TBR Challenge Review: Triplets for the Texan by Janice Maynard

Format: Mass Market
Pub Date: May 2017
Length: 215 pages
Publisher: Harlequin
POV: 3rd
FTC: Received at RT Booklovers Convention

I fully admit, I'm ignoring the theme for this month. It's Recommended Read, and I can't say this book was recommended by anyone, except perhaps the author who signed it for me at RT. But...I am making an effort to whittle away at the still giant pile of books I brought home from RT the last year or two, and this one was at the top of the pile.

I'm not a category romance reader. I WILL read them, but I don't tend to seek them out, and I'm not one of those people who knows all of the parameters of each individual line. I also, nearly always, feel like authors in category books try to tell too big of a story, so I nearly always feel like stuff was rushed at the end.

Ok...disclaimers out of the way.

I fully admit that the entire premise of this book is kind of...unromantic to me. I'm a mom, and the thought of THREE babies, all at once? NOPE. Then there is the fact that our heroine has Hyperemesis gravidarum aka chronic, debilitating nausea, vomiting, and dehydration. Ewww.
Just...not romantic. Add in the reasons for and methods of getting pregnant, and this is probably one of the least romantic set ups I've ever seen. It's a bold choice, but the author fails to pull the HEA off to my satisfaction, and the sexytimes never felt even in the realm of plausible.


Simone Parker owns a successful ad agency. She also found out that in order to fulfill her grandfather's will, she needs to have children. ASAP. With no romantic partner in the picture, she chooses to use a sperm donor. While waiting for test results from an ultrasound from her doctor, she instead gets her ex, doctor Troy Hutchinson. He delivers the news: she's having triplets.

Thus begins the ethically questionable relationship between Hutch, a recently returned doctor from Doctors without Borders, and Simone. There's a lot of for-show denials that he's acting as her doctor (he's only "consulting") as well as her lover, but whatever. It bugged me. Big time.

Also bugging me was the fact that the second Simone's health-destroying puke-a-thon subsides in the night, they are overcome with lust and get it on. Riiiiiiight. 

There's plenty of caretaker alpha here, if that's your cuppa, but he's a grade A asshole, so even that part didn't work for me. The ONLY part I bought out of this entire book was that these two hurt each other deeply when they broke up initially. Normally, second chance at love stories are my catnip. This one...their entire relationship felt dysfunctional and wrong. 

The clincher for me was the extreme lack of groveling. Yes, it's a category and page time is short, but this guy... That HEA was not believable. Not even when compared to the extremely unbelievable premise. Just didn't buy it. There are also some threads which are brought up and just dropped, not the least of which is a blackmailer who assaults Hutch. That causes the BIG FIGHT at the end, but we don't get any resolution, or even a passing mention, of the dude who punched the hero. I get that it's a theme for a series, but the guy literally pops out of nowhere and never shows up again.

If pregnancy stories are your thing, this might work for you. Otherwise? Avoid.

My Grade: D