Winning His Heart by Lara Van Hulzen #Review

Series: Marietta St. Claires #2

Title: Winning His Heart by Lara Van Hulzen

Author: Lara Van Hulzen

Publisher:  Tule Publishing

Published: June 26th, 2017

Pages: 143

Rating: 4/5

My Review:

This is the second story about the St Claire family who live in Marietta. Anyone who is a fan of the Tule Marietta books may remember reading about Wesley (Wes) St Clalre taking part in the Bachelor Bake Off where he met and fell in love with the ex-ballerina and now dance teacher Noelle in A Recipe for Romance by this same author.

This story is about the younger brother of Wes, Michael (Mike) who is a widower with a young, precocious and charmingly cute daughter, Annalise. Mike is still considering returning to his car racing role and decides to ask the local drama school teacher to act as Annalise’s nanny. He has several diverse motivations for doing this – he knows Annalise likes her, he knows Franchesca really needs extra money because her Mum is ill and, the most prominent reason, he’s really attracted to Franchesca but trying not to act on it!

By nature, Franchesca is an independent, determined and feisty young lady who isn’t reticent about speaking her mind, though she tries to hide her attraction to Mike! They start out as friends but as their relationship develops, so does their love for each other. However, both have dreams and those dreams could quickly tear them apart . . . . Should they take a chance on love or endeavour to follow their dreams regardless of their heart?

The St Claire family are all great characters, especially Annalise! I enjoyed reconnecting with them but think people who haven’t read any other books in this series would still enjoy this one. Needless to say, nothing goes smoothly for this couple, there are plenty of pot holes and diversions just waiting to damage them on their journey. Let’s just hope they can reach their destination safely! I do hope there will be other books in this series – possibly focussing on the younger St Claire siblings, McKenna and Lucas.

I am very happy to say that I requested and was gifted a copy of this novel via NetGalley; this is my honest opinion after choosing to read it.

Synopsis

Michael St. Claire, a widower and single father, fears his heart could never make room for another. Between raising his young daughter Annalise and rebuilding his dreams as a race car driver, love isn’t on his mind… Until feisty Franchesca shows up and changes everything.

With her mom’s health failing, Franchesca needs extra income. An offer from Mike St. Claire to be his daughter’s nanny is an offer she can’t refuse. She has always dreamed of making it on Broadway and living in New York, but her immediate attraction to Mike challenges all she thought she wanted.

Mike can’t deny his feelings for Franchesca, even with the risk of losing his heart again. But he doesn’t want to stand in the way of Franchesca’s dreams. Will his past and what she wants in the future tear them apart?

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