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Unexpectedly Expecting #1
The Pregnancy Promise
Having the boss's baby?
Lianne O'Mallory is longing to have a baby, but time is running out! She's even created a secret wish list of her perfect man, but after a string of dating disasters, that list ends up in the bin.... Only to be discovered by her sexy boss! Tray Elliott can't work out why his beautiful, intelligent colleague would need to put together such a list, but it intrigues him.
A man like him would never admit his own secret desire for a family--but this boss has a pregnancy proposal that Lianne might not be able to resist....
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published February 15, 2009
4 people are currently reading
83 people want to read
About the author
Barbara McMahon
408 books175 followersBestselling, award winning author Barbara McMahon has written more than 80 novels which have sold more than 16 million copies world wide in more than fifty countries in twenty-eight languages.
Known for her heartwarming, emotional stories, she excels in capturing those feelings when first falling in love. She has won or been nominated for every major award in the romance genre from a double nomination in the RITA to winning the Bookseller's Best, National Readers Choice Award and the prestigious HOLT Medallion, among others.
Barbara lives in West Michigan with her husband and two fur babies. Her favorite passtimes are genealogy research and taking her dogs on walks in the wood behind their home.
Known for her heartwarming, emotional stories, she excels in capturing those feelings when first falling in love. She has won or been nominated for every major award in the romance genre from a double nomination in the RITA to winning the Bookseller's Best, National Readers Choice Award and the prestigious HOLT Medallion, among others.
Barbara lives in West Michigan with her husband and two fur babies. Her favorite passtimes are genealogy research and taking her dogs on walks in the wood behind their home.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 30, 2011
A cute read.
January 28, 2014
**Warning: this is strictly my opinion and in no ways reflects what anyone else may feel or think when reading this book.**
It was kind of cute, I'll give it that. I just found it was lacking something. The love connection wasn't quite as strong as I'd want it to be, and they didn't proclaim any feelings for each other until the last chapter (does that count as a spoiler?), which was too late for my liking. There was this mix like I couldn't decide if the book was too caught up in their feelings or not showing them enough. It was like the characters' feelings were being told, but not really shown--it just felt empty.
While I liked Lianne's character, she was at some points just as empty as the emotions. I didn't feel the same connection I like to feel with the characters I read about. She was too practical, too in her own head for my liking. It felt like her emotions jumped around so much that it was hard to keep up, and when she started thinking/talking about how she loved Tray, I'm like, wait what? When did this happen? It was just sudden, but done like we were supposed to know this. One minute she was fighting any feelings she had for him, and all "he's just the baby's father, I don't have those feelings for him, that would be ridiculous" and then suddenly she's all "I just want to savor every moment with him, forget the baby for a few moments and just think about how much I looove Tray"
As well as her rapid emotional change, her sudden behavioral changes caught be by surprise. In the beginning she was this very practical, in-charge, fully career-orientated woman who'd never taken a sick day even when she was sick, and would stay at work through the night, but when she got involved with Tray, that all flew out the window. Suddenly she was taking vacation time, leaving the second her formal shift ended at five, arriving at the latest possible time without actually being late, and leaving work half way through the day with no notice, just to hang around home because she was suddenly an emotional wreak. It was like a total character change, and I'll be honest; I liked her a lot better in the beginning. I respected her problems and her decisions, and I liked the way she handled everything. But then, when she got involved with Tray, it was like this fight between making her the typical lovey dovey, emotionally motivated, family-orientated, love interest, and keeping hold of who she used to be, so that both aspects seemed forced and empty.
Tray...well, he still seemed a little empty too. We never really found out much about who he was, but it wasn't like sexy mysterious guy type lack of information--it was lack of character development empty. The times that light was shed on his past was written in passing, without dialogue and just Lianne's overviewed thoughts on their discussions to build him as a character with a past. His pain over Suzanne's decision was well done in the beginning, but eventually his thoughts over her and his became empty too.
He was also portrayed as the totally oblivious male perfectly--something I cant' decided if it's good or not. he was totally oblivious to his feelings towards Lianne and her feelings towards him. He was clueless about her reactions, and his actions were almost annoying in the way that he acted practically but unemotionally towards all problems; he acted like everything was a strategic move in his business rather than something dealing with personal feelings and issues. However, I think I liked his character better than Lianne's in the end, though not by much.
The end, too, was empty in the way that it seemed rushed; everything kind of just summed up in one chapter, all the problems fixed, all the solutions found, everyone suddenly happy--all in one chapter. It was also a little abrupt; I would have liked to see a little bit more of their future. Maybe an epilogue, telling her family about Tray and what we "found out" out in the end, maybe telling Annalise, even something ten years or so in their future, just anything that would have given us a glimpse at what happened next and that would have made the ending a little less rushed.
Also, I put "found out" in quotations, because, let's be honest, the ending was pretty much a given. Maybe I was the only one, but I pretty much saw that coming from the first chapter (or at least half way through). Not really any surprises there. Totally predictable. At least add some sort of curveball!
Speaking of Annalise before, I must admit I did like her character. As more of a secondary character, the lack of build on her character was understandable--however, she had almost the same amount as Lianne, which is a problem for Lianne's character. I really liked their relationship, it was sweet and without drama. She was what would usually be a best friend. For all intents and purposes, from what I saw Annalise was Lianne's only friend (which I must admit is kind of sad. She needed a life outside work, like, badly.)I do, however, wish that the author would have either delved deeper into the issues Annalise and Dominic were having, or leaving them out, because that seemed like it should have developed into something more the way it is. I was expecting a little more drama, or at least closure, with the way it was being built up.
