Kimani, $7.99, ISBN 978-1-335-00588-5
Contemporary Romance, 2019
Marisa Martinez used to be all about partying with beautiful people and doing the whoop-whoop with hot men, but now, she’s all mellowed up and ready to be an independent career woman.
Oops, prior to this story, she had a one night stand with her best friend’s husband’s brother—perhaps a reality TV show is in the works about these people—and yes, she’s now pregnant. It’s okay, though, strong and modern women don’t need to tell to the fathers of their babies that those men are becoming daddies, because these women find it more challenging and hence fulfilling when they have to start a new business from the ground and raise a baby all on their own.
Only, our heroine gets a loan from her super successful BFF to start the business, no strings attached, and Naim Ansah will soon learn that he’d be a father and we all know that he will marry her anyway, and prenuptial agreements don’t exist in romance novels. So yes, our heroine has everything handed to her to succeed on her own “merit”. So much for being an independent modern woman, really.
Of course, we need a conflict here, so brace yourself. Marisa is furious when she realizes that Naim wants to set up a trust fund for their brat.
Yes, our heroine has issues about coming from a wealthy family, and apparently being rich made her… unhappy? I don’t know. So now she refuses to even accept her usual allowances from her family, and she will be damned if her rich, hot billionaire husband spend a single cent on her or her baby. When he tells her that he intends to do so because, hello, that brat is also his kid, how dare he. This proves that he is an irresponsible man that doesn’t care about her so he must be kicked out of her brat’s life with extreme prejudice!
Seriously, of all the conflicts the author could have introduced into her story, she chose this brain cell-killing insult? Maybe the plan all along is to have the heroine appear to be a brain-damaged termagant and I’ve missed the memo, but yikes.
Despite the otherwise engaging narrative and the enjoyable interactions between the characters and their family members and friends here, the heroine becoming an imbecile really kills any and all enthusiasm I have for this story.
It is one thing if the heroine walked the walk and go through the indignities of hustling and scrapping for money like us ordinary folks, but no, she has all the nice things handed to her and then there’s the billionaire that she somehow deserves just because she put out to that guy one time. After all that, she still has the temerity to argue about how she only wants to live a life without too much money thrown at her.
Talk about an insult to my intelligence. That imbecile can sit in that corner and choke on her dollar bills, and when she’s finally a broke-ass single mother, maybe she can get a happily ever after of asking people whether they’d like fries with that. It’s still far better than what this worthless waste of brain matter deserves.
