Review: Really Nice Follow-up to Planning for Love
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 11, 2013
This was a sweet follow-up to Planning for Love with the new store, A Fine Romance, taking center stage as we see Mira work herself to the bone to make this store a success for her friend Ivy. We see Ivy and Ben plus others from the previous book as we get to know Mira and the hunky baker/chocolatier Sam.Mira is not having a good time in her life at the moment and it is capped off by a no-show by the man who was supposed to pick her up and take her to the place she will be sharing with Daphne. Unfortunately this no-show also coincides with a massive rainstorm and spectacularly bad luck with puddles so she isn't exactly happy to be in Chicago. When she meets the man who pulled the no-show she is understandably pissed but finds herself attracted to the gorgeous specimen of masculinity. As you well know this tug of war and verbal sparring tends to mean one thing in romance books and we are treated to a fun ride as these two find a true partner to spar with, spill their guts to and truly find love. Mira has issues to work through that make sense while also trying to help the man who comes to mean everything to her with his own major issues. I liked her strength and willingness to go there but back off in the interest of sanity when the situation called for it. She deserves to be happy and she finds it with....Sam... sigh... you will want to hug him and strangle him within the same paragraph or even sentence. He is beyond loyal but this is what gets him in to the trouble he does. Due to his innate sense of loyalty he almost loses everything but you'll have to see exactly what happens with him. He's buried himself in saving the family bakery, protecting his mom, doting on his mom, playing taxi driver to his mom, (are we sensing a trend here?) that he forgets he matters as well. He's amazing when he brings Mira's issues out in the open and I adored how he pushed her to acknowledge she was worthy and deserved to be happy in her own right. He's also quite insatiable when it comes to her so I enjoyed getting to see him bring out both the best and worst in her. They really are an incredible match once they get past the initial meetings... LOLSo go grab both of these stories for nice quick reads that will make you smile and feel a bit better if you are having a crappy day. Thanks to NetGalley.com and Carina Press for the chance to read this in exchange for my honest review. I adored it and bring on Daphne's story (I'm hoping a certain Brit ends up being her HEA).