LoveSpell, $6.99, ISBN 0-505-52536-4
Contemporary Romance, 2004

Holt Langden learns that he is the father of a traumatized kid that he sired during a one-night stand with a flighty rich woman from his past. I guess the flighty, evil woman is too pure of heart to consider an abortion. He can’t take care of the kid but the kid stops crying when radio talk show host Stevie Stedquest comes on the air to talk about taking care of kids right. Stevie always wanted a child but she… she… sob… can’t have any! Holt offers her a deal – he’ll sell her the kid for twenty million dollars!

No, no, just kidding. The baby selling part makes sense and we can’t have that in The Babe Magnet, oh no. Instead, they’ll marry. For convenience, of course. And she’ll get the kid she always wanted while he’ll get a free babysitter without actually having to pay this babysitter anything except stud service. Even then, Stevie isn’t sure whether she wants the stud service thing.

What kind of people will agree to marry in a situation like this? People with barely functional brains, yes? And yes, that’s what Holt and especially braindead Stevie are – imbeciles, the both of them!

And what kind of kid will that tyke-sized monster be? A predictably sappy and nauseating “Love! I need love!” plot device, that’s what.

But the biggest question is, does the author expect to get away with a plot like this when she has her characters acting like grade A imbeciles, a plot that has no relevance whatsoever to the way things are today? She doesn’t. She shouldn’t even have tried in the first place.