Reviewed by Kat
TITLE: The Bad Boy and the Baby
SERIES: Secret Springs: Healing Hands (Book 1)
AUTHOR: Minerva Howe
PUBLISHER: Turtlehat Creatives
LENGTH: 244 pages
RELEASE DATE: June 27, 2023
BLURB:
After a disastrous blind date that sends birth center nurse Raven to the ER, he decides his choice not to date people from Secret Springs is probably a good one. But gym owner and soft-hearted bad boy Ben convinces Raven to give him a second chance, no with no allergens involved.
The spark between then flares quickly, and things might be moving too fast, but neither of them wants to stop. But when family emergencies, long hours at work, and tons of well-meaning townspeople threaten to interfere, Ben and Raven have to decide what’s most important to them. And then they have to grab it with both hands.
The Bad Boy and the Baby takes place in the Secret Springs alternate universe, and is a heartwarming mpreg with a terrible allergic reaction, lots of tattoos, and a whole crop of new Secret Springs babies to meet!
REVIEW:
This is the start of yet another spin-off series from the highly successful Secret Springs series/universe. This series seems to focus on the health providers in Secret Springs…namely Ben and Raven this time.
Ben is thankful that he took his buddy and personal tattoo artist Lukas’s advise and moved to Secret Springs. He has his sports gym set up and membership is growing. With all the yummy food that Secret Springs has to offer people are starting up memberships, especially those Alphas that are eating for two beside their constantly pregnant omegas. He has also set up a physical therapy practice there. Helping people get or stay healthy is what he thrives on. When he goes to his next appointment, to continue his art on his thigh with Lukas, he sees “A beautiful nymph of a man came out of the bathroom, eyeliner smeared, body covered in a huge black poncho. The ebony hair was curled around the pointed, angular face, and looking at the guy was like a punch to the gut.” Little did he realize that this gorgeous man was Raven, the accoucheur that recently became partner with Devon at the Birthing Center in town that all his Alpha buddies omegas had been using on a very regular basis. Their town was literally exploding in babies since the recent upsurge in new families in the area.
Raven likes to play a bit on his days off. Usually he heads to Denver to get his kink on. He has a steadfast rule to not date and play in his own backyard. That could lead to a very uncomfortable situation in the future if it didn’t work out. Delivering an omega’s baby, with a alpha that he played with, could lead a very uncomfortable moment. However he allowed a friend to set him up on a blind date that literally sent him to the ER in anaphylactic shock! But a surprise encounter with Ben a second time in Denver leads back to being in Secret Springs and the chance of love. But can they take the time needed for each other to make a relationship work? Or will their busy jobs and many family commitments get too much in the way?
The part about the peppers radiating from poor, starving Raven’s pores is true. I had a friend that could not eat garlic because her husband had some kind of reaction to it. So every time he flew out of town for a few days on business she would herd us all up the first night so she could go gave garlic bread and escargot and then had time to get it out of her system. So Raven not being able to have his green chile fix was totally legit.
My problem was that Ben and Raven were both in the health industry. Eighteen pounds of weight loss, especially in someone as small, trim and fit as Raven, is major and significant. Add in he’s pregnant and that the baby and him are literally starving. Eighteen pound loss should have alerted not only Ben but Devon long before that much weight loss occurred. Also, Raven should have been having regularly scheduled prenatal visits with Devon all along. They are accoucheurs and the town depends on their wisdom on all things pregnancy. I just had a hard time that this weight loss could continue on for as long as it did to lose eighteen pounds without someone speaking up earlier. I know that morning sickness is a true and real thing but I would have been hospitalized if I got that low! But he is in the clinic all week long and that just didn’t track for me.
I think that Granny and Pappy were more forgiving than I was when my oldest did a secret marriage at the courthouse like Ben and Raven did. They gave the same excuse of needed it quickly for legal reasons. But Raven had grandparents that literally took him and your sisters in and raised them after they were orphaned and it wasn’t right! And having a second ceremony just doesn’t count. Yep, I went there! It’s a small town and his grandparents were retired.
This book was so filled with both these men being too busy all the time. They weren’t taking care of what they needed to do to be a successful couple. Thankfully Pappy took matters into his own hands and schooled Ben on what it meant to be a responsible alpha, something Ben was sorely lacking at. And then Pappy and Ben’s dad got with the program to make sure Ben had the time and Raven was cared for. They made sure Ben and Raven’s marriage and union had a decent chance. That’s when this escaped railroad train of a mess got back on track and started to flourish. Ben and Raven were caregivers through and through. They just needed to be put on the right track to be caregivers for themselves as a couple too! And parents to that baby coming too.
I hope that this series will finally give Devin a chance at love and happiness too. I have been wondering about him.
RATING: 
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