Member Reviews
Laurel and Danny had a one night stand one year ago. Laurel had been up with Danny every summer for the last three years. Laurel was a couple years younger than Danny. Then Laurel shows up on Danny’s doorstep with a little girl that is Danny’s daughter. Laurel wants Danny to give up all his parental rights. But Danny wants to be in his daughter’s -Carolyn- life now that he know he has a daughter. Laurel ends up in court with Danny and the judge orders shared custody arrangement. Laurel has a player on/off again boyfriend. She isn’t close to her father and her mother died when she was a preteen. Laurel is secretive and withdrawn. Laurel has difficulty in sharing her feelings or recognizing feelings in other people. Danny has been working a full time job for a long time and was now working on his Master's degree in Homeland Security.
I like this book a lot. I liked the plot. But I felt Laurel was selfish and immature. This was fast paced and kept my attention. But I would have liked more background. This was a quick enjoyable read. I liked the characters a lot and loved the ins and outs of this story and I recommend.
I don't know if it was because I didn't read the first book in this series or if it was it being YA. I just found this book to be boring and honestly too young for me. I had to give up 50 pages in
Danny was having really bad day when he finds out his father is in jail for DUI and same time he is finding out he fathered a child. Danny and Laurel had a summer fling last year and she left Danny without a goodbye.
Without any explanation Laurel present paper to Danny to give up his parental right to his little girl who he hasn't seen yet. Danny doesn't want to become like his father and he decides to be involve in raising a child with Laurel. However raising doesn't come easy for both.
Finally judge decides their fate far as raising a child. Both has to travel to accommodate each other's school and work schedule. Both were thrown in together to raise a child but Laurel can't decide what she wants. She goes back and forth from her current sort of boyfriend and Danny. Danny is trying his best to be a good father and he wants a family.
Mostly Laurel can't decide and she keeps going back and forth between Danny and Mike and Laurel's attitude toward both were different. That dragged the story a bit...
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review, which I willingly read and reviewed, via NetGalley.
I really enjoyed this book. There were times when I wished the pace would be a little faster, but then I realized that if it were faster I wouldn't have enjoyed the book as much.
Danny got the shock of his life when he finally saw Laurel again. He had always cared about her, but after they hooked up, a year earlier, he never saw her again. Now she is back and tells him that she left to go to school, found out she was pregnant and the baby is his. But. . . . she wants him to sign away all of his rights. He is floored. He doesn't know if he is ready to be a dad, but he also knows that he doesn't want to never have the option of seeing or interacting with his daughter again. He tells her no, that he wants to be a part of his daughter's life.
Laurel goes to school 7 hours away and expects him to do all of the driving if he wants to see his daughter. He wants to spend time with the baby before she goes back to school, but she leaves the next day, which upsets him. When he calls her, she gives him attitude and they end up in court, where he didn't want to end up.
The judge sees that there are feelings between the two and that Laurel's dad is a key factor in why they are both acting the way they are. The judge decides that Monday-Thursday Danny will drive to be with the baby (staying with Laurel at her house, in the guest room), and Friday-Sunday Laurel will drive to where Danny is and stay in her parents house while Danny spends time with the baby. The agreement starts immediately.
Things aren't perfect. Danny still wants a relationship with Laurel, but he remembers what happened between them differently than she does, so she has a wall up. While getting to know his daughter, Laurel and Danny start to grow closer and he is happy about it, until he gets to her place and finds out that she has a boyfriend. He is deflated but doesn't give up.
The relationship between Danny and his family is a complicated one, but they come together for him and help him with the baby. The slow buildup of the relationship between Laurel (who is young and afraid to move past old hurts) and Danny (who loves both the baby and Laurel but also has a lot going on in his family) is very sweet, yet hard to read at times. He wants Laurel but doesn't want to scare her away. Just when things start feeling like they are moving in the right direction, the rug gets pulled out from under him and he is defeated once again. How Danny moves forward with Laurel is wonderful and Laurel comes into her own by the end of the book as well. But the question still remains, can they both move on and be happy together or will the baby always be Yours & Mine?
This book is a good discussion starter about why it is important to wait to have children until you are more capable of raising that child. It is also a good way to start a discussion on communication (if they would have talked sooner, a lot of the issues they had wouldn't have happened). Finally, family influence and self esteem can also be discussed after reading this book.