The Marine's Baby-Rogenna Brewer

The Marine's Baby
Rogenna Brewer
Harlequin SuperRomance, Mar 2008, $6.25
ISBN: 9780373782239

Caitlin Calhoun mourns the death of her Navy SEAL husband Luke Calhoun, Jr. who died in the line of duty. 89 days 9 hours and 9 minutes since the two uniforms knocked on her door with the news she dreaded, Caitlin receives a letter from CryoBank of San Diego asking what to do with his semen specimen. She decides she wants his offspring so she goes to the cryo facility to get impregnated.

However, Caitlin is unaware that her late spouse had an older half-brother with the same name; neither did the sperm bank. She learns later that she has been impregnated by the sperm of Luke Calhoun; just not her Luke Calhoun. Feeling she owes her half-brother-in-law the truth, Caitlin meets and explains to Luke "Lucky" Calhoun about the mix-up. The marine knows what he wants, which are Caitlin and their baby, but she is wary having lost one military officer she loved to the war on terrorism.

Caitlin makes this contemporary romance works as she goes from grief to euphoria to shock to love to guilt in a believable manner. Luke the marine is a caring person who understands much of what his beloved is dealing with as he learns from her that his half-brother was also a good person. Readers will appreciate this strong military romance as Rogenna Brewer brews up a deep lead couple struggling with forming a relationship as the ghost of her late spouse, his brother, lingers in their minds.

Harriet Klausner