Rating:  Summary: In need of funny and romantic story, stop looking! Review: You'll love Jane Darlington the minute you meet her and you'll never want to live without the handsome Cal Bonner. Susan E. Phillips has a great gift to open up the romantic side in everyone. She tells the story of two people in desperate need of one another but yet unaware of that very fact. Jane Darlington believes to lead an empty life, so she sets up her mind on having a child of her own and the lucky sperm donator is quickly chosen, our own football star Cal Bonner. Unfortunately, Dr. Jane cannot (as planned) keep her pregnancy a secret from our great quaterback Calvin Bonner. With his sense of duty he forces her to marry him and chaos breaks loose all aorund them. This is a heart-warming story full of passion, fun and love. Jane Darlington is warm and intelligent woman with many all too human flaws at the same time. And Cal Bonner is at first a man not from this world, until we realise that he is in fact a very believable and loveable man who needs someone to settle him down. If you have a romantic vein running through you, you'll never go wrong with Susan E. Phillips great stories. Don't hesitate and buy this sharp and witty story.
Rating:  Summary: Baby ,You're The Best!! Review: Dr. Jane Darlington, a genius physics professor, wants nothing more than to have a baby. She has a couple of obstacles in her way though. She currently has no prospects for the father. And growing up as a genius made her feel like a freak, so she wants to spare her child this pain. Therefore, she needs a very special man. A stupid man. When she sees Cal Bonner, the famous Chicago Stars quarterback, her prayers seem to be answered. He's handsome, a jock, and with his good ol' boy ways, he must be slow-witted. But when he figures out what she's done, he's not about to go along blindly with her plans. On top of that, Jane begins to realize, a little too late, Cal may be a whole lot smarter than he looks. This is the third installment in the Chicago Stars/Bonner Brothers series. A funny, fast-paced, interesting love story between real people, each with their own set of insecurities. SEP has an uncanny gift with writing complex, three dimensional characters. They become so real, I half expect to look up from the page and find them in the room with me. Her stories and characters wiggle themselves under your skin and in your heart where they stay. There is a secondary story with Cal's parents that was quite good as well. Overall, I certainly enjoyed this book, except it was difficult getting through the portion where Cal was so angry and spiteful toward her. Even after considering this, it's still a favorite book of mine. Once Jane decides she will no longer sit back and tolerate his behavior, well then it really gets good! I still smile every time I see a box of Lucky Charms cereal!
Rating:  Summary: 2/3rds of the book well worth reading Review: I really hated the first 1/3rd of the book. The only character who wasn't immoral was Kevin Tucker. All the other secondary characters were just plain sad or dispicable. As for the main characters Jane and Cal - Yikes! Cal is a jerk. It's totally understandable that he is furious with Jane but to want to destroy the mother of his future child is not only stupid it's also not a character trait you want to see in a leading man. He also shows his stupidity by not protecting himself while having sex with a potential wacko groupie with some unknown agenda. Yet the fact that he had unprotected sex is never mentioned again. He certainly never assigns himself any blame. Then there is the "genius" Jane. If she had any smarts, she certainly didn't show it in the first third of the book. She's a researcher but when it comes to genetics or sperm banks or Cal Bonner she doesn't do any research. First of all, even I , a simple engineer knows that genetics can be a real crap shoot. The probability of having genius offspring is incredibly small no matter who the parents are. Also, men who donate to sperm banks come from many different backgrounds - not just med students. Finally, if Jane was so concerned with the sperm donor's intelligence why didn't she do any research into Cal's background (besides health history). Jane's actions simply made no sense. The other thing that I hated about the first part of the book were the two sex scenes. They were brutal and sad and really made me despise both Cal and Jane. It was not a good beginning for a book. The only thing that kept me reading was that I really liked "Heaven Texas" and "It Had To Be You". So I kept reading and along about page 175 or so an amazing thing happened. The book actually began to get really good. Jane developed a backbone and Cal lightened up. The interactions between Cal and Jane became warm and funny. The secondary characters were good (with some real depth) and some of the situations had me laughing out loud. By the end of the book I had no trouble believing that Jane and Cal would have a good marriage and be decent parents. So, how do I rate this book? Well, the first 1/3 gets zero stars and the last 2/3 gets 4.5 stars. Overall - 3 stars.
