Their Newborn Gift: an Antipodean Cowboy book

by Zana Bell


Reading: Souless - Victorian vampires with attitude.

Watching: BattleStar Galactica. Beautifully drawn, flawed characters

Listening to: Audio books!

Making me smile: Being home and not at work today.

He recognised the face. It was in the one photo he had kept of himself as a child.

Reilly Martin’s life is rewritten from the moment he sets eyes on Molly – the result of an unforgettable night five years earlier with Lea Curran, a beautiful girl he picked up in a bar one night. A girl who’d left the following morning without a word, leaving him feeling “cheap as a motel television.” Rodeo star Reilly, King of the Suicide Ride, had never been used like this before – he’s always the one who loves then leaves without a backward glance.

But now Lea is back to use him all over again. Molly is desperately ill with aplastic anaemia and will die without the DNA from a sibling’s cord blood. Lea’s proposal is both simple and insane. She wants to make another baby with him to save Molly’s life.

Lea is not prepared, however, for the ensuing obstacles nor for the hard bargain Reilly drives in return. He is determined to salvage something from the wreck of his superficially mega-successful life and with Lea’s arrival, he suddenly sees a way to do so. His counter proposal is every woman’s very worst nightmare but for Lea, no price is too high when it comes to saving her daughter.

Using up every last ounce of her considerable courage and pride, she accepts.

From the first scene when this impossible situation unravels, Their Newborn Gift, a Harlequin Romance, is a rattlingly great read. Reilly and Lea are both loners and with their fraught personal histories, neither is particularly well-equipped to play happy families – however much both secretly yearn for it. Reilly, consummate tamer of wild horses, has to win the trust of skittish Lea, while she must break through the sun-toughened layers of macho this guy shields himself in.

And between these two ornery characters is the miracle of Molly, whose elfin looks and valiant ways not only capture her father’s heart, but the reader’s heart too. The developing relationship between father and fragile daughter is touchingly portrayed.

Reilly and Lea have nine months to get to know each other, nine months to learn from each other but it seems it won’t be long enough for two such stubborn characters. Their attraction sizzles despite the bulletproof defences both have raised and the sensuality of writing scorches like the searing outback sun.

Which brings me to the setting. As a longtime Western fan, I was thrilled to discover there is clearly an Antipodean option these days. It has all the hallmarks of a great cowboy book; a harshly beautiful countryside, horses and, most importantly, rugged individuals who’ve learnt survival the hard way. Nikki has done a beautiful job of describing the Outback so vividly it lives like another character in the book. Even in damp, chilly New Zealand I could feel the heat seeping through to my bones.

Throughout the book, the air supercharged and electric right to up to the climax. I found myself switching off the light at night then sneaking it back on for just one more chapter! Way to go Nikki, it’s a cracker of a book.

And now I’m busy scouring the brochures for holiday deals to Western Australia J

Nikki’s book also got me thinking about the attraction of the cowboys. I’m a sucker for Louis L’Amour novels, Deadwood and Firefly which is really a western set in outer space. There’s something irresistible in the toughness of character, the frontier spirit etc. Besides, to my mind, there’s no hero quite as cool as a quick-thinking, slow-speaking, quick-draw cowboy. I even enjoy cowboy ballads!

Are there any other Westerns fans out there? What are your favourite books and movies? What’s the attraction for you? What about other genre preferences?