Undeniably Yours
By Shannon Stacey
Publisher: Carina Press (digital);
HQN (paperback)
Release Date: November 1, 2010 (digital);
January 24, 2012
(paperback)
The first time Kevin Kowalski sees Beth Hansen is in his
bar. He thinks he’s rescuing her from unwelcome attention. She knows that the “rescue”
is going to get her fired. The next time they meet is at the wedding of Kevin’s
brother Joe and Keri Daniels (Exclusively Yours). This second meeting ends with
the two of them in bed, and a condom failure ends with Beth pregnant.
Formerly a cop in Boston, Kevin returned home to open a
sports bar when his wife’s infidelity with his captain ended both his marriage
and his career. Kevin, the youngest in the close, boisterous Kowalski family,
is content to be back in Concord, New Hampshire. He enjoys his family, and
female bar patrons with their steady supply of lipstick kisses and phone
numbers on cocktail napkins provide him with the kind of no-ties relationship
that is what he’s interested in at this point in his life.
Beth, an only child who has become a rootless wanderer in an
attempt to escape her over-protective parents, is on the verge of leaving
Concord for Albuquerque when she discovers she is pregnant. In the reverse of
the overused secret baby trope, Beth shares the news of her pregnancy with
Kevin. Kevin is shocked, but he accepts responsibility and even looks forward
to being a father. The protective streak that is a part of who he is
intensifies when it comes to the mother of his child. He is determined that she
has a safe place to live, good medical care, and anything else she needs. Beth
is just as determined to maintain control of her life. She resists any move
that seems to infringe upon her autonomy, even though she comes to accept that
since the child she carries is a Kowalski, she too is part of this loving
family of caretakers.
I loved Exclusively Yours and was excited when I had the
chance to get an eARC of Undeniably Yours from the publisher via NetGalley. Kevin
lived up to my high expectations. He is a charmer, but he’s also mature and
capable of great tenderness. His concern for Beth and his feelings for his unborn
child are endearing. I also loved spending time with the Kowalski family again,
and the secondary romance between Kevin’s assistant manager and the man she
left at the altar is terrific. In fact, the only thing I didn’t love about this
book was the heroine.
Stacey does a superb job of characterization with all of these characters. I believe in Beth, but I don’t like her. This is no wounded heroine with
a tragic past. Her problem is that her parents, who lost four other children
through miscarriages, hover. They want to know too much about her life, and the
only way she can preserve a relationship with them is to be constantly on the
move from city to city. Really? There is no evidence of their need to control their daughter other than her perception. They appear to be loving parents.
And then there’s her response to Kevin’s attempts to take
care of her. Buying a cell phone so that she can call for help if she needs it
is cause for a meltdown. She’s even reluctant to accept his help with her
medical expenses, although she has few financial reserves and refuses to ask
her parents for help. She also recognizes that her mother’s history may mean a
difficult pregnancy. I can understand that the Kowalskis might be intimidating,
but I have problems sympathizing with Beth’s reaction to Kevin and his parents moving her out
of a lead-infested apartment that smells like cat piss. As for the baby shower,
I’m at a loss. I’ve known many grandparents who delighted in being
extravagant in gifting baby paraphernalia and clothing, but I’ve never known a
soon-to-be parent who feared the gifts were an attempt to seize control of his/her
life.
This is a romance, and so Beth eventually comes to love
Kevin and his family. She and Kevin share some steamy scenes and some sweet
ones, and the ending merits a sentimental sigh fest on all counts. But I’m
never totally convinced that Beth deserves Kevin, who makes my list of all-time
favorite heroes.
Despite my unhappiness with the heroine, I do recommend Shannon
Stacey’s books. Exclusively Yours was an A read for me, and Kevin and the
secondary romance make Undeniably Yours well worth reading. Yours to Keep is on
my eTBR, and I look forward to reading it. The Kowalskis and their tournaments of Doom rank with the Bridgertons
and their Black Mallet of Death in my affections. And I've become a Shannon Stacey fan, if not a Beth Hansen fan.
Have you read romances that left you wondering if one of the
H/H pairing really deserved the other? How does a less than enthusiastic
response to one of the pair affect your overall evaluation of the book?
