SUDDENLY EXPECTING - Paula Roe
Harlequin Desire #2291
ISBN: 978-0-373-73304-0
March 2014
Series Romance

Cairn, Australia - Present Day

Kat Jackson and Marco Corelli have been best friends for almost twenty years, there for each other through good and bad, but now that may change.  Ten weeks ago, they'd had a little too much to drink and ended up sleeping together, and now Kat is pregnant.  Thanks to the disease that killed her mother, Kat has never imagined having children, and now she's not sure what to do.  If she's a carrier of the same disease, does she really want to put a child through the same thing she experienced?  Add in that Marco's job keeps him out of Australia most of the time, and Kat has some pretty big decisions to make.

Marco is surprised to learn that he's going to be a father, but not entirely shocked by Kat's attitude.  He manages to get her to his island home before a cyclone hits, leaving them temporarily stranded and giving Marco the chance to convince Kat to marry him and raise the baby together.  He understands what is worrying her, but Marco is about to show Kat that he can be just as stubborn as she is.

Friends become lovers in SUDDENLY EXPECTING, but is there a chance for something more?  Their decades long friendship has seen them through the death of Kat's mother, her scandalous tabloid-fodder years, and a few marraiges and divorces - but a baby is a whole new story for both of them.  As they are stranded on the island, neither Kat nor Marco is able to ignore the desire that flares red-hot between them, but Kat isn't willing to risk their friendship, even for the best sex of her life.  While waiting out the storm as well as the results of the genetic tests to see if Kat carries the fatal disease that killed her mother, she is forced to look at her life and what she really wants.  Marco already knows what he wants, but convincing Kat to give them a chance will probably be one of the most difficult tasks he's undertaken.

With a few other surprises thrown in, SUDDENLY EXPECTING is an emotional, romantic tale.

Jennifer Bishop