The pregnant Ms. Potter [Paperback]

THE PREGNANT MS.POTTER pits two very independent, strong-willed characters against each other in a story filled with love, over-protectiveness and coming to grips with our pasts and getting on with our lives. This is particularly true with, Pete Taggart, who lost his wife and unborn child in a car accident. Unknown to him at the time, his wife had talked of leaving him because she could no longer handle his 'male chauvanistic' way of running things. Into his life plops Maddie Potter: unmarried, pregnant and very much the independent successful business woman. Pete decrees that a woman's place is firmly in the home, which rubs Maddie totally the wrong way as she does not intend to give up the career she worked so hard to get. Should have been a match made in you-know-where, and it very well could have ended in disaster, if the two of them hadn't kept the lines of communication open, worked through their differences and learned the art of compromise.

My only complaint is that I wished the book had been longer, because I'd have liked more with Maddie, her estranged father and her sister. I felt the length of the book prevented the author from telling us more.

I hope Ms. Criswell intends to followup with books on Pete's two eligible brothers, John and Mark. It would be sinful to let these two get away.

Millie Criswell has written a well-rounded story around what seems to be an age-old battle between men and women. Though the legend attached to the wedding quilt brings Pete and Maddy together in a sense, Criswell does not completely rely on it as a plot device. Instead, she engages the reader by giving us insight into both Pete and Maddy as well as select, and intriguing, secondary characters who either know or come to understand what motivates Pete and Maddy's views on what the role of wife is comprised of as well as what a woman is capable of doing for her family. By exploring the basic conflict that threatens to tear these two apart, Criswell illustrates how strong an influence love can be as both a means to restrict one's partner or to support them as Pete and Maddy learn when they discover the ultimate value of compromise. Though I felt the characters of Pete and Maddy were spread a little thin overall, this is an engaging, if somewhat unremarkable, story. For some of Criswell's standout work, try "The Trouble With Mary", "The Marrying Man", or "The Wedding Planner".

If you're looking for a wonderful Millie Criswell book, I highly recommend 'The Trouble With Mary.'