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Unexpected Gifts
Life happens...and then life really happens!
Teacher Eli Cartwright has it all figured out - the career, the reliable boyfriend and the next few dependable decades. Yet life has quite a sense of humor, it seems, since her perfectly ordered existence has been completely upended because Eli is counseling pregnant teens - but now with an unplanned pregnancy of her own!
Suddenly Eli is single, terrified...and exuberant. And her colleague, Zac Keller, has never been more attracted to her. But can he convince Eli that life sometimes offers more than one unexpected gift at a time?
Teacher Eli Cartwright has it all figured out - the career, the reliable boyfriend and the next few dependable decades. Yet life has quite a sense of humor, it seems, since her perfectly ordered existence has been completely upended because Eli is counseling pregnant teens - but now with an unplanned pregnancy of her own!
Suddenly Eli is single, terrified...and exuberant. And her colleague, Zac Keller, has never been more attracted to her. But can he convince Eli that life sometimes offers more than one unexpected gift at a time?
256 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
About the author
Holly Jacobs
177 books281 followersHolly Jacobs leads a life full of romance and adventure. From skydiving to jet-setting around Europe, from snorkeling in coral reefs to writing while wearing beautiful silk peignoir sets and popping chocolate bonbons, Holly Jacobs leads a life that is the epitome of romance...
Well, my fictional life sounds more interesting, but not better than my real life. Really, I'm the happily married mother of four. I cook a lot, garden and weave baskets! I write for Montlake Romance and Harlequin. My books range from lighthearted comedies to more serious dramas...but at heart, they're all stories of love.
You can visit me at
http://www.HollyJacobs.com.
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/HollyJacobsA...
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/HollyJacobs1
PINTEREST: http://www.pinterest.com/hollyjacobs1/
I don't always set out to write a series of books, but seem to find myself gravitating to them. Because so many people have asked, I've posted lists of all my series in order at www.hollyjacobs.com/bookseries.html. I really try to make each story stand alone, but many of my readers enjoy reading the series in order. Hope this helps!
Thank you to everyone who's picked up a single book, or more of them. I'm so lucky to be surrounded by so much support!
Holly
Well, my fictional life sounds more interesting, but not better than my real life. Really, I'm the happily married mother of four. I cook a lot, garden and weave baskets! I write for Montlake Romance and Harlequin. My books range from lighthearted comedies to more serious dramas...but at heart, they're all stories of love.
You can visit me at
http://www.HollyJacobs.com.
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/HollyJacobsA...
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/HollyJacobs1
PINTEREST: http://www.pinterest.com/hollyjacobs1/
I don't always set out to write a series of books, but seem to find myself gravitating to them. Because so many people have asked, I've posted lists of all my series in order at www.hollyjacobs.com/bookseries.html. I really try to make each story stand alone, but many of my readers enjoy reading the series in order. Hope this helps!
Thank you to everyone who's picked up a single book, or more of them. I'm so lucky to be surrounded by so much support!
Holly
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
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January 10, 2010What is a teacher who heads up the teen pregnancy program supposed to do when she gets unexpectedly pregnant? She tells her long-time boyfriend and hopes for the best. Well, for Eli that didn't mean a marriage proposal. He wanted nothing to do with a baby. It wasn't in his plans or in the plans they had made.
Eli is scared but determined that her baby will be happy with just her. Hadn't she taught her students to look at their pregnancies as blessings, not something to be hated. Still when colleague, Zac, wants to be her friend and secretly more, she doesn't turn him down but anything more is out of the question. Only he slowly wears her down with his gentle concern and care.
I highly recommend you add this book to your shopping list. Holly writes heart-warming and fun books and this one is one of my favs.
Eli is scared but determined that her baby will be happy with just her. Hadn't she taught her students to look at their pregnancies as blessings, not something to be hated. Still when colleague, Zac, wants to be her friend and secretly more, she doesn't turn him down but anything more is out of the question. Only he slowly wears her down with his gentle concern and care.
I highly recommend you add this book to your shopping list. Holly writes heart-warming and fun books and this one is one of my favs.
November 16, 2009
I think this is book is well written and very informative on teen pregnancy and the lack of assistance foor the kids from school systems. The twist where the teacher has a non-planned pregnancy and how it affects her life and her students is very smart writing. The story doesn't revolve just around the holidays so it is a good read for those not ready for Christmas stories yet. I read this 200+ book in around 3 hours or so. It keeps you interested.
November 6, 2017
Holly Jacobs' novel entitled Unexpected Gifts is an interesting romance. Elinore Cartwright, or Eli, teaches pregnant teens how to care for themselves and their babies at the local high school in western Pennsylvania. Eli’s their advocate in much more than school matters. She’s a caring individual. She’s older, 44, single, but has a boyfriend, Arthur. When Eli finds herself pregnant, she’s scared just like the teens she teaches. When she tells Arthur, whom she’s been dating for five years, she discovers he doesn’t want the child.
Eli started a program whereby local businesses hire her pregnant teen students, offering secure—but caring—work experience for the girls. Zac Keller runs Keller’s Market and hires one of Eli’s girls. Zac has liked Eli since they’ve been working together on this local business program to hire pregnant teens.
As a writer, I like how Jacobs lays the groundwork in this romance. She created fully formed characters, each with detailed pasts needed to make the plot believable. Both Eli and Zac must deal with real emotional changes in their lives. I don’t wish to give too much away, but
Holly Jacobs' Unexpected Gifts is a delightful read.
Eli started a program whereby local businesses hire her pregnant teen students, offering secure—but caring—work experience for the girls. Zac Keller runs Keller’s Market and hires one of Eli’s girls. Zac has liked Eli since they’ve been working together on this local business program to hire pregnant teens.
