Originally Published: 05-03-2018
Book Summary
Baby Love is the 1st book in the Kendrick Coulter Harrigan Series by Catherine Anderson.
This is a great story to start a new series. This series begins with the Kendrick family. This book is classified as a Kendrick family novel.
Rafe Kendrick has been riding the rails ever since he lost his wife and children in a tragic accident. And since he lost the will to live.
But when he meets young Maggie Stanley with her baby in tow, he knows that he can’t stand by and do nothing.
He knows that he must help her.
Maggie is on the run. With her baby.
She needs to get away, find a job, and then come back for her sister Heidi.
At first, she is very reluctant to accept Rafe’s help. She has been hurt so badly before. But she also has no idea how she is going to survive on her own.
Not when she can barely walk due to beatings that she took from her step-father. After she collasps and is taken to a local hospital, he knows that he needs to call home.
In order to protect her, Rafe offers her marriage. If they are married, her step-father can’t take her baby nor can he get her to come home.
Reluctantly Maggie agrees to the plan. And Rafe and Maggie head to his ranch, the Rocking K, in Oregon. There she can take the time to heal and get her strength back.
So the majority of the story is Rafe and Maggie getting to know each other. And there are a lot of hurdles to get over. Because of the beatings that she endured, she is not very trusting. And the idea of sex is not appealing to her at all.
She is battered, bruised and down trodden. But with the help of Rafe, his brother Ryan, and the household at the ranch, Maggie slowly comes out of her shell. Ryan gets his story in book 2.
Of course, there’s pitfalls along the way. The private relationship between Maggie and Rafe plays a huge part of the storyline. And they both make blunders along the way. Rafe has his own issues to work through.
But in the end, they finally make it. Their love is like a baby, fresh and new and beautiful! I think this is where the title comes from.
Yes, there are sexy scenes to watch for. Some detailed, some not. Catherine Anderson does a beautiful job of the scenes but also with the fact that Maggie comes to the marriage with abuse issues and they play a part in the sexy scenes.
And it wouldn’t be a good romance unless Maggie’s past didn’t come back to haunt her. Her step-father concocts a plan to get Maggie back into his hands. When Rafe and Ryan rush to her mother’s aid, that leaves Maggie vulnerable to Lonnie coming to the ranch.
In the end, Maggie takes her life back by standing up to Lonnie and doing what she has to do to protect her baby. It’s a moving and touching scene.
As with any romance author, they are changing their covers to something more modern and appealing.
Here’s the original book cover I have of Baby Love!!
Go back to the book series to see the other books in this series!
