What do you think?
Rate this book
From Here to Paternity #3
Dominic's Child
Dominic's child was also Sophie's son...
Sophie Casson and Dominic Winter shared one night of love...the result was Ryan.
Sophie was determined to bring the baby up by herself. After all, Dominic had made it perfectly clear that he regarded Sophie as the person responsible for ruining his life. But, if that was the case, why did he pursue her and propose marriage to her? On the point of accepting, Sophie was devastated by the arrival of Dominic's fiancée. Who would Dominic choose now?
192 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1996
About the author
Catherine Spencer
267 books58 followers In the past, Catherine Spencer has been an English teacher which was the springboard for her writing career. Heathcliff, Rochester, Romeo and Rhett were all responsible for her love of brooding heroes! Catherine has had the lucky honour of being a Romance Writers of America RITA finalist and has been a guest speaker at both international and local conferences and was the only Canadian chosen to appear on the television special, Harlequin goes Prime Time.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
November 20, 2018
Re Dominic's Child - Catherine Spencer makes her contribution to the From Here to Paternity series with a slightly pathetic h who CANNOT resist her Treacherous Body Syndrome and an H who is a regular donkey's hiney dropping.
This one starts with our landscape/garden specialist h meeting the H as he shows up on her Caribbean Vacation Island in a very nasty mood. The H and h had met several months earlier when she was selected as the landscape designer for an upper class wealthy family who is rebuilding their estate and the H is the architect/residential developer rebuilding the family's manse.
The H is also the fiance of the spoilt and capricious daughter of the house, but now the daughter is missing and presumed drowned. The H is angrily blaming the h because the spoilt daughter bought the h's friend's plane ticket when the h's BFF got chicken pox and couldn't go on holiday with the h.
The h tries to be tactful, she understands that the H's grief is probably affecting him, but she also believes she is in love with the H. Why she believes that isn't made clear, as the H has repeatedly gone out of his way to make sure she knows that she is a low class grubby peasant to his shinning upper class status.
(That the H has this attitude is totally a joke, his mother was a college student who had an affair with her married professor. She got preggers, the professor disavowed all knowledge and the woman proceeded to work menial jobs and get drunk until she died of liver failure.
The H fiercely resents that he had to work his way up the ladder and he is mainly marrying the spoilt daughter because he wants the social status and connections. Needless to say, the h is reacting to her overwhelming TBS and she is probably mistaking her unbridled physical yearning for true love.)
But now the H's scheme for upper class acceptance is all in ruins and it is all the h's fault. He has angrily berated and criticized her every chance he has gotten, because in spite of her middle class origins and non-couture clothing, he wants to pull out every gropey move he ever learned and do a whole lot more than roofie kiss her every time he sees her.
After the H demands the h take him to the spot where the spoilt daughter's boat supposedly wrecked, making nasty blame filled comments about the h all the way, (and a day or two of more H haranguement about the h not controlling the spoilt woman who was running wild and partying it up entirely against the advice of the island authorities and the h,) the H and h wind up in bed.
The h doesn't really expect much of the H, she realizes he was just using her body as a sub for the dead fiancee, but that doesn't change the fact that a stork will be paying a call in about 36 weeks or so.
The H, who was all about making sure the h kept to her lowly peasant place when summoned to meet with the dead fiancee's parents, happens to find the pregnancy test and he immediately decides that he and the h will marry.
The H threatens all sorts of custody battles he claims the h can't win because he is really rich and she only has a not very well insulated house, a new landscape business and a mortgage. The H is helped along when he and the h run into the h's mother over lunch and the H lets the engagement news out of the bag.
Even the h's BFF is all about pimping the h out to the H, tho the h is overwhelmed, ill with preggerness and feeling steamrolled. The H then decides that he is going to tear down and rebuild her house and the h is just trying to hang on for the ride and walk around without passing out.
Then the big kinda sorta surprise moment knocks on the door. It is the supposedly dead fiancee, who really only wandered off to find herself, with a guy from the island she picked up, and now claims to be preggers with the H's baby.
The h is over being used as an incubator and having her life rearranged by the H whenever he feels like it, cause he claims his child will be HIS possession, so she packs herself up and goes to England. The H chases, he and the h fight and then the H goes back to Canada and files custody injunctions against the h and threatens to take her house.
The h's family is all about pimping her out because she is pregnant and the h reluctantly goes back to Canada, only to collapse with a placenta previa rupture as soon as she arrives. The H finds her and gets her to the hospital, there is a big fuss as the H demands that they save the h and not the baby and soon the h has a little boy and everyone is okay.
