Wealthy corporate genius Jason Wilding is accustomed to being solicited for money. But his beloved younger brother, David, asks him for more than access to his bank account. David is infatuated with a lovely young widow, Amy Tompkins, but she's so attached to her son, Max, that he can't wangle a moment alone to court her. David wants Jason to come home to Kentucky for Christmas and act as Max's nanny for a week, thus freeing Amy to date. Much as he'd like to, Jason can't refuse his little brother's request and he puts his high-powered life on hold to move in with the widow and her adorable son.

Amy Tompkins is nothing at all like the glossy, high maintenance women that have decorated Jason's life in New York. She's poor, has no marketable skills, and is so determined to be independent that Jason has to trick her into accepting food and clothing. Before long, her sparkling humor and zest for life, not to mention her little 6-month-old dynamo, Max, soon enchant the difficult, reluctant Jason. He swiftly decides to negotiate a "takeover" and acquire Amy and Max for his very own. But Amy is wise enough to know that she needs more from Jason than to become a part of his corporate world. She needs a loving husband and devoted, full-time father.

Jason and Amy must search their hearts and face difficult truths about themselves before they can find a way to mesh their lives and love. Set in a small town in Kentucky during the Christmas season, The Blessing is a story filled with unforgettable characters and heartwarming romance, a blessing for readers regardless of the season. --Lois Faye Dyer

From Library Journal
A rich New York businessman who improbably agrees to babysit for the young widow his Southern brother is pursuing finds himself warming up to the baby?and its mother.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
Heart to Heart Unforgettable....Enriched with humor and caring, and family ties.

Book Description
A hard-driving businessman sees love with new eyes when a sweet young widow and her son change his life -- and his heart -- forever. Wealthy corporate genius Jason Wilding reluctantly takes a break from his high-powered world to visit his hometown of Abernathy, Kentucky. As a favor to his physician brother David, he finds himself spending one week as a live-in baby-sitter in the ramshackle home of Amy Thompkins, who has captured David's heart. Courting the whimsical, artistic Amy has been difficult with her adorable but demanding baby, Max, in tow, and Jason's help is just what David needs. But stepping into Amy's patched-together world has the most remarkable effect -- on Jason....Amy's joy for life, her love for her son, and her sparkling humor are irresistible -- and tiny Max adores Jason beyond reason. Soon, the enigmatic CEO is thawing. And his newfound smile reminds Amy of a Mount Rushmore monument finally cracking up -- in the best possible way. Their mutual attraction is glowing bright, but what to do about David? In this heart-warming and unforgettable bestseller, Jude Deveraux celebrates the unexpected paths on the heart's journey toward love, and the eternal bond between mother and child.

Download Description
"New York Times" bestselling author Jude Deveraux returns with an enchanting holiday tale about the bonds of family and the power of love. When corporate genius Jason Wilding reluctantly visits his hometown at Christmas, he has no idea what his brother has in store for him.

About the Author
Jude Deveraux is the author of twenty-four New York Times bestsellers, including The Blessing, An Angel for Emily, Legend, The Heiress, Remembrance, Sweet Liar, A Knight in Shining Armor, and The Duchess. Her next novel will be published in hardcover from Pocket Books. She began writing in 1976, and to date there are more than thirty million copies of her books in print. Ms. Deveraux lives in Connecticut.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Deveraux Delivers a Blessing in Disguise

Men who love babies, and the women who love them. Jude Deveraux has done it again with her seasonal offering of love, romance, and laughter. Deveraux always manages to stay on top of the romance genre with her unbeatable sense of humor, her faith in love, and the hope that digs itself out from even the worst ashes of an old love affair — or a new one. When she exploded the time-travel subgenre of romance with A Knight in Shining Armor, she began to make the transition into contemporary romances from her position as Princess Regent of Historicals. I would hazard a guess that Jude Deveraux has made the transition more successfully than many of her colleagues — her contemporary paranormal of last winter, An Angel for Emily, ranked as one of my favorites of the year for its warmth, humor, and pure storytelling magic. Now Deveraux bears a Christmas gift early this year, a small but potent novel called The Blessing. You'll be stunned by the beautiful cover that reproduces Gustav Klimt's fabulous painting of a flower-bedecked mother holding her beautiful baby close to her cheek — and the story inside matches the enchantment and warmth of that cover. This is not a book for the holiday season alone, although if you have friends who are addicts of the genre, this would be a great gift to wrap up for them and place under the tree.

