EVERYTHING BUT A MOTHER - Holly Jacobs
Everything But… Series
Avalon
ISBN: 978-0-8034-7457-4
April 2012
Contemporary Romance

Erie, Pennsylvania – Present Day

Daycare program manager Heather Rayson has her hands full running the business at a local retirement center and has no plans to get sidetracked by anything—or anyone, like a man in her life. But the ladies from the retirement center, with help from self-declared elderly matchmaker Nana Vancey, get the idea to hook Heather up with one of the elderly ladies' nephew, Henry Hanson, a visiting professor with a little girl, Lissa. Henry makes it clear he has a prepared agenda for not only Lissa's schooling, but in how he runs his life. Heather, with her “go with the flow of the moment” attitude, is not his type. Yet, an instantaneous awareness of each other has them wondering just exactly where these feelings came from.

Nana Vancey was successful in matchmaking within her family, so now she wants to try her luck elsewhere—and Heather and Henry is her first project. Henry's ex-wife has given him full custody of Lissa, who misses having a mother and makes it known she wants a second mother. Nana, Henry's aunt Isabel, and another friend, Annabelle, try to push Heather and Henry together as much as possible. Will it work, or how long will it take before the couple figure out what is going on?

A cute, engaging tale, EVERTHING BUT A MOTHER revolves around Henry and Heather who are apparently on a different track of how they organize their lives, yet can't help but fall for each other. Of course, getting to the end means they have their differences to confront and overcome their denial of anything between them, but with a cute little girl and the elderly ladies to push them together, Henry and Heather soon can't stop thinking about the other.  Their banter is crisp and lively as they disagree over how a child's daily activities should be controlled and how Heather thinks Henry needs to loosen up. He's way too uptight for her! But Henry is soon learning to stop and watch the rainbow to see where the pot of gold is… and for him, luckily his involves Heather.

Part of Holly Jacob's Everything But …series, EVERYTHING BUT A MOTHER can be read alone without having read the previous books and readers won't feel too lost. The romance is sweet and the story focuses solely on the journey to a happily ever after. For a feel-good romantic tale, pick up EVERYTHING BUT A MOTHER.

Patti Fischer