The H makes his true love declaration and explains that he was having doubts about the spoilt daughter even before the big disappearance fiasco. He also explains that the spoilt daughter's pregnancy wasn't his and that she terminated it.
The h thinks everything will be great and she declares her love back. We get a baby as a wedding bouquet and a marriage ceremony epilogue for another HPlandia HEA.
This one was really a 2.5 but I rounded up, cause at least the h tried to dump him and get over her Treacherous Body Syndrome. Otherwise this was an average day at the HP office with an who is just nasty because he can be.
I wasn't feeling much empathy for him and I am still wondering how the h fell in love with him, but sometimes even the HP Voyager is required to drink the kool-aid to make it past the mediocre HEA and finish up an uninspiring HPlandia outing.
This one starts with our landscape/garden specialist h meeting the H as he shows up on her Caribbean Vacation Island in a very nasty mood. The H and h had met several months earlier when she was selected as the landscape designer for an upper class wealthy family who is rebuilding their estate and the H is the architect/residential developer rebuilding the family's manse.
The H is also the fiance of the spoilt and capricious daughter of the house, but now the daughter is missing and presumed drowned. The H is angrily blaming the h because the spoilt daughter bought the h's friend's plane ticket when the h's BFF got chicken pox and couldn't go on holiday with the h.
The h tries to be tactful, she understands that the H's grief is probably affecting him, but she also believes she is in love with the H. Why she believes that isn't made clear, as the H has repeatedly gone out of his way to make sure she knows that she is a low class grubby peasant to his shinning upper class status.
(That the H has this attitude is totally a joke, his mother was a college student who had an affair with her married professor. She got preggers, the professor disavowed all knowledge and the woman proceeded to work menial jobs and get drunk until she died of liver failure.
The H fiercely resents that he had to work his way up the ladder and he is mainly marrying the spoilt daughter because he wants the social status and connections. Needless to say, the h is reacting to her overwhelming TBS and she is probably mistaking her unbridled physical yearning for true love.)
But now the H's scheme for upper class acceptance is all in ruins and it is all the h's fault. He has angrily berated and criticized her every chance he has gotten, because in spite of her middle class origins and non-couture clothing, he wants to pull out every gropey move he ever learned and do a whole lot more than roofie kiss her every time he sees her.
After the H demands the h take him to the spot where the spoilt daughter's boat supposedly wrecked, making nasty blame filled comments about the h all the way, (and a day or two of more H haranguement about the h not controlling the spoilt woman who was running wild and partying it up entirely against the advice of the island authorities and the h,) the H and h wind up in bed.
The h doesn't really expect much of the H, she realizes he was just using her body as a sub for the dead fiancee, but that doesn't change the fact that a stork will be paying a call in about 36 weeks or so.
The H, who was all about making sure the h kept to her lowly peasant place when summoned to meet with the dead fiancee's parents, happens to find the pregnancy test and he immediately decides that he and the h will marry.
The H threatens all sorts of custody battles he claims the h can't win because he is really rich and she only has a not very well insulated house, a new landscape business and a mortgage. The H is helped along when he and the h run into the h's mother over lunch and the H lets the engagement news out of the bag.
Even the h's BFF is all about pimping the h out to the H, tho the h is overwhelmed, ill with preggerness and feeling steamrolled. The H then decides that he is going to tear down and rebuild her house and the h is just trying to hang on for the ride and walk around without passing out.
Then the big kinda sorta surprise moment knocks on the door. It is the supposedly dead fiancee, who really only wandered off to find herself, with a guy from the island she picked up, and now claims to be preggers with the H's baby.
The h is over being used as an incubator and having her life rearranged by the H whenever he feels like it, cause he claims his child will be HIS possession, so she packs herself up and goes to England. The H chases, he and the h fight and then the H goes back to Canada and files custody injunctions against the h and threatens to take her house.
The h's family is all about pimping her out because she is pregnant and the h reluctantly goes back to Canada, only to collapse with a placenta previa rupture as soon as she arrives. The H finds her and gets her to the hospital, there is a big fuss as the H demands that they save the h and not the baby and soon the h has a little boy and everyone is okay.
The H makes his true love declaration and explains that he was having doubts about the spoilt daughter even before the big disappearance fiasco. He also explains that the spoilt daughter's pregnancy wasn't his and that she terminated it.
The h thinks everything will be great and she declares her love back. We get a baby as a wedding bouquet and a marriage ceremony epilogue for another HPlandia HEA.
