Sweet RomanceHunter Phillips has to look after his baby niece for a month and is completely out of his depth! As if that weren’t enough, he also finds himself working with his ex-fiancée, Amanda – the woman who left him when he told her he never wanted children. Amanda Dunlap is on a mission to help people stay well. She’s created curriculum for The Mending Hearts Club and is ready to test out … her program on the first twenty candidates. When her mentor must back out last minute, she depends on Mercy, Inc. Admin to send a substitute. Only because she is out to prove herself to hospital administration, her parents, and the world, does she accept the man who broke her heart as the replacement.Hunter is still fiercely attracted to Amanda, and she’s amazing with baby Sophie. As they pretend to play at happy family, Hunter begins to realize that winning Amanda Back and having a family for real is what he wants most of all. All he has to do is convince Amanda.
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Temporary Dad by Lynne Marshall is book three in her Mercy, Inc. contemporary romance series.
Amanda Dunlap, a nurse practitioner, has created a health modification program, The Mending Hearts Club, that she hopes will educate people about the things they can personally do to improve their health. If she’s able to impress a few hospital administrators and her parents along the way, all the better. She just doesn’t expect the ex-fiancé who broke her heart to replace her mentor at the last minute.
Hunter Phillips M.D. has custody of his infant niece for a month but has no clue what he’s doing. Now he’s been asked to mentor his ex-fiancée. He’d decline if he could, because he hasn’t had any contact with Amanda in years. He’s still attracted to her but isn’t ready to face her after the way their engagement ended.
Amanda is great with baby Sophie and Hunter is a helpful mentor. Amanda and Hunter come to a positive business agreement. Can they do the same in their personal lives?
I enjoyed the character interplay and ultimately enjoyed the story, though it did lag in spots. I rate this novel 3 out of 5 stars and recommend it to readers of contemporary romance, especially second chance romance.
My thanks to the author and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book. However, the opinions expressed in this review are 100% mine and mine alone.
Amanda and Hunter used to be engaged but because she wanted to have kids and he didn’t she ended things between them. Now years later they meet up again when she is running a study and needs a doctor to replace the original one that was helping her. Hunter ends up being the one that gets the job and he shows up on the first day with a baby. Which sends her in a tailspin until he tells her its his sister’s that he is taking care of temporarily. As they work together on the study and with his niece things slowly come together between them again. Soon they are living with Amanda to save them some travel time and Hunter and Amanda start enjoying each other’s company again. However Amanda has a secret she hasn’t shared with Hunter yet will it be something that will keep him from being with her?
This is a sweet story that will pull on all your heart strings. This is a well written and very entertaining story. I would recommend this book to any book lover.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Good second chance story. Three years earlier, Hunter and Mandy were engaged. Both were career-oriented and didn’t plan to have children. But when Mandy thought she was pregnant, she realized that she did want children after all. When the two could not agree, they parted ways, both broken-hearted.
Now Mandy is a nurse practitioner on a mission. She created a wellness curriculum for heart patients and is ready to start the program. Unfortunately, she loses her mentor and has to depend on the hospital to provide a substitute. She is surprised when Hunter walked into the classroom and shocked to see him with a baby.
I liked both Hunter and Mandy. Each of them had issues that contributed to their problems. Hunter’s background of growing up with parents who were emotionally distant made him unwilling to have children of his own. He is sure that he would be unable to give them what they need, so he will avoid the issue entirely. But when his sister, Jade, has to spend an extended time in the hospital, he steps up to care for his niece, Sophie. Mandy’s parents were just the opposite. Because of her childhood health issues, they were overprotective and smothering. They also showed no confidence that she could achieve her dreams. As a result, Mandy pushes herself extra hard to prove that she can do it.
I liked the development of the relationship between Hunter and Mandy. At first, they were very uncomfortable around each other because of their history. Each felt that the other betrayed their love. Now that they are thrown together every day, both of them find that some of their old feelings begin to stir again. When Mandy invites Hunter and Sophie to stay with her during the six weeks of the program, both of them vow to protect their hearts. Neither one counted on the effect of sharing the care of little Sophie. Even though Hunter is certain he’d be a terrible father, it is evident to Mandy that he has all the right instincts. The problem is getting him to see it. There were some adorable scenes of Hunter and Sophie together, and I loved watching the three of them become a family of sorts.
Some trust issues exist between Hunter and Mandy. It takes a long time for her to get Hunter to open up about his life with his parents. She understands him a little better once he does. Mandy has some trust problems herself. She suffers from a heart ailment that she hasn’t told Hunter about. She feels guilty about it but doesn’t want him to start treating her as fragile, the way her parents do. Just as she makes up her mind to tell him, the decision is taken out of her hands. Hunter is left feeling betrayed by her lack of trust in him, and Mandy is heartbroken when he leaves her again. Both of them had to look hard at what they want from their lives before they can think of a future together. I loved the ending and seeing them both realize that with love, anything is possible.
This was an advance copy and had one problem that I hope was fixed before the book went to print. The author couldn’t seem to decide if Hunter and Mandy had only been engaged or if they were divorced. In one place, Hunter refers to himself as her parents’ “almost son-in-law,” but on the next page identifies himself as Mandy’s ex-husband. This happened multiple times during the book and threw me out of the story each time.
The third book in the Mercy, Inc. series, a second chance story between Doctor Hunter Phillips and nurse practitioner Amanda Dunlap, she walked away when he did not want children. They meet again when she needs help with The Mending Hearts Club program. A substitute had to been found for her mentor Charles Beiderman who had to bow out of the program, so he found her someone to take his place. Amanda did not know it was to be her ex-fiance Hunter. Hunter is now looking after his niece Sophie so is late to their first meeting. But now Amanda is hiding something from him that she is not ready to tell him about.I enjoyed seeing their story come together. I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Temporary Dad is the third book in Lynne Marshall’s Mercy, Inc. series. Three years seems like yesterday when Amanda Dunlap and Hunter Phillips find themselves in the same venue. Amanda is heading up The Mending Hearts club. The project requires a mentor physician and unbeknownst to her Hunter was chosen to assist.
Three years earlier they ended their engagement because she changed her mind and wanted children. Fast forward, Hunter enters her meeting not only surprising her with his presence but holding an infant. Amanda is taken aback and wonders how he could change his mind. Little does she know he’s taking care of his niece, Sophie.
Tension ensues and when he moves into her condo with Sophie her dreams resurface. As time passes, will he share the true reason behind his desire to not have a family? Amanda is also keeping a secret from him. Will she divulge her life altering secret before something happens to her? As Amanda and Hunter work through their pasts, can they recover the love they once had?
Temporary Dad is a heartwarming read. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend reading it along with the other books in the series. I received an advance copy of Temporary Dad which I chose to read and review.
I’m a little all over with this one. Parts of it were cute but other parts were just ok. And other parts of it just confused me. Were they engaged or were they married because it is mentioned both ways in the book and I still don’t understand which it was?? And not wanting to have kids is a major difference of opinion that you would think would have been discovered before ever getting to the point of either? But then other parts of it (like I said) were cute, like his interactions with his niece. And how they were all together. I can’t decide whether I loved or hated it at this point.
This was a cute read. I did get confused here and there about Hunter and Amanda’s previous relationship. It stated that they were engaged but at another point they were married and got divorced. It didn’t really affect the over all story line but it did leave me scratching my head.
Amanda never wanted a baby, she and Hunter agreed between their careers and own families children were a no go until she thought she was having one then she and Hunter find their lives aren’t as aligned as they thought. Fast forward 3 years and Hunter is looking after his sister Jades baby and Amanda has Hunter as her mentor for her program and both are torn on how they feel about each other and babies are still an issue. This has a little bit of slow burn to it which was great and you feel the struggle they are going through knowing they are still attracted to each other, but Amanda has a secret. There are some good laughs, sweet moments, lovable characters and a second chance that you hope will work out!
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Temporary Dad by Lynne Marshall
Have read the other stories in this series and love the ideas they have and knowledge I learn from reading them.
Start out with Amanda and she’s at the facility and will teach others about how to avoid heart problems. She is to head the class with a doctor who’s late.
When he does arrive he has a young baby in a sling with his briefcase and diaper bag. It also happens to be her ex husband Hunter.
Love the idea of the Mending Hearts and all it stands for-so much information on how a regular person can also gain the knowledge to prevent heart attacks.
They are to split the candidates, 10 women, 10 men in half and give them exams and get them set up with heart monitors. They put them through so many tests.
After a few days she sees just how exhausted Hunter is and she invites he and the child to stay at her place-get a few hours of rest/sleep.
He lives hours away from the satellite facility of Mercy, INC that after he leaves he soon returns as he needs a favor: pay her to stay there as it’s just minutes from the facility and the baby can’t tolerate the long drives with road work and collisions, delays.
She does accept them and they are able to still work together. She realizes that he’d make an awesome dad as he is with his sister’s child who’s going through depression.
Love how they are able to see early signs of heart disease and get the patients to the hospital in time. She is also able to talk to Hunter to find out where they went wrong…
She wants a child so bad but she’s not told him of her life, the 3 years they were not together. Hunter is able to notify her parents when Amanda falls sick….
Enjoyed this book as I’m familiar with the series now, characters are all new but I can still learn useful medical knowledge of things crucial to our living style-there are so many aspects of good clean healthy lifestyle.
He also needs to get over his fear – a fear he learned from his father who could never tell him how proud he was of him.
Received this review copy from the author via NetGalley and this is my honest opinion.
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