Vintage Housewife Books, $0.99, ISBN 978-1516370931
Contemporary Romance, 2015

Author Kristi Rose mentions that the heroine of He’s the One, Melinda Bane, was a mean girl in a previous story of hers.

Well, unless Melinda hits her head hard in that story or was kidnapped by a UFO and replaced by a clone prior to this story, I have a hard time reconciling the saccharine sweet heroine in this story with any kind of mean girl.

Melinda claims that she is a self-sufficient woman in between bouts of tears. All she wants in life is a baby, and since she doesn’t seem to be getting a man to knock her up the way nature intends her to, she’s going to a sperm bank and order some baby goo.

A fire at her new place puts her plan on hold, however. Fortunately, while she protests that she really doesn’t want to rely on a man, her BFF and former brother-in-law Jared Calhoun is here to do everything to help get her life in order.

Yes, looks like good old-fashioned baby making is on the menu, although since this is a clean and wholesome romance—with just a little inbreeding, which I suppose can’t be avoided when one lives in an American small town—so I hope people won’t expect detailed and lurid descriptions of that process.

There’s not much of a romantic conflict here, as it stems mostly from Jared being… well, I don’t know if he’s just simple-minded or playing hard to get, but his actions here are two parts cluelessness—he labors under the belief that she’s already pregnant—and one part playing hard to get. That last part stems from how he keeps acting like he is so certain that Melinda already has a man in her life when she clearly doesn’t, and then get annoyed when she doesn’t seem to be in the market for one. He really wants her to tell him that she wants him, I can’t help feeling.

What does all this mean? Well, nothing much. This is a simple story of a woman getting a man to fix up her life, without even having to ask him to, and then gets the final reward when he loves her and is happy to give her everything she wants in life.

I can’t deny that it is a nice fantasy, but at the same time, I wish the heroine has done something to earn all these nice things. Also, the author announcing that Melinda was a villain in a previous story is a mistake, as it only leads me to think that the author has confused character development for an outright personality transplant.

Ironically, while not having read the previously related story may be the solution to enjoying the heroine’s personality better, it can also create a sense of disorientation among the same readers as the story begins at what seems like a quarter into a much longer story, with the characters already having established relationships and making references to events that happened in that previous story.

All things considered, this story has a lightweight romantic conflict that is perfect for something of its length. At the same time, though, there is something about it that feels off, like a jigsaw puzzle that is missing a few pieces here and there. 

Then again, the strengths and flaws of this thing don’t matter much. It’s a pleasant easy come, easy go read that is not likely to stick to the mind for long, so whether folks read it or not, it matters little at the end of the day.