Right off the bat, I just want to start off this review by saying that I was very excited to review Cat Schield’s book, The Black Sheep’s Secret Child, because I’ve been a huge fan of the Billionaires and Babies Harlequin Desire miniseries for many years now. Being a huge fan of the Billionaires and Babies miniseries is also a big part of why I chose to review Andrea Laurence’s book, The CEO’s Unexpected Child, back in 2016. That being said, I think that The Black Sheep’s Secret Child is definitely a great addition to the Billionaires and Babies miniseries.
There’s definitely a lot to love about The Black Sheep’s Secret Child. For starters, I thought that Savannah and Trent were both really interesting and well written characters. As someone who’s a HUGE fan of soap operas, I absolutely love the fact that Schield had part of Savannah’s backstory involve her being a retired soap opera actress; and that there were times throughout the course of the book when Savannah was interacting with Trent where she would channel the personality of the character that she had played, whose name was Courtney Day. It was really interesting to see how doing that helped Savannah to feel more confident and emotionally stronger, especially when it came to her relationship with Trent.
Trent was also a great character, and he was written in such a way that I thought made him a very charming, sexy, and complex character. I think it’s rather ironic that despite the fact that Trent is the titular “black sheep” of the book, he’s honestly the most innocent character in The Black Sheep’s Secret Child, and he doesn’t really even do anything bad in the book. Honestly, the most rebellious thing that Trent does is the fact that it was established that he had decided to start his own company instead of working for his family’s company. Other than that, Trent came across as being a pretty decent guy throughout the course of the entire book; and I honestly don’t think that there’s anything wrong with Trent deciding to start his own company instead of working for the family business.
When it comes to my thoughts on Savannah’s decision to keep the fact that Trent is Dylan’s father from Trent, I was honestly really frustrated by the fact that she chose to not tell Trent that she was pregnant with his baby, simply because Rafe had told her that he had once overheard Trent talking to another woman named Lisa Wheeler about her planning to have an abortion when he (Trent) was in college. When Savannah finally told Trent why she had never told him that Dylan was his son, he told her that he had never actually even slept with Lisa. It turned out that Lisa had gotten pregnant after having been raped, and had been too traumatized by it to report it to the police. Trent helped her make plans to have an abortion, because she had helped him get a B in his poetry class. In my opinion, that whole thing just goes to show how important it is for people to not be so quick to make assumptions about someone without talking to them, and getting all of the facts first. It also shows just how important it is for people to have open and honest communication in a relationship. That being said, if Savannah, Trent, and Rafe had all just been open and honest with each other from the get-go, then there ultimately wouldn’t be a source of conflict, or even be a story, when it comes to The Black Sheep’s Secret Child. The basis of this book’s plot pretty much all hinges on Savannah, Trent, and Rafe keeping secrets from each other, and in Rafe’s case, apparently lying to Savannah and Trent, and manipulating the both of them.
I thought that it was really interesting that despite the fact that Rafe had died prior to the start of The Black Sheep’s Secret Child, he still had a major presence in the book, and he ultimately turned out to be the “villain” of the story; especially when it came to how a lot of his actions back when he was still alive were described in the book. The part of my personality that’s very sarcastic has always felt compelled to joke that birth control in the world of Harlequin romance novels is 0% effective; but in the case of this book, it’s established that shortly after Dylan was born, Savannah had discovered that not only had Rafe sabotaged the condoms that he had given her when he gave her a bunch of condoms and told her to “get Trent out of her system once and for all”, which ultimately led to Dylan’s conception, she also discovered that he was dying of cancer.
That being said, one thing that I definitely think Schield could have done a better job of is conveying to the reader what exactly Savannah saw in Rafe, and why she chose to marry him when she appears to have always had stronger feelings for Trent than she did for Rafe. Towards the beginning of the book, Savannah acknowledges in her internal narrative that she married Rafe for the wrong reasons, but even after having finished reading The Black Sheep’s Secret Child, I’m still not entirely sure what her reasoning for marrying Rafe actually was. Personally, I kind of felt like perhaps Savannah viewed marrying Rafe as a consolation prize, because she didn’t think that Trent wanted to be in a committed relationship, or want to have a family like she wanted to; and she believed that Rafe did. Ultimately, in the grand scheme of things, I personally think that Schield could have done a better job of conveying to the reader what exactly Savannah saw in Rafe, and why she chose to marry him; because Schield definitely didn’t portray Rafe in a very positive light that made it truly understandable why Savannah had wanted to marry him.
Considering the fact that Harlequin Desire romance novels are fairly short books, I have to admit that I was half-expecting the ending of The Black Sheep’s Secret Child to be rather rushed once Trent inevitably found out that Dylan is his son. I was also worried that we would only get to see the fallout of Trent finding out that he’s Dylan’s father from Savannah’s point of view. However, I ultimately thought that Schield did a great job of showing both Savannah’s and Trent’s side of the fallout from Trent finding out that Dylan is his son. Plus, I also thought that Schield executed the ending of The Black Sheep’s Secret Child in such a way that the ending thankfully didn’t feel too rushed, which I was thrilled to see.
All things considered, The Black Sheep’s Secret Child is definitely a great book, and reading it really reminded me why the “Billionaires and Babies” miniseries has definitely been my favorite Harlequin Desire miniseries for years now. Savannah and Trent are both great, well-written, complex, and interesting characters that I really loved; and I absolutely loved the romantic relationship between them. It was also great to see Rafe have a strong presence throughout the book, despite having died prior to the start of the book. I still think that Schield could have done a better job of establishing Savannah’s reasoning for marrying Rafe than she did, though; because I really feel like Schield could have done more with that than she did. Schield definitely exceeded my expectations when it came to how she handled Trent finding out that Dylan was his son, and I loved the ending of this book. Ultimately, god only knows how many Harlequin romance novels are out there, but The Black Sheep’s Secret Child is definitely one Harlequin romance novel that I highly recommend reading.
That being said, my final score for The Black Sheep’s Secret Child is 10 out of 10.
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