ARC Review: The Billionaire's Christmas Baby by Marion Lennox

Title: The Billionaire’s Christmas Baby

Author: Marion Lennox

Release Date: December 1, 2017 (ARC)

Publisher: Harlequin ~ Romance

Category: Contemporary Romance

Type: Digital/Paperback/Hardcover

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Marion Lennox Website

Blurb:

The maid, the billionaire…and the baby

Hotel maid Sunny Raye only went to Max Grayland’s hotel suite to clean—and found herself calming a tiny abandoned baby! With just days until Christmas, the gorgeous but bewildered billionaire demands Sunny help him care for Phoebe over the holidays. She agrees—only if they spend Christmas with her family!

Max is totally out of his comfort zone, but warmhearted Sunny is a revelation. And Max finds he wants more than a nanny for Phoebe—he wants Sunny to lighten his life forever.

By reading any further, you are stating that you are at least 18 years of age.

If you are under the age of 18, please exit this site.

Favorite Line(s):

‘That’s a very nice shirt,’ she told him. ‘To say nothing of the fact that you’re still wearing your suit pants. They wouldn’t go well with brandy sauce. Pinnies are behind the pantry door. The pink one’s mine but there’s one behind it the boys use for barbecuing. It says “The Man, The Myth, The Legend”. See if you can prove it right.’  ~  Sunny

Excerpt:

Somehow he’d sacked his babysitter for no reason.

How could he have thought she’d been unsafe? Sunny had her as safe as she could make her. She’d checked her before she’d gone to sleep. She’d noticed the too-soft mattress.

He hadn’t.

Tentatively he lifted the wailing bundle into his arms. Even the movement seemed to soothe her, and her sobs eased. Did she sense then how close she was to being abandoned?

The bathroom door opened again. Sunny stood there, still rumpled by sleep, but back in her stained uniform, her sensible shoes, her workday gear.

‘Where will you go?’ he asked, because he couldn’t think of anything else to say.

‘Home.’

‘Where’s home?’

‘Out west. Because there’s no public transport at four a.m. it’s an hour’s bike ride but that’s none of your business. I have no idea why I’m telling you.’

‘Stay.’

‘In your dreams.’

‘Sunny, I’m sorry,’ he said and he was. Deeply sorry. He looked at her tilted chin, her weary pride, her humiliation, and he felt a shame so deep it threatened to overwhelm him. That she was tired and overworked he had no doubt. Hotel cleaners were a race apart from the likes of him. They were shadows in the background of his world.

This one was suddenly front and centre.

And then he had a thought. A bad one.

‘You know about babies.’ The words were suddenly hard to form. ‘Are you…? Do you…?’

She got it before he could find the words. ‘You mean do I have my own baby strapped to my bike, waiting for me to finish my shift? Or left in a kitchen drawer with a bottle of formula laced with gin?’ She gave a snort of mirthless laughter. ‘Hardly. But I’ve raised four, or maybe I should say I’ve been there for them while they raised themselves. They’re grown up now, almost independent, apart from Tom’s teeth. But that’s my problem and you have your own. Goodnight and good luck.’ She headed for the door.

But he was before her, striding forward with a speed born of desperation. Putting his body between her and the door. But her words were still hanging in the air even as he prevented her leaving.

Four? He thought of how old she was, and how young she must have started, and he thought of a world that was as removed from his as another planet.

And she got that too. She gave a sardonic grin. ‘Yep, I started mothering when I was five, with four babies by the time I was nine. Life got busy for a while, and I admit I even co-slept. Not just with one baby—sometimes all five of us were in the same bed. But, hey, they’re all healthy and your Phoebe’s still alive so maybe I’m not such a failure. Now, if you’d let me leave…’

He didn’t understand but now wasn’t the time to ask questions. ‘Please,’ he said, doing his best to sound humble. ‘Stay.’

‘You can cope.’

‘I probably can,’ he admitted. ‘If you refuse then I’ll pay for a taxi to take you home and to bring you back tomorrow.’ He hesitated. ‘But, to be honest, it’s Phoebe who needs you. She shouldn’t be left with someone so inept.’

She hesitated, obviously torn between sense and pride. It was four in the morning. Even in a taxi it’d take time for her to get home, he thought. She was weary and she had to be back here again in a few hours. Logic should win, but he could also sense something else, an anger that didn’t stem from what had just happened.

He was replaying things she’d said. ‘How much danger would she have to be in before you showed you care?’ She thought he didn’t care and she was right. He had nothing invested in this baby. Tomorrow he’d see lawyers, come to some arrangement, pay whatever it took to reunite her with her mother.

Except…she looked like him. And this woman was looking at him with judgement.

‘I’ll do it on one condition,’ she said.

‘I’ve already said more chocolates. And I’ll double your pay.’

‘Gran’s got the appetite of a bird. One box is fine, and I’m not taking any more of your money.’

‘Then what?’

‘I’ll stay on condition you change her and feed her now,’ she told him. ‘I’ll watch but you do it.’

‘I need to write the eulogy for my father’s funeral.’ He said it harshly but he couldn’t hide the note of panic. ‘That’s why I’m awake.’

