Reviewed by Ro
TITLE: A Baby for Christmas
AUTHOR: Keira Andrews
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 152 pages
RELEASE DATE: November 21, 2024
BLURB:
Can a lost single dad and a lonely cowboy find love—and the family of their dreams?
Jake
Becoming a single father definitely wasn’t in my plans. It’s the toughest challenge of my life, especially with my parents gone, but my little girl means the world to me. I’m driving her home to the Rockies for her first Christmas—and because I took a boneheaded shortcut, we’re stranded in the middle of nowhere.
With a blizzard closing in. Fast.
I’m more scared than I’ve ever been when a gruff, gorgeous cowboy gallops to our rescue.
Why does he look so familiar?
Cam
I was a skinny geek in high school with a hopeless crush on Jake—until he revealed his true colors. He’s a backstabbing coward, and I haven’t missed him one bit since he moved to the big city. I spend my days with my dog, my horse, and my yaks. I don’t do people.
Now of all the people in the damn world, he’s on my ranch. Stranded with his tiny, helpless baby.
I can’t abandon them to freeze—even though it means bringing Jake to my cabin to get snowed in. Even though I’ll be trapped with the only man I’ve ever loved.
Even though I only have one bed.
A Baby for Christmas by Keira Andrews is a steamy LGBTQ+ romance featuring a bisexual single dad at the end of his rope, a lonely demisexual cowboy who likes to take charge, hate to love, and of course a happy ending.
REVIEW:
Cam is a cowboy who raises yaks, of all things, and is pretty much a loner. He out taking care of his animals when he hears a baby cry. After he realizes he didn’t imagine it, he sets out on his horse, Bonnie, to find the noise and comes upon a man and a baby next to a broken down car in the snow. He isn’t thrilled but knows he can’t leave them where they are. When it turns out the man is Jake, the one who basically ruined Cam’s life back in high school, he is livid. If it was just Jake I think Cam might have turned and left him, but he’s a good man and can’t leave the baby, so he brings them to his temporary cabin to wait it out. Jake was heading to spend time with an uncle (one who wasn’t all that thrilled to have him) when the car died out.
Jake did something in high school that had huge repercussions for Cam, who was innocent. And Jake went his merry way, “I hadn’t had the guts to ask any old friends what happened to him. If he’d landed on his feet after…”. I’ll be honest, while I liked Jake as a father, doting on little Cora, I did not like him particularly as a person. He claims to be sorry, but never reached back out to Cam after, never bothering to see what happened. Yes, he does apologize but agrees when Cam says, “The only reason you want to apologize is to make yourself feel better.”
The snowstorm that started when Cam rescued Jake hits even harder, so they are stuck in the small cabin longer than they thought. They start talking and getting to know each other again with no outside distractions.
Baby Cora is adorable and there are a few times she is the one that breaks the tension, unintentionally. Hal Jr, the son of the ranch owner where Cam worked, is an absolute asshat, but his wife, Shel, is lovely and at times reined in her husband.
I am a little conflicted about this book because I love Keira Andrews’ work normally. This one, though, missed the mark a bit for me. I liked seeing Cam open up and get to release the festering resentment that he’s had for ten years but I also felt that forgiveness came much too easily. The whole course of Cam’s life was changed, I felt forgiveness in a day or so was just too soon. It’s also insta-love, the whole thing occurring over just a few days. “We just re-met. It’s been less than a week.”. So it’s cute, with a delightful baby, yaks!, and a love story. I’m sure my niggles are just that. Mine!
RATING: 
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