Speaking of great gifts, Jason Wilding would be a great Christmas present to any woman. He's a millionaire many times over, a corporate hotshot who jets from Manhattan to anynumberof international ports — and women. Handsome, dark, and brooding, Jason looks nothing like his angelic brother, David. David is a doctor in the small town of Abernathy, Kentucky, and is the blond, blue-eyed cherub who was always the good one, while Jason was always a bit wild. But when Jason agrees to do an off-the-wall favor for his brother at Christmastime, the world turns upside down for both of them.

David's been trying to woo the beautiful and resourceful Amy Thomkins, a widow, but her brat is getting in the way — well, the kid's a brat in David's eyes, at least. David never has time to successfully court Amy because she's always having to tend to her six-month-old, so he drags his brother down to be a bit of an unofficial nanny to the boy. The boy is named Max, and Jason's shocked at how much he enjoys being around the baby. Soon enough, Jason is also falling for Amy, and he begins to find covert ways of wooing her. Because of his outrageous fortune, Jason manages to get special baby gifts and make available to Amy all kinds of bargains in the baby department. Now, Amy is no fool: She has a hankering for Jason also, and knows that David may not be right for her. But she's worried that Jason is gay — not that there's anything wrong with that, she can always use a wonderful male friend in her life — but she wouldn't want to get her hopes up on an unsure thing. However, Jason soon overcomes this misconception, and they find that the heat in their hearts translates nicely to the heat in their flesh. Animal magnetism is sure to win out — right?

But then complications occur, and Jason, David, and Amy are off on a romp through misunderstandings, manipulations, and ultimately the discovery of what true love is — and why it can't be resisted. Deveraux is not a writer to be missed, no matter where her fictional muse takes her. In true Deveraux style, The Blessing, is an enjoyable romantic romp about family values and finding Mr. Right.
—Jessie Rose Lucas

FROM THE PUBLISHER

A hard-driving businessman sees love with new eyes when a sweet young widow and her son change his life -- and his heart -- forever.

Wealthy corporate genius Jason Wilding reluctantly takes a break from his high-powered world to visit his hometown of Abernathy, Kentucky. As a favor to his physician brother David, he finds himself spending one week as a live-in baby-sitter in the ramshackle home of Amy Thompkins, who has captured David's heart. Courting the whimsical, artistic Amy has been difficult with her adorable but demanding baby, Max, in tow, and Jason's help is just what David needs.

But stepping into Amy's patched-together world has the most remarkable effect -- on Jason....Amy's joy for life, her love for her son, and her sparkling humor are irresistible -- and tiny Max adores Jason beyond reason. Soon, the enigmatic CEO is thawing. And his newfound smile reminds Amy of a Mount Rushmore monument finally cracking up -- in the best possible way.

Their mutual attraction is glowing bright, but what to do about David? In this heart-warming and unforgettable bestseller, Jude Deveraux celebrates the unexpected paths on the heart's journey toward love, and the eternal bond between mother and child.

SYNOPSIS

Men who love babies, and the women who love them — Jude Deveraux has done it again with a seasonal offering of love, romance, and laughter. The prolific author bears a Christmas gift early this year, a small but potent novel called The Blessing. A romantic romp about two handsome brothers both entranced by the same woman, The Blessing is a stocking stuffer you're not likely to forget any time soon.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal