He’s a single father of three, ready to settle down. She’s child-free, fun-loving, and hiding a secret. When these opposites attract, will their deal breakers turn into heart-breakers?Wild-hearted Hope Clayton is the business expert fixing companies to save them from bankruptcy—yet she’s been unable to fix her own sentimental life. When her job sends her temporarily to Orlando, Florida, she … she decides to stop chasing love and just have some fun. What can go wrong in the state of sunshine and the city of Theme parks?
A blink later, a war has erupted between her team of yuppie business consultants and the client company’s parents. Soon, Hope’s biggest job account is threatened, and so are her plans to remain uninvolved. Among those parents is intriguing, attractive, and decidedly serious TJ Wagner—The man who shook her heart with his music on her last trip there.
Conservative single father TJ Wagner is a musical genius with an accountant day job. He’s looking for a serious relationship and a stepmother for his three kids. Why can’t he stop wanting a woman who lives 2500 miles away and has been clear she wants nothing to do with children?
Clashing life choices. Mickey Mouse phobias. Single-life re-launches and occasional pearls of wisdom. This spicy and hilarious story will keep you turning pages to find out if love can really conquer all deal breakers.
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Diely Pichardo-Johansson, ‘Hope for Harmony’.
As a Hidden Gem ARC reader I received this book for free. And promised an honest review. Here it is.
English isn’t my first language. Sorry for errors.
Rating: 4 stars (of 5).
In general: Love story in business-battle of family people vs child-free persons.
Main characters:
– Hope Clayton. With three best friends she owns a consultant Company (the F Team) that helps all kind of businesses with financial problems. The company has it’s base in San Diego but works all over the USA.
This time the F Team has a errand in Orlando, where the Court Inn hotel chain is in the red numbers.
– Tom Wagner. Accountant and advisor of the Court Inns. A few years ago his wife Leia wanted an own medical career. That resulted in a rather friendly divorce. Now Leia studies and works in Detroit and Tom stayed as a single dad in Orlando with their three children.
Hope has problems getting a permanent relationship. Her mother died young, suffering breast cancer. Doctors expected that Hope will get the same illness at a young age. After cancer prevention surgeries she cannot bear children anymore.
Shortly thereafter her fiance broke their engagement. So Hope expects never to have a permanent relationship again.
After his divorce Tom too has problems in the dating scene. A job without any glamour, nerdy looks, shy with women and three demanding children makes him unattractive for a lot of women looking for a husband.
Tom and Hope meet in a bar where Tom is a guest musician and shows another side of his personality. He’s a very talented, versatile artiste, an impressive performer and looking good without his nerdy glasses. Hope joins him on stage in a jam session and they get to know each other and have a connection. But she drinks too much and they end in the same bed. Hope without exactly knowing what happened.
After this start with a lot of alcohol, they meet again during the meetings for the reorganisation of the Court Inns.
But this consultancy job is problematic for the F Team. Employees with children have many very social, but precious privileges. That makes singles jealous. So every proposal for reorganisation results in a battle between the family people and the child-free ones. Hope and Tom try to avoid choosing a side in the war between the two groups. For landing in two opposing parties will impede the laborious development of their fragile relationship.
The author’s descriptions of the battles between the two groupes, Hope’s integration in Tom’s family and Tom’s transformation from nerd to man with more self-confidence are often hilarious and/or interesting.
Perhaps sometimes the contrast between the two warring groups is a bit overdone. Then the book looks more or less a persiflage. But, all in all, the plot remains credible and the book a pleasure to read.
R. Huiszoon.
Can two different people find love and happiness together when what they want from life is opposite? Can single Harmony with children-allergy have a chance with JT Wagner single father of three children and a very serious and responsible one? Sometimes life challenges you out of your comfort zone and then you realise what are you missing. Good love and life story.
This is a refreshing, fun read. The characters in this story are so like people I know in real life.
This book is not your typical feel-good read and if you don’t mind a different kind of read, and enjoy women’s fiction, Hope’s heart-rending backstory will have you rooting for her success, in both life and love.
Loved this book. Can’t wait for the next one as this one ends on a bit of a cliff hanger
I received a free copy of this book via Hidden Gems and am voluntarily leaving a review.
There is so much going on in this story, I don’t even know quite where to start. It’s a story of two people who have very different world views, yet still manage to have so much in common. Tom and Hope are really quite sweet together. I just wish we could have avoided some of their drama with a couple of good conversations where they laid it all out in plain English rather that talking in circles around the real situations. I also thought the image of grown adults behaving like spoiled toddlers who had been told they couldn’t have their afternoon cookie was a bit much. Especially that the worst of this behavior was at the office. It was too often and too over-the-top for me to really buy into it. I hope we get to see more of where Tom and Hope get to next with the books in the rest of the series.
Hope For Harmony: Baby-Makers vs. Peter Pans by D. Pichardo-Johansson is an entertaining contemporary romance. The characters in this well-written book are awesome. Hope and her business partners end up in Florida in an attempt to win a contract with a failing hotel chain. Tom is part of the management team for the hotel chain. Hope and Tom’s story is loaded with drama, humor, bad behavior, spice and a little angst. I enjoyed reading Hope For Harmony but the book did drag a little in some spots. Hope For Harmony: Baby-Makers vs. Peter Pans is book 1 of the Sunshine State Series but can be read as a standalone. This is a complete book, not a cliff-hanger.