Tabs’ review of The Billionaire’s Baby Swap (Montanari Marriages, Book 1) by Rebecca Winters
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Romance 01 Apr 16
When I read Harlequins, I almost exclusively stick to the Presents and SuperRomance lines. But this had babies switched at birth! I could not resist the crazy-sauce pull. I succumbed. I regret everything.
Unfortunately, even though the premise is crazy, the plot is actually pretty boring. The hero and heroine are nice people who love their kids and don’t want them to be traumatized by being swapped at birth. So, like you do, they meet up and hang out with each other so that the babies will chill the heck out. Their whole romance is super bland and uninteresting.
The babies in this story are 4-6 weeks old for most of the book. Coincidentally, at the time I read it, my BFF was at home with her three-week old baby, so I thought it would be fun to fact-check some things with her. Her reactions ranged from “What? No.” to “She left the babies alone to go make out in a pool outside? Where the hell was the baby monitor?” to “They put the babies in floats in the pool?!? What?!? No!!!” while clutching her newborn infant in horror lest someone decide to put him in a pool. Needless to say, she didn’t find the parts I relayed to her to be very realistic. To be fair, though, the plot of this book involves baby-swapping. I doubt realism was a high priority.
Oddly, what did seem to be quite a high priority was crazy-pants mysoginy. First off, the heroine is an unwed mother who was seduced by one of her professors and got pregnant after the one and only time she had sex. There’s a lot of self-castigation about being an unwed mother and the shame and blah blah blah. I wanted to throw my Kindle against the wall when she laments that her poor decisions got her professor fired. IT TAKES TWO TO MAKE A BABY AND ONE OF YOU WAS TWICE THE OTHER’S AGE. Grr. Grrrrr.
Don’t worry though, Giovanni’s ex-wife is around (sorta) to show that being an absentee mother is even worse than being a single one. She’s obviously suffering from some form of postpartum depression, but the term is never mentioned. Instead, she’s portrayed as a selfish, spoiled brat who just needs to see her baby’s face to come around to the whole mothering thing. (This also made me want to throw my poor Kindle against the wall… poor Kindle… none of this was your fault.)
This book is pretty lousy. When it’s not dull as dishwater, it’s being an asshole about women, putting tiny babies in peril, and using really repetitive writing.
Grade: D
Summary:
Two babies…one family?
Single mom Valentina Montanari was abandoned while pregnant, yet she’s besotted with her tiny son, Ric. But why does he look nothing like her?
Gorgeous billionaire Giovanni Laurito bonded with his new baby, Vito, after a difficult divorce, so discovering Vito and Ric were swapped at birth is a huge shock!
When Valentina and Giovanni meet to reclaim their children, sparks fly. They’ve already fallen for each other’s babies… Could this unexpected beginning create the family of their dreams?
No excerpt available.