‘Oh, that’s hard,’ she said, her voice softening. ‘I’m sorry about your dad.’ But then her chin tilted again. ‘But your dad’s dead and this little one’s not, and it seems to me that someone’s got to go into bat for her. So you change her and feed her and then you can do what you like. I’ll go back to caring. My way. But it’s that or nothing, Mr. Grayland.’

She met his gaze full-on, anger still brimming. She was flushed, indignant, defiant, and suddenly he thought…She’s beautiful.

Which was an entirely inappropriate thing to think and, as if she agreed with him, baby Phoebe opened her mouth and wailed again.

‘Fine,’ he said helplessly. ‘Show me how.’

‘It’d be my pleasure,’ she said and grinned and went to fetch a diaper.

Dialogue Highlight:

‘Sunny, hear me out.’ His gaze met hers and held. He was willing reassurance into his gaze, confidence, trustworthiness—everything he most needed her to see. ‘Sunny, firstly I have not jeopardised your job in any way. That’s a promise. However, I have a proposition, and all I’ve done is make it possible for you to accept if you wish. Sunny, I’m intending to take Phoebe back to the States as soon as possible. There are bureaucratic issues but if Isabelle’s still insistent that she doesn’t want her then I can pull a legal team together and make things happen fast. So, for the next week or so, I’d ask that I base myself here. Ruby and John have already said we’re welcome. Then…’he hesitated, because this was the biggie ‘…then I’d ask that you travel back to New York with me. I’d ask that you stay for a month. Help me settle her into a routine. And help me employ a nanny.’

‘Hey, that’s all work,’ Tom said, as Sunny stared at him as if he’d lost his mind. ‘Full-time childcare doesn’t sound like fun. We thought…’

‘That the deal was better than that?’ Max nodded. ‘I hope it is.’ Still Max was watching Sunny. ‘I have a large apartment overlooking Central Park. I also have a housekeeper. Eliza will cook and clean and I’m sure she’ll also take care of Phoebe for a few hours each day. Sunny, you’ll have time off to explore New York. You’ll also have an open-ended credit card, to see shows, museums, to shop…’

‘You’re giving her an open-ended credit card to shop?’ Chloe squeaked, full of little-sister glee. ‘Sunny, you could…’

‘Shop for Sunny,’ Max said firmly, grinning as he saw where Chloe’s mind was headed. ‘Any size fifteen basketball boots or clubbing heels meant for…oh, maybe a fashion student won’t get past my eagle-eyed inspection.’ And then he looked at Sunny and he glanced again at Phoebe’s Mr. Sock. ‘But it won’t be very eagle-eyed. Sunny, I want you to have fun and I know gifts would give you pleasure.’

But Sunny was still looking thunderstruck. ‘Max, I can’t. You know I can’t. This is…’

‘A cruel offer if I didn’t mean it,’ he agreed. ‘But I do mean it. My housekeeper’s part-time. She can take care of Phoebe a little but not for full days. I need to get back to work and Phoebe needs a constant until I can find her a nanny. I have no idea what to look for in a good nanny but I suspect you do. And, before you hit me with all the other reasons you can’t come, your grandparents and brothers and sisters and I have been talking.’

‘What, all of you?’

‘Serially, not in a bunch,’ Tom said gleefully. ‘Wait till you hear, Sun.’

‘It’s awesome,’ Chloe added but he shook his head to silence both of them. Once again he wished he could take her somewhere private. The look on her face was worrying him. She looked…terrified.

‘It’s okay,’ he said gently. ‘No one’s bullying you. But your grandparents tell me January is holiday month in Australia. The universities are closed, which means Chloe and Tom are staying here. That means they can help your grandparents at night. But they also have holiday jobs. Tom’s pulling beer at the local pub and Chloe’s working retail at the Christmas sales. They tell me they need the jobs for the family to survive, but I’ve offered them alternatives. The plan is for them to quit and stay here.’

‘And help Gran take care of Pa, and work in the garden and even paint the letter box,’ Chloe announced. ‘Though why the letter box seems important…’She grinned, shrugged and continued. ‘No matter. We’ll be doing everything you usually do, Sunny, only more because it’ll be our full-time job, and the truly amazing thing is that Max will pay. He’s offered what we were getting as a holiday job plus fifty per cent. Fifty per cent! Oh, plus the work on Tom’s teeth. He must really want you, Sunny. He must think you’re as awesome as we do.’

‘But I’m not awesome,’ Sunny said in a small voice. ‘I’m…’She faltered and shook her head. ‘New York…’She said it as if it was outer space.

‘Will you come?’

‘You’d spend all that money on me?’ She glanced at Tom then, at the gap where he’d fallen skateboarding and broken a tooth. ‘On us?’

‘I’m rich in my own right,’ he said gently. ‘But my father was obscenely rich and I’ll use his money if it’ll make you feel better. This is about Phoebe. His daughter deserves the best care money can buy.’

‘I’m not even trained.’

‘I can’t believe you can say that. Your family seems to think you almost single-handedly raised them. You coped on your own for years, and if that’s not training in childcare I don’t know what is.’

