Review: Good heroine but quite misogynistic towards the working woman
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 04 21, 2011
His Hired Baby seems rather cliched in a surrogate heroine and the obvious where the hero and heroine fall for each other but this book took a few turns I didn't see coming.When his wife Esther finds out she has ovarian failure she balks at being a failure to have a child so she jumps at the idea of surrogacy. Enter Kate Evans, a 27 year old widow and mother of a 5 year old son. A late bloom and underachiever, Kate is finally ready to get her education back on track but lacks the funds. Besides giving a couple the gift of a child, Kate plans on starting nursing school so she decides to be a surrogate. Her family is against her giving up her child since she's the baby's biological mother. But Kate is set on giving the baby to Esther and Tony.I'm not a fan of the author's slam on lawyers. Many aren't as insensitive and cold as this hero and his wife. It was as if the author had an axe to grind about lawyers and felt the need to exorcise that on those two characters.Esther, Tony's lawyer wife is portrayed as a ruthless, workaholic woman who thought a baby would give her the perfect look as a career woman and not so much being an actual mother. Esther leaves Tony for a high powered job in DC and wants a divorce and nothing to do with the baby "boy" because the baby isn't hers. Tony and Kate naturally are at a loss at Esther's abandonment but grow closer preparing for the baby. That is until Esther comes back when she finds out the baby is a girl.Tony, the hero was very selfish in my opinion. Her honestly felt no desire to compromise in light of his wife leaving him and leaving the baby without a mother. He didn't want Kate ANYWHERE involved with the baby. Despite saying he was happy to be a father, it was obvious he didn't have his priorities in order any more than Esther did and that the only person looking out for the BEST interest of the baby was Kate.I cried a bit for the heroine. She's one of the stronger ones I've read in Harlequin contemporaries and I like her personality.Overall, this is a solid read but the author has some issues here that are obvious. In a way, this read like a HUGE slam against working, ambitious mothers. It's shown that career women are ruthless barracudas and don't deserve happiness or relationships unless they desire children. This sort of drivel is VERY offensive. Kate is a wonderful heroine but I don't think she's a better person just because she wants to be a mother and is one. Sure, Esther really IS a witch with a capital B but this author's portrayal of what a real woman is (being a mother) vs a women who wants to work rubbed me wrong and resulted in 3 stars.Both Esther's portrayal and the minor secondary character of Lori who is dumped by her fiancee just weeks before her wedding when he decides the he does want children, contrary to what they had decided as a couple. Lori still doesn't want them so he leaves her. Esther is a stone cold, witch with a capital B because she doesn't want to be a stay at home mommy.