Review: "Just One Time" by Samantha Baca

Just One Time by Samantha Baca
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Abby Hughes recently turned 40 and her biological clock is ticking more loudly than ever. She wants a baby, but she's no longer willing to wait around for Mr. Right. When her longtime best friend, Nate Wilson, finds out about her plan to have a child on her own, he offers to help - as long as they do things the old-fashioned way. They agree that it will only happen one time, but will that be enough to satisfy the passion that suddenly flares between them?

I really liked Abby and Nate together, and their chemistry was H-O-T. (TBH, some of their bedroom shenanigans were a little outside of my personal comfort zone, but obviously that is completely subjective, and I'm sure there are plenty of readers who will absolutely love that aspect of the story.) However, I wish they had been better about communicating with each other in regards to the plan for Abby's pregnancy as well as their relationship in general. It would have been a good idea to take a beat and think things through before they jumped into bed together, or at least shortly thereafter. They never discussed whether the baby would know that Nate was the father or if he'd have any type of custody or parental rights. When their agreement continued past the first night, they failed to establish whether they were allowed to date other people, which created a whole other set of problems. It's no wonder that the lines between them blurred and their new "arrangement" started to affect their friendship almost right away. They made everything so much harder than it needed to be because they wouldn't just talk to each other, and it was incredibly frustrating at times.

Despite that frustration, I enjoyed "Just One Time" and would recommend it for all steamy contemporary romance fans. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series, which I hope will feature Abby's sister Jane.

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