This HaBO comes from Katie, who is looking for what I assume to be a contemporary romance:
I read this book within the last year (I think), but it didn’t get added to my Goodreads account (which makes me think it was a library book), and now I can’t figure out the title.
The female lead is fixing up an old house to be used as a venue for weddings and other parties (for some reason I keep picturing it in the southern Appalachian mountains somewhere). Her best friend, who is a baker, is helping her when she has the chance. They are still remodeling, but a woman wants to get married there and sends her brother to make sure that all the preparations will be completed by the time the wedding happens (the brother is famous (?) and is paying for everything for the sister (?)). Of course the woman who is fixing up the house falls for the brother (who is in a band, I think). She doesn’t want to be a wedding planner (because I think that’s what her mother does?), just the venue owner, but ends up doing both for the bride. Also, of course, everything ends up wonderful for them, but there’s a book 2, and I really, really want to read that.
Here’s a spoiler for book 1 and why I want to read book 2: At the end of book 1, the baker-best friend hurriedly leaves the wedding and so does the bride’s brother’s best friend. Somehow the baker-best friend’s son is seen by the brother’s best friend and he confronts the baker-best friend that the boy is his son and why didn’t she tell him – the son is a teenager.
My brain keeps obsessing over this, so any help would be greatly appreciated!
Who recognizes these books?!
Come on Bitchery; mama needs a new secret baby romance.
Yes, please.
Has Katie checked her library account online to see if she can access her checkout history?
The details above kind of remind me of “Not the Marrying Kind” by Hailey North.
My other idea is “Jilted” by Rachael Johns, which features an Aussie soap star heroine and a hometown guy = second chance romance. No secret baby that I can recall, but I seem to remember that renovating a house to make it a destination wedding venue was a pretty big part of the plot.
I feel like I ought to know this but I can’t tell if I’m mixing it up with a Hallmark movie…
There are similarities to AJ Pine’s Crossroads Ranch series books 1 and 2. There is a secret baby (but in book number 1) and plot elements about building a wedding venue on a California ranch/winery.
Sounds like it could be Nora Roberts’ Bride Quartet.
This reminds me of some stories which were in Kindle Worlds under the Four Weddings and a Fiasco Universe (these were vetted and bestselling authors rather than fan fiction) and/or books written by Bella Andre under her Lucy Kevin pseudonym in the series called Four Weddings and a Fiasco. Set in San Francisco doesn’t match.
https://www.goodreads.com/series/83738-four-weddings-and-a-fiasco
forgot to link the Kindle Worlds books–some of the authors released them with changes when they were able:
https://www.goodreads.com/series/202300-four-weddings-and-a-fiasco-universe
Jennifer Shirk’s book has a secret 10yo son
For some reason, I am thinking of the Boones’ books by Nora Roberts I think, and some hotel or something being remodeled. I think it is Roberts.
“The Last Boyfriend” by Nora Roberts rang a few bells when reading the description. Been a while since I’ve read it and the copy I have is gone to a charity shop! Enjoyed it though, so if this is your jam then you might enjoy it too.
Definitely not any of the Nora Roberts books. She doesn’t really do the “secret baby” trope.
@Helpful? The library doesn’t keep track of items that have been checked out to patrons :/
I agree that it’s not any of NR’s books, especially any of the Bride Quartet.
This book sounds SO familiar and I swear I’ve read it, too! I remember the house/hotel renovation aspect, baker best friend, and the famous brother of a bride coming to oversee things. I also remember a small town Appalachian setting and the cliff hanger with the best friend. I want to say either the best friend or the guy stay in a cottage on the property???
If I’m thinking of the same book as Katie, it’s not NR’s Boonsboro Inn trilogy (those books are brothers fixing up an Inn in Maryland), although it definitely gave me NR vibes (it’s not Tribute, either). The book I remember definitely had a woman doing the renovations and it was in a more southern setting (potentially southern Virginia).
