If you haven't already guessed, the heroine of this book is pregnant. And she has amnesia.
Synopsis:
Former Navy SEAL Lucas Washington is in the middle of repossessing a car when he realizes that there's an 8-month pregnant woman with a head wound in the back seat. She swears she has amnesia and can't remember anything about herself. Lucas figures she's on the run from an abusive husband or boyfriend and is lying to buy herself some time. The woman, who he decides to call "Jane," doesn't want to go to the police or the hospital, so Lucas takes her to his sister Loretta, who's a nurse. He figures that, by morning, Jane will have miraculously remembered who she is and forgiven her abusive husband/boyfriend. He has a very cynical outlook on the relationships between abusers and the abused - when he was a kid, his father used to beat him, and his mother never seemed to care enough to do anything to protect him. His only consolation was that his father at least left Loretta alone.
Jane doesn't miraculously remember who she is, and Lucas starts to believe her story when people who are apparently affiliated with the Church of Enlightenment attempt to kidnap her during a clothes shopping trip. After that, Lucas adopts a "let's go to places you can remember and see if that helps you remember more" approach to bringing Jane's memories back. Jane still doesn't want to go to the police, because she has a feeling that will only put her in more danger.
The people who are after Jane find Lucas' place. Lucas knows it wouldn't take a genius to figure out that his sister is the most likely person he would have taken Jane to, so he moves Jane to a safe house. Despite himself, Lucas has grown more and more attracted to Jane. Part of him wants to be with her, help her take care of her baby, and make a family with her. Another part of him is terrified he'll become like his father and worried that Jane has a man in her life she just hasn't remembered yet. He tries to keep his distance, but she's attracted to him too.
It's not long before Jane and Lucas learn that some people claiming to be Jane's family are looking for her. Lucas checks them out, and they seem to be telling the truth, but something doesn't feel quite right. If Jane really does have a family, Lucas knows she should go back to them, but what if there's something more going on?
Of course there's more going on. And it has to do with the Church of Enlightenment.
Commentary:
I'm pretty sure the first time I ever heard of this book was via Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. I thought the cover was Photoshopped because, well, PREGNESIA. That couldn't possibly be real, right? Wrong. The book got a C-grade, and the review pointed to lots of problems and things that wouldn't appeal to me, like a pregnant amnesiac heroine. I should note that I read the review almost two years before reading the book and purposefully did not reread it until after I'd finished the book. I didn't want the review fresh in my mind while I was reading. Even so, I still ended up noticing a lot of the same problems that the reviewer noticed - my notes are filled with "oh really?," "good grief," and "are you kidding me?"
One thing I did remember clearly about the review was the comments - specifically, Carla Cassidy's comment, which was a clear example of "authors behaving well." There seem to be so many authors lately who behave badly in the face of less-than-stellar reviews that this was a welcome change.
Anyhoo, I found my copy of this book at a used bookstore and snatched it up...because of its title and despite knowing that it dealt with certain tropes I wouldn't like. That was months and months ago. It wasn't until a few days ago that I found myself in need of cheesy fun, and Pregnesia seemed likely to fit the bill.
