Review: Hearts at play with Hugh Braden 4.75 stars
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 13, 2014
The was the last book for the Love in Bloom : The Braden's but it is not the last of the Love in Bloom series since there will be another spin off featuring the Remington's that we briefly met during Savannah's story.In the last couple of books we've noticed a change in Hugh.  Once the party, fly by the seat of his pants kind of guy that loved fast cars and fast women, we slowly started to notice that something had changed in him.  The way that Ms. Foster worked that change into the series was brilliant and it made you know during that first blind date that he wasn't going to go for the woman that he was set up with.Hugh Braden may be the baby of the family but he is all man.  This story had a sort of a fairy tale setting when you thing about it.  Single mom that is struggling to makes end meat working two jobs meets a real gentleman that comes in and saves the day when she least expects.  Hugh meets Brianna Heart (Bree) when he goes to the Old Tavern for a blind date.  He knows right from the start that he should have turned down the date because one look at the women that he's set up with he knows that it's not anyone that he could ever be interested in.  The Waitress however, who first took his order but then gave his table to the other waitress, that was someone that he would really like to get to know.  Bree however isn't interested in dating anyone.  She has what she calls a 12-year plan which basically means that when her daughter, Layla, turns eighteen in twelve years she'll think about dating.  Hurt by men that have left her in the past, she doesn't want to be hurt anymore but more importantly she doesn't want for Layla to be hurt.  Hugh is determined though and doesn't give up.  I really liked how the first meeting between Layla and Hugh was worked into the story.  I thought it was brilliant and I felt much smoother than if they had met any other way.This series has a been one of the best family series that I have read in a long time.  Each one transitioned into the next and in each one the family always gets together at the end so that you see a small glimpse of the other siblings and how their characters have evolved since the last story.  I would like to note the reason that I gave this story 4.75 stars rather than 5 full stars was because in all of the past books, there was mention of their mom that died when Hugh was just a baby.  Yes, there was mention of her and also mention that his dad still talks to her as well as the "chill factor" at the end but I was kind of hoping that since this was the last book that all of the "children" would have some kind of super natural glimpse of her now that all of them had found love.  That's just my opinion though and wish that it had been in there but even without it's a GREAT series and I can't wait to get to know the Remington's.