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.
