BOOK REVIEW (2): Expecting a Miracle

BOOK REVIEW:

Expecting a Miracle

After nearly a week without any romance, I greedily devoured Jackie Braun’s Expecting a Miracle in two days. Two days! That’s big for me.

And what a HEA!

I really liked Expecting a Miracle. I should warn though that it includes a baby. Not throughout most of the book, but I know that some readers are not into that thing.

I should also warn that this book is a sweet romance. That means no explicit sex scene(s). The language is euphemistic and the reader is left to put two-and-two together…or if you really are feeling gypped out of a sex scene, then write a fanfiction. ^^

So the story follows Lauren Seville, city girl into the countryside of New York to a lovely little town called Gabriel’s Crossing. There she decides to wait out the storm of her divorce and at the time it seems like a great idea until she starts falling for her land lord.

She’s pregnant, still sorta married and yeah…she’s pregnant.

But hero Gavin O’Donnell—Lauren’s land lord—also has his problems: he’s not so fresh out a divorce himself and he’s got trust issues. He’s the type of guy that wears his heart on his the sleeve of his work shirt and which is way I fell in love with him in the first place!

That and any description of a guy in nothing but work jeans kinda makes me happy.

But he’s starting to come around with his sexy-as-hell, pregnant tenant. It comes off like a city girl meets country boy romance, but Gavin’s loaded guys. And he’s not country, he just fits in right that. Lauren doesn’t do too bad herself. I find that it’s more that both of the characters begin an exodus from their high-powered city lives to the tranquility of their country lives.

Of course they end up running away from their personal problems into each other’s arms. Remember though! There’s enough sexual tension to keep readers tethered to those 180-odd pages.

Other things I might as well note on:

This book moved at a fast pace, but its timeline follows the first month-ish of the Lauren’s pregnancy to the birth of her baby. So pretty fast… Truthfully though given what had to be organized conflict-wise, it required time to go by otherwise the plot would have been unrealistic.

And there’s a baby! You know, if the cover didn’t give anything away.

Along with the baby, though, there’s a glimpse into the labour/hospital process—which was interesting. First time I’ve had that experience with a romance. (Clearly I don’t read medical romances.)

I don’t have anything bad to say about this book.

Like not one thing comes to mind to make me hate it.

I mean, let me give you proof--> here's a favourite scene where Gavin helps a very pregnant and in labour Lauren with shaving her legs:

After he put a towel on the floor under her feet, he slathered one leg with the shaving gel and got down to business. After several long, even strokes he'd completed the first one.

"You're pretty good at this," she said.

"Well, I've had a lot of practice."

Her eyebrows shot up at that.

"On my face," he clarified and they both laughed.

***

Haha! Love it.

But I mean conflict-wise because of the concept of a woman pregnant with another man’s baby, I expected some male jealousy and all. But there’s none of that.

And that’s really more of a warning than a spoiler! Don’t go expecting Alpha heroes to rear their heads… Gavin is most definitely no Alpha in the strictly “I-am-your-ALL” sense. Hehe.

In fact I'd say Gavin was very...naive? At least with certain topics. For instance, another scene I enjoyed, and for context's sake Gavin has just complimented Lauren on her sexiness or something and he's trying to brush off the embarrassment when she catches him in the not-so subtle act:

He fiddled with the handle of the spatula, his gaze fixed on it rather than on her when he admitted, "I don't know if I'm supposed to say stuff like that about a pregnant woman."

What? Gavin! You should know better. Pregnant woman definitely still qualify for compliments and charm and flirtation and word foreplay...

Don't worry, Lauren sets his courage straight right after:

"I'm a woman first, Gavin. And I won't always be pregnant."

*wink, wink*

So conflict-wise there isn’t much melodrama. Don’t expect anything over-the-top here, argument-wise… Lauren and Gavin are really battling their own insecurities and they just so happen to find comfort in talking and advice-giving with one another.

You’ll have to read for all the lovely sexual tension and to find out just how that HEA works out.

My verdict:

✮✮✮✮✮

(5 stars)