This RITA® Reader Challenge 2017 review was written by Erica. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Short Contemporary Romance category.
The summary:
USA TODAY bestselling author Julie Miller’s new series launches with a lawman and social worker who team up to safeguard a baby
After a near-fatal shootout at his sister’s wedding, third-generation lawman Niall Watson comes home to a baby in distress. The abandoned newborn in his neighbor’s apartment sends the Kansas City PD criminologist into rescue mode once again.
Social worker Lucy McKane will do whatever it takes to protect the infant boy entrusted to her care. The tall, sexy ME next door may be clueless about her feelings for him, but Niall’s the only one who can keep them safe. As a vengeful killer targets them, desire draws Lucy and Niall dangerously closer. Together, can they find justice and safeguard their newly created family?
Here is Erica's review:
I have been debating about how I feel about APB: Baby for a week. And I still haven’t really come to a resolution. It’s not a bad book, which I was totally expecting from the title. I mean, c’mon, that title promises so much crazysauce. As I started reading, I was a little overwhelmed (there is So Much going on), and then I really started liking it, and then I started reading everything with a skeptical eyebrow raised.
The story starts with a prologue. Niall Watson is at his sister’s wedding, when some masked dude comes in and begins shooting up the place – but not actually hitting anyone but Niall’s grandfather. (Oh, the Watsons are a clan of three generations of cops. And Niall’s mother was murdered. A fact weirdly mentioned and then never referenced again.) Niall comes home from the hospital where his grandfather has been admitted and hears this baby just screaming his little baby lungs out, and so he breaks into his neighbor’s apartment and finds a baby abandoned. As you do.
The neighbor, Lucy, has been frantically searching for her former foster daughter — who left messages which have led Lucy to believe that there’s danger afoot. When Lucy is confronted with the abandoned baby, she knows that her foster daughter is definitely the mother, and definitely in danger, and Lucy definitely needs help. Niall developed an instant connection with the baby (which is a lovely moment, by the way), so he’s going to help and protect her and the munchkin, and all will be well. You know, eventually.
There’s so much…weird, I guess, to this story. Niall’s described as being a coroner and an ME and then during the book he winds up doing more CSI-type work. (And I didn’t think medical examiner was a police position. I know that they work together, but I thought they were different departments. So, what’s going on with that?) Niall has the most forced vocabulary I think I’ve ever seen in a character, like he was looking at an SAT vocabulary sheet and just plugged words in whenever possible.
And I couldn’t tell if Niall was meant to be portrayed as neuro-atypical/on the autism spectrum, or if he was just socially awkward and odd. Lucy seems to think that she needs to translate “normal” life for him – because he’s like 30-something and clearly hasn’t been living a complete life on his own? She feels weirdly condescending – he needs her, because otherwise he just doesn’t get emotions.
Also, there’s just way too damn much going on in this book. The wedding shooting happens and then is barely mentioned again. There is zero progress made on that storyline. Instead, the whole Watson family is dedicated to helping Lucy and “Tommy” (the abandoned baby), and they put everything else to the side while doing that.
Then there’s this random storyline about the reappearance of Lucy’s extremely violent and abusive ex-boyfriend, who is out of prison and trying to get ahold of her, but he doesn’t affect the actual plot at all. And Lucy has issues because her mother was a waste of oxygen and so she feels like she never had a family, and all of the Watson outpouring of help and support overwhelms her, and it’s good character backstory but it takes up too much real estate in a story that’s already crammed with stuff.
So, they get the whole abandoned baby/Diana-in-danger story resolved, and then there’s an epilogue where the shooting is mentioned again. The shooting is clearly supposed to be a trilogy-long (there are three Watson brothers, after all) arc, but I just didn’t feel like it was integrated into this book enough to really establish that arc.
It sounds like I hated it, doesn’t it? But I didn’t, not really. The actual baby plot/mystery I really enjoyed, and Niall was so awkward and sweet – I kind of adored him. (There’s this part where he is thinking about how Lucy has entirely too many pairs of underwear, and it’s just funny and adorable).
Lucy was pretty meh for me. I just didn’t feel any spark with her. She’s clearly nice, and she clearly adores Diana and the baby. But Lucy is constantly going on and on about how she and Diana don’t have families, and they are really all alone in the world. The Watsons might be helping now, but they’ll just abandon them eventually. And that whole attitude was just so annoying. Plus, her weirdly condescending tone about Niall pissed me off, which totally destroyed the romance for me.
I don’t know. I’m just very conflicted about how I feel. So, I’m going to grade this one a C. It didn’t strike me as anything special, and it was annoying at times, but it wasn’t pure torture either. Just… kinda meh. So, a C it is.
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Meh reviews are the hardest to write – you did a great job with this one. (and wow, that sounds like A LOT of plot!)
Meh reviews are so hard! A good rant is easy to unleash and a squee flows with all the things you loved. A solid I enjoyed this while I was reading but won’t reread and will likely forget many details in a few weeks is so hard.
But your review really captured the in between nature of the book, I think it sounds a bit interesting but I’m not convinced I want to actually buy it, either.
Great review! It’s been so interesting reading two reviews for each RITA book and getting two different perspectives on the same story.
Thank you guys so much!
What an unappealing title! Harlequin really shouldn’t use an American police acronym if they want readers from anywhere else; I only know it’s an American police acronym because I just researched it. Otherwise, it’s just gibberish.
Julie Miller is – in my opinion – one of Harlequin’s best authors. She is also one of the authors who made me love category romance. I would buy the book because her name is on it, but not for that horrendous title splashed across the cover.
I still can’t get over romance books with babies on the cover. Not the worst romance baby cover but still funny. All the action and crazy going on and the baby is just there , drilling and looking around.