This one was really a 2.5 but I rounded up, cause at least the h tried to dump him and get over her Treacherous Body Syndrome. Otherwise this was an average day at the HP office with an who is just nasty because he can be.
I wasn't feeling much empathy for him and I am still wondering how the h fell in love with him, but sometimes even the HP Voyager is required to drink the kool-aid to make it past the mediocre HEA and finish up an uninspiring HPlandia outing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 5, 2017
This is the 3rd book I read by this author and more than likely my last. I don't feel any true emotions from the male leads towards the female leads apart from lust. I also really hate it when it's the heroine that seems more into the guy from the start and the male lead seems not invested enough till the end. This book was slightly better than the two I read by this author but still not good enough for me. I prefer my besotted hero's who know heroine is their one and only!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 18, 2012
Short but very cute. I did enjoy reading it and I loved the heroine. Especially how moral and brave she was throughout the whole thing. She was also very independent or else she wouldn't of left the hero, expecting to raise her child alone. It all worked out quite well.
April 12, 2024
Sue me, i love it
October 23, 2016
Dominic lost his fiancée in a boating accident in the Caribbean. He blames Sophie for her death.
Sophie dislikes Dominic, but understands that he's in pain. While trying to console him they end up in bed together and she finds herself pregnant.
This is a tumultuous story. Sophie is very insecure about her place in Dominic's life and at the first challenge, she ran. Dominic didn't help the situation by being a typical alpha male and trying to control everything.
The book was better than I expected. Well worth the read.
Sophie dislikes Dominic, but understands that he's in pain. While trying to console him they end up in bed together and she finds herself pregnant.
This is a tumultuous story. Sophie is very insecure about her place in Dominic's life and at the first challenge, she ran. Dominic didn't help the situation by being a typical alpha male and trying to control everything.
The book was better than I expected. Well worth the read.
October 3, 2015
"Larga noche de amor"
October 26, 2018
3.5 stars
July 28, 2023
This one was a bit different but also a bit odd and slightly off HP expectations. In the early chapters, I didn't get much sense of them as a romantic pairing. I'm not sure the aftermath of his fiancee's death was that pleasant a set-up tbh and it made them both seem quite unappealing. He came across as harsh and, unusually for in a HP, used a lot of expletives, mostly hinted at but there was definitely a f.... in there. I'm not overly bothered by cursing but it just was unexpected in a HP. Anyhow, Sophie has fancied him for a while , even though he was engaged to Barbara and when Barbara goes off on a boat with another man and gets killed in an accident they have sex. Ofc she gets pregnant and he forces an engagement without any mention of love and they proceed to snarl and obfuscate and have more sex until there is a wtf shocking moment leading Sophie to run away to England. It was all a bit stop/start switchbacky and I ended up irritated with them both. Hea ofc.
April 6, 2024
I didn’t feel so much love for the heroine, though the hero in the end declares he’s always wanted her and had already decided to break the engagement with his fiancee but I don’t believe it.
The heroine is a garden architect and the hero is engaged with a spoiled rich girl he wants to upgrade his social status, when she apparently dies in a holiday he has sex with the heroine and gets her pregnant. No love is present here, and when his ex comes back saying she’s pregnant the heroine leaves. Misunderstanding. She was pregnant with another man’s child but terminated it. The hero wants the heroine back but there’s a lot of to and fro, with the heroine running and the hero pouting. I didn’t like this one. Safety is no good.
The hero had sex with his fiancé after meeting the heroine and he would probably have married her, whatever he might say to the heroine, that was already pregnant so it looks like he wants to keep her. Meh.
The heroine is a garden architect and the hero is engaged with a spoiled rich girl he wants to upgrade his social status, when she apparently dies in a holiday he has sex with the heroine and gets her pregnant. No love is present here, and when his ex comes back saying she’s pregnant the heroine leaves. Misunderstanding. She was pregnant with another man’s child but terminated it. The hero wants the heroine back but there’s a lot of to and fro, with the heroine running and the hero pouting. I didn’t like this one. Safety is no good.
The hero had sex with his fiancé after meeting the heroine and he would probably have married her, whatever he might say to the heroine, that was already pregnant so it looks like he wants to keep her. Meh.
