Three Babies and a Bargain/Baby Bonus

If you're looking for a fun time, look no further than Duets #31. Sandra Paul is always a fabulous read and while Kate Hoffman was new to this reviewer I was not disappointed in her work either. Fast-paced, rib-tickling, you'll love this book if you love romantic comedies. Highly recommended.

In Hoffman's Three Babies and a Bargain, Professor Jillian Marshall convinces her sister, Roxane, that she can take care of her triplet toddlers while Roxane and her husband are on their second honeymoon. She is completely convinced that she could do better than Roxane because she understands that organization is the key to giving the children a structured existence. Nick Callahan is building shelves for Roxane and her husband as a favor for lending him their guest house for the summer. He comes to Jillian's rescue and basically spends the rest of the story bailing her out of disasters created by her own misguided devotion to organization. Hoffman does a great job setting up a rapport between Nick and the triplets but she might have been better served developing a stronger one between him and Jillian. Nick's quick wit and generous sense of humor save the day as well as this story. The reader is never given the chance to warm up to Jillian because of her inflexibility as well as her calculated models on what disaster would strike next because of her ineptitude. Rather than truly learning from Nick how to care for the children, much of the story is spent witnessing her relying on him instead. Hoffman spends so much time focusing on Nick and Jillian creating a temporary family with the triplets that the story weakens when it comes to their own relationship. In the story by Sandra Paul, Jessica Kendall is the operations officer of a Los Angeles bank who has been frequently targeted as being easy to rob due to the fact that five of their tellers are pregnant. Security adviser, Mitch Flaherty, takes action to prevent another robbery by implementing a number of new procedures and policies which irritates Jessica because she has to be the one to soothe and comfort the tellers who are trying to acclimate to the new rules. Though Jessica feels Mitch has usurped her authority, she tries to help for the sake of the bank and its tellers. Her innate tendency to nurture eventually extends to Mitch who wants to act on the attraction they feel for each other. Paul's story is clearly the stronger of the two in terms of characterization. Both Mitch and Jessica are clearly defined by their actions as well as the secondary characters who rely on her and get to know him. Their relationship is clearly the focus of this story and though babies do play a role in this story, they only enhance their relationship rather than playing an integral role in the story.