CLOSE TO HER HEART

CLOSE TO HER HEART                             CJ CARMICHAEL

Dani Carrigan, the academic of the Carrigan family, has always relied on logic when making important life decisions. But when she discovers she’s pregnant—and that there’s a chance her baby may be born “not perfect”—deciding what to do isn’t so easy.

It would help if the father, Adrian Carlson, department head at the University of Washington in Seattle where they both work, would pop the question. But the widower seems more interested in protecting his six-year-old daughter than committing to his new relationship with Dani.

The last time Dani felt so alone and scared was when she was sixteen and her mother died in an accident at their family ranch, leaving Dani to raise her younger sisters with precious little help from her distant and disapproving father. She felt so inadequate then. But is she any more prepared to be a mother now?

Support comes from an unlikely source. Dani always saw her next-door neighbour and friend, divorce attorney Eliot Gilmore, as a charming, handsome, playboy-type. But with each challenge Dani faces, from pregnancy, to delivery and beyond—Eliot reveals himself to be more of a man than she ever guessed. Is it possible that in all the years she’s known him, Eliot hasn’t been playing the field—but waiting for her? 

HUBBY'S REVIEW:

This story begins with a young girl working at the University Washington and is hoping that her widowed department head would see her as someone long term instead of just fun to be with. He was always saying he must take it slow because of his six year old daughter. Friends around her told her to move on but she felt they were a good match and he made her believe just enough that he would want something more with her. When summer break comes he goes to France with his daughter, but before he leaves he can’t wait to sleep with Dani. While Adrian is gone she finds out that she is pregnant and now is hopeful that their relationship will turn into marriage. But wait it gets better. When she goes to his house she gets a surprise and finds out that he is engaged to the nanny, and he tries to play it off of course she leaves without telling and when she finally does she has also finds that the baby has the markers for possible Down syndrome. He wants her to get an abortion which she says no to. The consent is her neighbor Eliot, who is a divorce attorney and they spend more time together getting to know each other and she finds out that he has liked her for a while. She has always thought he was a player but then finds out what really was happening. The drawback to the story was her always wanting to go back or wanting to go back to the professor, not realizing that he was a scum bag and really just an abuser with a degree. Overall a very emotional book and good story. I got this book from netgalley.  I give this 4 stars.