Olivia Gates

He'd come for the baby...and his ex-wife. Naomi Sinclair had once fallen hard for Andreas Sarantos. Marrying the irresistible Greek venture capitalist had seared her soul with pleasure--and despair. For she soon discovered he was incapable of love. Now her ex-husband is back...to claim her orphaned ten-month-old niece. Andreas let Naomi get away once. But adopting his best friend's baby girl gives him the leverage he needs to bring his unwilling ex-wife back to his bed. Will having the only woman he's ever wanted erase the scars of his dark past? Or will he lose Naomi, this time forever?

The Sarantos Baby Bargain

Samantha Emery

Complimentary copy received via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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I have to admit to being of two minds about this book.

There were certain things I really liked, and certain parts I did not like.

The first 30% or so, I was thinking of just skipping to the end and seeing what happened.

I really struggled with the character of Naomi! She was full of vitriol and bile toward Andreas, and basically spent a couple of hours being vile to him! Everything we get at this point, about what happened in the past is from her POV, and given her drama llama antics, I do not give her much sympathy, especially when she admits she pursued him, he warned her off, and she was insisting on wanting a "relationship" with him!

And she thumps him repeatedly in the chest and slaps him twice! Why is this ok? If it was the other way around, there would be cries of horror!

Also, I struggled with how the whole surrogacy things came across! Almost as if, it was her child, she gave birth to it, she carried the baby, hence it was hers, all hers in every way the baby could be, and it was just a stroke of luck that her sister and brother in law dies, so the baby could go back to its rightful owner! Left a bad taste in my mouth in all honesty.

But, we got through all of the hatred and bile from Naomi and eventually got to an Andreas POV, which almost came too late! One of my favourite scenes in a book ever, is the "hug" scene between him and his brother!

I actually felt by this point, I was completely on the side of Andreas, and not at all sure why he wanted a woman who was pushy when they first met, forced a relationship on him, then walked away in a strop, blaming him, for not being able to give her something he had said he would not be able to give her. 

I finished reading it just for the scenes with Andreas and his family, and Andreas and Dora!

Naomi unfortunately remained a bit of a over reacting drama queen to the end and the "twist" at the end? Now, I do not expect completely realistic from this sort of thing, but quite frankly, that was completely unethical by any sort of medical doctor, to have lied like that and think it was ok! 

So, I am giving it 2.5 rounded up to 3 stars, as I loved Andreas and the scenes with him and his family/Dora, but struggled with Naomi and how the surrogacy storyline played out.

The Sarantos Baby Bargain

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