Former class nerd, Lucy Carr, comes home with a tantalizing offer for hometown hottie Aiden Harper: she’s developed a natural pesticide that will kill off the spider mites eating his crops, and she’ll give it to him for free…if he agrees to father a child for her. Time is running out to go the traditional route for finding a man, and Lucy wants her baby to be smart AND good in gym class. Aiden …
Aiden has put everything he has into his fields of hops, and the award-winning beer he brews with them. But one more year of mites eating half his crops and his family’s farm and legacy—as well as his dreams for his brewery—are going to go under. When Lucy shows up looking hot, and being hailed for her scientific achievements, Aiden is more than a little jealous. He remembers how fun science class was the year they’d been lab partners and how much more enticing Lucy had been than the cheerleaders on the football field. He’d never had the guts to admit his crush in high school—after all, jocks and nerds didn’t mix. Now Lucy has everything, and he’s on the verge of losing it all.
But what starts as a trade of necessity to achieve their goals turns into a tangled jumble of emotions when they realize they might have found more than bugs and babies: they may have found the person who completes their lives.
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This was a first from this author. But I really liked the storyline and characters. It was a fun, sweet book. I enjoyed reading it.
Careful What Ya Wish 4; Ya Just May Get It! They Made “The Rancher’s Baby Bargain” With No Way Out!
He’s a Rancher with a Small Problem,
To say it’s a ‘Mite’ annoying is a Mitey UnderStatement…
As, HIS Crops, HIS Future, HIS Brewery, & HIS PASSION are Plagued by some Tiny Li’l Mites that’re takin’ a serious BITE outta HIS Future!
That’s where SHE comes IN…
Yeah, she’s got the Solution… In the Literal SENSE!
But, she Can & WILL only Give IT to HIM for an Exchange of FLUIDS… If you Will!
You see, she wants a Baby, & He’s to provide the Batter…
Although, He’s beginning to think she’s Madder than a Hatter!
It’s a crazy Plan… Sacrifice HIS CHILD for the sake of HIS HOME, HIS Business, HIS Pride…
But HE’s cornered, & RIGHT on the Brink, as within a few Days those Crops will be a total lost cause!
Thus, begins “The Rancher’s Baby Bargain!”
I was granted an ARC of Mary Sue Jackson’s (aka Leslie North) “The Rancher’s Baby Bargain” via Booksprout; I recommend this book to others based upon its own merits. All opinions expressed within this review are uniquely my own & freely given!
Until next time… Happy Reading!
This was my first Mary Sue Jackson’s book. Aiden and Lucy’s story is sweet, sexy, fun, and cute. Aiden is handsome and caring. Lucy is lovely, sweet, and determined. Robert Wrenlock is a new narrator to me. He did a good job with the narration. The characters were easy to distinguish. His voice fits perfectly this Cowboy Romance. If you are looking for a sweet listen, this one is for you. I was given a free review copy of the audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
The Rancher’s Baby Bargain
By: Mary Sue Jackson, Leslie North
Narrated by: Robert Wrenlock
Aiden is trying to keep his ranch afloat and his crops thriving. When mites take over the fields, his dreams of a brewery are going under. In walks his old classmate, Lucy. She is the beautiful nerdy girl he remembers from high school, but what she has to offer could save everything! A pesticide to save the crops is his for the taking as long as he father’s a baby for her. What a price to pay! There are some books that are just pure enjoyment, and this is one of them for me. It’s got a lot happening, but it is not full of angst and it’s just all out fun. Lucy is a pistol. She is strong willed, yet vulnerable. I love her not only for her brains, but she knows what she wants and does what she needs to get it. Aiden is the man! Not wanting to father a child from a petry dish, he is willing to take one for the team. But will it lead to more? This is a a little of a friends to lovers, second chance at love kind of story. The kind that fills your heart and puts you in a good mood!
The narration by Robert Wrenlock is perfect for this cowboy story. His twang fits Aiden and he easily flipped to Lucy. It’s my first narration by him and I enjoyed his pace and his voices. Everything about this book will lead you to an enjoyable listen.
