Babies Inc. Books in Order

The Babies Inc. series centers on a baby-focused business and the women connected to it, but the heart of these contemporary romances is bigger than diapers and nursery furniture. Karen Templeton writes about women who are good at helping other people build families while still wondering what their own futures might hold.

The series opens with Marriage, Interrupted, then moves into the linked stories of Dana, Mercy, and Karleen. Their workplace creates a natural reason for the characters to share confidences, compare disasters, and show up when someone's carefully organized plan falls apart.

In Baby Steps, shy shop owner Dana Malone gets an unexpected crash course in parenthood when a baby is left on her doorstep with a birth certificate naming C. J. Turner as the father. Suddenly, Dana and C. J. are sharing responsibility, close quarters, and feelings neither expected to face.

Babies change everything.

That idea carries through the series, but Templeton does not treat family as a one-size-fits-all dream. In The Prodigal Valentine, Mercy Zamora faces the return of Ben Vargas, the man she once loved but could not count on. In Pride and Pregnancy, personal shopper Karleen Almquist has sworn off men until a widowed neighbor and his two boys make that promise harder to keep.

The books mix emotional complications with practical ones. Child care, work, housing, money, and the fear of repeating bad relationships all matter. The romances grow because the characters start making room for each other in the everyday routines of life.

Each novel has a complete couple and can be read alone, but the friendship and business connections are more rewarding in order. Readers can expect surprise babies, reunited lovers, single parents, and women who learn that wanting a family does not mean giving up who they are.