Book Seventy-one: “Winning the Single Mom’s Heart”, Linda Goodnight, Harlequin Romance,, July, 2008, #4035, eBook, Adobe format
Adorable Heroine & Very Strong Plot – Loved It!
Winning the Single Mom’s Heart” is part of the Wedding Planners continuity series featuring the Wedding Belles.
Linda Goodnight is one of my auto-buy authors and “Winning the Single Mom’s Heart”, is a good reason why. “Winning the Single Mom’s Heart”, is an ideal Harlequin Romance. The reading enjoyment is at my highest level from the first page to the last page. There was a great mix of emotions and feelings. The plot is also very strong.
The characters are interesting. The heroine is the shortest, at under five foot tall, that I have encountered in romances. She has 8-year old identical twins who are as tall as she is. She is also a Type I diabetic. She just doesn’t happen to be a diabetic, her condition is essential to the plot of the story. The identical twins are also more individually drawn than I am used to seeing in a romance. She is a single mom because her doctor-husband died and left her in very bad financial condition. She is a very talented wedding cake designer who is called the “Cake Fairy”.
The hero is a pediatric-surgeon at the top of his field. His career is everything to him but is not appreciated by his family. His father is a Congressman and his family is akin to the Kennedy family in Massachusetts. In medical school the heroine’s husband was the hero’s best friend. Actually the hero was in love with her back then but lost out because he was not ready to commit while her husband was willing. Now the hero is back from California and is immediately attracted to the heroine and her twin girls.
Linda Goodnight is a nurse and she did a very good portrayal of the diabetic problems of the heroine. The plot is very tight and has some twists that I did not see coming. I probably should have anticipated some plot twists but the writing was so well executed I never saw them coming.
Very good writing – very enjoyable.
Thanks,
Vince
“Romances are the emotional vitamins of the soul.” Vince
As you're big fan of Linda's...
Might you know more about Linda Goodnight (is that her real name?!) than what's on her "official" bio here?
I might not have noticed if I hadn't been thinking about a particular "telenovela" (Spanish daily drama), but this book & HIS PREGNANT HOUSEKEEPER have a few slight similarities to TV series I enjoyed following last year called VIUDA DEL BLANCO (a pun, meaning both "Widow of man named Blanco/White" and the "Widow in White".)
Just may be that "great minds think alike"!
VDB is about widowed mother of twin boys who has "My Fair Lady" relationship with eccentric elderly rich man with Lupus who has been living in isolation in rundown old mansion, only coming out at night (and so is nicknamed/feared by people in small town as a Vampire). Being product of Latin culture might explain more melodramatic twist to basic similar plot elements!
Justino (Justice) trains her to run his hotel, secretly planning to get revenge (a touch of Miss Havisham in Charles Dicken's GREAT EXPECTATIONS) on fiancee who jilted him (irronically named Perfecta, for being self-rightious & mistaken), who sent heroine Alicia (Truth) to prison, for supposedly murdering her husband, Perfecta's eldest son. (Do you follow me so far? My hurried retelling and convoluted plot both might lead to some confusion...)
Justino insists that Alicia wear only white (which she fashions from trousseau he'd got for his bride) as symbol of her innocence, supporting her quest to regain custody of her sons (who were told their mother died) from their bossy wealthy widowed grandmother, who basically runs the town of Trinidad (Trinity)
Perfecta's other son falls for his brother's supposed killer--not knowing (spoiler alert) that Alicia is in reality, neither widow nor wife (figure it out!)
Notice any other resemblance to LG's books? Or is it all due to just pure & simple coincidence (and my fevered, sleep-deprived mind?) Goodnight's books sound appealing to me, judging from your descriptions--but my library doesn't have those two, and I can't afford to buy many...Thanks for reading, and any feedback!
Hi DesertIslandBookworm
Hi DesertIslandBookworm:
Linda told me that Goodnight was her real name and that her husband is related to Charles Goodnight of the famous Goodnight Cattle Trail. She is a nurse and a teacher and her books show very little similarity to the story outlines you mentioned. I think you might like Linda's Love Inspired books which are exceptional and won't be at all like a soap opera.
Thanks,
Vince
“Romances are the emotional vitamins of the soul.” Vince