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The heroine comes back with a plan to help her high school crush get rid of his spider mite problem. Does she get more than she bargained for? Loved the chemistry between the characters and couldn’t put down the book.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This was a fantastic new read from Mary sue Jackson about what if’s turning into could be’s. Aiden and Lucy were high school lab partners and secretly liked each other. Now years later Lucy and Aiden strike a deal of a baby for pesticide. The Rancher’s Baby Bargain was a great captivating story that readers won’t want to put down.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I fell in love with this couple. She was the class nerd. He was the jock in high school but he was also a charming and a wonderful classmate. Years later sparks fly when she returns to town an provides him with a solution to his problem. Very entertaining and with plenty of steam, this is a book that will charm you and provide you with a HEA that will leave you feeling good. Loved it.
This is the first book that I’ve read by Mary Sue Jackson and it is a great read. It’s always good to ‘find’ a new author to follow and read their incredible stories and Mary Beth is my latest. Very well paced and with engaging characters that helped draw me into their world. Lucy and Aiden haven’t seen each other since high school. They were lab partners in science but otherwise never crossed paths as she was a nerd and he was a jock. But that didn’t stop him crushing on her! Now she’s back and has developed a product that could eradicate all the pests that are spoiling his crop and business. But will she help him? Yes, but on the understanding that he will father a child for her. Sounds like the makings of a fun romance with emotions getting involved. I look forward to reading many more of her stories. I lost a nights sleep reading this book but it was well worth it . I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review. Most Definitely Recommended.
Lucy was the class nerd. She’s a genius when it comes to the technical stuff, but hands on has never been her strong suit. Aiden knows how to do the work, but is not so good at looking at the big picture. When life throws the genius and the jock a curve ball, everything changes. It turns out they need each other more than they ever could have known. The Rancher’s Baby Bargain is proof that a book cannot be judged by it’s cover. Aiden and Lucy are the best of both worlds. A hint of fairy-tale romance with a heartwarming message hidden in the fine print.
She has almost all of what she wants but she wants a baby. She has developed a natural pesticide and he needs it as mites are killing off half of his crop. They both come to an agreement, she will give him what he needed he will do the same. What will happen when feelings come into the mix? See what will happen
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
The story definitely had me intrigued. You never know what is going to hit you next so good had me turning pages from start to finish to see what happens.
The Rancher’s Baby Bargain is the first book I’ve read by this author, and it was a pleasant, feel good read. I liked the main characters, Aiden and Lucy, I liked the set-up, which was just a tad more than far-fetched, and I liked and also didn’t like the reminder of what high school was like and the way some of the high school cliques worked, especially when it came to the nerds, the different ones, and the less popular, less attractive students. This novel gets 3.5 stars from this reader.
The nerd in question in this novel is Lucy, a brilliant student but one whose odd manner of dress, her intelligence, and her awkwardness, made her one of the outcasts among the more popular kids. She shared one chemistry lab class with the popular football player on the home team, Aiden, but was practically speechless around him. While Aiden didn’t pursue her, preferring the cheerleaders, Lucy just accepted it as part of her lot as a nerd who just didn’t fit in with the popular crowd.
After graduation, Aidan worked with his dad on the ranch that had been in their family for 3 generations, while Lucy went on to college, excelled, got her degree and became a brilliant scientist. She also married and divorced, and after one miscarriage, was now, at age 32, hearing her biological clock ticking away–but she has a plan. When her mother’s death required her to return home to settle the estate, it’s time to put her plan into action.
After the death of Aiden’s father, Aiden struggled with keeping the ranch afloat, a duty he felt was his because that’s what his father wanted. Aiden wanted to try his hand at brewing beer, and by mortgaging the ranch, he set out to grow his own hops, but while everyone seemed to love the beer he made, he’d been having problems with the crop for the third year running, which was a problem since his fields had been invaded by red spider mites, and weekly crop dusting with pesticides was having no effect at all. With all his money tied up in the ranch, he’s at a loss, until one day, the man who dusted his crops called in an expert, one who had come up with a new pesticide, and Aiden was eager to consider it, but with little capital, had no way to pay for it. When the expert shows up, he’s shocked that it’s his former lab partner, Lucy, only she doesn’t look like a nerd now. When she checks the infestation in the field of hops, she is suddenly smiling, and Aiden is wondering why. She informs him that he doesn’t have red spider mites, he has pink ones, and other than her promising new pesticide, no other pesticide on the market will kill pink spider mites. When Lucy offers to save his crop with her new formula, he knows it will be expensive and admits that he can’t afford to pay her, and when Lucy tells him she’ll give him her pesticide free, on one condition, he’s willing to hear her out.
