gemma. Their high school history wasn't the best. Gemma had a crush on him, and Ethan was a teenage jerk, embarrassing them both. I liked how they owned up to their mistakes and moved on from them. Once Gemma heard how Ethan ended up with Cody, she was compelled to help him. His appreciation was honest, and I could see his relief and the hope she gave him. But the real kicker came when he begged her to marry him, giving him the backup he needed to retain custody.
Living together and caring for Cody was like a dream come true for Gemma. It was easy to forget that it was supposed to be temporary until he could find his sister and reunite her with Cody. Ethan also gets into the family feeling but won't believe it can last. He feels that Gemma is way out of his league and that she would not stay with him. Despite their fears, their feelings for each other continue to grow. I loved that Ethan saw Gemma for the terrific person she was and saw no need for her to change. Gemma won my heart with her matter-of-fact acceptance of his secret and her desire to help him conquer it. But Ethan has a blind spot regarding his sister and doesn't listen to Gemma when she tries to get through to him. I ached for them both after the argument that drove them apart. It takes an eye-opening discussion with his sister for Ethan to accept the truth. I loved his return to Thunder Ridge and Gemma. He did an excellent job of groveling to get back in her good graces and for them both to admit their feelings for each other.
The epilogue was terrific, and I loved seeing their family a few years down the road.
December 30, 2018
Booo, I wanted this one to be funnier and dirtier. The dialogue was cheesy and bad, the characters were bland, the plot was ridiculous (even more than I thought it would be, and my expectations were already high!) and the romance was boring. The title and summary were so outlandish I thought it might work, but I should’ve known that a book centered on a baby would be disagreeable to me. (#ihatebabies)
Pure escapist fiction for those who dream of getting married and having children— that’s just never been my dream in life.
Pure escapist fiction for those who dream of getting married and having children— that’s just never been my dream in life.
December 31, 2020
I enjoyed the dynamic between the hero and heroine - she thought he was too popular for her, he thought she was too smart for him - and the book was fantastic basically up to the marriage of convenience, where it felt like everything came cascading towards a resolution too quickly for it to get the attention it deserved. I also appreciated that the heroine was "background" Jewish (it wasn't a feature of the book, it was just a thing that she was, like of course there's a chuppah at the wedding, etc.) which is unfortunately pretty rare in category romances. The topics kind of stacked up all over the place but I'll definitely be trying some of Warren's other books.
Read
October 2, 2017Miniseries: The Men of Thunder Ridge
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews