Knocked Up (Crazy Love: Book 2) by Stacey Lynn

3 Stars

Publisher: Random House Publishing Group, Loveswept

Date of publication: June 12th, 2018

Genre: Romance

Series: Crazy Love

Fake Wife – Book 1 (review here)

Knocked Up – Book 2

Where you can find Knocked Up: Amazon | Barnes and Noble

Book synopsis (from Goodreads):

First comes love. Then comes marriage. Then comes baby in a baby carriage. Just not necessarily in that order. . . .

Braxton: I should probably be dead or in jail right now. Instead, thanks to some tough love, I worked my ass off and now I own a string of tattoo parlors throughout the Pacific Northwest. And yet the one thing I’ve always wanted—a family—still seems out of reach. When my best friend gets married, I’m just hoping to blow off some steam with the super-hot maid of honor. But after Cara Thompson tracks me down to tell me she’s pregnant, she’s more surprised than I am when I tell her I’m all in.

Cara: For the first time in my life, I’m living for myself—not for my parents and their ridiculous expectations. I gave up on my MBA, dropped out of the Ivy League, and moved to Portland to pursue my dream of becoming an artist. And what’s the first thing I do? Get knocked up. For a tatted-up sex god, Braxton Henley seems way too eager to “be there for me.” Is this guy serious? Maybe. He sure is patient. Because he won’t back down until I admit what I know in my heart: that our one-night stand might’ve led me to the one.

The steamy standalone novels in Stacey Lynn’s Crazy Love series can be read together or separately:
FAKE WIFE | KNOCKED UP

And don’t miss her passionate Fireside series:
HIS TO LOVE | HIS TO PROTECT | HIS TO CHERISH | HIS TO SEDUCE

My review

I was excited when I saw that Knocked Up was out. I had enjoyed Fake Wife, so I figured that I would enjoy this book. Which I did, for the most part. My issues with the book are that there was so much extra going on that I couldn’t enjoy Braxton and Cara’s story. Plus the drama was too much. I also didn’t like the way that Braxton kept jumping to conclusions about Cara. That added more drama to the book. All those reasons are the reason I gave Knocked Up a 3-star rating.

Cara drove me crazy. There is being independent and then there is being over the top independent. Braxton wanted to take care of her and the baby but she refused. My eyes almost rolled out of their sockets, that’s how much I was eye-rolling. There was one point in the book where I wanted to shake her and say “Duuuudddde, let him take care of you. Stop being so stubborn“.

Besides driving me crazy with her über independence, I did like Cara. She was sweet. She loved her friends. She loved her job. She loved her unborn child. I felt awful that her brother died. I felt even more awful at how her parents treated her. I thought, at first, that it was all in her head. Until they showed up at her apartment and said what they said. Then I understood why she was so independent. She was shoving her lifestyle in her parent’s face and telling them to take a flying leap.

I liked that Cara had far from a picture perfect pregnancy. Her having hyperemesis gravidarum made her more normal in my eyes. I didn’t like that she was so sick but I loved that she became more relatable. Most romance novel pregnancies are all sunshine and unicorns. So it was refreshing to see one that I could connect with.

Where do I start with Braxton? I liked that he stepped up when Cara showed up at his tattoo parlor and told him she was pregnant and it was his. I liked that he wanted to date Cara. I liked that he wanted to be in this baby’s life. But, he came with baggage. So. Much. Baggage. I almost couldn’t handle it.

He was a **reformed** man whore. I say reformed because he stopped sleeping around the minute Cara told him she was pregnant. That’s wonderful. But his past didn’t stay in the past. Cara and he had an uncomfortable confrontation with his last one night stand. I don’t know how Cara didn’t freak the heck out on him after what that chick said.

His relationship with Stella made me wonder exactly what was going on with them for a while. She got as salt AF when Cara showed up. She tried to destroy their relationship. She warned Cara off him. She was the one that showed Braxton those pictures of Cara with her friend. I didn’t understand why he still employed her or even was her friend after all that. And her apology was lukewarm. Again, don’t know why he stayed her friend. Anyone tried to mess with my relationship would have had a foot up their butt while going out the door.

The chemistry between Braxton and Cara was insane. The sparks were between them from the moment Cara showed up at his tattoo parlor. It deepened the more the book went on. Which is why it sucked when Stella did what she did. And it was also gratifying when Braxton and Cara talked. Because you could see the feelings there. It wasn’t just sex.

Speaking of sex, it was hot. Scorching hot. Braxton and Clara didn’t hold back because she was pregnant. What impressed me was that he still used condoms even though Cara was pregnant. Because he was a “reformed” man-whore who hadn’t been tested. But once he was, it was bareback all the way. It’s not like he could get her pregnant….lol.

The end of Knocked Up was cute. The book ended the way I thought it would. The epilogue was fantastic. I figured out the baby’s name pretty early on. So it wasn’t a surprise to me.

What I liked about Knocked Up:

A) Cara. She had a backbone and stood up to Braxton. Not a lot of female main characters do that

B) Cara’s relatable pregnancy

C) Braxton taking care of his responsibilities

What I disliked about Knocked Up:

A) Cara being over the top independent

B) Stella’s behavior.

C) All the other drama in the book. Took away from the main plotline.

I would give Knocked Up an Adult rating. There is explicit sex. There is language. There is mild violence. I would recommend that no one under the age of 21 read this book.

There are no triggers in Knocked Up.

I am on the fence if I would reread Knocked Up. I am also on the fence if I would recommend Knocked Up to family and friends. I would read other books by the author.

I would like to thank Random House Publishing Group, Loveswept, and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review Knocked Up.

All opinions stated in this review of Knocked Up are mine.

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**