The Little Shop Of Hopes And Dreams

by Fiona Harper

Nicole Harrison is planning the proposal of the century. Too bad it's not her own...

Nicole, a born organiser and true romantic, has created her dream job when she sets up the Hopes & Dreams proposal agency - staging YouTube worthy proposals... until she's hired to plan a proposal by gorgeous photographer Alex Black's girlfriend.

Alex is the New Year's kiss that Nicole hasn't been able to forget - and now she's planning his wedding to someone else! But if she lets herself fall for Alex's charms, her reputation and business will be ruined before it's even got off the ground! Suddenly, the girl who's always prepared is at a loss... and falling head over heels.

Praise for The Little Shop of Hopes and Dreams

"Sweet and romantic, a story guaranteed to have you smiling" - Milly Johnson

"Perfect cosy feel you want from a good book" - Paris Baker's Book Nook

"A nice warm hug" - Fabulous Book Fiend

"Fiona Harper writes with an abundance of warmth and wit" - Dot Scribbles

"I would whole heartedly recommend this and I will be looking what else Fiona has done" - Afternoon Bookery

"A great romantic read" - Book Chick City

Fans of Jenny Colgan, Abby Clements and Miranda Dickinson will love Fiona Harper's fresh, fun writing.

• ISBN10: 1488749876
• ISBN13: 9781488749872
• Publish Date: 1 October 2014
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: AU
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Mira
• Format: eBook (EPUB)
• Pages: 306
• Language: English

Reviews

[Leah]

After finishing up K.A Tucker's fabulous new novel Burying Water, I had no idea what to read next. None at all. How do you pick something else to read after such an awesome book? I didn't know how, so I plumped for one of the October books I need to read and review, and I picked the one with the prettiest cover. The Little Shop of Hopes & Dreams has the prettiest book cover I think I've ever seen - it's gorgeous, and I was intrigued to see if the insides matched up to the outsides. I've never read a book about a proposal planner before and it sounded really interesting, so I couldn't wait to dive in. But, unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed with the novel.

Any book that came after Burying Water was always going to disappoint, and while The Little Shop of Hopes & Dreams had an interesting start - with Nicole and Alex kissing at New Year's, from there (for me) it just went down hill. I liked Nicole and Alex well enough, but I don't agree with what she did. You don't agree to plan a proposal for a guy who you may have feelings for, and you certainly don't pretend to be a journalist when you go scope him out for his proposal, and take him up on his offer of shooting a wedding (to get experience of different weddings jobs, as Nicole is a wedding journalist). You don't go to a second wedding, and a third wedding. The alarm bells were just ringing for me the whole time, saying "wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong". It's hard to believe in a romance when someone is actively destroying another one - whether Saffron & Alex were soulmates was irrelevant, the fact that Nicole was there, flirting with Alex and going to weddings, hardly helped and it annoyed me.

I would also have liked if the novel had focused more on other proposals. We only hear of one other Nicole-planned proposal in the novel, and considering the novel is about a proposal planner, I expected more. But instead the novel was just solely focused on Saffron and Alex's proposal. And Nicole's back-and-forth feelings for Alex, and Nicole's angst about Alex, and it just didn't sit right with me. This was a guy she kissed once, months ago. Much like in Thirteen Weddings by Paige Toon, I just didn't get why they were still hung up on each other (and if that was true - why had Alex started seeing Saffron in the first place?). It just didn't sit right with me. I wanted to enjoy the book, but I just didn't. If it had had less angst and more fun proposal planning, I may have enjoyed it more, but the entire premise was based on something I could hardly wrap my head around, which was a shame. It has such a lovely cover, but the book itself just wasn't my kind of read, although I'm sure it will appeal to others.