BARGAINING FOR BABY – Robyn Grady
A Perfect 10
Billionaires and Baby Miniseries
Silhouette Desire #2015
ISBN: 978-0-373-73028-5
May 2010
Series Romance

Queensland, Australia – Present Day

Jack Prescott arrives at the hospital in Sydney as soon as he can, but it’s too late. His sister Dahlia has taken her last breath. Guilt overwhelms Jack. Three years ago, he lost his wife and unborn child...and now Dahlia. His heart has seen better days, and now he only feels defeated and beaten.

Watching Jack from down the hall, Madison Tyler waits patiently. The child she holds is Dahlia’s legacy, her son Beau. Madison promised Dahlia that she would keep Beau safe and hand him over to Jack, but not right away. No, this precious child stays with her until she’s sure that Jack is ready and able to care for his nephew, even if it means she’ll jeopardize her job. She might be the boss’s daughter, but telling her father she has to take time off to accompany Jack to his Outback home will likely cause Drew Tyler to blow a gasket.

Jack Prescott is heir to one of the oldest and largest sheep stations in Queensland. Living at Leadeebrook is a lonely life, miles away from even the nearest neighbor. And now Dahlia’s friend, Madison Tyler, is inviting herself into his home for two weeks! This woman has city written all over her. She belongs in high heels and slinky dresses, never jeans and boots. And as Jack soon learns, Maddy hates his dog Nell, the dust, the heat, and most everything else about his life on the sheep station. He’ll try to be patient before she runs back to Sydney, but in the meantime, maybe he can get to know her just a little. A man would have to be dead not to appreciate her beauty, and Madison makes him feel things he hasn’t felt for a long time, not even with his wife, Sue.

Maddy and Jack end up BARGAINING FOR BABY as they step warily around each other while living in the same house. Maddy has no intention of leaving Beau with Jack one minute sooner than she has to, even if Jack does have sufficient help on the station. Cait, his housekeeper, is perfectly capable of watching Beau, and Snow, his foreman, can run the property, but Maddy wants her time with Beau, too. Even so, she can’t wait to get back to Sydney and her job. Everything on this sheep station makes her a little nervous; she needs to be back under the bright city lights where she belongs.

One of the best stories I have read this year, BARGAINING FOR BABY is full of dynamic characters, palpable emotion, and red-hot passion. Maddy and Jack have a lot of hurdles to leap, and their romance is fraught with pitfalls and problems that seem insurmountable. Jack’s heart is locked up tight; he will never let another woman into his life. Maddy would like to try to break through his defenses, but there’s his supposed fiancée waiting in the background, and the fact that Maddy could never live in this desolate place.

A story that will have you laughing and crying, in the end love wins—it always does. This story is a Perfect 10!

Diana Risso