I also think I read it several years ago, so it’s not new. Maybe published within the last decade/15 years? Something that’s throwing me off is I can almost picture scenes in the book…verdant, rolling hills; a big white house; and a scene at the local school that involved food…but I’m not sure if it’s because the author was just fabulously descriptive…or maybe it WAS a Hallmark movie??? I’m going to keep thinking, but I really hope someone can figure this out because I KNOW it exists…but I’m drawing blanks! 🙂
I read this book last year, and I can state it is not by any of the authors mentioned. However, I don’t remember who wrote it.
@Emily, I was also thinking the town was in Appalachia somewhere, but I was less certain about that detail, so I didn’t put it in. I have looked up the other books that were mentioned, but none of them seemed familiar. I think I remember seeing commercials for a Hallmark movie that was about love and renovations, but I don’t remember watching any, so hopefully I’m not crossing plots in my brain!
@Katie, it looks like I might not be any help, after all. I finally remembered the book set in small town Virginia (yay!), but unfortunately the details don’t fit your HABO as closely as I remembered (boo). The book I was trying to remember is A Girl from Summer Hill by Jude Deveraux (2016); however, it’s not a renovation book; the heroine is a chef, not inn owner; the hero is an actor instead of rock star; and the big event is a play instead of a wedding. It’s about a stressed out chef from DC who moves to rural Virginia and stays in the guest house of a mansion to cook for the cast and crew of a local production of Pride and Prejudice (the story itself is also a retelling of Pride and Prejudice). The owner of the mansion and guest house turns out to be a famous Hollywood actor (and their first meeting is when she sees him using the outdoor shower…a scene I can’t believe I forgot!). The local community talks him into being in the play and he’s the Darcy to her Elizabeth. It’s been awhile since I read it, but based on the blurb, it doesn’t sounds like it matches your HABO. (There also is a second book that was just released in 2019, but that blurb doesn’t mention anything about a secret baby.)
Hopefully someone else can help you with your HABO because I want to read it!
@Katie, could it be Heartbreaker by Lizabeth Scott??? I haven’t ready it, but the details sound similar. This is from Goodreads:
“My best friend/business partner, Rachael and I take a leap of faith and buy the old White’s Manor with plans to turn it into an event center. All is going as planned until…
A sweet young woman convinces me to open our business before we are ready. I’m not worried. We can do it. But then I meet her brother. Elias is a home renovation show celebrity which his sister failed to mention! I make a complete bumbling idiot first impression by fan girling all over him. He’s suspicious of our motives. He says it’s “too coincidental.” Yes, I used air quotes.”
The second book in the series (Troublemaker) is the best friend’s book and the blurb mentions a decision that changes the course of her life and the guy who wasn’t ready for that type of responsibility, which sounds like a possible secret baby! And it sounds like the books are set in North Carolina.
Hallmark doesn’t do secret babies.
Jewel was in a mystery series based on Kate Carlisle’s A Fixer-Upper Mystery series.
None of their episodic TV series have been based in the South.
I could put a bunch of Hallmark movies in a blender and come up with a mishmash to quasi match, but I don’t believe there is just one movie covering all of this:
All of My Heart is the three movie B&B set in Bucks Co.
A Country Wedding
Wedding Bells
The Wedding March movie series
A Harvest Wedding
Marry Me at Christmas (Susan Mallery’s book from Fool’s Gold)
The Sweetest Heart (based on a book–a Harlequin category)
Flip that Romance
etc…
Blend well. 😉
@Emily This is it!!! I completely forgot about the TV show part, but when I read parts of it, it all clicked into place! Thank you so much! And the second book’s full title is Troublmaker: The Rock Star’s Secret Baby, which is spot on. Thankyouthankyouthankyou!
@Katie, WOOHOO!!! I’m so happy we found it!!! And I can’t believe I missed the full title of the second book includes “The Rock Star’s Secret Baby”. That definitely would have been a major clue! LOL!
The first book is free on kindle, so I for sure just downloaded it and plan to read it this weekend!
I just downloaded Heartbreaker, the first book, for free on the Nook, as well.
Hah! Just one-clicked both books. My weekend reads await 🙂