Rating:  Summary: This is why I read romance! Review: I read a lot of romance books, by many different authors, but no one can compare to Susan Elizabeth Phillips! Nobody's Baby But Mine was the first book by her I read. I read it so fast, I was mad because it was over so fast! I loved all her characters because they were so real to me I was truly caught up in their lives! Nobody, I mean nobody has a sense of humor as Susan does! Besides at the time I read the book, which was about a year ago, I had just embraced the sport of football! (Thanks to my son!) I pictured her hero as Howie Long! I kept telling people that this was so obvious! (Or maybe just wishful thinking on my part!) I love all her books, but the football themed ones are my favorite. After reading Nobody's Baby But Mine, I had to read everything by Susan I could get my hands on! She is truly unique! I usaully read about 4-7 books a week, so it gets pretty expensive, I frequent most all the libraries in my area to search for her books. Finding a Susan Elizabeth Phillips on the shelf is next to impossible they're so in demand! Still I managed to pretty much read them all. I always purchase my favorites though! Even reading as many books as I do, I sometimes read hers more than once! Susan I love you, you are simply marvelous!
Rating:  Summary: Endearing, origional, and painfully funny! Review: I am a big fan of Susan Elizabeth Phillips and _Nobody's Baby But Mine_ has got to be one of my favorites. Ms. Phillips is the expert at humorous romance and this book had me in stiches. I've never laughed so hard reading a book before. Dr. Jane Darlington and Cal Bonner have got to be some of the wildest, most interesting characters I have ever read about. So the story line is a tinsy bit hard to believe... it doesn't matter. Ms. Phillips brings her work alive and keeps you reading late into the night. Her plot was interesting and all of the twists and turns it took held me right until the last word. Jane and Cal are so fun to read about that you simply can not put this book down. I just love Ms. Phillips' special combination of laughter and tears- it is the perfect combination and makes her books winners. Her characters are special individuals with amazing stories and lovely lives. There are some highly origional scenes in this book. I will never look at Lucky Charms the same way ever again.
Rating:  Summary: One of the best Review: I has read most of Susan Elizabeth Phillips, This one is one of the most entertaining ones It is funny, especially the lucky charm. The relationship between the character is entertaining. I would also subjest this Heart of Mine which is Kenvin Tucker story, which is also very good.
Rating:  Summary: Funny, poignant, sweet, and enjoyable Review: I discovered this book through my Amazon.com friend Janlouise's review and decided to check it out - and I'm glad I did! My only prior SEP book was BREATHING ROOM, but now I think I'm going to have to read all the books in the Bonner Brothers/Chicago Stars series. BUT I must say that you have to suspend belief a bit in the beginning. For a woman supposedly so smart, some of her ideas and the way she goes about getting pregnant are kind of ridiculous (since when are only smart guys sperm donors?!). Brilliant physicist Dr Jane Darlington wants a child desperately, but there's no man in her life and she has some specific requirements for a potential father, so she decides a dumb jock like Chicago Stars quarterback Cal Bonner will perfectly suit her needs. See Jane had a very sad and lonely childhood isolated from the other kids who thought she was some sort of brainiac freak (she was in college at 16). She figures that his lack of smarts will balance out her abundance of them (?!) and her kid will have a better life than she did. So she poses as a hooker and allows herself to be Cal's birthday gift from his teammates. Soon she is ecstatically pregnant but her ecstasy doesn't last long. Unfortunately for Jane, Cal finds out and he's NOT happy about it (nor is he as dumb as she assumed he was - summa cum laude not dumb - how did her plan go so wrong?!). His strong sense of family drives him to marry Jane with every intention of divorcing her once the baby is born. But the press won?t leave them alone, so he takes her to his hometown of Salvation, NC to hide out for a bit. Slowly their mutual anger and dislike for each other starts to fade, but Cal doesn't want his family to get too attached to Jane and asks her to be cold and unpleasant