‘You can get the best…’

‘I know the best when I see it. You’re the best.’

She stared at him and then stared wildly at Ruby. ‘Gran…’

And Gran grinned. ‘My mother used to tell me never to look a gift horse in the mouth and if Max isn’t a gift horse I don’t know what is. Just say yes.’

‘A gift horse…’She practically choked.

‘Exactly.’ Ruby beamed. ‘And Max promised that your ticket’s open-ended so you can come home any time you need.’ She was suddenly stern. ‘So if this apartment isn’t big enough to be separate and if you feel you’re being pushed…to do anything you’re not happy with…’

‘She means if he pushes you to be his mistress,’ Tom said, leering evilly, and Daisy kicked him.

‘She mightn’t mind being his mistress,’ Chloe added and moved out of the range of Daisy’s feet fast.

But Sunny wasn’t noticing. To say she looked stunned would be an understatement.

‘So agree,’ Ruby said, beaming. ‘And then we can all take a nice nap and then get on with filling the pavlovas for tea.’

‘I can’t…’

‘You can’t take it all in,’ Max said swiftly. The last thing he wanted was a panicked no. ‘Think about it and we’ll talk later. Then you can tell me your qualms and I can tell you the ways I’ve solved them.’

‘What a hero,’ Daisy said and grinned and the whole family was grinning—apart from Sunny.

‘I’m not a hero,’ Max said. ‘I’m an ordinary guy who needs help.’

‘An ordinary billionaire with a baby,’ Chloe added. ‘Go for it, our Sunny. You might just have a ball.’

Review:

Sunny Raye is the opposite of privileged. Forced to care for her 4 younger siblings beginning at the age of 5, she has always worked her butt off to make sure her siblings have succeeded in life; even at her own expense. She is a crazy hard worker and even with as hard as she works, she is always trying to catch up with expenses. Despite her rough introduction to life, she has this delightful gift of seeing the positive in everything. When she is suddenly recruited as a nanny, she knows exactly what to do, but the sexy billionaire with the baby is another kettle of fish altogether. She isn’t a part of his world and he isn’t giving her much of a choice. When he lays out an offer she can’t refuse, sparks fly and passion flares. But can a girl who literally came from nothing ever really belong in a posh life with a devastatingly sexy, obscenely rich man?

Max Grayland has his life turned upside down within a matter of minutes. He didn’t ask for a baby and doesn’t want one, but he’s stuck with his newly revealed baby sister until the end of the holidays. He has to figure something out quick and there is no way he is letting the cleaning maid escape despite her desperate attempts to do so. Funny thing – she seems to know exactly what she is doing – the opposite of himself – so he eventually figures out a way to keep her around. It doesn’t hurt that he is insanely attracted to her and begins to see a future with her in it. Max and Sunny and his baby sister. The plan sounds perfect to him and with Sunny permanently fixed in his life, he can go back to his old ways and have a ready-made family waiting for him whenever he returns. Except his domineering ways and ideals of what life should be are not what Sunny imagines for her future. If anyone can show him how much he’s been missing out on and what his life could be like, it’s Sunny. But will Max accept it, or stubbornly hold on to his bachelor/business-first mentality?

This book was such a refreshing shift from the typical billionaire baby story. Rather than dealing with an unknown child, the baby is Max’s sister and he ends up attracted to the cleaning maid in his hotel of all people. I think most people at one time or another fantasize about accidentally bumping into the love of their life who also happens to be filthy rich. Am I right? Well this book completely satisfied in that respect. I also very much enjoyed that Sunny isn’t your average run-of-the-mill simpering miss who eventually finds her strength when required. Nope! Sunny is a strong woman and always has been. She isn’t afraid to challenge Max and force him outside of his comfort zone even at the risk of losing her job. Some are shocked at her audacity, but for Max, he teeters between fear and lust each time this scrap of a woman dares what no other ever has. Their HEA isn’t automatic and takes a bit of time. Max is used to getting his own way and making tough decisions; decisions that are for the betterment of his company. So when he begins to make choices for his future AND Sunny’s, she balks even though she wars with a part of herself that tells her to agree. But anything less than love would be selling herself short and she’s come too far to settle.

At this point, I believe this book is a standalone, although Sunny has several siblings that could easily be written about. Therefore, I wonder if there may be plans in the future for these characters to have their own stories, but at this time it doesn’t appear so. Either way, Max and Sunny were a pleasure to get to know and Max’s transformation was nothing short of miraculous. He begins as an eligible bachelor and turns in to the PERFECT eligible bachelor. I loved reading a story that had its own deviation from the typical and still brought about a beautiful HEA. There is a Christmas-theme to this one, so it would be a perfect time to read it given the current season. However, I’m sure it would be a terrific read no matter the time of year. I haven’t read any work by Ms. Lennox before, but I can tell you if all of her stories are as wonderful as this, I will be reading her books again in the future. If you enjoy an alpha male who meets his match in the spunky female he encounters looped with a bit of Christmas magic, you’ll definitely enjoy this whimsical HEA.  

Kindle version provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.