Dream Baby

Maggie Stern is an actress in a soap opera, and her current story line is popular. Her character is struggling with infertility. Some fans confuse the soap opera with real life, but Maggie copes with this as best she can. Those troubles aside, Maggie is excited because she's moving into a great new apartment in Manhattan. There is a downside. One of her neighbors is Jared Austin, a pediatrician, and he scorns all people involved in show business. To makes matters worse, he mistakenly believes Maggie used her celebrity status to take an apartment originally promised to him.

The next morning, someone leaves a baby on Maggie's doorstep. This time, one of her fans has gone too far! Her new neighbors crowd around to see what's going on, and someone starts taking pictures. Jared accuses her of using the baby to create publicity. Never mind that she's obviously shocked and embarrassed, he already has his mind made up. He says she has "just about enough maternal instinct to fill a thimble." What a charmer. Can you imagine a real pediatrician speaking like this?

Jared helps her with the baby once she gets back to her apartment, but even then, he can't resist making some negative comments. They call the police, and the police arrive at the same time as Maggie's executive producer and the landlady. Both the police and the landlady are star struck. The police decide to leave the baby with Maggie for now. Jared is shocked that the police would agree to this. After all, an actress could never be a fit mother.

Maggie agrees to take care of the baby, as long as it's not exploited. The baby cries a lot, so Jared agrees to pitch in. Naturally, the baby stops crying whenever he's around. And naturally, he takes this as another sign that Maggie is an unfit mother. (Right, babies are never cranky.)

Jared continues to think the worst of Maggie. He assumes she's an unfit mother, he assumes she's a prima donna, and he assumes she's having an affair with her costar. At one point, Jared says the baby would be better off in foster care than with Maggie. Excuse me? What pediatrician in his right mind would say this? Hasn't he heard the horror stories about the overworked foster care system?

Finally, Jared realizes he's been wrong about Maggie. Everything is worked out, including the fate of the baby. A little too quickly, Maggie and Jared end up in love and planning their future together. Their relationship isn't really given the time to develop - and there are no love scenes until the final chapter.

Maggie is a likable character, more than capable of taking care of the baby. It's obvious to everyone but Jared that she's no prima donna. Eventually, we learn why Jared is prejudiced against show business people, but it doesn't explain his outright hostility toward Maggie. I got the impression Jared acted this way simply because the writer wanted to create conflict.

The plot is filled with amusing situations. The secondary characters are also lots of fun. With some changes, this book could have been a great humorous romance. But it's hard to laugh when Jared keeps acting like such a jerk.

-- Anne Marble

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