around them. She reluctantly does so, though it hurts because his family is so nice. But time spent together starts to change things between them (there's certainly a strong sexual attraction) and as they get to know one another will they stay together or is there just too much between them to make this marriage work? I liked Cal's character a lot (some disliked him in the beginning, but I felt he was totally justified in his anger toward Jane) and I laughed out loud at Jane's tampering with his Lucky Charms! Then there's his attempt to give her the make-out session at the drive-in that she never had as a teenager. That was sweet - and, okay, self-serving! And I loved how he would put on his "hillbilly-from-the-sticks-dumb-jock" act on for people he disliked or disrespected. I also found Cal's family enjoyable to read about: his brother Ethan (who gets his story in Dream a Little Dream), his sassy grandmother Annie and his parents who are in the midst of a mid-life marriage crisis. A really enjoyable book and I will definitely be checking out the rest in the series. A recommended read!
Rating:  Summary: Lucky Charms and a cereal killer, what more could you want? Review: Never have laugh so hard about Lucky Charms! This is the first book I've read of SEP, and I'm so glad I picked it up. I couldn't put it down, had to finish in one night! Cal and Jane are such sweethearts, and I especially loved the secondary characters in this books, Annie, the shotgun toting grandma, Ethan, the handsome as sin minister brother, and Kevin Trucker, the arrogant yet insecure quarterback, I was ecstatic to hear he's getting his own book soon, he quickly became a favorite for me. The only reason I didn't give this book 5 stars was because I didn't particularly like Cal in the first 100 pages or so, he seems too cold and unforgiving, but I am so glad I stuck with the book, it really got much better and I was left wanting more at the end. Read this book, you won't be diappointed!
Rating:  Summary: It's Freakin' hilarious Review: My first book by SEP and in my opinion the best of the best. It's really funny. Very sexy. You can't go wrong with this book.
Rating:  Summary: It really is a cute story! Review: At first I had reservations. Jane's sneaking around to have sex with Cal really got on my nerves. But when the story got past that it really got cute with good humor and I really enjoyed it. Cal Bonner is the star quarterback for the Chicago Stars. He is in his late-thirties and is fighting to hold onto his position. But physically it is becoming harder and harder to do. He just isn't ready to give it up though and what for? What would he do if he didn't have football in his life? He has been taught strong values by his parents about marriage commitment and pictures getting married and having kids as being put out into the pasture as far as football is concerned. He is not ready to face that yet. So he fights it by partying with the younger members on the team and dating only YOUNG women in no older than 24, preferably 21. Dr. Jane Darlington just turned 34 and her biggest desire is to have a child but forget about the husband. She is independent and looks at having a husband as having unnecessary baggage. But she is picky about who she wants for the father of her child. To equal out the IQ of the child, Jane wants someone dumb to equal out her HIGH IQ. When she is offered the opportunity to be the "present" to a football player from the other team members, she thinks 'why not? football players are dumb right?!' It works. Jane is pregnant and Cal knows nothing of it- until a football fan who wants Cal's attention gets jealous and leaks out the information that Cal has fathered a baby. Cal is now out for revenge and forces Jane into marriage so his child will have a name. Due to the publicity (the press is having a time with this news) Cal and Jane are forced to live together for the next 3 months before spring training making everyone believe this is a match made in heaven. Cal's family gets involved and things really "mushroom." Jane is real cute, real smart but nerdy- brought up in a broken family and really needs someone to love her. Cal is extremely good looking and plays the "dumb football" part real well. But he is actually "a brain" having graduated with honors from college in biology. He comes from a strong family that is very involved with each other. It is a great story! and I very much recommend it! It's a keeper!
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