You did it! We figured this one out! It is a truth universally acknowledged (by me for certain) that the Bitchery pretty much knows everything, and really, it's true. Scroll down to see the solution for this HaBO - and many thanks!
This HaBO request comes from Lisa, who is looking for a British-set contemporary that she borrowed from the library:
If anyone can help, it’s the bitches! I’m trying to find a book I read several years ago, set somewhere in England- village-y setting, contemporary.
Heroine is a single mom with a few teenage kids. She’s a garden designer.
Hero is wealthy hotness, of course, and buys some fancy castle-like place in the hood. She’s been covertly using his abandoned greenhouse but now he’s on the premises and gets busted. He has a young, gorgeous assistant/girlfriend who makes the heroine feel like a slob.
The teens are awesome and want their mom to hook up with the hero but mom/heroine figures no way with the hot young thing in the way.
A bunch of stuff happens….:) And the grand gesture is he shows up at some TV gardening competition she’s in and hauls in dirt to save the day somehow. Which I know sounds silly but trust me, it works.
Anyway – I’ve been looking for this one forever. Got it from the library and lost track of author/title. Shame on me.
No shame at all. This is what it’s like in my brain all the time. Does anyone recognize wealth-hotness hauling dirt?
Holy cow! I know this one… It’s Wild Designs by Katie FForde! She is one of my favorite authors of “quiet English village where nothing too crazy happens” books.
This really makes me think of Katie Fforde Wild Designs.
Katie Fforde Wild Designs. Love all her books
Yep! Wild Designs. I love Katie Fforde- I feel like she doesn’t get enough love.
One I actually know for once, and it’s already been answered!!
I immediately went to Wild Designs too, but I don’t recall the heroine having kids?
That’s the book!! You bitches are awesome!! Thank you so much! Now I’m going to read ALL her books!
Damn, you girls are fast and smart 🙂
Lisa
You will not regret reading her books AT ALL. Even her not as awesome/more formulaic books are still sweet and comforting. Wild Designs is awesome, but I think Stately Pursuits (country home) is nearly as good and Living Dangerously (pottery) is even better. Life Skills (CANAL BOAT!) is also fantastic, and they’re all older and skinnier than her newer stuff. Seriously, it would be much easier for me to list the books of hers I don’t like much (Going Dutch, Highland Fling)
WARNING: they stupidly changed the names between US and UK versions, to names which are almost the same but not quite (Second Thyme Around vs Thyme Out, Lots of Love vs Flora’s Lot) so goodreads can get a little confusing.