Nobody's Baby But Mine

I just love this romance! This is my favorite book by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. I've probably reread it at least six times! This book has everything I want to read in a romance novel plus more. Beginning with incredibly interesting characters like Cal Bonner, the quintessential football hero we've all dreamed of, not only an amazing athlete, and beautiful, but with a great flaw, the fact that he can't face growing old. Don't we all love those guys that are forever the Peter Pan's? He's in his thirties and should retire, but he's the ultimate competitor, both on and off the field. Then there's Jane. Again, I just love this character for her perfection and flaws. On one hand, she is reported to be a brilliant, but lonely nuclear scientist, working feverishly on "The Theory of Everything", who desires a baby so badly that she tricks Cal into believing she's a groupie of the football team and sleeps with him twice to get pregnant. The twist is, she wants a normal child with a normal IQ, and she thinks Cal is a moron because he plays football, hence, an average IQ. That's not her only mistake, as we discover; Cal is not stupid. Then she thinks he won't care that she's gotten pregnant, but she finds out that she's picked the wrong football player in more ways than one. The baby is his, too, and he takes Jane to his southern home to wait out the pregnancy and the press when they discover the most eligible Chicago Stars football player has married a professor. There are so many great scenes where Susan exploits Cal's need for competition with his reluctant bride. Jane is always one up on Cal, though, and it's his brawn vs. her brains. Like the time "Miss Big Brain" locks him out of the house and he enjoys the challenge of climbing over the roof to break in, or when he sees her drivers licence and learns her real age, or when she messes with his Lucky Charms cereal and he calls her a "cereal killer" and the bar fight between Cal and Kevin, just to name a few. The anticipation of when Cal will actually see his wife naked leaves you turning the pages. There's page after page of newlywed discovery under the most humorous circumstances. I love the banter between the characters, especially the way Cal tries to talk tough to her and she is wise to his firecracker temper as all bluff. The secondary characters are a roar, too, from Kevin, who thankfully we see again in my second favorite book, "This Heart of Mine", who is the young perfect quarterback replacement. He follows Cal to Salvation, North Carolina, and seeks Cal's professional help, but he falls for the beautiful Jane Bonner and is adopted by the rest of the female family. There is Amber Lynn, Cal's mother, and we learn of her courage as she raised Cal from a mere child herself, with Cal's father, Jim, who became a doctor and took care of a young family. I especially will never forget the character of Annie, Cal's rifle toting maternal grandmother who lives on Heartache Mountain, and has the r

Jane Darlington is a 34 year old genius. She really isn't a very sociable person. She is a very nice person, but always believed that people thought she was weird because she was so smart. Her next door neighbors daughter Jodie comes over to borrow some coffee. She realizes that Jane has been crying and starts trying to find out what is wrong with her besides being a weirdo. Jane confides in the young girl. The young woman for her own selfish reasons tells Jane that she can help her with her problem. Jane's problem was she wanted a child of her own, but didn't want the child's father to have any intelligence whatsoever. She felt is the father was stupid, her child wouldn't be talked about and critized the way she was. Jane sees Cal Bonner and football player and she thought he was stupid because of the way he talked to the interviewer. She said he would be perfect aloud and the young woman said she could set it up. Jane was going to be Cal Bonner's birthday present. They even tied a pink bow around her neck. Jane couldn't believe what she had to do, but I don't think she counted on Cal finding out her little secret.Cal Bonner was nobody's dummy. Yes, he was a football player, but he happened to be one with a degree in Biology. Cal came from a family where the men seemed to get caught up with having to marry a woman because she was pregnant. When he first met Jane, he knew she was no ordinary hooker. He didn't believe she was a hooker at all. He overheard Jodie talking about how she set up his birthday gift. Cal made Jodie tell him who Jane was and everything. He was so mad he could have hurt Jane. He confronted her and made her marry him and that's when the fun starts.I don't want to go on because I know I will give it all away. You will love this book. The characters were good and you could actually visiualize alot of the scenes in the book. This is my second book by Ms. Phillips, the first one was First Lady. I am now trying to find all of her books. She is a good writer and I enjoy her stories. They aren't as heavy with issues as some others I've read recently. I'm glad my friends told me about her.

I've read a lot of romance novels and lusted after a fair number of heros, but Cal Bonner is the only one I wanted to lift whole from the book and take home for my very own. He's incredible - a star quarterback with a killer body, tremendous wit, an impressive intellect and great values. Sure, he can get a little grumpy and stubborn, but usually in a sexy, kind of adorable way. Thank goodness Susan Elizabeth Phillips created Jane Darlington, a woman worthy of Cal. Jane is an egghead physicist intent upon finding a physicially perfect but intellectually challenged sperm doner. She mistakenly assumes that Cal is going to fill the bill, but boy is she wrong. The ensuing struggle between these two is hilarious, touching and very sexy. SEP always writes great books, but this is one of her very best. Even if you're not a big romance reader, I promise that you're going to love this book!

Hard to believe I would like this book. I wanted a diversion and found this book as free book from a book club and said, why not, try it. On vacation with the kids I decided to read it (the first romance I ever read) and loved it. It was fun, pure escape. It's a better read than I thought and I will buy her other books. There's nothing wrong with some pure fun reading.

Only SEP is this original. This is my favorite in the 'Chicago Stars' series. I just love Cal. And Jane is the perfect woman for him to argue with! The story is VERY original. The book is full of wonderful characters, laugh-out-loud dialogue, and perfect lovers. It has SEP's trademark humor AND emotion. You will love it...it is absolutely her best work yet! (FYI: You'll be introduced to Kevin Tucker, the hero of SEP's February 2001 release. The heroine is Molly Sommerville from IT HAD TO BE YOU.)