As a writer, I like how Jacobs lays the groundwork in this romance. She created fully formed characters, each with detailed pasts needed to make the plot believable. Both Eli and Zac must deal with real emotional changes in their lives. I don’t wish to give too much away, but
Holly Jacobs' Unexpected Gifts is a delightful read.
October 18, 2017
A charming story filled with life truths. A forty something single teacher finds out she is pregnant. When she tells her boyfriend of five years, he dumps her. Ironically, she teaches unmarried pregnant high school girls. This is their story.
January 27, 2010
Courtesy of CK2S Kwips and Kritiques
Families don’t always “match on the outside,” but they “matched on the inside, and that’s all that counts. And that’s what family means to me.”
Eli Cartright is a teacher who specializes in working with teenage parents, helping them to find alternatives so they can raise their children and finish school. She is more than a teacher however, she is a mentor to many of these students coming through her classroom, providing the support they aren’t receiving from their own parents. Eli has the perfect life with a fulfilling career and a good boyfriend. She has the rest of her life all planned out... until a few Unexpected Gifts come her way.
In her 40s, Eli is about to become a mother for the first time, quite unplanned. Her boyfriend has no room in his life for a baby so he leaves her to deal with raising a child on her own. Fortunately for her, she has wonderful parents and friends, as well as a business associate, Zac Keller, who has a soft spot for Eli, and the kids in her program. He grew up in a family with stronger ties than blood so he knows that often the Unexpected Gifts, are the most wonderful blessings of all... if only he can convince Eli he is here to stay.
Holly Jacobs has written yet another wonderful story in Unexpected Gifts. After so many books where Holly Jacobs has endeavored to make us laugh, it is a change in direction for her to now want to make us cry in an oh-so-good way, as she’s had a few books now more serious in tone, but this is a change that works incredibly well for her.
Family is often a theme explored, with various analogies, in Holly's books and this is one of my favorites yet for how she defines a family. It doesn't matter if a family matches on the outside, only that they match on the inside, as Zac's sister Cessy explains in an essay she writes. I shed many tears in that particular scene. There is one other scene as well, later in the book that was made me cry over the significance and poignancy of the moment. We know in that scene, just how deeply Zac cares for Eli and her unborn baby.
I enjoyed the irony we experience alongside of Eli, who has helped teens deal with unplanned for pregnancies, only to find herself in the same situation. Eli has a boyfriend who can’t make up his mind if he wants to be there for her and the baby or not, and has to prepare to be a single mother at a time in her life she never expected this to happen. When Zac steps in to help Eli, she doubts their relationship initially but Zac is crazy about Eli and her baby, and is determined to prove to her he is here to stay. Their relationship is at times tender, humorous, or difficult, and we never doubt for a moment these two are perfect for one another, complementing each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
I loved my visit with Eli and Zac, and all of the Keller clan in Unexpected Gifts. I hope we can look forward to more stories about this charming family.
© Kelley A. Hartsell, November 2009. All rights reserved.
Families don’t always “match on the outside,” but they “matched on the inside, and that’s all that counts. And that’s what family means to me.”
Eli Cartright is a teacher who specializes in working with teenage parents, helping them to find alternatives so they can raise their children and finish school. She is more than a teacher however, she is a mentor to many of these students coming through her classroom, providing the support they aren’t receiving from their own parents. Eli has the perfect life with a fulfilling career and a good boyfriend. She has the rest of her life all planned out... until a few Unexpected Gifts come her way.
In her 40s, Eli is about to become a mother for the first time, quite unplanned. Her boyfriend has no room in his life for a baby so he leaves her to deal with raising a child on her own. Fortunately for her, she has wonderful parents and friends, as well as a business associate, Zac Keller, who has a soft spot for Eli, and the kids in her program. He grew up in a family with stronger ties than blood so he knows that often the Unexpected Gifts, are the most wonderful blessings of all... if only he can convince Eli he is here to stay.
Holly Jacobs has written yet another wonderful story in Unexpected Gifts. After so many books where Holly Jacobs has endeavored to make us laugh, it is a change in direction for her to now want to make us cry in an oh-so-good way, as she’s had a few books now more serious in tone, but this is a change that works incredibly well for her.
Family is often a theme explored, with various analogies, in Holly's books and this is one of my favorites yet for how she defines a family. It doesn't matter if a family matches on the outside, only that they match on the inside, as Zac's sister Cessy explains in an essay she writes. I shed many tears in that particular scene. There is one other scene as well, later in the book that was made me cry over the significance and poignancy of the moment. We know in that scene, just how deeply Zac cares for Eli and her unborn baby.
I enjoyed the irony we experience alongside of Eli, who has helped teens deal with unplanned for pregnancies, only to find herself in the same situation. Eli has a boyfriend who can’t make up his mind if he wants to be there for her and the baby or not, and has to prepare to be a single mother at a time in her life she never expected this to happen. When Zac steps in to help Eli, she doubts their relationship initially but Zac is crazy about Eli and her baby, and is determined to prove to her he is here to stay. Their relationship is at times tender, humorous, or difficult, and we never doubt for a moment these two are perfect for one another, complementing each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
I loved my visit with Eli and Zac, and all of the Keller clan in Unexpected Gifts. I hope we can look forward to more stories about this charming family.
© Kelley A. Hartsell, November 2009. All rights reserved.
July 4, 2010
This was a very touching story of finding love in unexpected places, and discovering parts of yourself that you never knew existed. I very much enjoyed it and it's very highly recommended!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews