Knocked Up by Stacey Lynn

This post contains affiliate links you can use to purchase the book. If you buy the book using that link, I will receive a small commission from the sale.

Title: Knocked Up
Author: Stacey Lynn
Series: Crazy Love #2
Published by: Loveswept
Release Date: June 12, 2018
Format: eARC
Pages: 250
Genres: Romance, Contemporary
Source: NetGalley
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2018 Netgalley and Edelweiss Challenge, Lenoreo's 2018 New Release Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks
My rating:

Blurb:

First comes love. Then comes marriage. Then comes baby in a baby carriage. Just not necessarily in that order. . . .

Braxton: I should probably be dead or in jail right now. Instead, thanks to some tough love, I worked my ass off and now I own a string of tattoo parlors throughout the Pacific Northwest. And yet the one thing I’ve always wanted—a family—still seems out of reach. When my best friend gets married, I’m just hoping to blow off some steam with the super-hot maid of honor. But after Cara Thompson tracks me down to tell me she’s pregnant, she’s more surprised than I am when I tell her I’m all in.

Cara: For the first time in my life, I’m living for myself—not for my parents and their ridiculous expectations. I gave up on my MBA, dropped out of the Ivy League, and moved to Portland to pursue my dream of becoming an artist. And what’s the first thing I do? Get knocked up. For a tatted-up sex god, Braxton Henley seems way too eager to “be there for me.” Is this guy serious? Maybe. He sure is patient. Because he won’t back down until I admit what I know in my heart: that our one night stand might’ve led me to the one.

My Review:

I received a free copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

3.5 stars — Welp, I went back and read my review for Fake Wife, and I have a feeling that Ms. Lynn may not be quite right for me.  Which is a weird thing to say seeing as I’ll likely round this review up to 4 stars…but I just really feel uncomfortable with the level of anger and temper she shows in her heroes.  *shrugs*  I’ll get to it…

So as with the first book in this series, I was drawn in immediately, and totally loving this book.  I love a good accidental pregnancy trope, and this one was shaping up to be very satisfying.  And I know this is weird, but I do tend to be attracted to heroines with low self-esteem and self-worth.  I guess they’re relatable.  It’s not that Cara didn’t have inner strength…but I guess that’s what I love.  That mix of damage and healing.  I was a bit bummed that we didn’t get flashbacks to the actual one night stand, but we can’t have everything.

So yeah, I liked Cara.  She frustrated me, sure, but that comes with the territory of a damaged heroine.  I felt for her with the loss of Jimmy, and her horrible parents.  I get that the bad rich parents are cliche, but I just don’t mind.  Sometimes I’m in the mood for formula, you know?  And I loved the little moments where we’d see her stand up to Braxton.

Braxton could have been a hero I truly loved.  He had a lot of great qualities, and I loved the way he was so emotionally invested in a child.  I also appreciated his own damage from his childhood, and the grief of a lost mentor.  I even really appreciated the little story about dyslexia, and the stigma he felt, but how Cara didn’t flinch.  Yay diversity!  And he could be really sexy, he had a bit of an alpha thing going on, and I enjoyed the way he was protective of Cara and the baby.

But here’s the thing.  Braxton, as with the hero in the first book, has a TEMPER.  And when he gets angry, he can be mean.  I get having fights.  I get misunderstandings, and the climax could have even happened in the same way, but his venom truly made me uncomfortable.  And it wasn’t the first time his anger made me uncomfortable.  I’m just not attracted to that, especially since he was never really called out on it.

So while throughout MOST OF THE BOOK I really loved them both, and even loved them together (they had great chemistry, I thought their interactions were sweet, swoony, and STEAMY), those few moments kind of ruined it for me.  Womp womp.

I will say I loved the secondary characters in this one, from Dan and Jenna to Luca to Graham to even the dog Lucy.  They all added to the story.

As a side note, what’s with the cover model having NO VISIBLE TATTOOS WHATSOEVER??  I mean really, you couldn’t find a couple where the hero is at least partially tatted?  Not impressed.

And that’s that.  Another book that had SO MUCH AWESOME (really reminded me of a good Harlequin), but was tainted by the anger monster.  It’s just not for me peeps.