Review: Not Quite Mine

by Catherine Bybee
Rating: 1/5

Gorgeous hotel heiress Katelyn "Katie" Morrison seems to have it all. But when she crosses paths with Dean Prescott - the only man she's ever loved - at her brother's wedding, Katie realizes there's a gaping hole in her life. After the ceremony she gets an even bigger surprise when someone abandons a baby girl on her doorstep. Determined to keep the newborn until she learns who her mother is, Katie has her hands full and doesn't need Dean snooping around, especially when his presence stirs feelings she thought were long gone. Dean Prescott knows Katie is lying to him when he discovers a baby is living with her. He shouldn't care what the woman who broke his heart is up to...and he most certainly shouldn't still be aching for her. Yet Dean can't ignore the need to protect Katie - or the desire to be near her every chance he gets. But when he and Katie solve the mystery surrounding the baby, their second chance for happiness could be shattered forever.

Not Quite Mine is book two in the Not Quite series. I was really excited for this book as it would be about Katie, who appeared to be an airheaded heiress and her brother’s best friend. Plus after Bybee’s MacCoinnich Time Travel series and Not Quite Dating I had a fair amount of faith in Bybee as an author. So why did I only give it one out of five?
The book opens with Jack and Jessie from book 1 getting married. Katie is Jack’s sister and Dean is Jack’s best friend and the reason that Jack met Jessie. After the wedding Katie and Monica, Jessie’s sister head back to Katie’s room in the hotel. There is a baby with a note giving the baby to Katie. Savannah appears to be a miraculous baby as she doesn’t keep Katie from sleep enough to make her unable to work. Like ever.
Anyway enough about Savannah, my real problem with this book is Dean. Dean is way too alpha for a contemporary novel. In a paranormal the hero can be too alpha for real life and get away with it, in a contemporary it hits close to home.
Over the course of the novel Dean barges his way into Katie’s house twice, and pushes into Monica’s when Katie isn’t there once. He uses his height to intimidate, manipulates and order Katie to wear different clothing. In his defence, the high-heels were a bad choice in a construction site, but her clothing had nothing to do with that. He also chooses her food and refuses to leave until he’s seen her eat it all.
And this could have been okay, if Dean had ever backed down in the face of Katie saying no, or if he’d actually been trying to date her in the first half of the novel. He also hires his own PI, because he doesn’t think Katie’s is good enough and doesn’t tell her. And when he finally decides he does want to get back together with Katie, halfway through the novel, does he tell Katie? Of course not, that would imply she has a say in her own life, no Dean asks her brother for permission first. Classy.
The novel also disturbingly acts like the only way Katie should grow up is to stop dressing like a “slut” and become a homemaker type. Seriously, she stops wearing her revealing clothes because they’re not practical with a baby and she’s outgrown the need for that kind of attention and her father congratulates Dean, and recommends he burn the old clothes. WTF?
I’m so disappointed. I wish that Bybee’s editor or beta reader, or anyone had picked this up because it’s still well written and the story is good and logical except for the black alphole of Dean’s character.
Currently Listening: All Again For You – We The Kings