Susan Elizabeth Phillips: Nobody's Baby But Mine

Nobody’s Baby But Mine: A-

Tender and hilarious!

Chicago Stars #3
Dr. Jane Darlington and Cal Bonner

Physics professor Dr. Jane Darlington spends her 34th birthday in tears. She wants a baby,but not a husband. Where can she find an average or, preferably, stupid man? She decides that Cal Bonner, legendary quarterback for the Chicago Stars is perfect. Jane sets her plan into action and after some trail and error she succeeds. But the results are more than she bargained for when Cal discovers her duplicity. How can a football player with an interfering family and a nerdy professor who has never known family love ever fall in love? With lots of honesty, understanding and a whole lot of humor.

I have to give it to Ms. Phillips for writing the funniest and most entertaining stories with the most absurd story plotlines. As expected, I couldn’t put this book down and bust a gut laughing (especially when Jane is trying to “seduce” Cal, oh goodness.)

Initially, I thought this story was going to be a flop. A genius physicist pretending to be a hooker to seduce a dumb jock? And by seduce, I mean impregnate herself with his sperm with his stupid genes. C’mon, you can’t get stupider than that. For someone so brilliant, Jane was astonishingly stupid.

Then there was Cal, the gorgeous, hunky football star with a deep-seated fear of getting old and getting booted off his beloved football team. So what does he do? Pick fights with Kevin Tucker, the much-younger, new “it” quarterback and date stupid blond bimbos barely old enough to be considered legal.

With a terrifically negative mindset I started reading Nobody’s Baby But Mine and I’m sure glad I did! It was entertaining, hilarious (I repeat, when she is trying to seduce Cal, it’s the funniest thing) and SEP has this way of writing so that you cringe and feel for the humiliation the heroine is feeling (something she truly and wholly deserves, but is painful to read at the same time).

Little does Jane realize that Cal is a very shrewd and clever jock. And Cal thinks she’s a hooker who’s slightly older than what he usually prefers (she claims to be twenty-eight or something).

It’s a hoot when Jane is faced with the awful truth that Cal is brilliant and Cal is sorely pissed when he discovers that Jane is thirty-four (oh Heaven forbid!).

When Cal catches onto Jane’s evil and sneaky scheme, he hurriedly marries her – so that their child will have his name and won’t be considered illegitimate – and plans to divorce her shortly after the baby is born. They move back to Cal’s hometown, Salvation, North Carolina, and Jane meets Cal’s family – his estranged parents, bitter and cynical Gabriel, angel-y Ethan, and Cal’s wicked-cool grandmother.

It’s a poignant tale of tribulation and overcoming differences with love at the very bottom. Completely recommended – ignore the almost too-stupid-to-live heroine. (She eventually redeems herself.) I did and everything worked out well!