This HaBO is from Elizabeth, who is looking for this contemporary romance:
I read this book in 2009. It was about two godparents, the woman was BFF’s with the mom and the man was BFF’s with the dad. They’re thrown together when said BFF’s die tragically, leaving their three-or-four-year old daughter orphaned. The stipulations of the will force these two godparents to cohabitate and raise the girl together.
So, forced proximity enemies to lovers, basically.
One plot point I remember is they’re applying to get her into pre-school and they’re in a metropolitan city that is highly competitive, and the god dad’s mom was from South Africa, and that factor gets them an interview at the preschool.
That’s all I can remember.
Ringing any bells for the Bitchery?
The stipulations of the will force these two godparents to cohabitate and raise the girl together.
Some day this site will run a Rec League based on “books whose entire plot relies on a legal premise that would not hold water in any court in the land, and possibly not the world”.
It’s not a book, but up until “mom was from South Africa” you were describing almost EXACTLY the plot of the Katherine Heigl/Josh Duhamel movie Life As We Know It from 2010.
@Louise: You mean the stipulation in Grandpa’s will that I be forced into marriage with the smoking hot but insufferable attorney/mechanic/mafia boss/chef/professional athlete is legally unenforceable? Heaven forfend!
@Caitlin – I was just going to comment saying that’s the exact plot for the movie! KH’s last major movie role aside from the mess that was that Stephanie Plum movie.
I know this!!! It’s Family Trust by Amanda Brown (who wrote Legally Blonde)
I second Family Trust, I was just going to look on my shelf when I read Rachels’s comment.
i just read sommersgate house which was just listed on sale here and has a similar set up, though the guardians of the children are the brother and sister of the dead parents. Not sure if that guardianship perhaps would hold legal water? But there is a ghost story aspect too, so suspension of belief is slightly necessary anyway.
Good work, Rachel!
I think Susan Elizabeth Phillips or whatever her name is wrote one about a husband/wife dying tragically and leaving something like 4 kids, one a baby to his brother and her sister and they move in together. Hero is a pro-golfer kinda down on his luck but the love of a good woman and those kids…
Took it out of the library a few years back, no idea of title or of I even got the author’s name correct.
Very common trope, except for the mention of South Africa. I had several on my shelf.
Susan Wiggs also wrote one- Table for Five.
maybe Jo Goodman: A Place to Call Home