Overall, it was a cutsie read without a lot of depth. I'd recommend it to anyone wanting a (very) light read, that doesn't involved much thinking, and who doesn't require any heat in their romances(there was absolutely zero sex scenes in this; the desk scene was the most explicit part, and a 13 year old could read it in the way that it was so vague there was absolutely no detail whatsoever and the fact that they were having sex was only obvious through the fact that Lianne was freaking out afterwards about someone being able to walk in on them). A nice read for curling up in a chair after a long day to just kick back and relax, and finishing in time for dinner. Good for anyone who wants a read that's quick, light, and cute.
It was kind of cute, I'll give it that. I just found it was lacking something. The love connection wasn't quite as strong as I'd want it to be, and they didn't proclaim any feelings for each other until the last chapter (does that count as a spoiler?), which was too late for my liking. There was this mix like I couldn't decide if the book was too caught up in their feelings or not showing them enough. It was like the characters' feelings were being told, but not really shown--it just felt empty.
While I liked Lianne's character, she was at some points just as empty as the emotions. I didn't feel the same connection I like to feel with the characters I read about. She was too practical, too in her own head for my liking. It felt like her emotions jumped around so much that it was hard to keep up, and when she started thinking/talking about how she loved Tray, I'm like, wait what? When did this happen? It was just sudden, but done like we were supposed to know this. One minute she was fighting any feelings she had for him, and all "he's just the baby's father, I don't have those feelings for him, that would be ridiculous" and then suddenly she's all "I just want to savor every moment with him, forget the baby for a few moments and just think about how much I looove Tray"
As well as her rapid emotional change, her sudden behavioral changes caught be by surprise. In the beginning she was this very practical, in-charge, fully career-orientated woman who'd never taken a sick day even when she was sick, and would stay at work through the night, but when she got involved with Tray, that all flew out the window. Suddenly she was taking vacation time, leaving the second her formal shift ended at five, arriving at the latest possible time without actually being late, and leaving work half way through the day with no notice, just to hang around home because she was suddenly an emotional wreak. It was like a total character change, and I'll be honest; I liked her a lot better in the beginning. I respected her problems and her decisions, and I liked the way she handled everything. But then, when she got involved with Tray, it was like this fight between making her the typical lovey dovey, emotionally motivated, family-orientated, love interest, and keeping hold of who she used to be, so that both aspects seemed forced and empty.
Tray...well, he still seemed a little empty too. We never really found out much about who he was, but it wasn't like sexy mysterious guy type lack of information--it was lack of character development empty. The times that light was shed on his past was written in passing, without dialogue and just Lianne's overviewed thoughts on their discussions to build him as a character with a past. His pain over Suzanne's decision was well done in the beginning, but eventually his thoughts over her and his became empty too.
He was also portrayed as the totally oblivious male perfectly--something I cant' decided if it's good or not. he was totally oblivious to his feelings towards Lianne and her feelings towards him. He was clueless about her reactions, and his actions were almost annoying in the way that he acted practically but unemotionally towards all problems; he acted like everything was a strategic move in his business rather than something dealing with personal feelings and issues. However, I think I liked his character better than Lianne's in the end, though not by much.
The end, too, was empty in the way that it seemed rushed; everything kind of just summed up in one chapter, all the problems fixed, all the solutions found, everyone suddenly happy--all in one chapter. It was also a little abrupt; I would have liked to see a little bit more of their future. Maybe an epilogue, telling her family about Tray and what we "found out" out in the end, maybe telling Annalise, even something ten years or so in their future, just anything that would have given us a glimpse at what happened next and that would have made the ending a little less rushed.
Also, I put "found out" in quotations, because, let's be honest, the ending was pretty much a given. Maybe I was the only one, but I pretty much saw that coming from the first chapter (or at least half way through). Not really any surprises there. Totally predictable. At least add some sort of curveball!
Speaking of Annalise before, I must admit I did like her character. As more of a secondary character, the lack of build on her character was understandable--however, she had almost the same amount as Lianne, which is a problem for Lianne's character. I really liked their relationship, it was sweet and without drama. She was what would usually be a best friend. For all intents and purposes, from what I saw Annalise was Lianne's only friend (which I must admit is kind of sad. She needed a life outside work, like, badly.)I do, however, wish that the author would have either delved deeper into the issues Annalise and Dominic were having, or leaving them out, because that seemed like it should have developed into something more the way it is. I was expecting a little more drama, or at least closure, with the way it was being built up.
Overall, it was a cutsie read without a lot of depth. I'd recommend it to anyone wanting a (very) light read, that doesn't involved much thinking, and who doesn't require any heat in their romances(there was absolutely zero sex scenes in this; the desk scene was the most explicit part, and a 13 year old could read it in the way that it was so vague there was absolutely no detail whatsoever and the fact that they were having sex was only obvious through the fact that Lianne was freaking out afterwards about someone being able to walk in on them). A nice read for curling up in a chair after a long day to just kick back and relax, and finishing in time for dinner. Good for anyone who wants a read that's quick, light, and cute.
February 6, 2018
Corta pero muy linda, no me gustan las muertes en los libros pero se que a veces son necesarias
January 5, 2020
Protagonistas: Lianne & Traynor
Profesiones: Empresario & Analista
Pais: USA
Profesiones: Empresario & Analista
Pais: USA
February 18, 2022
Fade-to-gray sex.
September 25, 2009
Modern
April 21, 2012
the characters were so boring.
November 1, 2013
Read a while back, while the novel was okay, I still couldn't get into it. The heroine kept freaking about getting pregnant and it was definitely grating on the nerves.
February 11, 2015
me gusto la historia, me quedé esperando un mejor detalle al final
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews