Falling For Her Enemy

By Victoria James

Synopsis

She’s falling for the one man who could destroy everything…

Alex McAllister always dreamed of a life filled with the laughter and love of a family, but being abandoned at a young age left her wary of letting anyone in. Now that she’s settled in Still Harbor, Alex struggles between keeping her distance and the magnetic pull of the handsome stranger who claims he’s the biological father of her adopted daughter.

Hayden Brooks never wanted to be a father. Long hours spent building his family’s real estate empire suits him just fine. But when he discovers an ex put the baby he unknowingly fathered up for adoption, his world crumbles. He tracks the child to Still Harbor with the intention of bringing her home-and comes face to face with his daughter’s stunning adoptive mother.

The paternity test is in. And Hayden’s about to make the most shocking decision of his life, just in time for Christmas…

Review

Several years ago, Alex and her two “sisters” each adopted a daughter to make their family complete. All is going well for Alex until a man claiming that he could possibly be her daughter’s biological father turns up requesting a paternity test. Hayden recently found out that he possibly fathered a child who was adopted without his knowledge or consent. If Alex’s daughter, Cassy, is his child, he plans to use his paternal rights to take her back to Vancouver to live with him, regardless of how grateful he is that Alex gave his daughter a safe and happy home for the past six or so years. No matter the test results, someone will get hurt. If Hayden is the father, Alex will lose her daughter. And if he’s not the father, Hayden will lose the little girl who’s come to mean so much to him in such a short period of time.

I liked both Alex and Hayden in this story. Yes, even Hayden who plans to turn Alex’s life upside down by taking away her daughter. Hayden is a very nice man who is deeply upset to learn he may have fathered a child several years ago and didn’t know about it. The only thing I didn’t like about him was how he initially handled the situation like a business deal. Cassy is a little person, not a piece of property to be bargained for and won. I really felt for Alex, who simply wanted to be a mother and who now lives in fear that her daughter will be taken away from her, on top of everything else that’s going wrong in her life right now.

FALLING FOR HER ENEMY is part of the Still Harbor series but it can be read as a stand-alone. It’s told in dual POVs and as with FALLING FOR THE PI, the story doesn’t have a single sex scene. While I did enjoy the story very much, I did have a few little issues with it. Firstly, there’s no resolution on what happened with Cassy’s biological mother, which was very disappointing. Obviously things didn’t go as planned for her, but it would have been nice to have seen her reaction. Secondly, while Cassy was an adorable six year old, she spoke too much like an adult which made her character a little unrealistic. Thirdly, like Kate from book # 1, Alex was also a virgin and if the third and final “sister” turns out to be a virgin as well, I just might lose it. While I have no problem with virgins in a story, the series as a whole becomes a little farfetched when all three “sisters” aged in their 20s or 30s are still virgins. But despite those three things, I really enjoyed the story and couldn’t put it down. It was nice, sweet and heartbreaking all in one. I was very glad that despite the test results, everyone got their HEA. I’m looking forward to book # 3.