Review: Wyoming Special Delivery

Wyoming Special Delivery by Melissa Senate
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I've read a few of Melissa Senate's books in the past (mainly chick lit titles) and enjoyed them, so to say that I was disappointed with "Wyoming Special Delivery" might be something of an understatement. I apologize in advance if this write-up comes off as more of a rant than a review, but I had a lot of thoughts as I was reading, and not many of them were positive.

The story did not start off well when it became clear that the female lead character, Daisy Dawson, was very impulsive and seemingly not very bright. At almost 9 months pregnant, she throws a tantrum after getting left at the altar (by a man she didn't even love or particularly want to marry!) and decides that her best choice is to run away from her family's ranch in rural Wyoming, driving a crappy old Honda and without her cell phone because she has just thrown it out the window in a fit of temper. This is obviously a recipe for disaster, so predictably, her car not only breaks down, but she goes into labor too. Luckily for Daisy, despite the fact that she's stranded on a rural service road, a handsome stranger just happens to come along almost immediately, and he actually stops to help her. In another near miracle, she delivers the baby on the side of the road after only 5 or so contractions (lucky her!). (Really? The author couldn't even have thrown in one line about how Daisy's back had been killing her all day or something to make this even a little bit more believable?) My favorite part was that Daisy never made even a token protest about a strange man diving under her skirt without asking permission and cutting off her underwear. Nor is she even a little bit embarrassed about him having seen her lady parts when she sees him at the hospital later. Yes, she was giving birth at the time and it was an emergency, but still.

A day or so later, Daisy comes home with her newborn, Tony, and basically proceeds with her pre-baby life exactly as it was before, only with an infant strapped to her chest. Sorry, but life with a newborn is not that easy, especially as a single mother, no matter how much family support you may have. It's exhausting, and she should have been sore from the birth, but yet somehow she manages to take multiple long walks around the ranch AND host dinner parties AND help her BFF with the guests' breakfast service so she can whine about her feelings for the hottie who wants to take the ranch away from her family. WOMAN, WHY ARE YOU NOT AT HOME SITTING ON AN ICE PACK AND NAPPING WHEN THE BABY NAPS?? Oh, and supposedly she's breastfeeding, but she's still able to leave the baby for hours at a time at only 3 or 4 days postpartum. Really? A lot of newborns want to eat almost constantly, both because they're still figuring out how to do it and because they have very small tummies. When exactly did Daisy have the time to pump and freeze a stash of breast milk (though I guess she could be substituting formula) and train the baby to take a bottle?

In addition to being a new mom, Daisy is also dealing with the fact that Harrison McCord wants to take possession of her family's ranch because of a bet her father supposedly lost to his father 10 years ago. Since Harrison is a guest of the ranch for the next 5 days, Daisy decides that she is going to use that time to convince him to like her and her family so that he will decide to let them keep the ranch. Unfortunately for her, this plan ends up backfiring somewhere along the way, and she falls in love with him. Really? Talk about insta-love, and with the man trying to take away your home, no less. Let's not forget that Daisy was just left at the altar a few days ago, too! Oh, and Daisy must have superhuman healing powers, because at 3 days postpartum she's able to straddle Harrison's lap so they can make out. (Meanwhile I'm having sympathy pains just thinking about it.)

As for Harrison and his half-baked scheme to take the ranch from Daisy's family, I have major doubts about whether his claim would hold up in court. Harrison's father saw the ranch 10 years ago and refused to collect on the bet at that time. What makes Harrison think that a signed napkin would constitute a valid agreement now? Harrison's father's previous refusal to collect on the bet could very well make such an agreement null and void. Beyond that, it makes zero sense for Harrison to go down this path. Who is he really punishing? Both his father and Daisy's are gone, and his aunt is on her deathbed. It seems like he should just let bygones be bygones.

Overall, if the main part of this story had taken place even a month or 6 weeks later than it did to give Daisy a chance to recover from Tony's birth, I might have been able to get past some (but not all) of these issues. Unfortunately, it just doesn't seem like a lot of the story's details were very well thought out. As a result, I can't recommend it.

*ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are my own.

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