Trope-a-licious: the enduringly popular Accidental Pregnancy romance (‘she didn’t know she was pregnant!’ edition)
Ooops baby!!! One enduringly popular trope in contemporary category romance is the accidental pregnancy. So much drama ensues, causing huge emotional upheaval for the hero and heroine. I love writing them because there are SO many variables to play with…
…do the hero and heroine already have a relationship (in which case, how does this then change things?) or is this a ‘one night oh baby!’ situation?
Either way how does the contraception fail?!? How and when do the hero and heroine each find out about the pregnancy? How do they initially react? Do they debate all the things—about keeping the baby, about their own relationship (or lack of). Is the hero going to go all protective and demand a shot-gun wedding? Or do they play this in a ‘cool’ business-like fashion… at least until those pesky ‘feelings’ get in the way…
Putting a couple into a complete emotional crunch is a main goal when writing category romance and Harlequin Presents / Mills & Boon Modern in particular promises drama and emotional intensity. And there is incredible intensity in this situation—it is pure protectiveness and vulnerability and strength.
Cryptic Pregnancies…
“…are estimated to occur in around one in 2500 cases, suggesting around 320 cases in the UK annually, or a potential headline story almost every day.”
How shocking—and surely scary—it must be for a person to suddenly find themselves with severe abdominal pain and then within the next few minutes (or maybe a little more)—baby! You’d be so completely unprepared, in shock and quite possibly in some physical peril. Imagine the gamut of emotions, not to mention hormones, and all the things that would be going on inside! How could I resist putting my poor heroine into such a position?
I admit I did twist things up a little more to make it trickier in other ways for her but you’ll have to read the book to see what that is… I hope you enjoy it!
“Many in the medical community used to refer to “denied pregnancies” under the belief that surprise births stemmed largely from mothers who didn’t acknowledge that they were carrying for psychological reasons. But the term “cryptic pregnancy” has caught on in recent years as people point to cases where women seemingly had no bodily tipoffs… [it is] is a more neutral phrase that doesn’t prejudge a woman’s experience…
Doctors do have some ideas about what makes a pregnancy harder to notice. A placenta positioned in a particular way could keep the mother from feeling a baby’s movements… An irregular menstrual cycle – as well the fact that some women experience bleeding during pregnancy – could mean no telltale halt in periods. And it is not impossible to get pregnant while taking birth control.”
CLAIMING THEIR SHOCK BABY… …IN FIJI!
Their night was explosive. Their reunion couldn’t be more shocking!
USA TODAY bestselling author Natalie Anderson thrills with this secret baby romance!
After their one magical evening ended in disaster, Carrie Barrett assumed she’d never see superrich Massimo Donati-Wells again. So a glimpse of him nine months later sends her into labor—with the secret she didn’t even know she was carrying!
Massimo will be there for his child, unlike his own father. On his private Fijian island, he’ll offer Carrie an arrangement that’s convenient for them both. Only, she’s had enough of being everyone’s second choice! Can Massimo allow Carrie to break through his walls for a chance at something truly real?
