Baby Be Mine, the third book in the “Love in the City” series is a standalone novel by Victoria H. Smith that delves into the relationship of Asa and Noni.  Four years ago they had a passionate one night stand that had them falling in love with each other, then not speaking again due to varying different circumstances. 

I really enjoying the beginning of this book where Asa finally went after Noni and realized he was a just a bit too late.  This happens in the prologue, giving us the reader a bit of a backstory of what happened and why the two characters never really got together. 

When the characters eventually do find each other again, it is not in the best of circumstances.  Noni is trying to pay off her business loan and walks right into Asa’s office; where Asa is in the middle of…… someone’s thighs.  Asa is a billionaire who essentially owns a banking company, and I do understand the author can have her characters do whatever they want.  But I will be honest, since we do get to split our POV between Asa and Noni, seeing how he actually felt about this woman he was having sex with was honestly kind of gross.  He did not look at her as a person, but instead as someone with a nice ass that wanted to have sex with.

Later we find out that Noni has a four-year-old son named Jalen, and the father is Asa.  While we as the reader know this, Asa does not.  Noni holds off on telling him, and honestly, I can see why.  For four years she has raised this child alone, did not have a way to contact Asa, did not know his last name, and when she does finally run into him again, he really is not the most responsible of people.  The way the author wrote this scenario for me was a bit problematic.  I understand that when Asa finds out that Jalen is his son he is understandably upset.  But upset enough that he tells Noni he hates her and will never forgive her?  She did not keep it from him maliciously.  Why would she open a can of worms when she was not entirely sure that Asa wanted the kid?  And then to make it worse, after Asa finds out Noni then feels incredibly guilty for not telling him, and the guilt is mainly because how can she possibly understand his pain at being lied too?  Are you kidding me?  She birthed this child on her own, raised this child to four years old on her own, and then she doesn’t know his pain?  Really?  That is where we are going to go with this?

If the above is not enough drama for you in a romance novel, I can tell you with absolute certainty there is more drama in this book.  That drama comes in the names of Christine and Jayla.  Christine is Asa’s psychotic ex (when you read the book you will understand why I used the word psychotic) that is doing her best to win Asa back.  Jayla is Noni’s sister, who had an affair with Noni’s ex-boyfriend Anthony.  Noni shunned Jayla and cut off all ties with her because she could not handle the betrayal. 

At one point, I did just stop reading for a hot minute, trying to figure out why the author put so many different events and ideas in this book.  We have a baby, a restaurant, a loan, a best friend getting back with the father of her child, a crazy ex, a sick sister, and I feel like there is more that I am missing.  It really did get overwhelming. 

Overall – this was a decent romance novel, BUT there were a lot of ideas in this book.  While the ending was ok, and incredibly happy, it was a bit rushed and confusing.  There was so much added that I kind of wished the author had edited out some things, and expanded on other.  However if you are looking for a romance novel with a happy ending and decent sex scenes, you could do a lot worse.

Plot – 5/10

Characters – 7/10

Originality –  7/10

General Joy of Reading – 6/10

Overall Score – 25/40

Baby Be Mine: New York City (Love in the City Book 3) – Victoria H. Smith

Cost* – $6.99 for Kindle.  This book is included with Kindle Unlimited

*Cost is based upon what the book cost when book review is published