April 18, 2021
This is just a terrible book, it's hard to believe it was written in the 1990's, because this dreck reads more like an 1890's mindset. Normally, I'm not so stingy with stars, but this book gave me nothing to work with. Neither of the leads were all that likeable. The big H was also a big jackass most of the time and the little h constantly jumped to conclusions that needlessly created bigger problems than she already had. Was there a funny best friend? Nope, she was kind of a jerk. Humor of any type in the entire book? Nope. Good description of beautiful places? Nope. Endearing family on either side? Nope. I would have given extra stars if I could have checked even one of those boxes. Judging by the other accurate reviews I read of this book, I think most people were rooting against a HEA for the couple.
December 21, 2021
So much wrong with with book, the ridiculous misunderstandings were too far and too over done. Both of them had really weird thought about the baby - like she said the baby is her passport to him, and he told everyone when she was having labor complications to forget the baby and save Sophie even though no one was asking. The reason was to drive home the point it wasn't just the baby, he cared for her, which was in question due to the very silly misunderstanding, but it still felt really wrong. And why did he just let her leave for months on end rather then trying to work things out with her, not once, not twice but actually 3 times. And he learned nothing at the end still on my power of making her wait - made him thoroughly unlikable.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 29, 2024
Way too many misunderstandings and fights to pad the reading time. The excerpt and the cover are from the end which is odd too. I’d say the story was there but the author didn’t trust their writing to carry the book. The couple only fought, and the circumstances were willllldddd and those were enough for the couple to get through together. Didn’t like all the fighting and rage and misjudgment the couple had, especially past the midway point, and the last insane reveal was all the couple needed to wade through to get to the end, not fight and split again!!!! For no reason. Hero has to chase the heroine down to often, and the heroine was so resistant despite “loving the hero”, she never cut him a break. Ugh I say read it since the plot is interesting.
May 16, 2021
Long road to love
I really like the harlequin's from the 90s bc they aren't cookie cutter and are a little more old fashioned. This one fits that but it seemed older than the 90s. Maybe bc it was set in Canada. Other than that my main problem was how cold and cruel the hero was at first. I like an alpha but he was a jerk. The angst and sexual tension did build though and it was a good read.
I really like the harlequin's from the 90s bc they aren't cookie cutter and are a little more old fashioned. This one fits that but it seemed older than the 90s. Maybe bc it was set in Canada. Other than that my main problem was how cold and cruel the hero was at first. I like an alpha but he was a jerk. The angst and sexual tension did build though and it was a good read.
September 16, 2026
The Mcs may have their faults and their coming together as they did initially may be a bit repulsive, but I loved this book and I could actually feel respect for the h for showing some dignity when she did. A well written romance in my opinion.
November 27, 2021
This was great but the heroine was an idiot much of the time! I really didn't like her much.
December 9, 2021
I liked that the heroine was older but I found her behavior frustrating at times because the author hinted about H’s true feelings and that made her to a drama queen. The ending was overly dramatic. Overall I enjoyed the story.
January 15, 2022
Wow magique!!❤️
October 18, 2024
Found Dominic a difficult character to like but enjoyed the ending.
October 19, 2022
H kept being jerky even when he knew better and h kept loving and giving and running off. I’d have run off too if my fiancé’s ex showed up pg.
Still I liked this a lot more than the plot or characters deserved, somehow the whole story worked for me.
Still I liked this a lot more than the plot or characters deserved, somehow the whole story worked for me.
January 1, 2017
This book was better then I thought it would be when I started it. I like to get a description of the characters so that I can picture them I my head. The earlier in the book the better. This didn't happen, so for the first chapter I was despairing! But the author took pity on me and eventually gave a sloppy description. From then on it got better. The book was fast pace and I didn't skim parts of it, which I usually do.
March 13, 2018
Dominic's child was also Sophie's son...Sophie and Dominic shared one night of love...the result was Ryan. Sophie was determined to bring the baby up by herself. After all, Dominic had made it perfectly clear that Sophie was the person responsible for ruining his life. But, if that was the case, why did he pursue her and propose marriage to her? On the point of accepting, Sophie was devastated by the arrival of Dominic's fiancée. Who would Dominic choose now?
September 29, 2020
This story was written in the 90's so lots about it seems out of place now a days. Its about Sophie and Dominic who share a night of passion after finds out his fiance has died. And the effects of that one night. Its about two people coming together who share common values also. Both worked hard to get where they are. Its about being open to each other and what happens when the "dead" fiance comes back. I have read other books by Catherine Spence and will look for more.
September 2, 2011
About 2/3 of the book I was getting annoyed with the story due to the miscommunications but the ending was great. The book even had an epilogue which is always neat to me.
February 19, 2013
Set in 1990's without handphonea
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews