The Marine’s Baby Blues by Victoria Pade

Posted May 4, 2021 by Marsha in Contemporary Romance, Harlequin, Harlequin Special Edition, Owned or Purchased, Series, Sexual Content, Small Town Romance / 0 Comments

This marine is meeting his toughest mission yet…

Tanner Camden knew hooking up with his ex was a bad idea. But he never thought he’d end up getting a call that he might be a father—or that his ex had died, leaving little Poppy in the care of her sister, Addie Markham.

Addie may have always resented him—and his potential ability to take away the only family she has left doesn’t help—but with their shared goal of caring for Poppy, they’re willing to set aside their differences.

Even if allowing their new feelings to bloom means both of them could get hurt when the paternity test results come back…

Titles in The Camdens of Montana series include –  The Marine Makes Amends –  The Marine’s Baby Blues – The Major Gets It Right –

This is an adult 18+ story that contains language, possible violence, and sexual situations geared to an adult audience.

Title:  The Marine’s Baby Blues
Series:  The Camdens of Montana #2
Author:  Victoria Pade
Genre:  Contemporary Romance
Publication Date:  April 27, 2021
Rating:  4.5 stars

The Marine’s Baby Blues continues The Camdens of Montana series with a story full of assumptions, one-sided views, and at the heart, the future of one precious baby girl who didn’t ask for this drama that her aunt and father are going through right now.  It’s also a story of self-discovery, of seeing how actions and attitudes have been formed often as self-preservation.  It’s emotional, touching, and hits on some hard truths along the way.

In the past year, Addie’s life has been turned upside down.  She had the day-to-day caring of her parents who were going through medical issues before their deaths, her sister suddenly died leaving Addie with the new mom role for her little, newborn niece, Poppy, she’d been dumped at the altar when her groom found his soulmate in another woman.  And now, Tanner was back in town.  The man her sister had been obsessed with during her teen years, the man who Addie has a very low opinion of, and the man who is probably Poppy’s father.  He needs to know if Poppy is his child, and that declaration has almost destroyed Addie.

But she’s not powerless, she won’t let herself be as Addie begins to fight to keep Poppy in her life… perhaps using unfair tactics but she’d do what she had to do to raise Poppy without Tanner’s involvement.  After all, he’s a career Marine with no clue how to take care of a baby at all.  Addie isn’t above using any advantage she can find in this fight – and if she lays it on a bit thick in the teaching and showing the downside of parenthood well, all’s fair in battle.

I have to admit that it took a little bit of time for me to really like Addie.  Oh, she’s a wonderful person who has had so much handed to her in rapid succession.  It wasn’t her personality but the way she held onto memories of the past, admittedly from a pre-teen’s viewpoint with blinders firmly in place – and the way she set up Tanner to fail in something so important and so out of his wheelhouse.  I got why, I simply didn’t feel as much sympathy for her at first as was perhaps intended.

I really liked the way that slowly Addie (and we) get to see Tanner’s heart, why he left town and stayed away so much, the teen drama with Della from his perspective, and the slow lightbulb moments when Tanner begins to find his feet in caring for Poppy… and when facing a very real attraction to Addie.  I absolutely loved the ways that Tanner showed Addie that he knew exactly what she was doing in slightly sabotaging his efforts to learn how to care for his daughter.  He wasn’t nasty, but he certainly was firm in making his point.

The Marine’s Baby Blues is, in many ways, a slow burn of discovery and attraction between Addie and Tanner.  Watching them come to terms with their current situation, and go beyond it to find their own happiness was a roller coaster ride that I wouldn’t have missed for anything.  If you love a good romance with believable people and situations or you simply love to watch two unlikely people find their way to each other then the second title in The Camdens of Montana series would be perfect for you.  I loved this one and can’t wait for the next release in this series.

I own a Kindle edition of The Marine’s Baby Blues.

Available in paperback or for your favorite e-reader, mine is the Kindle.

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