Lucy has her own agenda, and she does want to help Aiden, but she also wants something from Aiden as well–she wants him to father her child, shocking him when she offers to trade him her pesticide for his cooperation in getting her pregnant. It doesn’t hurt that Aiden is attracted to the new and updated version of Lucy, but after much soul searching agrees to be her sperm donor, and they sign a contract, but before they try in vitro fertilization, Aiden’s attraction to Lucy leads them right into her bed, where they hit if off like gangbusters, and they never do opt for in vitro, and soon they can’t keep their hands off each other.
It’s when Lucy becomes pregnant that all the priorities change, involving Lucy getting her family home ready to sell before she returns to her life and work in Portland, Oregon, using Aiden’s rather manipulative mother as her realtor. Regardless of their contract, Aiden decides that he wants to be more than a sperm donor, he’s excited about Lucy’s pregnancy and wants to be in his child’s life, but the fact that his life in on the family ranch, and Lucy’s life is in Portland, seem to be an impossible obstacle to overcome.
Much of this novel consists of the waffling both main characters do on the should she stay or should she go trope, which is interesting at the start but tends to become rather repetitive after a while, bogging down the forward momentum of the story until almost near the very end. So will she or won’t she stay? Will Aiden follow her to Portland and give up his deeply held feeling of obligation to make the family ranch a success, or will he give it up for a life in the city with Lucy? What about his beer businss? Will these two interesting characters ever find a happy medium when it comes to their child? How will Lucy feel if she decides to return to her small, home town and the people in it, which include many of Aiden’s former girlfriends, the same girls who bullied and teased her back in high school? You’ll have to read this rather sweet, sexy romance to find out, since I don’t do spoilers.
As I stated at the outset, this is a sweet, rather pleasant read about two people, a contract, and small town nosiness, but I did feel that the somewhat dramatic moments were a little weak, and that the degree of indecision between both Aiden and Lucy, called for a little more angst and drama than Ms. Jackson wrote in this novel. All in all, a good read but not a great one.
I voluntarily read an advance reader copy of this novel. The opinions expressed are my own.
This is the first time I’ve read this author,,,, I enjoyed her work,,,,
Aiden Harper is a 30ish year old Rancher in Big Sky Country, Montana ,,,, he grows fields of hops,,, he sells most but keeps some for his real passion, he is a brewer of his own beer, he is an amateur but finds he really enjoys brewing ,,, although, his loyalty is taking care and running of the ranch,,, which has been in the family ,,, he feels it would be going against his loyalty to father, and grandfather and ,,,, you get the point,,,, but at this point,,, he isn’t even going to be able to keep the ranch running for long as there are spider mites attacking his fields of hops and it seems like as much as he does to try and prevent,,,, they are attacking in swarms,,,,, he would do anything to stop the spread of the spider mites in his hops fields,,,
Lucy Carr was from Montana, born and raised, then went to college at Stanford,,, ,, Lucy has been living in Portland, doing her testing and researching and then she was called home to clean out her deceased Mother’s cottage and get it ready for sale,,, although, she knows the troubles Aiden Harper is having and she has a possible cure for t, but she has to get Aiden to let her treat his field,,, and she is not going to take payment for the potential cure ,,, she has known Aiden since school and she has one thing she needs from Aiden,,, she wants him to help her make a baby, the old fashion way,,,,
I really enjoyed this story from a new to me author,,,, this story has some action, adventure and plenty of chemistry between Aiden and Lucy ,,, plenty of steamy scenes for us to drool over,,,, I would so totally recommend this book to everyone,,,, !!!
