Don't you just hate it when reality ruins a perfectly good story line....

I was near the end of quick-read romance where they had resolved differences, married, heroine is pregnant, on the road to happily ever after.  Then you turn the page and it has the typical one or two page epiloge just to finish it off.

....

First paragraph mentions baby arrived that spring and parents are thrilled to take baby home. Next paragraph is a scene with parents standing in nursery after the baby had been "settled in his crib", staring down fondly and talking.

As they leave the nursery it turns into a seduction scene, with them walking down the hall to their bedrooms, discussion of a trip as clothes being removed, and husband suggesting that they start on a baby brother or sister right NOW. (story ends).

Hellooo! If they just got the baby home, isn't there the little matter of a six weeks recovery for Mom? And I don't know about you other ladies, but thinking about my first day home with a newborn - even if I'd been able, I don't think a few hours of  "afternoon delight" would have been on the top of my wish list.

It's not like this was the great American novel, but this silly add-on ruined the story for me. 

Maybe the baby was older in the next paragraph and they just didn't clarify that? You know they mentioned when the baby was born and in the next paragraph is just a night some wks later when they've put him to bed.  

I hate it when they do no epilogue at all.  The book just ends.   

I just read one a couple of weeks ago with the same thing!!!!  I thought the exact same thing!!!!  I'm thinking has this writer never had a baby!

It kind of blew the vibe for me....

Sara

Oh yes, i always felt so romantic with no sleep, spit up stains all over my clothes and a screaming infant to take care of all day! Sex was the absolute last thing on my mind, not to mention having a huge fear of getting pregnant again after a very long and complicated pregnancy and vomitting for 9 months........no thanks! The end of my book would have the hero doing his "white wash by hand" LOL. Sorry if that's TMI.

Yes, I suspect that through editing or just plain-ole-forgot, they did mean to infer some time had elapsed. But that's not the way it came across.

The baby was born, came home, they're both besotted with him, now they they have him settled in his crib, talking about maybe a brother or sister in a year or two, "no - let's start NOW".  Ugh.

Frankly, I'm not sure the seduction scene could have happened at my house even six weeks down the road, but  I can suspend belief enough to enjoy that scenario.

But this one just creeped me out. I think the editors really failed on this one.

Tanya -- with you all the way!!  Not to mention milk leaking, stomach drooping, bottom hurting and being up half the night.  I felt like I was living in an alternate universe for at least a month.   I don't expect or necessarily want total reality in what I read -- I enjoy being taken out of the day-to-day.  But birthin' babies then doin' the deed is a real eye roller!

That always bugs me too, the insta-sex after birth. After a miscarriage, even worse.

Though... I must confess,  my husband and I didn't wait as long as we had been instructed to. [blush]

Tanya, were you sick the whole nine months too? Talk about things nobody prepares you for!  My husband and I were planning a trip to Vegas for a last fling when I stopped feeling sick all the time. I never stopped.

LOL.. true love would have the hubby putting the baby down for the night and handling all the night wakings and letting wife sleep!  But hey, if we saw more "reality" in romances, we probably wouldn't read them.