Feature book: The Baby His Secretary Carries

The Baby His Secretary Carries by Dani Collins

Subgenre: contemporary romance
Release date: 1 Feb 2024
Publisher: Mills & Boon Modern
Format: ebook and print
Length: 201 pages
RRP: $5.99 (ebook); $8.99 (print)

Tycoon Georgio (Gio) Casella runs a thriving business empire but when he hears that his grandfather, Otto Casella, has fallen ill, he immediately rushes to be by his side. His reluctant Personal Assistant, Molly Brooks, accompanies Gio and is soon pulled into a fake engagement. Gio’s grandfather isn’t prepared to fight for his health unless Gio marries and has a son.

Gio isn’t the only person hiding things. Having been offered her dream job by Gio, Molly is forced to explain that she can’t accept without revealing she’s three months pregnant. Gio soon works this out, however, Molly manages to hide that she’s carrying a surrogate baby for her closest childhood friend, Sasha and her husband Rafael Zamos. As they attempt to maintain this charade, both Molly and Gio feel a growing attraction as they learn more about each other.

Molly and Sasha were close friends even before Sasha encounters with Molly’s mum at a voluntary health clinic. Pregnant and with no support from her parents, sixteen-year-old Sasha, decided to have her baby and adopt her out. With nowhere to stay, she goes to live with Molly and her mum until she recovers from the birth. Her daughter, Libby, becomes Molly’s sister. Unfortunately, now that she’s married, she is unable to conceive. Gio then discovers his parents visiting his grandfather, and they are enraged at his engagement, and Molly being given Gio’s grandmother’s ring by Otto. Gio reveals to Molly his parents were forced to marry because his mother became pregnant with him. His childhood was full of neglect and ever-changing staff members as his parents indulged in alcohol and drugs.

Despite his background, Gio asks Molly to marry him because he thinks they could have a marriage that lasts. Overhearing a phone call, he learns Molly’s secret, but their story isn’t going to become any easier. With Gio’s parents forcing them to announce their engagement to the world, and Sasha and her husband involved in a car accident, and Molly is unable to discover how she is.

This is a complicated story with a plot full of secrets. Even secondary characters have secrets. The twists and turns keep coming throughout the story and cause numerous misunderstandings. As the book comes to a conclusion, the characters are well rounded, and plots are tied up well. An added bonus is that this story is just the first in Dani Collins Bound by A Surrogate Baby duo of stories. You can read Sasha and Rafeal Zamos’s story in The Secret of Their Billion-Dollar Baby, published on 20 March.

I highly recommend picking up this book with a drink and snack beside you. Once you begin reading you won’t want to put it down until you finish.

reviewed by Tracey

A review copy of this book was provided by the author.