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Lucy was a girl with a plan and a solution to Aiden’s crop problem. What they both didnt count on was the love that would develop between them. Through turmoil of family and such they had their struggles but in the end they found their way back to each other. It was such a great book with some heart felt characters.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
The Rancher’s Baby Bargain by Mary Sue Jackson is a complicated novel of a man that needs help for his farm to survive and a woman who has given up on love and just wants a baby. Lucy is willing to supply Aiden with the pesticide that will save his hops crop from ruin. All she wants in exchange is a baby. She assumed he would donate his sperm at the sperm bank. He wants to donate the old fashioned way. Since she’s had a crush on him since high school, she isn’t necessarily adverse to his plan but becomes more so as it seems she does nothing but run into his ex-girlfriends in town. Things get complicated as the pregnancy progresses and it gets closer to the time she returns to the city. Aiden really wants to brew beer, not grow hops. She wants to encourage him but is it a good idea?
I really like these characters. Neither of them is very young. They both have plenty of baggage but they mostly handle it with a sense of humor. The plot seems straight forward but there are plenty of turns in the road. It is well written, more importantly well-thought out. I enjoyed it and it has my vote.
I was given a free ARC of the Rancher’s Baby Bargain in exchange for a fair and honest review.
I liked it mainly because of the main characters. It was a cute story .
Nerdy Lucy Carr had made quite the transformation. It was interesting watching her trying not to slide back into old patterns from High School. That feeling of being so different that she didn’t quite fit in. She had taken her smarts and done some cool things with though in the scientific world. And she just keeps getting idea after idea. A problem comes up and she researches and works at it from every different angle to try and fix it.
Aiden fit in quite nicely thank you. He fit in at High School and he had plenty of old girl friends that wished that they could be The One. Some weren’t very subtle about it either. The tender moments between Aiden and Lucy were great. She still had moments of awkwardness when nervous but instead of making fun of it Aiden seemed just fine with it. When they were truly being themselves they are supportive and affectionate. They did make a good couple then. Of course some troubles came from the times that they weren’t as open as they could have been. Each kind of guarding their feelings from potential pain.
I liked that both Lucy and Aiden were so skilled and creative. Aiden is having one trouble after another though with his ranch. And what he really wants in life.
I just want to take a moment and mention Aiden’s mother, Linda. She was a force to be reckoned with but not in an evil way. When she shows up in the book she isn’t shy about expressing the facts.
You do realize there will be sex scenes in this book right? Making a baby and all.
I received an advance copy of this book and chose to submit a review.
Lucy was a nerd in school and is a chemist now. She has developed a pesticide that will kill spider mites. Aiden is a rancher and brews his own beer. His crops are dying and he is close to losing the ranch. Until Lucy comes back to town to sell her parents home. She has a deal to make with Aiden; she will give him her pesticide for free if he’ll give her a baby. Aiden is shocked but also in a bind. So he takes her up on her offer but never believes the nerd will fall for the rancher. She had a crush on him in high school but thought he never saw her. Will they be able to get past their differences and make a life together?
Great story with sex and two people who come together for a deal and fall in love.
* Voluntarily read and reviewed this for NetGalley *
Mary Sue Jackson has penned another wonderful feel good story, which highlights the shared hopes and dreams of this endearing couple. While their partnership may not have started out via conventional means, it was equal parts insightful, fun ands sometimes frustrating as they navigated the expectations of family bonds and the visions of what could be if they let their imaginations and innate talent in their respective fields run wild.
I’m sure readers will gobble this story up in one easy sitting, and be coming back for more of MS Jackson’s stories in the future.
What a great concept! The beautiful nerdy girl from high school is back in town and is Aiden’s only hope of saving his ranch! Lucy has crushed on Aiden for years, and he was always nervous to ask her out. When she approaches him with a proposition that will help them both, he ultimately can’t say no to her. This is a heartfelt, sweet and sexy story and I loved it!
This is a fun, sexy read! It is a well written book that is quite engaging, exciting, and interesting. The characters are also very interesting – what started out as a business deal between Lucy and Aiden, resulted in an amazing journey of amazing chemistry between them and a HEA. This book takes you on a wild ride that you will enjoy from beginning to end. This is a must read!
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.