As a reader, I tend to cringe when I see titles such as The Billionaire’s Baby. I like series romances, but in recent years I’ve been reading them in spite of their titles, not because of them. Still, that being said, once I got past the ridiculous title, I found a mostly entertaining and heartwarming story. The heroine seemed a little too easy on the hero for my tastes, though, and this led to a major conflict not being truly addressed – a big enough problem to bring the book down to the level of a slightly above average read.

As a teenager, Cam Henderson eloped with Blane Andrews, a construction worker with no money but plenty of dreams. She loved him dearly – until he abandoned her. After Blane left, Cam realized her own dream of leaving rural Australia and setting up a cafe in Melbourne. Now, six years after losing Blane, Cam has a successful cafe and begun to build a life for herself. She needs renovations done and has been interviewing contractors. So, who should walk into the cafe but Blane himself?

Needless to say, this is a shock for Cam. However, she agrees to talk to Blane. As one might expect, this quickly turns into a tale of a second chance at love. Parts of it are enjoyable, and I did appreciate that the author spaced the action out over the course of a year rather than having the leads get back together in a weeklong, whirlwind courtship. Still, aside from the vague, “I was doing what was best for you,” excuse offered by Blane, these two spend precious little time actually dealing with the past. Abandoning your spouse is a huge deal – unless of course you can forget all about that little mishap once you see how totally hot he is six years later.

Cam initially has a strong reaction to Blane’s reentry into her life, but things settle down in oddly quick fashion. In addition to treating Blane’s abandonment more like a chronic failure to take out the garbage rather than the major betrayal it was, Cam and Blane also spend vast amounts of time communicating very badly with one another. Cam has a secret that could majorly affect the relationship, but even after the two start to reconcile, she takes her time to tell him. To compound the problem, once the issue is out there on the table, Cam goes drifting off into Big Mis Land and hangs on to her own ideas about what Blane must be thinking rather than listening to him as he tells her what he really does think. Truly, it’s headache inducing.

Even with these problems, though, this book has its good points. The author throws in bits of Australian slang, and does a good job of making Cam seem rather like a modern twentysomething (albeit one with issues) rather than a woman from my mom’s generation mysteriously dropped into the 21st century. These touches go far to make the book connect with the reader. In addition, while Blane and Cam do communicate badly much of the time, there are moments where they are so in sync that a reader would have no problem understanding what drew them to one another.

As you can see, The Billionaire’s Baby is something of a mixed bag. It has its good moments, including a cheesy but delightful ending. However, the too-quick forgiveness of the heroine and the drawn-out miscommunication between the couple made this only a slightly better than average read.