Yes, I've been reading more crap that good stuff lately and I think I finally found a winner in the stack. I really enjoyed this last book because it was really cute and adorable with babies, men who didn't know what the heck they were doing, best friends that didn't know what she was doing either but didn't break down like the guys... I'm glad that the book didn't have super cheesy pegacats or eye rolling ridiculousness like that, but this book was still up there in the cute factor.
The book I just finished reading was called Drew in Blue by J.M. Kelley. We have our main character, Drew, who finds himself thrown in instant daddy-hood by a two night stand 'girlfriend' who decided that she couldn't be a mom. She just shows up one night and deposits a two month (or was he 4 months? either way, he was a teeny little guy) old baby on Drews lap and takes off. Since Drew's own childhood was spent in foster care after the death of his own mother, he couldn't think of putting this baby through the same kind of thing. So, he tried his hardest to become a father.
His best friend, Kris, is the one and only person he knows he can depend on to help him since all of his other 'friends' kind of disappeared after little Nick showed up. Since Drew and Kris had been best friends since they were 8, it kind of made sense that they had feelings for each other - but it took something like 28 years for them to finally admit to each other that they were in love (even though they were already acting like an old married couple for the past 20 years). :-) :-)
The baby adventures that Drew has with his baby Nick are really adorable. I think anyone who has had the pleasure of being around a newborn and having to be their main caretaker can see the humor in explosive diapers, constant drooling, projectile spit ups, and toothless grins. What makes this story so sweet is they way that Drew falls in love with his son. He didn't have the pleasure of falling in love with his son while he was still in the belly and actually walked away from his son the day he was born. But making sure his son didn't grow up the same way he did made Drew determined to become a father - and even though it took him a while, he actually did. Just because someone knows how to take care of a baby doesn't make them the parent (even if they are genetically a mother or father). What makes a parent a parent is the way they fall in love with their baby. The diaper changing is just something you do, not this awful, stinky chore (okay, sometimes it can be) that makes you want to ship your child to someone else.
As I read this book, I felt myself falling in love with the characters. The development of all characters, even the baby, was awesome. Every single one of them had their little quirks that makes certain writers stand out so much more than others. It's these little quirks and imperfections that make characters so much more real. :-) One example was the way the writer described of the Drew's temporary girlfriends that as a teenager in high school was a little heavy. She lost all kinds of weight and really watched what she ate in order to maintain it. So, she had to habit of taking her time rearranging her food, picking stuff off that she couldn't or wouldn't eat and putting the stuff she would eat back to where she would eat it at even intervals. She did this with her salad topping as well as the toppings on a pizza. It is this endearing quality of writing that I love! This is the kind of stuff that the last two books were missing. I'm sure that the writers of the last two books i read could take some lessons from this writer. :-)
I just looked up the writer on Amazon and it looks like this was her first book. I'm glad that she did so well with it and can see why she won so many awards with this book. It was an awesome debut book and this is the reason that I like to read some of these free offered books from Amazon. I've gotten to the point where I hardly read established authors that much. I love to find these hidden gems with newer authors! I see that the writer will have a new book next year and look forward to reading that one when it comes out. :-) :-)
Happy reading!
Pinka
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